Tag Archives: World Series

World Series tied at 2-2 after Dodgers 5-run ninth inning

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The Houston Astros’ path to their first World Series title appeared to be set out following their 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Three on Friday night.

The win gave them a 2-1 series lead and made it seven wins out of seven at home in this year’s post-season. With two more victories needed to claim the title, and two more games coming up at Minute Maid Park, the script was written for a Sunday night celebration in Houston.

The Dodgers’ five-run outburst in the top of the ninth inning of Game Four on Saturday night ripped that script up, spoiling the Astros’ plans but adding an intriguing plot twist for the rest of us to enjoy.  A 1-1 level game heading into the final regulation inning turned into a 6-1 Dodger lead that the Astros could only reduce by one run (on Alex Bregman’s homer).

This World Series is officially in a state of Desmond (2-2).

Penalties 1

MLB acted quickly by issuing the Astros’ Yuli Gurriel with a 5-game suspension after his offensive behaviour during Game Three. The length of the suspension appears appropriate, the question is whether rolling it over to the start of the 2018 regular season was correct.

On balance, I think the right decision has been made.

The gesture was offensive towards Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish, but it wasn’t something that affected a play or the player during the game. Consequently, there wasn’t a clear need from a fairness standpoint to issue a penalty that affected the rest of the series (i.e. it wasn’t a transgression that cost the Dodgers and therefore fairly needed to be balanced out staight away).

The justified high-profile scrutiny and criticism, and proportionate punishment being issued in terms of length of suspension, also means that I don’t think it would be fair to say Gurriel was allowed to ‘get away with it’ by playing the rest of the World Series.

Penalties 2

The Astros’ closer Ken Giles and fellow reliever Joe Musgrove were the fall-guys in Game Four. Combined with watching the previously unbreakable Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen being jumped on in Game Two, it’s made me think of relief pitchers – especially in the high stakes of the play-offs – as being a lot like penalty-takers in football.

The expectation is that a good penalty-taker should score and they can do so even if they don’t strike the ball cleanly or it doesn’t go quite where they were placing it. You get no extra points for style; so long as it goes in you’ve done your job under pressure.

It’s the same with a top relief pitcher. They earn that rank and role by coming out on top time and again, so they are used to handling the pressure and you expect them to do it pretty much every time. They too can succeed even if they miss their spot. If the hitter swings and misses, or makes weak contact and makes an out, all’s well that ends well.

However, as with a penalty shoot-out, one team has to lose and that means someone has to come out on the wrong end of it. Regardless of how good the relief pitcher is and how well they cope with the pressure, the person they are facing in the batter’s box is an elite ballplayer (just getting to the Majors proves that) and are just as desperate to succeed.

As has been written many times before, if it could happen to the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera in 2001, it could happen to anyone. That’s no great immediate solace to the relief pitcher as they trudge off the field, but something for the rest of us to remember as we watch the drama unfold.

The Astros and Dodgers are two excellent teams with some outstanding players. One of them has to lose. The rest of us can just sit back, enjoy the contest and hope it goes the full seven games.

Kershaw wins Battle of the K’s in Game One

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Game One of the 2017 World Series turned into a Battle of the K’s, won by Clayton Kershaw, as the LA Dodgers earned a 3-1 victory.

Kershaw racked up 11K’s in seven innings against a Houston Astros team that led the Majors by hitting for power whilst rarely striking out. His opposing starting pitcher, Dallas Keuchel, pitched well but gave up two home runs that proved to be the difference.

They always say that you need to get to the best pitchers early and the only way Chris Taylor could have got to Keuchel earlier would have been by doing a hatchet job on him during his warm-up. One pitch, one home run made for the perfect start for LA.

The Astros’ lead-off hitter George Springer has made a specialty of homering his team into an early lead. His 0-4 performance, a 4 strike-out Golden Sombrero, summed up the difference between the two teams on the night.

Kershaw was masterful aside from a pitch to Alex Bregman in the fourth inning that the Astros’ third baseman hit into the seats to level the score at 1-1. It barely knocked Kershaw out of his stride though and Justin Turner’s 2-run home run in the sixth inning gave the Dodgers a lead that Kershaw, Brandon Morrow and Kenley Jansen were not going to give up.

