Marco’s Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2021: GOLDEN MOMENTS OF DESTRUCTION
Framber-Fest: The recent sporting dispute between the Atlanta Politically Incorrects and the Houston We-are-not-Besmirched-Stros showcased the awful knife’s edge upon which baseball contests are filagreed and frickaseed.
The climax of the series was an awesome home run by Jorge Soler that wound up in south Waco somewhere, but there were other Golden Moments where the fates inexorably ground the Astros into dust.
In game one Dusty Baker sends Framber Valdez out to try to duplicate his dominant start against the Red Sox in the ALCS a few games earlier. After that contest, Framber giddily explained his stratee-gery as consisting of a reliance on his sinker and fastball the first time through the line-up, eschewing the curveball to showcase later. How nice it was for him to broadcast his pitching philosophy to the attentive Bravos! Dusty Baker and John Smoltz up in the booth each contributed their appreciation of this “scoop”. Can’t you just imagine the pre-game talk-through in the Braves’ locker room?
Hitting Coach: “Okay men, this Framber guy is only going to throw you a sinker or a fastball the first time up. You don’t have to worry about any curve balls because he said he’s not using them until later, after he announces his dominance with his fastball and sinker. Now, if I remember correctly a sinker will kind of be low in the zone where you don’t want to hit it. And if he’s like the other 500 pitchers in the majors, his fastball will be faster and higher than the sinker. So you might think about laying off the low pitches and look for that high hard one up in the zone and hit that instead. Just a suggestion you understand. Who knows, might work out for us! And remember...no curvy balls. It wouldn’t be fair!”
So, first two innings of the first World Series game the Braves pummel Framber’s fastballs in the zone for 5 runs on 8 hits! Riley doubles, Soler homers and then in the third Duvall homers and Framber gets the hook before recording an out, after going one and a half times through the Braves’ lineup.
I’m sure the Braves were waiting for the Astro’s second game starter to explain his game plan to the media the next day.
This was a Golden Moment of Destruction that put the Astros behind the eightball for the rest of the Series. Why? Because the Astros pen had to pick up 7 innings of work and that started their relief pitchers on a downword spiral of overwork.
Meanwhile, the Braves starting pitcher Charlie Morton took a liner off the shin and broke his femur. Normally if the other team’s Ace gets hurt and knocked out for the duration, it’s an advantage for the team that DIDN’T get their pitcher’s leg broke. But not in this case...the Braves had a one game lead and that was huge for the rest of the Series. The Astros never stopped playing catch up.
Golden Moment Number Two: Outfield Algebra... Dusty Baker looked at his lineup card and realized that playing without a DH in Game 3 back in Atlanta was not exactly going to be Easy Street.
The Stros had nicely tied the Series at 1 game apiece with a 7-2 Altuve-goes-boom kind of game. But now, in order to get Yordan Alvarez, pulverizer of the Red Sox, into the lineup he had to completely rework his outfield defense with Brantley moving from left to right, Tucker going from right to center and Alvarez having to shuffle around in left on two recently operated upon knees. New turf for everybody, and not the best of arrangements.
Somehow in the confusion, Dusty failed to notice that his lineup was not hitting squat. Indeed, this was the big surprise of the Series. Despite facing starters who couldn’t make it past the third inning the Astros were flailing in the shallows like so many beached narwhals while the Atlanta left-handed bullpen contingent casually harpooned them.
Just a note: Braves starter Ian Anderson left the game after five innings having allowed NO...that is ZERO hits. Will we ever see another one-pitcher no-hitter in a World Series? Not if this pitching philosophy prevails...”never let your starter face a lineup for a third time through.”
Altuve hit the only two homers of the Series for the Houstonians ( Atlanta had 11) but averaged .222. Bregman lost his confidence and was way out in front of every pitch he swung at. .095. Correa .261 with one double. Yordan Alvarez .100. The only consistent offense was being delivered by Michael Brantley who hit .333 for the series and seemed to handle any kind of pitching, Kyle Tucker a threat at .286 and the aged Cuban Yuli Gurriel who hit .273. Catcher Martin Maldonado had some clutch hits in Game 5 to salvage some pride but offensively his Series was a Cave of Black Despair with a sign above saying “Enter and Be Nullified”. And for the games in the National League Park, American League pitchers trying to hit for the first time all season (including batting practice?) were a joke except for throwback Zach Greinke, who pinch hit a single to right to give pitchers who CAN hit some comfort as the dawn of the NL DH ensues.
