Thursday, October 18, 2018

Marco's Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2018: MLB PLayoffs...Sublime to Ridiculous


MARCO'S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2018: MLB PLAYOFFS...FROM SUBLIME TO RIDICULOUS

Game 4 in the AL Playoffs between Houston and Boston: SUBLIME.
Game 4 in the NL Playoffs between Los Angeles and Milwaukee: RIDICULOUS.

That's the gist of it. Let me defend my thesis:

Houston and Boston are similar teams. They feature relentless offense. 1-9 the Bostonians can pummel you. (Well, maybe not the catchers Vasquez and Sandy Leon, but even they run into one now and again and I actually witnessed Vasquez executing a perfect hit-and-run to right field the other day. Mostly he and Sandy are bad hitters. Real bad. But they're so good at defense you have to forgive them.)
The Houstonians are maybe even better 1-9 than Boston. They tend to go for the homer a little more often but if you played in Minute Maid Park you would too.
Both teams have great personality, confidence and plate discipline.

The differences are Houston has great starters and a better bullpen. Boston has delicate starters and suspect bullpen guys. Or at least that was the general impression going in. Also, the Astros have terrific infield defense and the Sox have terrific outfield defense. Anyway, these teams looked pretty even going into the series except for pitching. So naturally I picked Houston.

The Astros came out banging and the Red Sox didn't. The Sox looked understandably rusty after a long week's layoff. The 'Stros had a shorter time to wait and they came out hotter. Also, the Astros have old pro and resurrected Ace Justin Verlander to trance-dance (No kidding! That's what he does! Nobody can hardly talk to him all week!) his way through an excellent outing. Chris Sale is as good or better than Justin when he's healthy, but he had shoulder problems late in the season and hasn't gotten his strength back. Or his fastball. The Astros take Game 1 in Fenway and look strong.

But the Bosox got a couple of doubles from Mookie Betts and a miraculous bases loaded double off the wall from Jackie Bradley Jr. of all people and surprised the Astros and their other great starter Gerrit Cole in Game 2.
The Bosox starter David Price looked bad as usual but the much maligned Boston bullpen pitched great and kept the Astros from rallying. Except for their closer, Kid Heart Attack Kimbrel. He's a mess right now. Can't find the plate with either fastball or breaking pitch. He gave up an rbi single to Altuve in the ninth and then had Alex Bregman (who the Red Sox are walking or hitting with pitches instead of letting him get any good swings) hit a fly to the base of the wall for out 3.

In Game 3 the Bosox brought out their new gun, Nathan Eovaldi from Alvin, Texas and he channeled Nolan Ryan (who was sitting behind home plate) and busted several 100mph pitches passed the startled Astros.

Maybe Bregman shouldn't have instagrammed that video of the 'Stros hitting 4 homers off Nathan when Eovaldi was playing for Tampa Bay? Didn't they notice what the Bosox did after Aaron Judge tickled their chin with his boom box rendition of 'New York, New York' after the Yankees won a game at Boston in the Division Playoff? Keep teasing them. They seem to like it.

This time Bradley pulled a Grand Slam out of his ample heinie and bitter, surprising defeat for Houston ensued. Boston wins 8-2 and goes up 2 games to 1 in the series.
Now the Sox know they will be going back to Fenway unless they sweep the Astros at home (which seems highly unlikely).

Game 4 turned into the most entertaining game of the season that I saw. It's right up there with Game 5 of last year's epic contest with the Dodgers and the Astros in Houston. Of course, Houston fans won't agree, but remember I picked Houston to win this series, even though I am a permanently scarred Red Sox fan since boyhood. (So that makes me unbiased and objective!)

The top of the Bosox lineup again came through with Betts getting hit by the curveballer, rusty Charlie Morton, and Andrew Benintendi moving him over on a right side grounder. The Red Sox have been doing that a lot. Playing basic baseball and not trying to hit a damn home run every swing. (Maybe the Dodgers and Brewers will take notes!) J.D. Martinez hasn't gotten but a couple of big hits in this series, but he's had long at bats, singles and walks to keep the line moving. He walks here and then Bogaerts strikes out on some great pitches by Morton. The runners advance to second and third on a passed ball by Astros Maldonado. (Aside: Maldonado won a gold glove and it's just absurd to even compare him to the Red Sox catchers when it comes to blocking pitches in the dirt. Maldonado has an awesome arm, but he has bad footwork and turns his glove the wrong way over and over on curveballs in the dirt. Vasquez and Leon do a much better job of helping out their pitchers by blocking those dirtballs. These guys are doing the most important work for a catcher, that's why they're still in the lineup even when they hit .180!)

