For reasons I don't understand, the Dodgers decided not to use a starting pitcher in Game Two. Instead, they treated it like an All Star game, changing pitchers almost every inning. (They used seven in all.) There's a reason why this strategy isn't used much outside of All Star games, and it is that most teams -- even a team as good as the Dodgers -- can't roll out seven good pitchers in one game. Eventually you're going to have a dud. The Dodgers' dud last night was Dustin May, who was terrible. When May entered the game in the top of the fourth, Tampa Bay led 1-0. When he left, after completing the fifth inning, Tampa Bay led 5-0. And that was all she wrote. The Dodgers got some late homers, but the Rays racked up a 6-4 victory. So the Dodgers' four-game winning streak -- and their lead in the Series -- are gone. But at least a lot of their pitchers can say they played in the Fall Classic.
Los Angeles and Tampa Bay are tied 1-1.
After throwing away Game Two, the Dodgers are coming back with an ace tonight: Walker Buehler of Lexington Henry Clay High School and Vanderbilt University. Buehler only threw 36 innings this year, but last year he went 14-4 with a 3.26 ERA. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, the Rays are countering with Charlie Morton. The 36-year-old Morton spent most of his career toiling in the hopeless environment of the Pittsburgh Pirates, but since 2016 he has a record of 47-18. The Dodgers may regret not taking Game Two more seriously.
ReplyDeleteThat Game 2 decision was just crazy to me.
DeleteWith two out in the top of the first, Justin Turner homers to left, and the Dodgers lead 1-0.
ReplyDeleteThe Dodgers will remember Charlie Morton. In 2017, he was playing for the Astros, and he threw the last four innings of the season to beat the Dodgers in Game Seven of the World Series.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that the Astros were cheating in about a dozen different ways more than the ones we've heard about.
DeleteThere are three hall of fame baseball players who were born in Kentucky. Pee Wee Reese was born in Ekron, in Meade County. Jim Bunning was born in Edgewood, in Kenton County. Earl Combs was born in Pebworth, in Owsley County.
ReplyDeleteHe's not a Hall of Famer, but I once visited Ewing, Kentucky, because it's the hometown of Woodie Fryman.
DeleteBunning was both a Hall of Fame baseball player and a United States Senator. He has a claim to be regarded as one of the greatest Kentuckians ever.
ReplyDeleteOne of his Jim Bunning's teammates with the 1951 Class B Davenport Tigers was Jim Pickens, a former Princeton High/WKU standout. He messed up his arm, and that turned out to be his only season as a pro-baseball player. He ended up coaching baseball at Western for a lot of seasons, and then he was in athletics administration or maybe alumni relations by the time I arrived in Bowling Green. Anyway, as a freshman or sophomore, I did a long feature on him for the College Heights Herald, and he and his wife had me out to their house. They were about the nicest people to a nervous 19-year-old in the history of the world. A few years later, I tried my hand at a short story about a former baseball player who became a radio play-by-play guy for a small-town minor-league team, and that guy and the wife in my story were based mostly on Coach and Mrs. Pickens. My character's name was "Willie Summers," and the whole story was about as hackneyed as the name. Its real problem was, though, that it had no plot, probably because I didn't want to imagine Coach and Mrs. Pickens in any conflict whatsoever. But I tried.
DeleteBut Pee Wee Reese has more Wins Above Replacement than anyone born in Kentucky, including Bunning (who is second).
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I think Justin Thomas has done enough to establish himself as the greatest golfer from Kentucky.
ReplyDeleteI recently finished a Frank Beard memoir that he wrote with Dick Schaap.
DeleteBoth starters have an easy second inning, and the Dodgers still lead 1-0 after two.
ReplyDeleteWith two out and one on in the top of the third, Justin Turner doubles into the left field corner. The Dodgers hold the runner at third, so Max Mundy comes up with two men in scoring position.
ReplyDeleteMorton v. Muncy:
Pitch one: Swinging strike (0-1)
Pitch two: Ball low (1-1)
Pitch three: Ball inside (2-1)
Pitch four: Ball inside (3-1)
Pitch five: Lined foul (3-2)
Pitch six: Muncy SINGLES TO CENTER, Turner and Seager score. A great at-bat by Muncy, and the Dodgers lead 3-0.
Two out hits are huge.
