To be honest, I've been pretty bored with these baseball playoffs. Some of the individual games have been dramatic, but none of the playoff series have been up for grabs in any realistic sense. Almost as soon as the Divisional Series started, it was pretty obvious that the Royals, Orioles, Cardinals, and Giants would be moving on. And before last night, the Royals had already grabbed a 2-0 lead against Baltimore, with the next three games in Kansas City. If San Francisco had also gone up 2-0 last night -- with the next three games in San Francisco -- we could have started making plans for the Wild Card World Series.
That may still happen, especially given that the Cardinals may have lost Yadier Molina, their outstanding catcher, to a strained oblique muscle. (Molina left in the sixth inning last night). But the Cardinals and Giants not only put on a spectacular game last night, they raised the possibility that this series could be up for grabs.
We've written before about the remarkable post-season success of St. Louis and San Francisco, and last night they each showed the demeanor of champions. With their backs to the wall, playing what could be the last game of the year in Busch Stadium, the Cardinals jumped out to an early lead in the 3d on a home run by Matt Carpenter, and then tacked on another run in the fourth with a walk and two singles. Down 2-0 on the road, the Giants did not go away but kept pecking at the Cardinals. The Giants understand the importance of simply putting the ball in play, and they put that knowledge to use in the next few innings:
In the 5th, they got a run from a single, a double, and a ground-out to second.
In the 6th, they got another run from a two-out double and a single. Now the game was tied at 2.
And in the 7th, San Francisco got one more run on a walk, a sacrifice, and another single.
Suddenly, San Francisco had taken the lead without anything more than a double. The Cardinals only had nine outs to reverse their situation. But in the bottom of the seventh, St. Louis sent up Oscar Taveras as a pinch-hitter -- and he clobbered a pitch into the right field stands, tying the game at 3. And in the bottom of the 8th, Matt Adams blasted another homer to right. Now the Cardinals were up 4-3, and San Francisco was down to its last three outs.
So the Giants put more balls in play. With one out, Andrew Susac singled to center. Matt Duffy came in to pinch run. Duffy advanced to second on a single by Juan Perez. Gregor Blanco lined out to short. With two outs, Duffy tried to steal third -- and Cardinal pitcher Trevor Rosenthal bounced a wild pitch (remember that regular catcher Molina wasn't there) that allowed Duffy to score all the way from second. Now the Cardinals were in big trouble, because Buster Posey was up with the lead run on third. Pitching very carefully now, Rosenthal walked Posey, loading the bases for Pedro Sandoval. Now the Nats would have lost the game at this point, because they live and die with their closer, no matter how he's doing. But St. Louis is made of sterner stuff, and so they pulled Trevor Rosenthal and brought in Seth Maness -- who got Sandoval to bounce out to the mound. All tied at 4.
Notice that at this point each team had scored a single run in four different innings. That type of pattern is very unusual in baseball, where runs tend to come in bunches or not at all. But the Cardinals and Giants are really good at finding a way to score, and their pitchers are really good at preventing larger rallies. That's why they keep winning these playoff series.
Anyway, we now went to the bottom of the 9th, with the huge crowd in St. Louis desperate for one more run. Up stepped Kolten Wong, who famously entered Game Four of last year's World Series as a pinch-runner -- and was picked off, losing the game for St. Louis. But the Cardinals found a way to repair Wong's confidence, and now he SLAMMED A HOMER to right to send St. Louis off to San Francisco with a victory. You can't ask for a much better game than that. Five more like this, please.
American League Championship Series:
Kansas City leads Baltimore 2-0
National League Championship Series:
St. Louis and San Francisco are tied 1-1
Notice that at this point each team had scored a single run in four different innings. That type of pattern is very unusual in baseball, where runs tend to come in bunches or not at all. But the Cardinals and Giants are really good at finding a way to score, and their pitchers are really good at preventing larger rallies. That's why they keep winning these playoff series.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very insightful paragraph. Harold Reynolds says good stuff like that sometimes, too.