Marco's Blog-o-Roonie Series Notes Post Haste

Marco's Baseball Blog-o-roonie

Series notes Post Haste:

Game 1: You can't start off a series better than the Royals did: an inside the park home run by Escobar that pumps adrenaline into the fans and crushes the spirit of the opposition when their studly outfielders botch the play. You're up a run and the other team is getting the Vapors.

The next best thing is when you are down late, one of your favorite sons parks one in the eighth to tie the score. (Alex Gordon)

The next best thing is to play in a classic extra inning game and win it like the Royals did.

BAD JUJU FOR ROYALS HOWEVER: They are supposed to be a great defensive team but Hosmer failed to get in front of a slow grounder and butchered it. It cost them a run...like practically every other error in this series has so far.

More Badness for KC: they had to pitch their game 4 starter, Chris Young, 4 innings in game one. Of course he held the Mets scoreless so it was probably worth it...but how is he going to do in Game 4?

Also, Volquez's Daddy passed away and he has to go to Dominica for the funeral then get back in time to pitch game 5....how is he going to be? I sense trouble on the horizon...they better win at least one in New York.

Also, their eighth inning 100mph gunner Herrera pitched badly and threw 35 pitches....bodes ill for the rest of the series.

Game 2: Wipe out. Cueto allows only two hits? I guess that 5 day layoff did affect the Mets hitters. Cueto is Jekyll-Hyde in the Playoffs. Is he back to Hyde next start if it goes 6 games? The magic is sure gone for Danny Murphy...that layoff took him right out of his game. Only two singles in the first 4 games of the Series.

Game 3: Perez is like a rock at catcher for the Kcs. He gets hit by foul balls over and over...on the thumb even! And he still gets big hits and never gets in fights with the umpires...I think the umps love the guy cause he's so big it protects them from getting hit by those foul balls.

I think Perez is the MVP of that team. Zobrist is doing pretty damn good too.

They get smoked in this game by clutch hitting by the Mets...finally! Mets inspired by their “Captain America” David Wright hitting a homer. (Can we just stop with the Marvel comic names? Dark Knight and Thor etc. etc.?)

Thor pretty much announced he was going to brushback Escobar to start the game ...then he threw at his head...then he bragged about it in the locker room after.

Hey Joe Torre! You've suspended guys all season for throwing at people, whether they hit them or not. It's the new policy of MLB and all that to protect your million dollar players. This guy is smugly bragging about throwing at a guy's head...not at his chest mind you, but right up at his head...if his control is just a little off you've got another ball to the face like Stanton got last year.

Nobody does nuttin'. Is it because Syndergaard is so cute with all his blonde hair and looks good on TV and baseball likes ratings that he didn't get tossed? Or even fined?

I like old time baseball too...but not at the head...chest high is as far as it should go.

Ventura looked young and undisciplined in this game. Threw a lot of meatballs. What's he gonna be like if the series goes 7 and he has to pitch that ultimate game. Sweat Royals, sweat!

More bad defense by KC...Ventura didn't cover first on the hopper into the shift...cost a run. And Morales had a brain cramp on a comebacker that should have been two. WE won't see much more of him I don't think.

Game 4: The Mets should have won this game. They brought in their sub-bullpen with all that weak meat and the Royals pounced. More bad defense by both teams! It's been the defining factor because all the mistakes have led to runs.

Rios went to sleep in a critical moment out in right field and forgot how many outs there were...(in THIS game???) costing a run...or at least the opportunity to throw the runner out at home on the sac fly. Inexcusable.

Then the Mets miracle Murphy came to earth with a thud when he whiffed on a slow roller that let in the tying run. (I think it was the tying run?)

Wade Davis was great pitching 2 relief innings. The Royals defense was laughable when they shifted for Murphy, leaving only Moose Moustakas to cover the whole left side. Moose can dive left or right when he's at third, but footwork is not his strong suit and he couldn't field a grounder hit 6 feet to his left. Put Murphy on with one out. They called it a hit cause Moose didn't touch it. Hah!

So now after Cespedes singles, Duda comes up and they shift for him too with Moose covering all of short and third...and just like Murphy, Duda hits it the other way....but this time it's a wounded duck liner that Moose catches. Cespedes completely screws up when he breaks for second and gets doubled off first easily to lose the game for the Metskies. Stupido! Mas stupido!

