Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Month of MLB: Day 15

So far, we've had three games in the League Championship Series.  In all three games, one team went with an odd pitching strategy.  In Game One of the N.L.C.S., the Mets used a starter who had been hurt most of the year and had very few innings pitched during the season.  Remarkably, Cleveland did the same thing in Game One of the A.L.C.S.  And in Game Two of the N.L.C.S., the Dodgers decided to have a bullpen game with no true starting pitcher.

These stratagems backfired.  The Dodgers jumped all over the Mets Game One starter and cruised to a 9-0 win.  The Yankees jumped out to an early lead on Cleveland, and rolled home as 5-2 winners.  And the Dodgers' bullpen blew up in the second inning, giving up six early runs in a 7-3 Mets victory.

So the Mets and Dodgers are tied, and the Yankees lead Cleveland 1-0.  Tonight the NL takes the day off and we get Game Two of the A.L.C.S. on TBS at 6:38 P.M. Central.  The Yankees will be starting Gerrit Cole, who went 8-5 with a 3.41 ERA in 17 starts this year.  Cleveland will respond with Tanner Bibee -- who made 31 starts for Cleveland this year, going 12-8 with a 3.47 ERA.  So, for once, we'll get two normal starting pitchers -- and we'll see if that makes a difference.

Monday, October 14, 2024

Month of MLB: Day 14

The Dodgers crushed the Mets 9-0 yesterday to take a 1-0 lead in the N.L.C.S.  Here are today's matchups (home teams listed first) (all times Central):

3:08 P.M.:  Los Angeles v. N.Y. Mets (L.A. leads 1-0) (FOX)
6:38 P.M.:  N.Y. Yankees v. Cleveland (series tied 0-0) (TBS)

Ken Pom Is Back

Here are Ken Pomeroy's initial ratings for the Classic SEC members in the 2024-25 men's college basketball season:

3.  Auburn
4.  Alabama
13.  Tennessee
28.  Florida
32.  Mississippi St.
42.  Kentucky
47.  Mississippi
51.  Louisiana St.
67.  Georgia
96.  Vanderbilt

Here's the Classic ACC:

2.  Duke
14.  N. Carolina
24.  Clemson
37.  Maryland
44.  Wake Forest
52.  N. Carolina St.
65.  S. Carolina
78.  Virginia

Here's the Classic Big 10:

10.  Purdue
23.  Illinois
31.  Ohio St.
33.  Iowa
35.  Michigan St.
36.  Michigan
39.  Indiana
46.  Wisconsin
50.  Northwestern
59.  Minnesota

Here's the Classic Big 8:

6.  Kansas
7.  Iowa St.
40.  Oklahoma
49.  Kansas St.
53.  Missouri
56.  Nebraska
80.  Colorado
89.  Oklahoma St.

Here's the Classic Metro:

17.  Cincinnati
43.  Memphis St.
64.  Louisville
90.  Florida St.
92.  Virginia Tech
105.  Saint Louis
188.  Tulane

And, finally, here's the Classic Southwest Conference:

1.  Houston
11.  Baylor
15.  Texas Tech
16.  Texas A & M
18.  Texas
25.  Arkansas
58.  Texas Christian
74.  So. Methodist
234.  Rice

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Dodgers v. Mets

Given their locations in Los Angeles and New York, the Dodgers and Mets are probably the two most glamorous teams in the National League.  And since Divisional play began in 1969, they've had a decent amount of success.  But they've always faced major challenges from the rest of the League.  Here's how they've done in the N.L.C.S. (pennants in bold):

Los Angeles (8-7):  1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1988, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021

New York (5-3):  1969, 1973, 1986, 1988, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2015

As you can see, while the Dodgers have 15 trips to the N.L.C.S., and the Mets have eight, they have only met in the N.L.C.S. once before.  That was in 1988, and that was probably the greatest N.L.C.S. ever played.  The Mets still had the core of their great 1986 team, and they went 100-60 in 1988.  The Dodgers had the last great team of Tommy LaSorda's career, before the wilderness years that plagued them in the 1990's and 2000's.  Together, these two veteran-laden squads played a series for the ages.

