All-time
So all of a sudden, they’re talking about the 2011 World Series as potentially being the greatest of all-time. Is that accurate? Well, maybe. Now, the two series that normally take up the top two spots on any list of greatest World Series ever are 1975 and 1991. 1975 was before I was born, though I have seen an abbreviated replay of Game 6 on ESPN Classic, and although I was alive in 1991, I have no memories of that Series; I was only two years old at the time. I do have some vague memories of 2001, one of the many that sometimes got put at the #3 position in the past, although I wasn’t quite the overall baseball fan that I am today and as such didn’t really watch a Series featuring the hated Yankees. Is this better than 2001? I’d say so. Now, I’ve got a book that covered the first 100 years of the World Series (not the first hundred series; it was only 98 of them, 1903-2002), and it had a top ten and bottom ten. Invariably, all ten members of the top ten went 7 games (except, of course, for 1912, which due to a Game 2 tie ended up going 8 games). Well, check. They mentioned a number of close games being an important factor—look at 1975; while Game 6 is the most famous, there were something like 4 or 5 one-run games. Game 7 was a one-run game, the winning run being driven in in the top of the 9th. Game 3 was an extra-inning walkoff win. 1991, the final two games were extra-inning affairs, walkoffs; high drama all around. Well, look at this series. Game 1, Allen Craig comes up as a pinch-hitter in the 6th inning and breaks a 2-2 tie. Game 2, he does the same thing in a scoreless tie in the seventh, but the Rangers come back with two runs in the top of the ninth and win it 2-1. Game Three, the requisite lone blowout, but Albert Pujols makes it worthwhile with a historic performance, 5-for-6 with 3 home runs. Game 4 was probably the least dramatic, final score 4-0 Rangers. Still a good performance by Holland, but it’s the weak link for now. Game 5 was another one that was tied at 2-2 late, and then Texas scored a couple to win it 4-2. And then, Game 6. An instant classic. Rangers score one in the top of the first; Cardinals take the lead with a pair in the bottom of the frame. Rangers tie it up in the top of the second, and thanks to some shoddy defense, they retake the lead, 3-2 in the top of the fourth. Then they make an error and St. Louis ties it in the bottom of the fourth. For the third straight half-inning, the leadoff runner reaches on an error in the top of the fifth, and Texas takes the lead a third time, 4-3. Then things fall apart in the bottom of the sixth, and Alexi Ogando walks Yadier Molina with the bases loaded to tie up the score. Matt Holliday then continues to make his case for 2011 World Series goat by getting picked off of third, and the Rangers escape with the score tied, 4-4. Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz go back to back to start the top of the seventh, the latter tying the record for home runs in a single postseason, and the Rangers push another run across to make it 7-4. Allen Craig, into the game after Holliday injured himself on the play where he was picked off, continues to carve his place in postseason history by hitting a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth. There’s enough turnover that in the ninth inning, Pujols came up and gets his only hit outside of that five-hit game, doubling with one out and none on, and Lance Berkman walks behind him to bring up Craig again. He strikes out. One out away. Two strikes. David Freese, NLCS MVP, dropper of an easy pop-up in the fifth inning, that ball is back-back-back and off the wall! Pujols will score! Here comes Berkman! Freese going to third! Would this have been an instant classic if Freese had hit a 3-run walkoff home run there in the ninth? Maybe—they were still one strike away from elimination, and would’ve been going to Game 7 in dramatic fashion. But instead, it’s a two-run triple, tying the score at 7-7. 1975 had Games 3 and 6; 1991 had Games 6 and 7. 2011 had plenty of drama, but lacked extra-inning games. So this is better. The game goes to the tenth. Josh Hamilton, the Rangers’ slugging star, playing hurt and held without a home run through the first 15 games of the Rangers’ postseason and the first nine innings of their 16th, and there he goes. Two-run homer, 9-7 Rangers. But the Cardinals don’t quit, and the struggling John Jay and Daniel Descalso work their way on, first and second with none out. Lacking position players, LaRussa sends up his best bunting pitcher to pinch-hit, and Lohse lays down a perfect bunt. Second and third, one out. A run-scoring groundout makes the Cards the first team in World Series history to score in the eighth, ninth, and tenth innings of a World Series game, but they still trail 9-8. Pujols is intentionally walked, and Berkman gets into a 