Game 5 Preview: Matt Harvey vs. Volquez. I got to like Harvey to outpitch Volquez after that sad trip to his Father's funeral. Look for Volquez to go maybe 5 and then turn it over to the bullpen. The Royals will probably be behind by then. Question is, can they do their late inning thing again and punish the Met's bullpen? There's a lot on Harvey's shoulders...he has to go deep into the game to give them a chance. The Royals have seen everybody the Mets have out there and they make contact.

I predict the Mets win Game 5...maybe a blowout...and the thing goes back to KC for Cueto to win Game 6. If Cueto doesn't win Game 6 I think the Royals could be in a world of hurt sending Ventura out against Synergaard again.

We Shall See!

Salutations!

Marco's Baseball Blog-O-Roonie: Playoff Ruminations 2015

Marco's Baseball Blog-O-Roonie:

PLAYOFF RUMINATIONS

“95% of playoff teams down by more than 4 runs after the seventh inning never come back to win”.

Well tell it to the Astros and the Rangers. Everybody got in a tizzy about the “Cuteness Cubbies” and the “Amazins” when those two lovable loser types made it into the playoffs. “Not since 1986, 1984, 2000 etc. etc. blah blah insert your meaningless latter decade year here.

Hey...down here in Texas no team has EVER WON THE WORLD SERIES...EVER!!! We're 0 for 3 in the Series since the Houston Colt 45's came into the National League in 1962. In over 50 years the two Texas teams have managed only 17 playoff appearances: 7 for the Strangers and 10 for the Disastros. Why?

Because God punishes us!!! Diabolical disastrous ill luck and ineptitude clobbers Texas Teams over the head with alarming regularity. If it's not Nelson Cruz lurching helplessly after a fly ball so he can turn it into a triple off the wall it's the Astros giving up 5 runs in the 8^th inning of Game 4 of gthe 2015 Divisional Series and turning a 4 run lead over Kansas City to an eventual 9-6 loss.

The Astro's bullpen gave up 14 runs in that playoff series. Read that again...14 runs! I think they may have an area of concentration picked out for next year's team.

An unprecedented comeback by the Royals? Not really. This kind of stuff happens all the time in baseball...it's just so much more dramatic when one team is about to win a playoff series and move up to the ALCS like Houston was about to do.

Here's the story of the greatest playoff comeback of all time. We take you now to the year 1929:

The Philadelphia Athletics are playing the Chicago Cubs in the 1929 World Series. (Yes...those Chicago Cubs...the “Goat-Curs-ed”. I swear, they ought to put Bartman headphones on a herd of goats and let them graze on the Wrigley Field ivy for about a week just to mollify the Goat Demons. But more on that later.)

Philly...under legendary manager Connie Mack...was just beginning a three year pennant romp behind future Hall of Famers Jimmy Foxx (.354/33/117), Al Simmons (.365/34/157), catcher Mickey Cochrane (.331) and Uber-Pitcher Lefty Grove (league-leading 170Ks and 2.82 ERA in one of the highest scoring years of all times). They won 104 games that year, leaving the Ruth/Gehrig Yankees in the dust.

The Cubs were no slouches either. They scored an epic 982 runs in 156 games behind Hack Wilson (.345/39/159), Rogers Hornsby (.380/39/149) Riggs Stephenson (.362/17/110) and Kiki Cuyler (.360/15/102)

The Athletics are up 2 games to 1 in the 7^th inning of the 4^th game with Chicago about to tie up the Series with an 8-0 lead. In the bottom of the 7^th the Athletics are up and this happens:

*starter Charlie Root pitching for the Cubs

*Simmons homers onto left field roof

*Foxx singles to right

*Bing Miller singles to center when Hack Wilson loses the ball in the sun

*Jimmy Dykes singles to left

*Joe Boley singles to right

*George Burns pinch hits for the pitcher and pops to short for the first out

*Max Bishop singles over pitcher Charlie Root's head

(this is the same Charlie Root who would give up Babe Ruth's famous “called shot” homer 3 years later... a man of destiny for sure)

*Art Nehf comes into pitch for Root (about time)

*Mule Haas hits 3-run inside the park homer when Hack Wilson loses the ball in the sun AGAIN!

*Mickey Cochrane walks

*Sheriff Blake replaces Nehf on the mound

*Simmons singles over third

*Foxx singles in the tying run

*Pat Malone comes in to pitch for Chicago

*Miller is hit by a pitch, loading the bases

*Dykes doubles to the wall

*Boley strikes out

*Burns strikes out

Final score: Philadelphia 10 Chicago 8. Philly now leads the series 3 games to 1 and polishes off Chicago the next day.

That was some half inning.