Tuesday, Oct. 4, 1988.  Game One (in L.A.):  The Dodgers started off with Orel Hershiser, who had pitched 59 consecutive scoreless innings going back to August 30, 1988.  The Mets countered with Dwight Gooden, who went 18-9 that season, making his last appearance in the All-Star Game at the age of 23.  Gooden and Hershiser hooked up in a tremendous pitching duel, and the Dodgers led 2-0 going into the ninth.  But the Mets got a run across against Hershiser thanks to a single from Gregg Jeffries and a double by Darryl Strawberry.  The Dodgers then brought in Jay Howell, and the roof fell in.  The Mets scored two more runs to win the game 3-2, and take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Wednesday, Oct. 5, 1988.  Game Two (in L.A.):  Desperately needing a win in Dodger Stadium before heading east for the next three games, the Dodgers jumped all over David Cone to take a 5-0 lead after only two innings.  Tim Belcher pitched great for the Dodgers, and L.A. tied the series with a 6-3 win.

Saturday, Oct. 8, 1988.  Game Three (in N.Y.):  Game Three was originally scheduled for Friday, was rained out, and was played in muddy conditions on Saturday.  The Dodgers sent out Hershiser again, and he led 3-0 and 2 1/2 innings.  But the never-say-die Mets got one back when Strawberry doubled home Mookie Wilson in the bottom of the third.  And in the sixth, the Mets got two runs thanks to some timely hitting and a key error by Dodger Third baseman Jeff Hamilton.  The Dodgers took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 8th in part due to a throwing error by Mets pitcher Roger McDowell, and Lasorda sent out Jay Howell to hold the lead.  But Davey Johnson, the Mets' manager, caught Howell with pine tar on his glove.  Howell was ejected (and suspended for games 4, 5, and 6), and the Dodgers fell apart.  The Mets won 8-4, and took a 2-1 series lead.

Sunday, Oct. 9, 1988.  Game Four (in N.Y.):  Dwight Gooden started this game for the Mets, and he was great.  Going into the ninth inning, Gooden had a 4-2 lead, and the Mets were on the verge of taking a commanding position in the series.  But Gooden walked John Shelby to lead off the ninth, and Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia -- who hit only 68 home runs in his career, and only three in 1988 -- earned a permanent place in Dodger lore by crushing a two-run homer into the right field bullpen to tie the game.  Three innings later, Kirk Gibson's homer in the top of the 12th gave the Dodgers a 5-4 lead.  Unfortunately, the Dodgers were pretty much out of pitchers.  Tim Leary gave up a leadoff single to Mackey Sasser, and then another single to pinch hitter Lee Mazzilli.  With Mets on first and second, Leary got Jeffries to fly out to left, and Lasorda brought in Jesse Orasco.  He promptly walked Keith Hernandez to load the bases, before getting Strawberry to pop out.  With the bases loaded and two out, the only remaining Dodger pitcher was Hershiser.  Rather than let Orasco face Kevin McReynolds, Lasorda brought in Hershiser, who got McReynolds to pop out and end the game.  To me, personally, this is the single greatest game I've ever seen the Dodgers play.

Monday, Oct. 10, 1988.  Game Five (in N.Y.):  Game Four, played on Sunday night, had taken four hours and 29 minutes.  Game Five -- played on Monday afternoon due to the rainout on Friday -- started less than 11 hours later.  After three scoreless innings, the Dodgers jumped all over Mets' pitcher Sid Fernandez to take a 6-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth, and hung on for a 7-4 win.  Once again, Tim Belcher had come through for the Dodgers.  This game turned out to be the decider in the series, because from here on out both teams finally played as expected.

Tuesday, Oct. 11, 1988.  Game Six (in L.A.):  Amazingly, the Dodgers had come back from New York with a 3-2 series lead, but they were completely dominated by Mets Ace David Cone in Game Six.  Cone allowed only one run and five hits, and the Mets rolled to an easy 5-1 win.  That tied the series -- but the Mets had already used Cone, and the Dodgers still had one more chance to use Hershiser.

Wednesday, Oct. 12, 1988.  Game Seven (in L.A.): Orel Hershiser in 1988 was the greatest pitcher I ever saw, and his performance in Game Seven was the best game I ever saw him throw.  He threw a complete game shutout, allowing no runs on five hits.  Meanwhile, the Dodgers scored six runs in two innings against Mets' starter Ron Darling, and cruised the rest of the way for a 6-0 win.  Of course, sitting through it was much more impressive -- the Mets were a truly great team, and you had to think that they would make a run at some point, but Hershiser on that day was one of the greatest pitchers who ever lived.  He won this series for the Dodgers.