The Astros will not be disheartened and, in theory, should have an advantage on the mound for Game Two as Justin Verlander attempts to continue his great post-season. Rich Hill will start for the Dodgers and he has the capacity to confuse even the best batters with his curveball, yet he hasn’t pitched as deeply into a game of late as he would like.

In recent times that hasn’t mattered much in the play-offs as managers have been quick to turn games over to their bullpen. The conventional role played by the two starting pitchers in Game One, alongside the unseasonably hot temperature and short game time (2hrs 30), was one of the things that made it unusual for recent play-off contests.

Unusual, but very entertaining. This Astros-Dodgers match-up has the potential to be a classic and Game One started things off perfectly. Let’s see what Game Two brings in the early hours of Thursday morning.

World Series 2017 Preview

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Every year we hope that the World Series will bring the baseball season to an exciting close.

After the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians served up a seven-game stunner one year ago, the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers will look to follow suit this time around and produce a classic contest that will live long in the memory.

The omens are good as, alongside the vanquished Cleveland, the two teams involved were the best in the Majors this season. That may sound like an obvious thing to say, but the short-format post-season can – and often does – throw up a surprise or two.

This time around we have two teams that put together incredible regular season campaigns. Only one can claim the ultimate prize at the end of the post-season though.

Both are due

It’s the first time that the Los Angeles Dodgers have made the World Series since 1988, whilst the Houston Astros were last there in 2005 but lost 4-0 to the Chicago White Sox in their only previous appearance in the Fall Classic.

The Dodgers have made lighter work of their play-off run so far, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-0 in the Division Series and taking down the reigning champs, the Chicago Cubs, 4-1 in the Championship Series.

That’s allowed them to have a few days off and to get ready for Game One whilst the Astros were fighting like mad to get past the New York Yankees. They saw a 2-0 series lead turn to a 3-2 deficit before winning the final two games at home to book their place in the Fall Classic. They did that after beating the Boston Red Sox 3-1 in the Division Series.

Position players

The Houston Astros went through a mini-crisis in their NLCS against the Yankees when their hitherto unstoppable batting lineup suddenly started to misfire. The Astros scored 9 runs combined during the first 5 games of the ALCS, but then came back to life with 13 in the final 2 games. Given the depth of talent they have, the Dodgers will know containing the Astros bats will be a huge task.

Whilst you can pick out most of the Astros’ regulars as deserving a mention, it’s hard to look past Jose Altuve. The MVP candidate is the heartbeat of the team. At just 5 feet 6 inches tall, Altuve demonstrates better than most that baseball is a game for everyone.

The Dodgers don’t lack for impact bats at the plate either. Whether it’s Justin Turner, the rookie Cody Bellinger or the ball of energy that is Yasiel Puig, they keep on coming at opposing pitchers and offer plenty of threats.

The big unknown is Corey Seager, arguably their best position player. He’s been declared fit to play after he was surprisingly omitted from the NLCS roster due to a back injury. Quite how close he is to 100% remains to be seen.

Pitchers

Whilst the Astro’s bats returned in Games 6 and 7 of their ALCS, they also limited the Yankees to a single run combined across the two games. Justin Verlander pitched seven score-less innings in the former and the duo of Charlie Morton (5 innings pitched) and Lance McCullers (4) shut out the Bronx Bombers in the decider.

They jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the ALCS in large part due to Dallas Keuchel and Verlander’s starting pitching efforts. They’ll look to the same two pitchers to do the same in the World Series, although this time needing to do it on the road rather than the home comforts of Minute Maid Park.

That could be significant for Keuchel in particular, as he has a notable split between his career performances at home (2.94 ERA) and elsewhere (4.43). In 2017 he had a 2.26 ERA at home compared with 3.53 on the road, so he’s not exactly struggling when he leaves Houston, but considering how dominating he has been at Minute Maid Park the Dodgers will be keen to exploit any slight chink in his armour.

As for chinks in armour, the Dodgers’ Game One starter Clayton Kershaw doesn’t have many in his but there is one big one that some like to focus on.