1-2 count, and base hit into centerfield! One strike away again, and the Rangers let it slip away! But Craig can’t deliver Pujols from third, and the Rangers’ Mr. Clutch, Nelson Cruz, is coming to bat in the top of the eleventh, and…something’s wrong…he’s injured! What is going on?! The Rangers don’t score, and leading off the bottom of the eleventh is David Freese, and again he gets a hold of one, deep to centerfield and GONE!!!!!!!! David Freese with a walkoff home run! I have to admit, at first I wasn’t sure what I had just seen, seeing something white in the dogpile at home plate, and then I saw the postgame interview and what the heck Freese’s jersey has been ripped off. Seriously, that’s just crazy. That’s strength, to just rip it apart like that. Who did that? Does it even matter? There’s a Game 7 coming up, and Game 6 was one of the greatest World Series games of all time. That cannot be debated. But will the Series as a whole be considered an all-time greatest? It’s definitely in the conversation, but…like I said before, 1975 had multiple extra-inning games. So did 1991. We’ve had three one-run games and a two-run game so far, and the one true blowout has a historic individual performance mitigating its lack of drama (and it actually was dramatic for awhile before the Cards just started pouring it on), but if tonight’s game is lopsided? It can’t make the number one spot. It’s definitely top ten regardless of what happens tonight, and if tonight’s game is tied after 9 innings? Then yeah, it should be in the conversation. And the teams involved help its case. St. Louis, wild card team, trailed by double-digits in late August and stormed back to steal the Wild Card on the final day of the season. Texas, first-wave expansion team, won a grand total of one postseason game in their first 49 years of existence, reached the World Series last year and making an encore performance. Fourteen of the original sixteen have won championships in the expansion era, so the Rangers have the third-longest drought. October: When legends are made.
It’s all about the Plushdamentals
Passed Ball is all about the weirder side of the game, so naturally Tony Plush, aka Nyjer Morgan, is considered the best thing to happen to this blog since Ryan Freel was holding conversations with a little man named Farney tat lived inside his head. I’d first heard about Tony Plush by way of the magazine–I forget exactly which one, since The Sporting News, ESPN the Magazine, and Sports Illustrated are all regulars at this household. But when I turned on Quick Pitch and saw him slip into the Tony Plush persona during a postgame interview, well, I’m on the verge of actually joining Twitter in order to follow him. Of course, it’s probably best if I avoid Twitter–my own feed would likely be an endless stream of complaining, because I’m of such poor health that on the rare occasions that I wake up feeling 100%, I expect it to not last. I’m by no means “sickly”, usually more than well enough to function, but it’s always like 85%, 90%. There’s always some sort of little thing. Earlier today I was probably only 50%. Right now I’m maybe 70%, probably even lower. There’s some sort of injury to my right index finger; I think I saw a bruise but I’m not sure…ah, yes, the other reason why Twitter and I wouldn’t mix: I’m far too verbose.
Tony Plush, everyone!
Adventures in extra-inning games
There have been an awful lot of games going deep into the night lately. First, there was last week’s 1-0, 16-inning classic between the Rays and Red Sox. Then there was Monday’s Royals-Red Sox game, delayed at the start by rain and then extended to 14 innings, the last few somewhat comical (but painful, for a Sox fan.) But last night’s Braves-Pirates epic took the cake. The Pirates scored twice in the first and once in the second, and Atlanta tied it up at 3-3 in the bottom of the third…and then neither team scored until the 19th, at which point all chaos broke loose. With one out and runners on second and third in the bottom of the nineteenth, Scott Proctor hit a grounder to third which was easily handled and thrown to home plate in plenty of time to nail the runner. Proctor actually fell down exiting the batter’s box, and Pirates pitcher Daniel McCutchen tried to tell his catcher to throw to first for the inning-ending double play (something that should’ve been impossible if not for Proctor tripping)…only to find that the runner from third, Julio Lugo, was called safe. I’m sorry, but there’s no way Lugo was safe. The reaction to this play has been swift and furious all across the internet.
On the flip side, Rangers 20, Twins 6. The Rangers become just the third team to score at least 3 runs in each of the first five innings. Michael Cuddyer pitched the eighth inning for the Twins, loading the bases but not allowing a run. This was truly hilarious to watch unfolding.
