TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Sunday, October 24, 2004

Boston up 2-0 in World Not So Serious

How good are the Red Sox? They're so good they committed four more errors tonight, making eight in the world series already, and they still won. They're so good they've left 21 runners on base (in only sixteen innings of at-bats) and they've still won. They're so good they sent out a guy with more stitches in him than Frankenstein's monster and they still won.

Well, maybe not that good. The second game of the World Series was another un-classic, at 6-2 for the Red Sox, but it was more like the coda for the war of attrition in Game 1. The Red Sox scored all six of their runs with two outs, two at a time, on what should have been three doubles. The third double turned into a single by Orlando Cabrera, as he dogged it watching a high fly ball that looked like it was going over the Monster in left but got knocked back down by the wind. Cabrera then dogged it on a two-out pop-up by Manny Ramirez that got knocked down by that same wind and fell in front of Jim Edmonds, and ended up stranded on third when he should have scored even from first. Cabrera may have produced two runs, but he cost the Sox another one. And still they won. Bill Mueller tied a world series record with three errors in one game, cost Curt Schilling eight extra pitches and a whole inning's worth of work, somehow costing only on unearned run, and still the Red Sox won.

The Red Sox might have gotten a bad break on a tremendous 1-1 blast by David Ortiz in the fifth with a runner on first that was so high, it went over the foul pole. From a variety of angles, it looked inconclusive as to whether it was fair or foul, but from my own experience at Fenway, my guess it was probably fair. The umps called it foul, because nobody really was following it, I think, conferred, and left it foul. I don't blame them much since it was a tough call and not so fair that it wouldn't have been tremendously controversial had they ruled it fair.

Let's just leave it at this: the Red Sox did not get too many breaks, they made a lot of luck for the Cards, and they still won. Call it karma, wretched good luck, or just the better team finding a way to win, they won.

For the Cards' part, their batters seemed bothered by the cold and misty conditions and were clearly expecting from their experience and scouting reports a different game from Schilling. Schilling threw a lot of change-ups, laid off his slider, moved his fast ball in and around, and used a curveball as his out pitch on several occasions. He dropped in the splitter early when he had it, and stopped using it when it started going away. In short, he pitched more than he threw, and it was his art as much as his physical prowess that got him through six gutsy innings.

"The Cardinals pitchers are giving the Red Sox hitters too much credit." I heard the following ridiculous old-school cliche TWICE in the post-game coverage: once from Joe Morgan on ESPN radio, once from Larry Bowa on the TV wrap-up. This is a way of saying neither guy understands on-base percentage or patience or plate discipline. And Larry Bowa doesn't understand why he was fired this year. He actually said, and I quote again, "the best hitters in baseball make outs seven times out of ten." Um, no they don't. They make outs about 11 or 12 times out of 20. The other times they don't swing at crappy pitches and they walk. And that's what the Red Sox did early against Matt Morris. Of the four runs scored off Morris, two were men who walked, and another a guy hit by a pitch. The Red Sox hit at least two balls that on a normal night would've been homers, possibly as many as four or five, because they got into the situation where the pitcher was forced to pitch up into the hitter's zone or walk the bases full. Timely two-out hits come from a lot of origins, but patience -- the lack of panic, coolness, selectivity, if you want to put it another way -- is the best source. (That Larry Bowa doesn't understand walks and plate discipline is no surprise: he was a slasher as a player. But Joe Morgan's completely traditional attitude is ever a mystery, as he had one of the greatest batting eyes and a fantastic walk rate.)

So, you know what? Game 2 just showed that, yes, good teams can win despite making a lot of crappy defensive and baserunning plays because, well, that's a smaller portion of the game than a lot of people seem to think, and smart hitting (and smart pitching to smart hitters, like Curt Schilling tonight) makes more of a difference than a lot of people apparently still think. So it wasn't pretty, again: the Cards are looking even uglier because they're staring at a 2-0 deficit.

Joe Morgan, among many others, I suppose, has been critical of the Red Sox "attitude" in a tangential way. Sometimes this is well-warranted, as with Manny and Orlando Cabrera celebrating their great hits before they've even touched first and then neglecting to take another base. But a lot of time this seems to be an Old Guard reaction against players who are having a bit too much fun, who aren't taking this great event Seriously enough even if they are, at heart, playing with appropriate gravitas. It's the former attitude that likes to quote meaningless stats about how no team can come back from an 0-3 deficit, curses are real, and managers win close and late games. It's players like the Red Sox who seem to enjoy the joie de vivre that should be at the heart of a game.

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Keith Foulke came on for four outs in a non-save situation tonight, and has thrown three innings in the first two games -- 39 pitches. He may be the emerging story of the series, hidden behind the slopfest of Game 1 and Schilling's remarkable Game 2 start. He seems pretty resilient for this late in the season. A rubber-armed closer in late October trumps weary middle relief and short starters.

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The series now moves on to St. Louis, where it looks like Jeff Suppan will be moved up to face Pedro Martinez in Game 3 (Cardinals' pinch-runner Jason Marquis made an appearance in relief tonight, walking two in one inning, and will be the Game 4 starter). The weather right now in Missouri is warm. Pedro will like that, and Derek Lowe, currently slated for Game 4, might not.

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My favorite series quote/malapropism thus far: Curt Schilling, referring to something happening "to the umpth degree".

posted by The Crank 8:48 PM