The Texas Rangers had themselves one of those in the 5^th game of their division series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Rangers looked great knocking off the Jays in the first two games in Toronto but coughed up furballs in their two home games back in Arlington. In the 5^th game back in Toronto it's 2-2 in the top of the 7^th, Odor scores from third when Toronto catcher Russell Martin hits Choo's bat with his throwback to the pitcher. The ball trickles down the third base line and Odor alertly runs home.

Not even the umpires have seen this play before and when they finally figure out it's a live ball (with help from the Umpire Gods who sit on Olympus back in the New York control room), the Toronto fans litter the field with beer cans when Odor's run is allowed, giving the Rangers a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the 7^th.

One of the weirdest plays ever.

But in true Texas-team tradition, the Strangers find a way to turn this good fortune into a macabre death spiral. They make 3 bad errors in the bottom of the inning...shortstop Andrus dropping an easy grounder and an easy force out at third...and allow the Jays to tie it up. Then they serve up an inside fastball to Bautista who deposits the ball in the left field seats. Bautista struts his stuff and flings his bat at the Rangers bench...celebrating his greatness while conveniently ignoring the fact that he shouldn't even be batting because the inning should have been over.

The Rangers start milling around as if they are offended but nothing happens except somebody pats Troy Tulowitzski on the butt and somebody pushes somebody. Then the Rangers lie down quietly and die, accepting their unchanging loser-fate.

Thus expires another Texas team.

The Dodgers find another way to die. They hook up with the pitching heavy Mets. I picked them to win this series because of Kershaw and Greinke...two of the top three Cy Young candidates along with Arrieta of the Cubs...are set up to pitch 4 games of the 5 game series. They won 3 out of 4 all year.

But not this time. Kershaw wins once but the Dodger bats are melted by the Mets' young pitchers and especially their lights out closer Familia. On top of that  the Mets second baseman Danny Murphy suddenly turns into Bat-Beast and starts hitting everything into the seats and off the walls and stuff. This character hit his all time high homer total in the 2015 regular season...14 bombs. Then the sonuvagun hits 7 in the playoffs (so far) and homers in 6 games in a row...last 2 Dodger games in the Divisionals and then all 4 in the sweep of the Cubs. Unreal.

So the Dodgers flame out again. They could never get a settled batting order and Utley sliding hard into second in game 2 and breaking the leg of Met second sacker Ruben Tejada motivated the Metskies. (Tejada was woefully out of position on the play but was helpless. As I argued earlier in the season, the rules should be changed to prevent this kind of contact at second base, just as it's prohibited at other bases.) Manager Mattingly is now kaput in Dodgertown.

He was no genius but he was at least an honorable baseball warrior. I doubt the Dodgers will do better.

The Cubs went down too, but at least they made some noise before they folded.

First, they dispatched the poor Pirates in the Wild Card game. Arrieta shut out the Pirates for the third straight time in a month. The Buccos just couldn't hit the guy. (However, Arrieta finally used up his mojo and was not as effective the rest of the playoff run. The Cubs burned out their Ace in the Wild Card which illustrates the point that it pays to win your division.)

Cubs-Cardinals turned on the injury bug. The Cardinals were hurt more by the loss of catcher Molina and starter Martinez than the Cubs were hurt by the loss of shortstop Addison Russell.

The key game was game 3 at Wrigley...the wind was blowing out that night...(pure poetry, I know) and for some reason the Cardinal pitchers...starters, relievers, whoever...decided to keep throwing sternum-high strikes to the Cub hitters. Hey, any pop fly was going into the seats! A pop foul behind the plate went foul behind the screen and blew back onto the field where Molina (trying to play with a broken thumb) had to make a circus catch. Anyway, 6 homers later, the Cubs had thoroughly spanked the Redbirds. I believe only 1 homer was legitimately not a factor of wind...Schwarber's blast to right field that landed on Mars somewhere. The Cards needed somebody out there throwing sinkers or at least staying in the low part of the zone. Too late!

The Cubbies triumph and those ever-optimistic Cubs fans thought the Prophecy of Back to the Future was coming true. (The movie sarcastically predicted that the Cubs wouldn't win a series until 2015. Almost!)

Unfortunately for the cute little Bears, the Mets spanked them in New York and then spanked them worse back in Chicago to take 4 straight and win the ALCS. Arrieta had shot his wad and Lester wasn't as good as whoever the Mets put out there. DeGrom, Syndegaard, Harvey, Matz...clean sweep. The Cubs only scored more than 1 run in just 1 inning the whole series.