GMOD Number Four: Swingin’ Swan Song… this was the swing game that let us know that the Astros were like the frogs in the kettle on slow boil. (Narwhals, frogs...I got ‘em all if you like weird animal/sports metaphors)
The bottom of the seventh. Houston leads 2-1. Dusty sends Javier out to deal with the bottom of the Braves lineup. Swanson up. Swanson is a known quantity. He has a pretty swing and hits fastballs belt high out of the yard. But he can’t lay off sharp breaking sliders or high hard fastballs. He struck out 6 times on these pitches in the Series. Javier gets ahead of him with two sliders. Swanson looks really bad. So 0-2 count, what next? Well….not a mid speed fastball down the middle of the plate! Maldonado had his glove right where the pitch went and I can only assume that he meant for it to be low over the outside corner or close enough to get a swing. Certainly not belt high and biting off a chunk of the plate. Anyway, Swanson licks his chops, counts his blessings and gratefully deposits that baseball into the right field stands. Tie score.
Next hitter is Soler, pinch hitting. Javier starts him with a hanging slider chest high. Klah-Jhon-Goh! Hang that Baby on the Board! Braves 3-2.
So the Astros get almost nothing from their bottom of the order in this series and the Braves get some clutch hits from the 8-9 spots. And now the Atlanto-politans are up 3 games to 1. Houston’s pitching staff is tired. Meanwhile Atlanta’s closing quartet of Martin, Matzek, Jackson and Smith gives up only 2 singles in the last four innings.
The Golden Moment of Destruction that Wasn’t: Game 5 and the big question...can Houston come back? Can they even send the series back to Houston? The answer is a resounding “YES!”...but only if Atlanta sends out the “B” Squad of its pitching staff to throw batting practice.
Brian Snitker’s playing defense now. His main goal is to preserve his two good starters, Max Fried and Ian Anderson for possible starts in a Game 6 or a Game 7. He also needs his prize bulls in the pen to stay rested and ready. Therefore he names as starter the famous...Tucker Davidson??? He’s actually making his first start of the season? You got to be kidding me. Meanwhile, Dusty Baker is ready for...FRAMBER FEST 2!
Bottom of the First and the bases are already loaded with bravos. Adam Duvall is up. (he’s one of the Fab Four outfielders that Atlanta went out and stole after Ronald Acuna Jr. tore his ACL. I say stole because the Braves gave up not one of their top prospects to get forty homer threats Duvall and Soler, a left handed power source and locker room entertainer Joc Pederson and an all-round star and MVP of the Playoffs Fast Eddie Rosario.)
Anyhow, it’s the bottom of the First and Duvall is up with the bases loaded and he accepts Framber’s burnt offering of a hangar belt high outer half and booglarizes it to right for a granny. A Golden Moment of Destruction for sure, right?
Not! That’s because the Astros love to give up grand slams! They gave up three in two games to the Red Sox and then came back to win that series in six. Giving up a grand slam is like snorting a spoonful of wasabi for the Astros. Clears the sinuses, focuses the mind and sends you screaming into the night, howling for some milk of magnesia.
They come back to score nine runs in Game 5 off pitchers like Davidson, Minter and Drew Smyly. But the Astros had to use Urquidy, Maton, Stanek and Graveman and their bullpen is officially extended. Who is left to start Game 6?
Luis Garcia...Mr. Rockabye Baby.
I wish Luis was in the National League so I could watch him face Juan Soto. Juan does that little slide step tango as he rhythmically smooths the dirt with his foot and dances on tip toe when he takes a low pitch. It would be fun to watch him match up with Luis., who does that little cha cha step as he rocks the baby-ball into its next slider.
The Golden Moment of Destruction for this World Series comes in the third inning. Two on, two out. Jorge Soler at the plate. What should Maldonado call here? How about he should maybe call a hearse… Garcia kept throwing breaking balls that Jorge would pull down the line foul. So I guess Maldonado said keep ‘em coming and Luis did...except this ball didn’t break. It hung up there like a sad little red helium balloon after your three year old daughter let go of it at the carnival. Who hit that ball, you ask? Maybe it was the great Italian slugger Harry Ver-derci? No, it was a Cuban...Jorge Soler. Nickname “El Crudo”. It means “Raw!” Which is what a hanging slider is to this man...Raw Meat!
That shot reminded me of nothing so much as Albert Pujols’ epic blast off Brad Lidge in the 2005 play-offs against the Cardinals. Out of site over the tracks...El Ka-Boom-O.
When somebody hits the ball THAT hard, it just seems like The End.
It was certainly that for the Houston Astros, Their Golden Moment of Destruction.