What is this I don’t even
Okay, well, I’ve got the profile looking right (that is, matching up with the names I use on most other sites), but obviously I haven’t really been posting much at all. There was something a few days ago that I thought was worth mentioning, but now I don’t remember what it was. Anyway, I’m posting regarding a bizarre sequence in the Red Sox-Orioles game that highlights the mercurial nature of errors. Leading off the bottom of the fourth for Boston is Josh Reddick, who hits a grounder to the right side that first baseman Derrek Lee has to go to his right to get; he flips to pitcher Jake Arrieta for the apparent out, but the umpire incorrectly rules that Arrieta never touched first base and calls Reddick safe; it is naturally ruled an E-1 because Arrieta clearly beat Reddick to the bag and would have had the out had he not missed the bag (even though he didn’t miss the bag). Next up is Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who lines a clean single to right that Nick Markakis bobbles before getting back in; Reddick appears to slow down a little as he approaches second before kicking it back into gear after the bobble, so it’s ruled an error on Markakis allowing Reddick to reach third. Immediately after that, J.D. Drew comes up and lines a grounder sharply but almost right to Lee, who absolutely butchers it–but deflects it right to the first base bag, so he’s easily able to pick it up and get the out at first–obviously, no error, even though with how quickly the ball got to Lee he probably could’ve had a play at home. This is baseball at its finest–a three-play sequence in which probably the worst defensive performance of the three of them is the only one in which no error was given out.
The new site.
Well, we seem to have moved to a new server. So this is WordPress, huh? Unfortunately, there’s not much to talk about at the moment. We’ve had some no-hitters, and we’ve had some weird games, big comebacks…okay, yeah, yesterday was actually one of the most bizarre days in recent memory. We had some huge comebacks–Red Sox trailing 6-0, come back to win 8-7; Rays trailing 5-1, come back to win 6-5–and we had the worst pitching performance ever, 14 ER in just 2.1 innings, courtesy of Kansas City’s Vin Mazzaro. But mostly, we had the 11th inning of the Marlins-Mets game. Burke Badenhop, relief pitcher, 1-for-23 in his career (he used to be a starter), is allowed to hit for himself and drives in the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th, Marlins lead 2-1. The Marlins score no more in the inning, and with two outs and nobody on, the Mets are out of position players and have no choice but to have starting pitcher Jonathon Niese pinch-hit for the pitcher. Niese triples. And then Jose Reyes leaves him stranded at third. What a game.
Live long and strikeout
Interesting start we’ve had to the season. A couple of ninth-inning rallies by home teams, a couple of 11-inning games won by road teams…I caught the end of Diamondbacks-Rockies, because I can’t resist an extra-inning game. Heard the Rockies announcers refer to Ian Kennedy as having a “Vulcan changeup”, which actually makes perfect sense but still sounded hilarious. As usual, I kept a scorecard for the Sox’ opener, ugly as it was. Let’s rate the debuts of their newcomers, huh?
Adrian Gonzalez (2-for-4, 3 RBI): A. Drove in three of the first four runs, played good defense at first, and even his outs weren’t horrible.
Matt Albers (1.0 IP, 0 H, 1 BB): B+: First man out of the pen when Lester couldn’t get through the sixth, he came in with two on and one out and managed to strand all the inherited runners, then got the first out of the seventh. Don and Jerry were saying that he’s a guy who can go multiple innings if needed. Better still, all three outs came on ground balls. I like a guy who can come into a tight spot and induce a double play as well as eat up innings.
Dan Wheeler (0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 BB): C: Long outs are not inspiring. Wheeler faced only two batters and retired them both, but doesn’t exactly get much confidence.
Dennys Reyes (0.0 IP, 0 H, 1 BB): F: Apparently he’s the new lefty specialist, brought into today’s game to neutralize Josh Hamilton. And neutralize him Reyes did: Hamilton walked on four pitches. S***, I could do that.
Carl Crawford: (0-for-4, 3 K): F-: Apparently, Crawford is horrible against lefties. Have the Red Sox really been without a decent lefty for so many years? Because it seems like he always killed us. Four plate appearances, and no results. A single in any one of them would have gotten him his first RBI in a Sox uniform as Jacoby Ellsbury was in scoring position all four times–even a long fly ball would have done it on the first two, with Jacoby at third with only one out. Nothing. Anyway, Streak for the Cash decided to do a prop on the result of Crawford’s first at-bat–the usual “Hit, Walk, or Strikeout” vs. “Any Other Result”. Not realizing that Crawford was in a bad situation with the matchup with Wilson, I went the optimistic route and chose the former. It was the only at-bat in which Crawford didn’t strike out, instead hitting a weak liner to short. Crawford, you even fail at failing.