The Kershaw play-off story truly began in 2013 (looking past his 5 appearances split across 2008 and 2009 early in his career) when he was lit-up for seven runs by the St Louis Cardinals in Game 6 of the NLCS, having also taken a hard-luck loss in Game 2.  The fact that he was outstanding in his first play-off start that year against the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS (12K’s across 7 innings) was quickly forgotten. They say first impressions count, but in baseball it’s how things end that tend to define how the story is written.

The story got worse for Kershaw a year later when those same Cardinals torched him for 8 runs in Game 1 of the NLDS and then was handed another loss in Game 4 in a 3-2 defeat.  He had a mixed experience in 2015 and 2016 with ups and downs, yet once again it ended with a negative as the Cubs knocked him out after five innings in Game 6 of their NLCS.

In short, Kershaw has been handed a loss in the decisive NLCS Game 6 in 2013, the decisive NLDS Game 4 in 2014 and the decisive NLCS Game 6 in 2016.  The flip-side of this is that he was in the position to take those losses because he was the guy LA always wanted on the mound.  Regardless of the past, that’s no different this time around.

Pick a team

There are so many good things to find with these two teams, perhaps one way to make your choice as a neutral is trying to find a reason to hope one of them doesn’t win.

For the Dodgers, that argument comes from their sky-high payroll ($241m on Opening Day). For the fourth year in a row they have led the Majors in spending and, much like Manchester City in football, whilst you can appreciate the team they have put together, you can equally look at them and shrug your shoulders. Given how much money they spend, they should be winning a World Series or two.

It gives them a significant advantage over many other teams, from being able to re-sign their experienced players when they hit free agency rather than losing them to rivals (as they did with Justin Turner, Kenley Jansen and Rich Hill over the 2016/17 off-season), to being able to absorb deals that don’t work out. They’ve spent just over $47m this year on payroll commitments to players not on their roster (highlighted by the $22m owed to Carl Crawford) and the fact that three of their top four earners (Adrian Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir and Andre Ethier – combined pay of $55.5m) have missed significant playing time has barely troubled them.

They’ve got a smart Front Office and do lots of things right, but being able to shrug off a good $100m of dead money makes life much easier (the Oakland A’s, for example, had an Opening Day 25-man payroll of $82m).

As for the Astros, their rise came about through a ruthless, calculated plan that stripped the team (and payroll) of virtually all assets so that they could save money and gobble up high amateur draft picks that have enriched their team with the likes of Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman and Lance McCullers.  With no relegation threat to worry about, the rules make deliberately fielding a terrible team an eminently attractive approach to take. You might not blame the Astros for exploiting that as a result, but you equally might not like to see it rewarded so handsomely, especially after the Chicago Cubs won it all last year after taking a similar approach.

Series Schedule

Every year a few baseball romantics throw out the idea of a World Series game being played during the day-time, harking back to years ago when the ‘Boys of Summer’ would play the Fall Classic under sunny skies.  That would be great for us as it would mean a game or two taking place at a more convenient hour.

However TV rights deals and primetime viewing figures dictate that all of the games start at just gone 8.09 pm Eastern Time, making for early-hours starts for us in the UK. The first four games will begin at 1.09 am BST.  We move out of Summer Time this coming Sunday, one week before they do in the States, so Games 5 to 7 (if needed) will start an hour earlier for us, at nine minutes past midnight.

The schedule for the best-of-seven series is as follows, with each game actually starting on the following day (Game One is the early hours of Wednesday etc).

Tuesday 24th – Game One at Dodger Stadium

Wednesday 25th – Game Two at Dodger Stadium

Friday 27th – Game Three at Minute Maid Park (Houston)

Saturday 28th – Game Four at Minute Maid Park (Houston)

Sunday 29th – Game Five at Minute Maid Park (Houston)*

Tuesday 31st – Game Six at Dodger Stadium*

Wednesday 1st – Game Seven at Dodger Stadium*

* If necessary.

The games are being shown live on BT Sport1, with late-afternoon re-runs the following day on BT Sport/ESPN. Alternatively MLB.TV subscribers can watch the games live or on-demand online.