1988 was the last baseball season to take place while Ronald Reagan was President, and to me it has always represented the end of the Eighties as we have known them in pop culture.  In fact, 1988 was the last time that California voted to send a Republican to the White House.  It was also the end of Tommy Lasorda's great years with the Dodgers -- in part due to what happened to Orel Hershiser and Kirk Gibson.

Hershiser was never the same after the 1988 season.  When the season ended, he had a lifetime record of 83-49 with 19 career shutouts.  He was 29 years old.  Over the rest of his career, he went 121-101 with only six more shutouts.  He never stopped grinding -- they called him "Bulldog" for a reason -- but he was never dominant after throwing 267 innings -- including 15 complete games and eight shutouts -- in 1988.  

Kirk Gibson was never the same after the 1988 season.  That year, he had 6.5 wins above replacement and was the league MVP.  He was only 31 years old, but he would never again play a full season.  After hitting at least 24 home runs in every year from 1984 to 1988, he never matched that mark again.  In fact, he never had more than 2.5 wins above replacement in any season.

The Dodgers could not find a way to make up for the decline of Hershiser and Gibson.  After winning five pennants in 15 years between 1974 and 1988, they would not win another pennant until 2017 -- by which point Los Angeles, and the Dodgers -- and indeed the whole world, would look very different than it had in 1988.

Of course, the Mets had their own problems after 1988, and the great team of Strawberry, Gooden, and so many other charismatic stars would never again play such important games.  But for nine days in October, the Dodgers and Mets grabbed the Nation's attention in the best N.L.C.S. ever played.  The Dodgers paid an enormous price for their win, but my guess is that most Dodger fans think it was worth paying.

Month of MLB Day 13

Over the weekend, the Dodgers and Cleveland both completed their comebacks from being down 2-1 to defeat their division rivals and advance to the League Championship Series.

Let's start with the Dodgers.  They gave up five runs in Game One, ten runs in Game Two, and six runs in the first two innings of Game Three.  At this point, I gave up on them, assuming that they didn't have enough starting pitching to beat San Diego.  But I was wrong.  First, they shut out the Padres for the last seven innings of Game Three, although they still lost that game 6-5.  But then, the Dodgers' bullpen shut out the Padres in Game Four, and the Dodgers rolled to an 8-0 win.  That set up Game Five on Friday Night in Dodger Stadium.  The Padres went with Yu Darvish, who had pitched them to victory in Game Two -- and Darvish was very good.  In 6 2/3 innings, he allowed only three hits, including two solo homers to Enrique Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez.  But the Dodgers responded with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who they had picked up from Japan in the off-season.  Like much of the rest of the Dodgers' staff, Yamamoto was injured during the regular season, and only threw 90 innings.  But on Friday night, he gave the Dodgers five shutout innings (he allowed only two hits).  And that was all the Dodgers' bullpen needed.  They shut out the Padres the rest of the way.  If you're keeping track, that means that San Diego scored zero runs in the last 25 innings of the Divisional Series.  So the Dodgers are back in the N.L.C.S. for the first time since 2021.

A few more thoughts here.  In recent years, the Padres have developed a bullying, swaggering style of play -- especially when they take on the Dodgers.  With the Dodgers down two games to one, and the next game in San Diego, it was easy to conclude -- as I did -- that the Padres had successfully bullied the strait-laced Dodgers.  But I was wrong again.  The Dodgers fought back, and the Dodger fans in Game Five -- stung into reaction by the rabid San Diegans -- were as loud and rowdy as I have ever seen them.  The Dodger players and fans get a lot of credit here for being tougher than I expected.  And Dave Roberts showed once again why he has won three pennants at Chavez Ravine, and why he must be regarded as one of the greatest Dodger managers of all time.

Now for the Junior Circuit.  On Saturday, Cleveland was at home -- but they had to face Detroit ace Tarik Skubal, who went 18-4 in the regular season.  Skubal has been great in the playoffs, and Detroit fans had to like their chances when the Tigers took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth.  But at this point, Cleveland bats finally came to life.  They scored five runs thanks to a Grand Slam from Lane Thomas, who started the season with the Washington Nationals.  Cleveland then cruised home for a 7-3 victory and their first trip to the A.L.C.S. since 2016.

The League Championship Series start tonight with the Dodgers hosting the Mets in Dodger Stadium.