A sad loss
There’s a reason that my blog has the general MLB background even though I’m quite admittedly a Red Sox fan first and foremost, and that’s because I’m also a huge fan of the game in general. If there’s a game on, I’ll watch it/listen to it. And on weekdays that don’t usually serve as a get-away day–Tuesdays and Fridays most notably, but Mondays could serve as well–only one team could provide those much-needed afternoon games: The Chicago Cubs. As a result of them frequently having a timeslot all to themselves, I probably heard more of the Cubs’ radio team than any other except for the Red Sox’ and maybe the Yankees’ (because if my own team wasn’t playing, I’d gladly check in on their rivals, and also because the New York teams were the only ones I could hear without XM). The Cubs’ former All-Star third baseman, Ron Santo, was often called out as the epitome of homer announcers, but I never really had a problem with it, and besides…former All-Star Cubs third baseman. He was a former player, unlike many radio announcers (for some reason, it seems as though former players are more common on television broadcast teams than on radio teams), so he had a bit more of a right to think of the Cubbies as “we”. Santo passed away yesterday at the age of 70 from complications of bladder cancer. Cubs broadcasts won’t be the same without him.
“Go out” on top?
Is there something we’re not hearing here? I was listening to the postgame interviews, and when Buster Posey was asked about Edgar Renteria, he mentioned how Edgar had been sitting on the bench for like four months or so and then he hit these two clutch home runs and he’s going out on top, and I was like, “Wait, did Renteria announce that this would be his last season, or did Posey just break a story? Or did he just misspeak and implied something that wasn’t true?” Edgar had a walkoff hit in Game 7 for the 1997 Marlins, his second season in the majors, and his three-run homer provided the Giants’ only runs in the clincher here. Two seasons, 13 years apart, and two Series-winning hits. In between, he made the final out of the World Series in the Cardinals’ loss in 2004–the second time he had the final at-bat. Renteria was named the World Series MVP. He joins a trio of Yankee greats as the only players with Series-winning RBI in two separate World Series: Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Berra. If this was his last at-bat–and the Giants went down quickly for him, only sending up one batter over the minimum after the two-out home run in the seventh to keep him from getting another at-bat–it’s been a great career. He might have been a disappointment whenever he went over to the AL, but I’m happy for him nonetheless.
(Note: He’s still a bit young to be retiring–only 34 in spite of the length of his career. Renteria debuted at the age of 19.)
Check another one off the list?
Seeing as how this is their 49th trip to the postseason, it should come as little surprise that there are only six franchises (besides themselves) that the Yankees have never played in the postseason–if, of course, you’re not surprised that there are even that many. Recent history, however, suggests that they’ll soon be seeing one of those six; namely, the Tampa Bay Rays.
I’m sure you all know that only one team has forced a Game 7 after trailing a best-of-7 series 3 games to 0, and that that team, the 2004 Boston Red Sox, won Game 7. But what about teams that have rallied from a 2-0 hole to force Game 5 in a best-of-5 series, such as the Rays have done this year? The Rays are the eleventh such team. The first four, interestingly enough, all involved strike-shortened seasons. In 1972, a very brief strike took out the first week or so of the season, and because it was so little (or should that be “despite the fact that it was so little”?), it was decided that they’d just forget about the games that were missed, and if teams didn’t all play the same number of games, then so be it. Some teams played as few as 153 games, others as many as 156. Stupidly, this actually had an effect on the postseason, as Detroit ended up winning the AL East by just half a game. Once there, the Tigers fell into an 0-2 hole against Oakland, only to rally back to force Game 5. They lost. The next strike, of course, was 1981, and unlike the brief strike in 1972 or the one that spanned the 1994 and 1995 seasons, the ’81 strike was in the middle of the season. This led to a “split season” format similar to what they use in the minor leagues, culminating in the first ever LDS, albeit in a more literal sense as these teams were actually playing for the title of Division Champion. The Expos, Astros, Yankees, and Athletics all jumped out to 2-0 leads, but only the A’s finished the sweep, and on October 11, three Game 5s were played. New York and Montreal managed to turn back their opponents, the Brewers and Phillies respectively, but the Astros weren’t so lucky, losing to the Dodgers. It was this last one that started a trend. The remaining six teams to force Game 5 after trailing 2-0–the 1982 Brewers, 1984 Padres, 1995 Mariners, 1999 Red Sox, 2001 Yankees, and 2003 Red Sox–all won Game 5. Don’t be surprised if the Rays win tonight.
No no no
What is with this postseason? Day 1, Roy Halladay no-hits the Reds. Day 2, Tim Lincecum two-hits the Braves and C.J. Wilson does the same to the Rays (oddly, both gave up leadoff hits in the first inning; Wilson also got help from the Rangers bullpen, although both hits were his).Yesterday, Jonathan Sanchez no-hit the Braves for 5.1, and today, Derek Lowe did the same to the Giants before Cody Ross broke it up with a game-tying solo home run; Brian McCann put the Braves back on top in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff solo homer. No-hit bids are just going like crazy this October!
Cyberchao X
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