But Mets haters can relax...The Mets have 5 days off now, waiting for the ALCS to be over. That's been the Kiss of Death for playoff teams in recent years. Whatever mojo they had goes stale. Do you think Danny Murphy is going to sustain his Cosmic Clutch hitting? The pitchers can use the rest but the hitters always lose their timing with long layoffs.

Their opponent in the 2015 World Series will be either the Toronto Blue Jays or the Kansas City Royals. The Royals are up 3 games to 2 at this writing with the series going back to Kaufmann Stadium. We've had a couple of blowouts but it's been a pretty good series. The Jays bullpen has been exposed but the Jays lineup has scored enough runs on the Royals starters to win those 2 games and make it a contest. The Royals have 2 games in their home park to win the one that takes them back to the WS for the second year in a row.

I stand by my preseason prediction: THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS WILL WIN THE WORLD SERIES.

YOU GUYS ENJOY THE REST OF THE SEASON!!

Marco's Baseball blog-o-roonie hideous reality

MARCO'S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE SEPT. 2015

HIDEOUS REALITY...dispatches from the pennant race

1/ The Houston Astros have lost their mojo. As Lucinda Williams sings in “I Lost It”...

“I think I lost it

Let me know if you come across it

Let me know if I let it fall along a back road somewhere.

Money can't replace it

No memory can erase it

And I know I'm never gonna find another one to compare.”

This after a season long game of mirrors in which these upstarts bashed homers and struck out in record numbers. They were young and strong and they couldn't hit for asverage or win on the road, but everybody else in the American League West sucked so bad that the Astros took over first place by default and stayed there most of the season.

Then the given-up-for-dead Texas Rangers, who seemingly lost their chance at franchise glory a few years ago in back to back world Series losses to the Giants and Cardinals and then endured a couple of voodoo injury years when most of their roster was on the DL, suddenly woke up, traded for Cole Hamels and decided they would smoke this division.

The Rangers spanked the Baby-Stros in four straight punishing contests in Arlington and won the first game of a three game set in Houston. Sure, the Astros are mathematically in it, but the way they lost!

Kazmir, the 'Stros big trade deadline addition, continued to stink up the field with yet another lame outing. The Astros made errors, misjudged fly balls, threw wildly over cut off men, ran into their own star second baseman Altuve and knocked him out of the game with a concussion-watch and in general did everything they could to make sure they lost big.

The Astros led 9 to 4 in the second game (6 solo homers...their usual variety...2 each by Altuve and Correa who have been carrying them)going into the ninth and wound up with the tying runs on base before they could put down the Strangers 9-7. Sure they won but it was a sick kind of win. The bullpen is just not there anymore.

Keuchel won the rubber game...he always wins at home and almost never on the road...so they have given hope to suffering Houstonians....it's a false hope though.

The Rangers are in their head. Season series is now 13-6 for the Rangers. Houston has no chance at the division title anymore. The Astros are clinging to a forlorn hope that they can hold off two bad teams...Minnesota and L.A. and somehow limp into the second wild card slot. But...the HIDEOUS REALITY...After the Rangers series the Astros end the season with 6 road games ...and the Astros are the worst road team of any of the contenders.

Mojo is so gone...better luck next year Astros.

2/On July 27^th the Yankees were up by 7 games over the Toronto Blue Jays. So they decided to skip the trading deadline and keep their young and future stars down on the farm and go into cruise control into the playoffs. Then Ellsbury got hurt...then Texeira got injured, then a couple of starters got hurt. Meanwhile...

The Blue Jays went out and traded for mega-shortstop Troy Tulowitzski and leftie Ace David Price, sending a message to their already talented bunch that the front office was committed to winning now. The players responded with a winning streak and now lead the division by 4. That's an 11 game turn around in less than two months.

The Yankees are not going to win the division. They better hope Tanaka has a good day against whoever wins the second wild card...the Twins, the Angels ...(probably not the Astros). Plus...the HIDEOUS REALITY...the Yankees know they are not as good as the Toronto Blue Jays.

3/The Washington Nationals are the biggest disappointment in many years. They were picked by EVERYBODY (including your idiot correspondent) to win the division at least and probably the pennant. And even with Harper having a startling MVP season they are at least a dozen games OUT OF THE WILD CARD! Suckola!

The way the Nats folded in that series in Washington...getting leads in almost every game and then coughing up furballs...hard not to think there is a chemistry problem on that team.

