Amazing

[dxmachina]

Not one, but two amazing baseball games tonight. I was mostly watching the Sox-Yankees, which the Sox won in the 14th inning. Great game, every inning a nail-biter. Ortiz drove in the winning run for the Sox for the second night in a row. Meanwhile, down in Houston, the starting pitchers were each throwing one-hitters, a counterpoint to all the scoring that had gone on previously in the series. The only scoring came in the bottom of the ninth when Jeff Kent hit a walk off three-run home run.

I was too caught up in the games to take a lot of notes. veejane has a great description of the Sox game here. The game was so long that the blimp ran out of fuel and had to leave. Wakefield finally had a game where his knuckler was working. It was so good that Varitek was having a terrible time catching it. The game turned on a couple of things. When Pedro Martinez tires, he loses it quickly. He pitched well for five innings, but the Yanks wore him out in the sixth. On the other side of it, Mariano Rivera is no longer a mystery to the Sox, either, especially at Fenway. That's two blown saves in a row for him. The other thing that has hurt the Yankees in both of these games is something that didn't seem to be a big deal at first, John Olerud getting hurt in game 3. Tony Clark, his replacement, has been completely overmatched in his at bats, and he's stranded a bunch of runners. His bat just looks slow. McCarver mentioned that he a great off speed hitter. That's because he can't catch up with the fast ball any more, Tim.

McCarver really does seem to be mailing this one in.

Tim McCarver: This year in the National League, only one player batted over .300 while being 0-2 in the count.

Al Leiter: Who was it?

McCarver: I forget...

(It turned out to be Shea Hillenbrand)

By the time the Sox game was over, the Cardinals and Astros, who started three hours later, were in the eighth. The Cardinals are probably talking to themselves at this point. The best team in baseball is not supposed to be one-hit by a rookie. Now they're down 3-2, and they know that Roger Clemens will be pitching game 7 with Oswalt in the pen.

Tonight, the Sox are apparently going to go with Curt Schilling trying to do his best Willis Reed impersonation. They've got nobody else. If his ankle fails, it's probably all over.

OTOH, God does seem to be rooting for the Sox. Remember, the only reason Pedro was able to go last night was because of Friday's rain out. It's raining today, too. Is the Almighty stalling for time?

Comments

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Watching the Cards/Astros recap this morning was pretty exciting. Lots of solid muscle, and a lot less of that entertainingly haphazard sloppiness I see in Sox games.

But enough about that; let's talk about the Sox. I was mathing it up last night and figured that Mendoza has had 2 days' rest, and Arroyo has at least two innings in him after last night. Leskanic's borderline, probably too tired. Embree and Timlin are tired too, but might go an inning apiece. I don't know what Foulke has left in him, and Wakefield despite his protest needs a nap. So.

Reserving Lowe and Wakefield for game 7 (and possibly even Martinez to relieve -- he volunteered), worst-case, we could lose Schilling in the 1st and go Mendoza for 3-4 innings, Arroyo for 2-3, Embree for 1, Timlin for 1 (Myers in here whenever Matsui comes up), and Foulke for the last outs. And then ask, like, Doug Mirabelli to pitch if we go extra innings. (I think at that point Wakefield might offer himself up again as the sacrificial lamb.)

Let us cross our fingers that Schilling isn't lying about his pain level, and can actually go 4-5 innings. The statistics are against us, but not disastrously against.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's the pain that's going to be the problem for Schilling. The question is how stiff his ankle will be, and how sharp his pitches will be as a result of that. If he's not sharp, he probably won't be around for the 5th. Mendoza was occasionally the fifth starter for the Yankees, so I agree he's most likely to pick up any slack. I don't know if Arroyo can come back and be effective. Bouton's theory was that knuckleballers get better as they get tired, so that might actually help Wakefield. He really had it going last night. I was surprised they didn't bring in Mirabelli, especially that late in the game. It's not like he can't hit.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Agreed on the WTF of making Varitek catch that last inning -- after 3 passed balls, and anyway he'd been up just recently, so even if it was for his offense that they kept him in, they could have gone with Mirabelli. (We decided that Varitek's knees and ankles have got to be killing him, after crouching for 11 hours in a day and a half.) Maybe he wanted to prove he was as ironman as Wakefield; maybe in a must-win situation they just want their #1 catcher always in the driver's seat.

Agreed, it's not exactly pain that will be the stopper for Schilling, but whether he can force his body to obey him. But I say "pain" as metonymy for the whole ankle problem, since it was pain back in September, that he seems to have ignored, that led to the tearing in October. I think if you cut his feet off he would be all, No, Dave, I can pitch, just let me try on these new specialty replacement feet...

I don't know about Arroyo either, but he seemed to be chomping at the bit after the 10th last night. He only went something like 40 pitches Saturday, and 15-20 last night, so... it's a possibility, if he can keep control of his aim.

[cindyamb.livejournal.com]

I was surprised they didn't bring in Mirabelli, especially that late in the game. It's not like he can't hit.

Well, and I love Jason Varitek, but it's not like his bat was all that useful in the last few innings. Scott and I figure he went and bowed down before Mirabelli after the game, for being able to catch Wakefield.

I think if you cut his feet off he would be all, No, Dave, I can pitch, just let me try on these new specialty replacement feet...

Hee. I think that's entirely true. My love for Shilling is so pure, it is almost unholy.

[hereward.livejournal.com]

Great quote posted up in yesterday's Baseball Prospectus newsletter:

"I thought the Yankees did well...given their financial constraints."
--Terry Mulholland, Twins pitcher, after losing to New York in four games (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)