First big moment of the game here in the top of the first and...Baby Bull Rafael Devers actually cuts down on his insanely huge swing and hits a single to left to score two! (That's the other thing...the Sox swing from the heels early in the count like everybody else, but they tend to cut down and just try to meet the ball with two strikes a lot more often than most of the hotshot hitters we've got today. Thanks to Alex Cora for that. He insists on using bunts, the hit and run, more stolen bases and especially 'productive outs' to keep adding runs. That's why the Sox led the majors in scoring, not because they homered a whole lot more than everybody else.)

Bottom of the 1st and the 'Stros come right back. Bregman gets a hit and then Altuve swats one into the first row of the right field pavilion. Except Betts leaps high, high into the air and gets his glove on it. I hope you saw this instantly famous play, because it's hard to describe it. Umpire Joe West called it fan interference...Altuve is out.
The pundits mostly said it should have been a homer because Betts' glove was over the edge of the wall into the stands when the fan's hands hit his glove. Here's how I saw it:

!/The front row fans...mainly 3 guys...had their hands over the edge of the fence in the field of play waiting to catch the ball.
2/Betts went up in the field of play and HIS GLOVE MADE CONTACT WITH SEVERAL HANDS IN THE FIELD OF PLAY.
3/The fans pulled their hands back out of the field of play as the ball came down aiming right for the heart of Betts' glove, and…
4/there was CONTACT between the glove and at least 5 hands, even if the contact was OUT OF THE FIELD OF PLAY. But…
5/some of the fans' arms and hands were still hanging over the fence in the field of play even though they weren't making contact with Betts at that moment.
6/so what is the intent of the rule? By touching him in the field of play as Betts went up for the catch, weren't the fans interfering with him? Or is it just where the ball is at the moment he touches it?
7/how can you blame the fans? They sold them those seats and they have a right to put their hands up to keep from being hit in the belly with a baseball, right?

I suppose MLB could mandate that all seats be back from the fences so there would never be contact ever again between fan and player, but wouldn't we all be the loser? That was an exciting, incredible play...and right on the borderline between interference and a homer. What made it special was what a great effort Betts was making. He really looked like he was about to catch that ball until contact with somebody's hand closed his glove. The ball hit off the closed mitt.

That would have been an all-time catch. Or it would have been another clutch home run from one of the best baseball players of his time, Jose Altuve, who can't even play the field with his bum knee. But he keeps hitting balls off and over fences and hustles and bunts and slides and does every damn thing in the world to help his team win. Betts and Altuve: two of a kind...the BEST kind of player.

Other notable defensive plays in this game:
1/Kemp hits a liner down the right field line but makes the mistake of trying to stretch it into a double. Betts races to the ball well up the line in right, pivots and fires a laser to second to nail him. The run, the pivot, the throw. All amazing.

2/Reddick dives for a late inning drive by Betts and backhands it...an even better play than Benintendi's game ender because he did it backhand.

3/Steve Pearce, 36 years old, dives into the Astro's dugout after a foul pop and somersaults onto the deck. As is customary, none of the opposing players try to catch him or cushion his fall as he tries to get an out on them, but they jump up to help him when he can't reach the ball. You've got to appreciate a player like that, having his first big moment in the spotlight after a lifetime of waiting to get into the Big Games. (He saved the Red Sox season with his agile stretch for Nunez's throw to get the last out of the Yankees series. Hit some homers too.)

4/George Springer...The Champagne Super Nova of the Playoffs with now 11 homers (!!), goes to deepest centerfield trying to catch Vasquez's double. He jumps up high on the wall, but with no fans to interfere with him...he misses it.

5/Bregman makes another awesome leaping stop and throw to retire yet another Red Sock. Without him the Sox would have already won this series. Just his defense! Alex made 5 top plays in the first game alone!

6/Benintendi's all-or-nothing dive to preserve the win and rescue Craig Kimbrel from his latest flirtation with blown save disaster. Craig-O is living on borrowed time. He's allowed at least a run in four straight appearances. Benintendi is the Italian Stallion of the moment.

This game see-sawed. The Red Sox would score, the Astros would come back. Morton and Porcello were both out early, their curve balls not finding the plate. I thought the Astros had struck gold with Josh James, the big reliever who throws 102. He was pumped, that's for sure. He could have been the hero but they left him in too long and Bradley connected with a tater to right. (His 3rd hit in the series...giving him 9 ribbies on 3 hits!)

The Astros' bullpen finally let them down when McCullers, Sipp and Pressley couldn't stem the tide. They brought McCullers in to pitch curveballs to Brock Holt with the bases loaded and he walked in a run.
*********
So much for sublimity. Over in the National League they were playing New Baseball! It's such fun! Everybody swings for the fences and strikes out all the time! And there's no scoring! Just one pitcher after another, all throwing 100. What a wonderful exhibition of...not much.

