MARCO'S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2021: PLAYOFF EDITION..."UNDEAD!"

MARCO’S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2021: PLAYOFF EDITION---UNDEAD!

High up in the Carpathian Mountains north of Albania the Tampa Bay Rays have a dark castle on a rocky crag. The peasants thereabout bar their windows and hang ropes of garlic on their doors. Beneath the castle in a moldy crypt is where they keep the pitchers.

The bodies are pale white and tall...none under 6’ 6”. The Rays keep them on ice and every other year or so they thaw a couple out and pour some steaming warm wolf’s blood on their elbows and chant the encantations...”Let There Be Sliders!” Then they release these lanky golems and ship them off to Florida, to wreak havoc on the American League. They all look twenty. They will always look twenty.

The Red Sox continued their adventures by scoring 14 runs against the (formerly Devil) Rays (and now we know why!) in Game 2 of the ALDS, including 5 homers by the visitors. They could have used some of those runs in Game 1 when they got shut out by the Dracs and suffered the indignity of a straight steal of home by Randy Arozarena. That steal was pretty great, as is Arozarena. (The Cardinals gave him away just like the Cubs traded Lou Brock to them in ‘64… like the Dodgers failed to protect Roberto Clemente...like Boston traded Jeff Bagwell...like Tampa Bay absolutely violated Pittsburgh in the Archer trade… it’s the hard truth that sometimes stardom is hard to recognize but how do you miss somebody like Randy A?)

The favored Rays looked fantastic in Game 1, but removed their second game starter after a brief two innings and let the Bosox ravage their bullpen for the rest of the game. Could have been a mistake. Now the Red Sox know they can deal with the Rays’ bullpen.

The Giants don’t seem to mind facing the Dodgers. They calmly went about their business in Game 1 and sat back and watched as their young stud starter Logan Webb carved up the stacked Dodger lineup with about 10-12 slider/change ups per inning. The Dodgers never figured him out. The commentators kept rhapsodizing over Walker Buehler and his ten strike outs. Hey, this is the National League and at least three of those Ks per game are token at bats by feeble National League pitchers! An American League pitcher with ten per game is actually much more impressive.

Webb was a quarterback in school and he kind of reminds me of another tough monkey QB who used to play for the Washington Politically Incorrects back in day...Billy Kilmer. Same jutting jaw and thin lips. Just flat out tough looking. Anyway, he’s going to be a star if he keeps pitching like that.

It’s fun to watch the Giants/Dodgers because there’s all these MVPS on the field and a bunch more gamers who COULD be MVPs. Pujols,Bellinger, Betts and Kershaw are the annointed Dodgers and the Giants add Posey and Kris Bryant. The could have beens or still could bes are Evan Longoria, Brandon Crawford, Tre Turner, and Justin Turner.

Los Angeles vaulted into the Divisional series by walking off with a Wild Card victory when slumping Chris Taylor pulled one into the seats. It was a glorious ending that the game deserved. Both the Cards and the Dodgers fought hard and I’m glad somebody didn’t drop a pop up or something like that to end it.

It’s Game 2 of the Divisionals...already! I’m waiting for Mookie and Trea to start running crazy. If the team doesn’t hit, they better run. And can’t there be just ONE bunt down the third base line when the extreme shift is on?

What an absolute Fogey! Still waiting around for somebody to bunt!

Later...