Giants take 3-0 World Series lead

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There is surely no stopping them now.

The San Francisco Giants are on the brink of another World Series title after winning Game Three 2-0 and opening up a 3-0 series lead over the Detroit Tigers.

We all know the facts: the only team to ever recover from such a deficit was the 2004 Boston Red Sox in their incredible ALCS victory over the New York Yankees.

It could happen again, but few would be prepared to put much money on it.

So while the Tigers lick their wounds and aim to salvage some pride by avoiding a sweep, the Giants can start thinking about another World Series win to go alongside their 2010 triumph.

The two Giants rosters are not exactly the same, but there are plenty of similarities between the two seasons.  Both times San Francisco entered the Fall Classic as underdogs. Even after they defeated the Texas Rangers 4-1 in 2010 they were still seen as the second-best team in the series by some, with the congratulations being accompanied by questions over whether their batting lineup was the worst ever to win the title.

The phrase ‘damning with faint praise’ comes to my mind.

After the Giants took a messy 2010 Game One 11-7 (the two teams combining for 6 errors), Matt Cain dominated the potent Rangers’ lineup in Game Two, twirling 7.2 brilliant scoreless innings. Texas made the series interesting with a 4-2 victory in Game Three but then Madison Bumgarner (8IP, 0R, 3H) and Tim Lincecum (8IP, 1ER, 3H, 10K) gave them no chance in the next two games and that was that.

The Giants’ exceptional pitching took them to the World Series title in 2010 and, after shutting out the Tigers in Games Two and Three, it’s looking like the story will repeat itself in 2012.

Baseball fans have debated for years, and likely always will, about the relative merits of a strong pitching staff against a strong batting lineup.

The old line of pitching being key in the postseason is a bit simplistic as good pitching is an important element in any situation and one thing is absolute: it doesn’t matter how brilliant your pitching is, if you don’t score you can’t win a game of baseball. What is true is that the better your pitching, the less times you are likely to have to score to beat your opponent.

Good pitching will not always win you a game, but more often than not it will keep you in it. Perhaps that is where playoff pitching gains more prominence, that it’s more important to stay within striking distance in the short-series postseason format where you are liable to come up against another very good team.

Or maybe it’s just the nature of this time of year and the different sense of perspective it lends. Lose three games consecutively in the regular season and the whys and wherefores aren’t analysed so deeply because you can make those games back up in your next series.

Lose the first three games in a World Series and it’s desperation time. All you can do is hope to win one game to stay alive for another day.

The Tigers have to believe that they can stage the ultimate comeback to give themselves any chance. Their Game Four starter Max Scherzer has pitched outstandingly well in recent weeks and you just know that Justin Verlander is desperate to atone for his Game One outing with a typically dominating display in Game Five. Avoid the sweep with Game Four, take the series back to San Francisco with Game Five and suddenly that one win the Giants need to secure the World Series title doesn’t seem quite the foregone conclusion that it does today.

The Giants’ answer to all of that is Matt Cain. We know he can be perfect on the mound and whilst he hasn’t been at his very best so far this postseason, there isn’t anyone they would rather have taking the ball in this situation.

Their pitching did the job in 2010 and it may well do it again two years on.

San Fran take Giant leap towards World Series glory

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Just a few days ago I was predicting that the Detroit Tigers would win the 2012 World Series in six games over the San Francisco Giants.

I was far from the only person tipping the Tigers either. The Old English D dominated the prediction table on ESPN.com, for example.

Detroit earned the tag of being favourites by sweeping the New York Yankees in the ALCS and they’ve got the talent to get back into the series despite trailing 0-2 thanks to the Giants’ 2-0 Game Two victory in the early hours of Friday morning.

However if they are going to live up to my ‘win in six’ prediction they’ll have to take the next four games and that’s going to be a big ask against a surging Giants team.

The lively home crowd at AT&T Park filed away from the stadium knowing that while there’s still plenty of work to do, their team has put themselves in a great position to capture a second World Series in three years.

