Titans Baseball Club - Philippines

Game Eight of the 2003 Titans Series. Team Crius has a 9-3 lead heading into the final inning against Team Cronus. Lefthanded ace Joseph Orillana takes the mound to close out the game. The southpaw retires the first two Cronus batters on a flyout to shallow center and a tapper back to the mound.

Switch-hitting Vince Alimurung steps up to the right side of the batter's box for only the second time in the Series with hopes of keeping Team Cronus alive.

COUNT: 0-0. PITCH: FASTBALL.
With a six-run cushion, Orillana's thoughts are to throw strikes as he is accustomed to. Nesty Leyson, the on-deck hitter, has already a Series-record nine hits to his credit. Alimurung merely hopes to get on base and prolong the inning. On the first pitch, Orillana fires a fastball armpit high and inside which Alimurung swings at and misses.

COUNT: 0-1. PITCH: FASTBALL.
Given the advantage of the first pitch strike, Orillana then tries to work the outside of the plate. His next pitch is a fastball away, at the level of the elbows but just misses the plate as Alimurung lays off the pitch.

COUNT: 1-1. PITCH: CURVEBALL.
Still with a favorable pitch count, Orillana tinkers with his curve for about the third time in the inning. Swinging from the right side of the plate generally gives righthanded batters a relative advantage against lefthanders. But Orillana is crafty enough to get opposite-side hitters out with his curve, and Alimurung chases one that breaks towards the right side but a few feet from the plate and into the dirt.

COUNT: 1-2. PITCH: FASTBALL.
A pitcher's count. Orillana has several options, choosing to pitch low and inside and probably get Alimurung off-stride. This time though, Orillana goes back with his fastball but throws it over the lower half of the plate, just missing the inside. Alimurung rips a grounder to the hole at short for an infield hit. The at bat has taken less than two minutes.

Needless to say, Orillana would be touched up for a pair of runs in the inning before eventually shutting the door.

It is the ultimate confrontation; the classic duel between pitcher and batter. It is the most basic struggle in sports, akin to three minutes in a boxing ring. They are separated by a mere 60 feet six inches from the mound to the plate. For the hitter, it is his moment under the sun, when all eyes across the field and stands are focused on him. For the pitcher, it is all about getting ahead of the hitter and taking control of the game. Fundamentally speaking: I will hit you. I will get you out.

They will usually face each other about three to four times in a game, depending on the batting order and the situation. A smart pitcher will study the hitter and try to exploit the latter's weaknesses and get him to swing at a particular pitch. Conversely, a disciplined hitter will be quite selective and wait for a pitch he can handle and possibly do damage with.

"Down by six, with two outs and nobody on, I wasn't looking for Joseph [Orillana] to throw me another curve on the heels of the previous one. So there I was going with the pitch" recalled Alimurung in the just concluded at bat.

Filipino pitchers in general can be quite predictable. Depending on their arm strength, they will challenge a hitter all day until the latter shows he can handle the heater. "Most pitchers, of course, will have a high enough regard for their repertoire that if they get you out on a good pitch they'll invariably come back with it" noted the late Ted Williams, the last .400 hitter in the Major Leagues and perhaps the greatest hitter who ever lived.

On pitch counts in the neighborhood of 0-2 and 1-2, which always favor the pitcher, it is prudent to expect the hurler to throw whatever breaking and/or off-speed stuff he has, regardless of whether it falls in the strike zone or not. This will either upset the hitter's timing, cause him to chase one, make some guesses, and play into the pitcher's game. But most Filipino hurlers are out there merely trying to throw strikes in hopes of getting the ball in play for the defense to take care of the rest.

Always get a good ball to hit. The more disciplined the hitter, the more selective he can be at the plate, only swinging at pitches he can handle as opposed to hacking at everything. These hitters can definitely work the count in their favor. Some even try to get a better pitch by fouling off a few, but these are relegated to the more skilled players. Nevertheless, there are several so-called bad ball hitters.

On the other hand, given a pitch count in the vicinity of 2-0, 3-0, and 3-1, pitchers are more apt to throw fastballs, lest they lose the batter and dig themselves a hole. Unfortunately, many hitter's counts are the result of mediocre control and the good hitters will no doubt take advantage and sit on the pitcher's offerings.

Then you have the hitter's approach to the at bat. Are there men on base? How many outs are there? Does the pitcher have his stuff working for him today? It is seldom for a Filipino pitcher to throw a breaking ball for a strike when he wants to. More often than not, the pitcher merely hopes to fool the hitter or get him to chase one.

"Always go up there thinking hard grounder" was the mind-set of switch-hitting firstbaseman John Magnuson, one of the nation's premier hitters during the late eighties. He had as good an eye as there was and he was always a threat from both sides of the plate.

If the hitter can lay off a pitch that falls outside the strike zone and stay ahead in the count, then he gains the advantage. What happens next is what he does upon contact with the baseball.