ReplyDeleteWill Smith flies out to center, and the inning is over. LA leads 3-0 after 2 1/2 innings.
ReplyDeleteIn the bottom of the third, Buehler walks Kiermaier, and Zunino whacks a hard grounder. But the ball goes straight to Turner at third, who starts a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning. Dodgers still lead 3-0 after three.
ReplyDeleteIn the top of the 4th, with Cody Bellinger leading off the inning, the Rays go into an alignment that features four outfielders and only three infielders. Bellinger promptly makes them pay, lining a single in the place where a second baseman would normally be.
ReplyDeleteIf teams had played shifts back in the 1970's, I believe that Pete Rose and Joe Morgan would have batted about .600. I really don't get it. If the batter knows how to control the bat, he should get a hit against the shift almost every time. Why would you have your guys swing for the fences when the other team is conceding a single?
ReplyDeleteJoc Pederson singles into the right field corner and the Dodgers have runners on the corners with one out. Their number-9 hitter, Austin Barnes, comes to the plate -- AND LAYS DOWN A PERFECT BUNT! Bellinger races home to score, Pederson goes to second, and Barnes is out. Dodgers lead 4-0.
ReplyDeleteSMALL BALL!
ReplyDeleteBetts singles up the middle, and Pederson races home. The Dodgers lead 5-0. MOOKIE BETTS!
ReplyDeleteHaving your best player bat first is brilliant. It feels like Mookie Betts comes to the plate seven times per game. We're in the fourth inning, and he's already batted three times.
DeleteBETTS STEALS SECOND! You know how guys almost get thrown out at second, and then they pop off the base for a fraction of a second, and they're tagged out? That happens to the Nats all the time. It did not happen to Betts.
ReplyDeleteSeager almost beats out a grounder to third, but Choi -- the first baseman for the Rays -- makes a leaping catch and tags Seager while he (Choi, that is) is still in the air. The side is retired. But LA leads 5-0 after 3 1/2.
ReplyDeleteBuehler retires the Rays in order, and the Dodgers lead 5-0 after four.
ReplyDeleteWith one on and one out in the top of the fifth, Tampa Bay brings in John Curtiss to replace Morton.
ReplyDeleteCurtiss retires the Dodgers, and the score is still 5-0 after 4 1/2.
ReplyDeleteWith one out in the bottom of the fifth, Manuel Margot gets Tampa Bay's first hit of the game -- a double into the left field corner.
ReplyDeleteWith two outs Willy Adames doubles in Margot, and the score is 5-1, LA. But Kiermaier grounds out to first to end the inning. Dodgers lead 5-1 after five.
ReplyDeleteIn the top of the 6th, Austin Barnes blasts a home run to center, and Betts follows with another single. Dodgers lead 6-1.
ReplyDeleteBetts steals second again. That's his fourth stolen base in the World Series. Now Seager walks.
ReplyDeleteTurner flies out and the inning is over. But the Dodgers lead 6-1 after 5 1/2.
ReplyDeleteBaseball is such a great game. It's hard to imagine how popular it would be if it the owners actually liked it and were excited about promoting it.
ReplyDeleteBuehler gets through the sixth with allowing only one hit and no runs. Dodgers lead 6-1 after six.
ReplyDeleteRyan Sheriff retires the Dodgers in the 7th. Dodgers still lead 6-1.
ReplyDeleteBuehler is finished. He was great -- 1 run and 3 hits. But he only threw six innings. Former Nat Blake Treinen will be here to pitch the seventh.
Treinen gets a groundout and two strikeouts to retire the Rays 1-2-3 in the 7th. Dodgers still lead 6-1.
ReplyDeleteDodgers go down 1-2-3 in the eighth. They bring in Brudar Graterol to pitch the eighth.
ReplyDeleteThe Rays go down in order in the 8th. Still 6-1 to LA.
ReplyDeleteThe Dodgers get one hit but nothing more in the 9th. Still 6-1 heading to the bottom of the 9th. Kenley Jansen enters to pitch for LA.
ReplyDeleteWith two out in the bottom of the 9th, Randy Arozarena lofts a home run into the left field seats. Dodgers now lead 6-2.
ReplyDeleteBut Jansen gets Ji-Man Choi to fly out to left and the game is over. The Dodgers win 6-2 and they lead the World Series two games to one.
ReplyDelete