Ridiculous! So what if the 4th game was a 14 inning 5 ½ hour game? It was boring!!!! A 1 to 1 tie until the Dodgers finally scored one courtesy of a clutch hit by...Bellinger! That's right, last year's World Series goat is the only player on either team that I can remember cutting down on his swing with 2 outs and a runner in scoring position and serving it to the opposite field away from the stacked defensive shift! He's done it a few times so far and thanks to him the Dodgers have a 3-2 lead in games.

The Brewers had chances, but they disdained going for the simple, puny single that might have won the game for them. Even with a player on second with nobody out they kept trying to pull it over the shift. Strike out after strike out. Futile, ugly, selfish baseball. 32 Ks in that 4th game, I think 13 hits it was.

Congratulations Boys! You have actually found the perfect recipe to make Baseball, the greatest game ever invented...SUCK!

The Dodgers won the 5th game behind a fine outing from Clayton Kershaw, who only throws it about 90 nowadays but mixes his pitches and hits his spots. Even without his famous Hammer curveball he can handle a bunch of prima donnas like the home run happy Brew Crew.

There are a lot of villains in this series. Few heroes.

Christian Yelich, the consensus MVP after his red hot September, is a good, hustling ball player. But he sat for a week waiting for the series to start and that was that for his hot streak. Now he's turning over on everything he swings at. The most noise he's made is calling out Manny Machado for being a dirty player.

Machado is a dirty player of course, but it wasn't polite of Christian to criticize poor he! All Manny did was try to clip his friend(!yes... Friend!) Jesus Aguilar's ankle on a routine grounder when Jesus left his foot on half the bag a little too long. Incorrect of Jesus (who looks a whole lot like Shrek!) I'm sure, so why not cripple him for life, Manny? I was happy to see the Brewer's pitcher hit Manny in the ass in the next game. Manny had a press conference in which he explained that “he was just trying to win.” How's that again?

Does some team really want to give this guy a $300 million contract?

How about Josh Hader, the lightning fast leftie reliever of the Milwaukees? He makes big league hitters look stupid. Then he goes home and tweets (or instagrams...who can keep track of all this nonsense?) his friends and calls other people racist names. At least he did before. He's apologized now. Another racist saved by complete transformation and contrition courtesy of social media.

You already have heard me rail enough about the Brewers' 'team leader' Ryan Braun. (On second thought maybe you haven't!) He apologized too...just not to the lab guy who took his urine sample a few years ago and when it was discovered to be dirty, claimed that the lab guy must have spiked it to frame him. You never apologized to that guy, did you Ryan? You never gave back the MVP trophy you cheated to win, either. Screw you Ryan, I will never put your name in bold face. (That'll learn him!)

The Brewers that I like are Lorenzo Cain...great D and a natural leader. Mike Moustakas...(Moose!) and the relief pitcher Brandon Woodruff who homered off of Clayton Kershaw and looked like Jim Thome doing it.

The Dodgers are up 3-2 in games. Who knows what will happen back in Milwaukee? I predicted the Brewers because of all their relief pitchers, but both teams are playing so ugly that I have no idea who will prevail. Whoever it is won't be able to handle the Al champion, whoever it is.

As far as Game 5 of the AL Playoffs, I can't believe the Astros can lose 3 straight games in their home park. But if anybody can do it, the Red Sox can, because they are disciplined pros. But I really think Verlander will paste the Red Sox tonight.

Back at Fenway it's hard to believe the Sox won't win one to take the Series, but here is what I think (and dread) will happen:

Game 5: Verlander beats David Price and the overpitched Bosox bullpen. The Astros probably hit and score 10 runs or so.

Game 6: Gerrit Cole is not so nervous this time pitching in the Fens and he shellacks the Sox and a game but tired armed Chris Sale. Bregman goes off and peppers balls off and over the wall.

Game 7: The Sox bring out their secret New Ace...Nathan Eovaldi... who fans 10 and leaves with a lead over the Astros and their entire pitching staff, including Verlander and Cole.

But Alex Cora calls on Craig Kimble one more time... and this time Kimbrel walks the winning runs on base and loses the Series on a hit by Carlos Correa... or Marwin Gonzalez or Jose Altuve or Alex Bregman or George Springer. The Astros have some pretty good players.

(Did you really think that after picking the Astros all season I was going to change my vote to the Red Sox at the last minute and jinx them? No way!)

I'll blog some more before the World Series. I'm sure that is comforting to you…

Best always,

Marco



No comments:

Post a Comment