Nolan Ryan Crushed My World Series Dreams
Not only did the Ryan Express humiliate me, but he also messed me up for the next few games.
I entered Monday night sitting at 897 in Ranked Seasons, needing that one elusive victory to get my World Series banner.
Dear reader, I did not make World Series that night.
I lost my first game, my second, my third, and for good measure, a fourth. Considering I had lost one (yes, just one!) game in Ranked Seasons so far this cycle, this downfall is a little surprising. I fired up the PlayStation on Tuesday night and lost two more. On Wednesday, I lost another one.
If you are counting, that’s seven losses in a row. I’m not barely hanging on to Divisional Series. I hate everything.
I am, of course, to blame for my immediate downfall.
Poker players always talk about going on tilt. That’s when they get frustrated at a loss and change their style of play out of anger. They stop doing what is successful and instead try to force things. That’s what happened to me during the early part of this losing streak.
In my World Series game, I faced Nolan Ryan, who ate me up. I was not worried about Ryan going in, but the mix of his Outlier fastball, his floaty change-up, an opponent dotting the zone, and the excessive strikeouts threw me into a funk.
When I’m at my best, I have a good two-strike approach. I try to attack mistake pitches or ones that I know I can hit well (low outside fastball, curveball that doesn’t drop enough).
I’m fine getting deep into count and hitting with two strikes. I’m willing to give my opponent the pitcher’s pitches early in the count but make him work to put me away. I get my share of two-strike hits, draw some walks, and wear down my opponent to make him more hittable later.
This strategy only works if I avoid swinging at bad pitches early in the count or chase bad pitches with two strikes. I started doing both. After facing Nolan, my brain decided to break.
Not wanting to strike out, I started swinging more early in the count. That led to more weak contact early in the count (lots of soft ground balls and easy flys). When I was patient, I would swing at those low changeups and high fastballs to get myself out. It was no bueno.
It took me about five games to get myself back in the right mindset. I started hitting decent enough but lost two games by one run. With my World Series dream dead, I turned last night to finishing some programs and building stubs for Friday when I start my quest again.
I fucking hate Nolan Ryan.
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King of Juco Playing MLB the Show
I’ve seen a lot of this guy’s videos on TikTok. They are usually pretty good and involve him trying to hit 100 mile-per-hour pitches in a batting cage. Here is him playing some MLB the Show ranked games.