Niese deserves a better fate in loss
Jonathon Niese sits in the dugout after he was taken out of the game against San Diego. (Aug. 11, 2011) Credit: David Pokress
During the game, Jonathon Niese didn't hesitate to throw any pitch. Catcher Ronny Paulino marveled at how he mixed his arsenal, getting ahead in the count with a breaking ball, busting hitters inside and finishing them away. He threw his fastball, changeup and curveball en route to a career high-tying 122 pitches, 82 for strikes. He went 7 2/3 innings, tying a career high.
But after Ruben Tejada's error saddled him with a 3-2 loss Thursday, Niese wasn't about to throw stones at the 21-year-old shortstop. "I wouldn't say it's because he's young," he said. "I'd say it's because he's a baseball player and he's a human being. I've made errors. Everybody's made errors. So you can't fault him for that."
Maybe not as a compassionate person. But when it comes to scoring, Tejada was faulted with the error and Niese (11-9, 4.03) with the loss in a game he largely dominated, especially early. He worked clean, fast innings and got most outs via strikeout (seven) or ground ball (nine).
He faced more than three batters once in the first five innings, when Kyle Blanks walked to start the second and Alberto Gonzalez's one-out double put both in scoring position. But Niese struck out James Darnell and Luis Martinez swinging. The leadoff men reached in the third and fifth, but both were erased by double plays.
"He made a lot of those hitters look foolish," David Wright said.
Niese gave up single runs in the sixth and seventh, but the eighth was his undoing.
Cameron Maybin singled to start the inning and attempted to steal second. Niese appeared to have Maybin picked off and threw to Lucas Duda at first, who fired to Tejada. Maybin was called safe on a close play and Niese immediately threw his hands in the air, seemingly perplexed. TV cameras captured him appearing to suggest to second-base umpire Bill Welke that Maybin wasn't on the bag.
"You can make your own assumption on that one; I don't want to say anything about it," Niese said. "Obviously, you have to get over it. You can't change what was called. You just gotta go out there and get outs."
He struck out two, sandwiched around an intentional walk, before Aaron Cunningham grounded to short. It took an odd hop, hitting the heel of Tejada's glove for a run-scoring error.
Then Terry Collins came to take him out -- and suddenly Niese had nothing left to throw.