They have benefitted from some good breaks in winning the first two games of the series – the fortunate bounce off the third-base bag in Game One and Gregor Blanco’s bunt that stayed fair in Game Two, in particular – but the old saying that you make your own luck comes to mind.

Pablo Sandoval wasted little time banishing his personal disappointments of the 2010 World Series with his three homer onslaught in Game One. It didn’t matter where the pitch was, the Kung Fu Panda was more than happy to stick the ball over the fence.

Then in Game Two Madison Bumgarner rebounded from his disappointing recent form by making some adjustments to his pitching mechanics with pitching coach Dave Righetti. The hard work paid off in spectacular style as the Giants’ starter reeled off seven scoreless innings, limiting the Tigers to just two hits and two walks whilst striking out eight.

Bumgarner’s sole mistake came at the start of the second inning when a pitch got away from him and hit Prince Fielder.  It looked like it would prove costly when the next batter Delmon Young stroked a double down the left-field line; however the Tigers’ third-base coach Gene Lamont decided to be aggressive and waved Fielder around third, only for the hefty slugger to be thrown out at home plate.

In fairness to Lamont, Fielder was only just out thanks to some excellent defensive work by Marco Scutaro – acting as the emergency cut-off man when the ball sailed over shortstop Brandon Crawford – and catcher Buster Posey. The gamble nearly paid off, but there’s no doubt that it was a major gamble considering Fielder’s lack of speed and the fact that the Tigers would have still been set for a good inning with runners on second and third and no outs recorded.

Baseball Prospectus’ Run Expectancy matrix shows that in 2012 teams scored 1.9 runs (let’s call it 2 for the sake of practicality) from that position compared to 0.65 with one out and a runner on second.  Jhonny Peralta and Avisail Garcia were retired in order by Bumgarner to end the inning with no damage done and he may have escaped even if Fielder hadn’t been waved around third, but the Tigers definitely made things harder for themselves in that spot.

It could be, and indeed has been, argued that Jim Leyland also made things harder in the seventh inning when he decided not to bring the infield in and effectively conceded a run on a groundball to turn a double play.

Josh Chetwynd on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra’s commentary expressed his reservations about the strategic move and – rightfully, as it turned out – the dangers of conceding a run late on in a tight game. In the context of the game, on balance I would have to agree with Josh rather than Jim because the potential impact of allowing that run was very significant.

However, it could have gone wrong either way Leyland had played it, as bringing the infield in increases the odds of a groundball getting through to the outfield and potentially leading to a big inning. It was a ‘Second Guess City’ situation; whichever way you play it as the manager you’ll be second guessed if the result doesn’t go your way.

My thought at the time was that Leyland was concerned with the way his offence was misfiring on the night and that giving up more than one run would be fatal.  That was confirmed by the Tigers’ manager after the game when he stated, “we felt like we played double-play depth because we felt like we couldn’t give them two runs … to be honest with you, we were absolutely thrilled to come out of that inning with one run”.

The logic behind the call is easily understandable. Perhaps the question then is whether that logic showed Leyland being pragmatic (we’re not swinging the bats well and this will at least give us another chance) or negative (if I bring the infield in we might not get the out and then we’ll be in real trouble etc).

However you want to view it, the moment is gone now and the Tigers head back to Detroit hoping that the Comerica Field crowd can inspire a comeback from their 0-2 series hole.

As a neutral I’m hoping that the Tigers can make a series of it. Meanwhile, Giants fans will be more than happy if the season only has two more games to run.

World Series 2012 preview

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The Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants will play Game One of the 108th MLB World Series in the early hours of Thursday morning, U.K. time.

The two teams have made the World Series 30 times combined, emerging victorious on 10 occasions (6 times for the Giants – 5 of which from their period as the New York Giants – and 4 for the Tigers).

However, this will be the first time they have faced each other in the Fall Classic.

The schedule

All of the games in the best-of-seven series are scheduled to begin at just gone eight in the evening Eastern Time. While we in Britain move out of British Summer Time this coming Sunday, Daylight Time in the States continues for one extra week. That means the first three games of the series will begin at just gone 1 a.m. U.K. time, with the remaining games starting one hour earlier.