Why did these idiots keep pitching to Yoenis Cespedes after he killed them over and over and over? HIDEOUS REALITY...Ask their now sure-to be-fired manager Matt Williams.

What Cespedes did in that series made a certain correspondent with an historical bent remember the 1949 season, when Joe DiMaggio, after being on the shelf for 67 games with terrible bone spurs to start the season, suddenly woke up one morning with no pain in his heel and talked Casey Stengel into letting him play in a crucial series at Fenway against the first place Red Sox. Joe hadn't even SWUNG A BAT in two months! So what happens? The Clipper hits 4 homers in 3 games and the Yankees sweep and go on to win the first of five straight World Series.

That's what Baseball Gods do. Good start Cespedes. Let's see what comes next.

4/The Metskies will be playing the Dodgers in the first round. That should be a good series. The Mets starters have suddenly got tired arms though...except for Bartolo and Syndergaard...and you have to like the Dodgers chances with Kershaw and Greinke pitching the way they are. If Harvey and DeGrom can pitch up to their capacity, the Mets have a chance.

Hideous Reality...Harvey and DeGrom look tired.

5/Pittsburgh has been beating Chicago like a red-headed step child. The Pirates have won about 9 straight and are going into a series with the Cardinals with a chance to pull even or overtake the once unassailable Redbirds. Amazing! The Pittsburgh pitching philosophy...”pitch to contact, come inside, try to get an outcome by the third pitch”...is paying off big time as their starters seem to have more left at the end of the season after lower pitch counts.

It's going to be a great play-in game between Cole and Arrietta. Should be a 1-0 or 2-1 type contest. The Cubs have been handling the Cardinals pretty well lately. Maybe they should throw a game to Pittsburgh just so the Pirates have a better chance of winning the division. That way Chicago can play the Cards in the wild card and not have to face Cole again in a one-win-takes-all situation. I know I'd rather go up against Jaime Garcia and the Molina-less and Carlos Martinez-less Cardinals right now.

Of course...that would be WRONG! But I wonder if they've thought of it? Hideous Reality...sometimes teams cheat.

How many times have teams who are out of it in September started a bunch of rookies against one team and put all their stars in against a more-hated rival? Only like all the time. Other teams complain and accuse but who's to stop them “scouting their talent” at the expense of other teams in the pennant race? (It's a good reason to do away with expanded rosters...or at least 40 man expansions.)

And always remember that the most famous playoff series of all time...Giants against Dodgers 1951 decided by Bobby Thompson's “shot heard round the world” only happened because the Giants figured out how to put a man with binoculars in center field to tip pitches to Giant hitters for the final month and a half of the season. I think the Giants went 37-5 or something ridiculous like that to gain 12 games on the Dodgers and tie them up. Ralph Branca still insists that Thompson stole the sign on that famous homer. A bitter pill to live with all this time.

6/Enough of this crap! Let's say something nice about a wonderful guy...YOGI!!

I once got in an argument on a call-in radio show with Rob Dibble. Dibble was dissing Yogi because “he was a midget” and couldn't have been any good. He seemed to think that all the old-timers were overrated and couldn't have competed with modern players.

I pointed out that Yogi won 3 MVPs, finished second twice, third once and fourth once. He was so durable that he caught over 130 games a year for a decade. He batted in over a hundred runs 5 times, hit homers and only struck out 414 times in a 19 year career. He was a catcher batting third, fourth or fifth for his whole career.

Yogi wasn't the best defensive catcher ever but he was very good. He was certainly one of the best handlers of pitchers ever. He could go out to the mound and say something stupid to settle down a nervous pitcher. They loved him. He had vast baseball knowledge.

Two all-timers had something to say about Yogi: Casey Stengel said his secret formula for winning all those pennants was “I never played a big game without my Man out there”....meaning Yogi. And Ted Williams said “When we play the Yankees I don't worry about Mantle...I worry about Yogi.”

I think Ted said that because there was no way to pitch to Yogi. He'd hit any pitch and hit it anywhere. And yet he still got his walks.

So Berra wasn't a clown...he was a ballplayer, and even though he was only 5'7” and 180 pounds he takes his place with a lot of other underrated stocky little guys who could play the game. (Hack Wilson, Frankie Frisch, Joe Medwick, Jimmy Wynn, Kirby Puckett and Jose Altuve just to name a few...short arms can equal compressed power and fewer K's)

My last Hideous Reality of the day...never think Rob Dibble has a clue!

And thank you Yogi, for entertaining us all these years and making Baseball a more joyous experience for so many.

Have fun rooting for your favorites.

See you next time!