Today was the first playoff game ever at PNC Park in Pittsburgh (we don't count "Wild Card" games, and we try to pretend that they don't exist). Pittsburgh, which is one of the great sports towns in America, suffered through twenty consecutive losing seasons -- the longest such streak in the history of American professional sports -- but this year the Pirates won 94 games to earn a spot in the playoffs. The folks in the Steel City were as rabid as you would expect, and they saw a great game. Pittsburgh scored two early runs in the first, St. Louis matched them with two runs in the top of the fifth, the Pirates took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 6th, and St. Louis tied the game with a Carlos Beltran home run in the top of the 8th.
In the bottom of the 8th, and the Pirate fans baying for a run, Andrew McCutchen laced a double to left -- but was quickly retired when he tried to reach third on a grounder to short. That was a good sign for St. Louis, but it left a runner on first. A walk to Marlon Byrd put men on first and second, and then back-to-back singles from Pedro Alvarez and Russell Martin gave Pittsburgh all the runs they needed for a 5-3 lead. If the Pirates can win tomorrow, they will be in the NLCS.
In the nightcap, at Dodger Stadium, the Braves had no answer for L.A.'s big bats. Carl Crawford went 2-5 with three runs and three RBI's. Hanley Ramirez went 3-4 with three runs and two RBI's. Jose Uribe went 2-5 with two runs and two RBI's. And Yasiel Puig, who turned the Dodgers' season around when he joined the team in early June, went 3-5 with three runs and two RBI's. The Dodgers rolled to a 13-6 victory to take a 2-1 series lead.
A few weeks ago there was a kerfuffle in the sports press because Puig allegedly wasn't following team rules. This led to lots of tsk-tsking from sportswriters, because American sportswriters would totally side with King Agamemnon over Achilles any day. But I imagine that Dodger fans -- who have watched well-behaved Dodgers lose for the last 20 years -- are pretty happy to have Puig on their team.
Tomorrow is a great day for baseball fans, with all four series in action. I have no idea why this is happening on a Monday, as most folks will be at work -- but that's baseball. Anyway, here's where things stand, along with tomorrow's schedule:
National League Divisional Series (Best of Five):
Los Angeles leads Atlanta 2-1
Pittsburgh leads St. Louis 2-1
American League Divisional Series (Best of Five):
Boston leads Tampa Bay 2-0
Oakland and Detroit are tied 1-1
Tomorrow's games (all times Central):
Oakland @ Detroit (12 P.M. on the MLB Network)
St. Louis @ Pittsburgh (2 P.M. on TBS)
Boston @ Tampa bay (5 P.M. on TBS)
Atlanta @ Los Angeles (8:30 P.M. on TBS)
I actually wish every A's game was played during the Central biz day. Baseball's so terrific to follow while working.
ReplyDeleteI heard all that back and forth about Puig last week, and there was plenty of bluster coming from sportswriters, too, on behalf of your position. Basically, the whole thing boiled down to ..., Wow, he's great, and it'd be great if he followed the team rules. Not really that complicated. But, of course, there was a lot of talk at both ends of the statement. Johnny Football lost to Alabama, so there had to be something to talk about.
Here's my newest greatest baseball idea of all time. Ready, seamheads? Here it comes.
ReplyDeleteYou know how, every so often, an NFL team goes and gets some Olympic sprinter with little or no football experience and tries to teach him to play football? And, of course, baseballwise, there was Herb Washington. My idea would be, instead, to go get an Olympic sprinter and teach him to play outfield. Then you fill your rotation with groundball pitchers, and--here's the real innovation--you position your left-fielder and right-fielder to play just a little behind the base-path dirt between the third baseman and shortstop and between the second baseman and first baseman, respectively. So, at this point, you've effectively got a six-man wall around the infield to easily field all of the groundballs that your pitchers yield, and then you've got this world-class sprinter to chase down flies across the expansive outfield.
BOOM!
Incidentally, here's my previous greatest baseball idea ever. That idea is still great, too. If the A's hire me once Billy Beane retires into the Hall of Fame, I'm implementing both and then building my roster accordingly--no matter what Philip Seymour Hoffman and the rest of the baseball CW thinks.
#GREENCOLLAR!!!
ReplyDeleteUniform watch: A's going with the green shirts with the gold "Athletics" in script across the chest. Green hats with yellow bibs. Detroit is wearing their traditional home uniform, which is one of the five best uniforms in all of sports.
ReplyDeleteIn the Oakland games, the A's were wearing the yellow jerseys from their great 1970's run, and that was a lot of fun to see.
I'm going with the A's play-by-play team, which is very good.
ReplyDeleteEveryone waves towels in the playoffs these days. Detroit fans are going with white towels.
ReplyDelete#GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENCOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteA great, great win for the Athletics -- who finally got the bats going and who beat Detroit 6-3 in a game that started at 10 A.M. Pacific Time.
DeleteIn Pittsburgh, it's the bottom of the 6th, and the Cardinals -- trying to fight off elimination -- have just taken a 2-0 lead. Cardinal pitcher Michael Wacha retired the first 15 Pirates that he faced. He walked Russell Martin to lead off the sixth, but has since then retired two Pirates in a row.
ReplyDeleteAnd now Wacha strikes out Starling Marte to end the bottom of the 6th.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't figured it out by now, Wacha has not allowed any hits through six innings.
Wacha is only 22 years old. This year, he started 9 games and went 4-1. In his last start of the year, he threw 8 2/3 innings of no-hit ball against Natstown, and was deprived of a no-hitter only by an infield hit in the ninth.
ReplyDeleteIt is impossible to overstate the value of hot pitching in the playoffs.
The Cardinals go scoreless in the top of the 7th.
ReplyDeleteSt. Louis only has three hits today, but one of those was a two-run homer by Matt Holliday.
A few things revealed during the MLB Network broadcast: Sonny Gray had never heard of Bert Blyleven, and Aunt Jim Kaat gets agitated when he doesn't get his afternoon nap.
ReplyDeleteThe A's announcers did their usual great job. They are one of the best radio teams in the business.
DeleteI was afraid Balfour would lose focus after that near-fight in the ninth.
The Tigers better settle down, or we'll activate Bert Campaneris to come out and throw a bat at them.
DeleteWacha retires Pittsburgh 1-2-3 in the 7th.
ReplyDeleteAccording to FanGraphs, St. Louis now has an 89 percent chance of victory.
ReplyDeleteBottom of the 8th, St. Louis still leading 2-0.
ReplyDelete1. Marlon Byrd strikes out.
2. But then, Pedro Alvarez hits a HOME RUN to center field. The no-hitter is broken up and the score is now 2-1.
Rusell Martin walks, and the tying run is on base.
ReplyDeletePittsburgh puts in a pinch-runner. St. Louis brings in Carlos Martinez.
ReplyDeleteThe pinch-runner tries to steal second AND IS THROWN OUT BY YADIER MOLINA.
Martinez then strikes out the batter and the inning is over. St. Louis leads 2-1 going into the 9th.
Wow. Throwing out the pinch-runner is pretty gangster.
DeleteYeah, here's my advice: don't run on anyone named Molina.
DeleteAnd the Cardinals win 2-1 to even the series at two games apiece. Pittsburgh, with a chance to move into the next round, could scrape together only one hit on its home field.
ReplyDeleteNow the road gets very tough for the Pirates, as they will face Adam Wainwright (the St. Louis ace) in Busch Stadium.