TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Play-off Playoffs

Not to add to the hyperbolic paeans to the great rivalry, but it's hard to find a comparable 48 hours in the history of playoff baseball if one considers both series. Two tight games in two days for both LCS. Extra innings on back to back days. And yesterday, we finally get a post-season pitching duel, but from the unlikely sources of Woody Williams and Brandon Backe. I can't say that the Red Sox-Yankees game was the most crisp game I've ever seen play, but it's among the very best for tension and the ebb and flow of inside baseball.

Last year's combined League Championship Series may be hard to top, with both series stretching to seven and having all sorts of twists and comebacks by the eventual winners. Four of the seven post-season series in 2003 went the maximum number of games, and the other three went to one less than the maximum.

I still think the 1986 post-season is the one by which all post-1968 post-seasons should be measured (the regular play-offs were, of course, first started in 1969). In the ALCS, the Red Sox came back from the brink of elimination twice with dramatic homers against the Angels to slip into the World Series. The Mets and Astros duked it out through "only" six, but a memorable six they were. The Astros had the dominant Mike Scott, who won games 1 and 4 (won 1-0 and 3-1, respectively) and was slated to go out in a potential Game 7. The Mets had won Game 2 easily, 5-1, but just squeaked by in game 3, 6-5, scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth. In Game 6, they entered the ninth down 3-0 but rallied to tie the game, sending it to extra innings at Houston. The teams battled until the fourteenth, when the Mets finally pushed a run across, but Houston answered with one in the bottom of the inning and the game went on. The Mets busted out for three in the top of the 16th, seeming to end it, but Houston in turn put on a rally in the bottom of the inning, scored two, but ended just short of sending the game to what would have been a Game 7 where they had a decided advantage. And the 1986 World Series between the Red Sox and Mets -- I don't think we need to open that wound here.

What would have to happen for this post-season to match-up, of course, would be for the Red Sox to complete what's never been done before -- come back from an 0-3 deficit to win it -- and have the Astros-Cards go seven, and then have a dramatic World Series. In April, I predicted a Red Sox-Astros World Series based on two factors. First, I thought the two teams shaped up at having the best post-season pitching (back when the Astros had Andy Pettite and Octavio Dotel and when it looked like Derek Lowe was a force). Second, whimsy -- I just liked the prospect of a Texas-Massachusetts showdown right before the Presidential election. Now I'm hoping for it because I think it would be a great series.

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Pity the poor manager in post-season, wherein no matter what his philosophy that got the team there, he suddenly has the urge to become John McGraw and play little ball at every concievable opportunity. Both games yesterday bring to mind the often fatal flaw of overmanagement in the post-season. The Red Sox are the great case in point. All of a sudden, Terry Francona feels the need to become a mid-1980s NL-style manager, using the stolen base and the sacrifice when his team needs a run and changing pitchers often enough to make Tony LaRussa's head spin. While much was made about Bellhorn and Damon butchering sacrifice attempts back to back, I was wondering why the heck Damon was sacrificing after the Yanks had just given up back to back hits. Damon can draw a walk even in the middle of a slump, and Cabrera, who promptly struck out behind him, wasn't going to do the club any extra favors the way he's over swinging. The Sox also ran into two outs attempting to steal (evn though the umps blew both calls, it was a ver Unsox-like maneuver.) I firmly believe that with the exception of pitching management in potential elimination games, the successful teams in the post-season are the ones that (A) stick to the type of game that got them there, and (B) stick to less-is-more. Cito Gaston should be the poster child for this movement. And frankly, it's why Joe Torre wins so much. He unflappably stays true to his team's success. This doesn't work, of course, at times, but does over the long run. That's why I'm second-guessing Franco now, after a win, and not (like the rest of Red Sox Nation) after a 19-8 blowout. He got lucky.

posted by The Crank 8:32 AM