Zumaya’s flames up to his head?

So I heard it last night during the ESPN Radio broadcast: the radar gun in St. Louis was showing a 10 mph disparity in between some pitches. No biggie, after all, radar guns have come into question all throughout this post-season.

But Joe Morgan said something that caught my attention, he mentioned that Joel Zumaya, the flame-throwing set-up man for the Tigers, likes to get a feel for how hard/fast he can throw in whatever stadium he’s pitching.

Being tuff-gong kind of guy, I bet Zumaya revels whenever the stadium radar gun flashes those triple-digit numbers he is accused of hitting with his fast-ball.

Thing is, they never did last night. The sadium gun in St. Louis flashed numbers in the mid 90s whereas the Fox broadcast showed 100-101 mph pitches. Zumaya sez he wasn’t lookin’.

Either way, did all of that get to his head? Morgan thought so, he was talking about Zumaya trying to throw harder every time, so as to get to his 100+ mph fastball, in effect, allowing for wildness in his pitches.

He promptly walked the first two batters in the seventh, Eckstein and Wilson, to get to Albert Pujols. He was on a 2-0 count on Pujols when we now know, he gets Albert to hit a weak grounder back to the mound and instead of throwing to second for an easy double-play, his head spontaneously combusts, throwing wide of third and letting two runs score.

Zumaya sez he wasn’t looking.