The ‘60s have cultural touchstones aplenty, and as the most arrogant generation in world history, us Baby Boomers aren’t about to let any of them die until we do.  The Twilight Zone ran from 1959-1964 with syndication that ensured that almost all of its 156 episodes would become shared culture.  A few episodes were genuinely prescient, including several for which the jury is still out.

Episode 2 in Season 5 (“Steel”) debuted on October 4, 1963.  I doubt I first saw it then, and am quite certain I wouldn’t have fully understood it that night if I had.  But it was fully imprinted on me by 1970.  In it, human boxing has been outlawed but the sport lives on through robots providing a realistic enough simulacrum to entice a paying crowd.  In the episode, a down-on-his-luck former boxer turned trainer (Lee Marvin) is forced to pretend to be a robot and box against one in order to preserve a meager payday.  He is beaten near-senseless, earns only half his promised fee, and serves as an exemplar of human futility and the indomitability of the human spirit even in a world in which the physical limitations of flesh and blood are overwhelming. 

So many tasks once performed by humans have shifted to being routinely performed by robots in my lifetime that it would be even more than usually foolish of me to limn any kind of demarcation between the machine world and the human. The scenario of Steel has not quite come true, though Battlebots are now far more popular than Demolition Derby.  But what (nobody asked me) do I think of Robo-umps?

I think we already have them.  We just have bad ones, though they’re getting a lot better.  Recall the time before Questec, the predecessor to PITCHf/x.  The poohbahs of the sport were naïve enough to think that they could change the de facto strike zone by telling umpires to change the de facto strike zone.  It didn’t work because no one will ever be convinced they are doing a bad job, not even CB Bucknor, unless you can show them they’re doing a bad job.  But with years of feedback from Questec, PITCHf/x and now Statcast, umps have learned to call the strikes that the robots want them to call, not the ones they see.  They aren’t perfect at this of course (the umps, I mean, not the robots) but they only miss about 9% of called pitches.  (This, and the subsequent takes are based on the BU study which I think overstates the inaccuracy of umpires by assuming that PITCHf/x data is completely accurate, but until they publish their study in a way that it can be assessed, it’s about the best guess we have.)   Over time the number of errors that the robo-assessment age has squeezed out of the game is really striking.  Eric Gregg, spin fitfully in your grave.  The big remaining bias is the error rate on called third strikes.  According to the BU research, a whopping 37% of called third strikes were incorrect in 2008, declining to 21% last year[i].  (The fact that Tom Glavine was still pitching in 2008 can only account for part of that issue; that was his last year when he started only 13 games.)  There are only about 4 called third strikes per game, so we’re only talking about one bad strikeout call per game.  Sounds about right. 

I don’t think robo-umps are going to give people what they want, but I think people are confused about a lot of things they think they want.  [Mac’s Prime Directive is hereby invoked to keep me from saying what I mean by this.]  Umps are getting much better than they used to be, and more consistent—even Angel Hernandez.  So let’s just be happy with that, lest someone invent robo-Gregg and give him a playoff start.

There is no such thing as a must-have game in July, or even August, but this game was a little more would-like-to-have than most – the rubber game on the road against FP Santangelo’s gNats.  The fans in DC didn’t treat it as a must-win – nobody was there.  Soroka against Sánchez.  After a scoreless first, Gwinnett Penicillin 2.0 struck again with yet another Duvall homer.  (This simultaneously creates a nickname for Duvall and one for Riley.)  Unfortunately, it was matched by a Soto homer in the bottom of the 2nd.

The BFFs, Acuña and Albies, led off the 3rd with doubles to break the tie.  They added another in the 4th when Acuña knocked in Camargo, who had gotten to 2nd when a Braves pitcher got a hit for once.  Back-to-back doubles from Inciarte and Flowers (!) chased the third greatest MLB strikeout pitcher in Venezuelan history for a fourth run.  Tyler, having done something well, proceeded to get thrown out at third.

M-m-m-mike, who, btw, makes my motor run, was his usual amazing self.  7 IP, 3 hits.  What I learned about him in this game was that McCann and Flowers literally call different games when they catch Soroka – McCann requests more fastballs and Flowers wants more breaking balls…. and Soroka doesn’t mind.  This strikes me as crazy.  Surely one way is more effective than the other, right?  Canadians are just so damn nice.

Mike got into a couple of jams, but emerged from one with a line drive double play and another when Howie Kendrick tried to score from first on a Turner double.  Howie Kendrick is faster than Brian McCann and me.  That doesn’t mean he can score from first.  That said, kudos to Inciarte and Camargo on a good relay.  Soroka’s only problem with this team – his absence in the 8th and 9th.

The 8th and 9th were given to the bullpen, who would have to pitch a lot better in the 8th and 9th than they did the night before.  Swarzak got the 8th (again) and yielded a long blast to big Matt Adams in an otherwise efficient inning, narrowing the lead to two, which is less room than any reliever we have really requires. (Newest Brave Chris Martin was not around.)  And Luke has been especially shaky.  But he got the 9th despite 27 pitches (and, like Swarzak, 3 runs) last night.

A scratch single started the nervous-making, as Rendon came to the plate representing the tying run.  Camargo muffed a grounder to put the winning run at the dish, which led to the not-entirely-solid Newcomb, who gave up 3 in his last effort.  He walked Soto to load the bases with no outs. Suzuki then singled to make it 4-3.  A double play tied the game, and a strikeout took us to extra innings.  So instead of giving up 6 runs in the 8th and 9th like they did last night, they were much better – only 3.

The 10th Brought Rain off Doolittle.  If a two run lead is hard to hold, what can you do with a one run lead?  The next save opportunity goes to Josh Tomlin.  Robles flew out to the track.  Adrián Sanchez singled when Tomlin failed to cover first.  Turner then walked.  Eaton popped out and once again Rendon was at the dish.  Foul ball.  Line drive to Duvall.  It’s a win.  Easy peasy.

Chip note: Milestones.  Anibal Sánchez became, in this game, third in strikeouts among Venezuelan pitchers.  This is a milestone, but I note that Sánchez was already fifth among Venezuelan pitchers in batters faced, so the fact that he strikes out guys at a higher rate than Freddy Garcia is about all that tells you, since you already knew that he was a pretty good pitcher.  Mike Soroka is already tied for fourth in All Star Game appearances by a Canadian pitcher, and in this game passed Jim Henderson for 56th all time innings pitched by a Canadian pitcher.  So there are milestones and milestones.

The Puigless Reds tomorrow. Go get ‘em.

[i] Actually, it’s not clear whether that’s really a two-strike bias or whether pitchers throw two strike pitches to that part of the zone most vulnerable to bad calls: low just off the corners.  For the purposes here, though, it doesn’t matter.