Game One – 24th Oct. (1 a.m. on Thursday 25th U.K. time)
Game Two – 25th Oct. (1 a.m. on Friday 26th)

Game Three – 27th Oct. (1 a.m. on Sunday 28th)
Game Four – 28th Oct. (00.05 on Monday 29th)
Game Five – 29th Oct. (00.05. on Tuesday 30th)*

Game Six – 31st Oct. (00.05 on Thursday 1st)*
Game Seven – 1st Oct. (00.05 on Friday 2nd)*

* if necessary.

The coverage

BBC Radio will once again be providing their own dedicated commentary for the World Series on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra, available on DAB Radio, Digital TV and online (for U.K. residents). Simon Brotherton and Josh Chetwynd will be in the booth at AT&T Park and Comerica Field.

TV coverage is provided by ESPN America, most likely showing the MLB International feed with Gary Thorne and Rick Sutcliffe on commentary duties. MLB.TV subscribers will be able to watch or listen to the games live and on-demand online, with the TV feed being FOX’s U.S. National TV coverage presented by Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

The series match-up

The San Francisco Giants are returning to the World Series two years after winning the championship for the first time since crossing coasts and moving to the Bay Area in 1958.

They have been the comeback kings of the 2012 playoffs, recovering from an 0-2 deficit against the Cincinnati Reds to win the best-of-five series 3-2 and then fighting back from a 1-3 deficit in the Championship Series to win their best-of-seven match-up with the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3.

In fact, the Giants’ resiliency has been a feature of their season. They lost star closer Brian Wilson to season-ending elbow surgery early on and then suffered the indignity of seeing their run-scoring catalyst Melky Cabrera’s season – and reputation – go up in smoke following a failed drugs test in mid-August.

However, Cabrera did provide his teammates with a parting gift. His MVP-winning performance in the All-Star Game helped the National League to an 8-0 victory and home-field advantage in the World Series. Games One and Two, as well as Six and Seven if required, will take place in San Francisco as a result.

The Giants’ opponents have also had to battle against some bad luck on their way to the Fall Classic. Detroit’s World Series hopes appeared to have taken a significant blow during the offseason when Victor Martinez suffered a season-ending knee injury and created a sizeable hole in their batting lineup.

The Tigers’ 83 year old owner, Mike Illitch, responded by getting his cheque book out and spending $214m on a nine-year contract for free agent first baseman Prince Fielder. The signing of Fielder alongside the presence of established stars Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander made the Tigers overwhelming favourites to win the AL Central division and whilst the Chicago White Sox nearly scuppered their plan, Detroit proved too strong in the end and made their way into the postseason. A hard-fought 3-2 series win over a spirited Oakland A’s team was followed by a 4-0 thumping of the New York Yankees to book a place in the World Series early, leaving the team kicking their heels while the National League series continued.

The layoff has raised some concerns that the Tigers might come into the World Series slightly off the boil. Such fears are understandable considering what happened in 2006, the last time Detroit made it to the Fall Classic. As has occurred in 2012, the Tigers quickly swept their way through the Championship Series (against the A’s) that year whilst the National League Championship Series went the full seven games. The Cardinals ultimately got the better of the New York Mets 4-3 in that series and went on to beat the Tigers in five games.

Could history repeat itself with the battle-hardened Giants jumping on the too-well-rested Tigers this time around?

It could – there’s no doubt about that – but putting too much store in the Tigers being undercooked would be a mistake. Detroit are a well-run club and have played several practice games to keep their players ticking over. More importantly, they earned the ability due to the rest period to align their starting rotation exactly as they wanted and that should more than counter any possible rustiness.

Justin Verlander, the ace of aces, will be Detroit’s starting pitcher in Game One, with Barry Zito likely to take the ball for the Giants. That’s a notable pitching match-up advantage for the Tigers and, upon consideration of the two rosters, on paper it seems fair to peg them as favourites to win an entertaining series in six games.

But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the 2012 postseason so far it’s that trying to predict how things will turn out is liable to leave you looking foolish.

It’s best instead simply to sit back and enjoy watching or listening to the drama unfold.

An inspiring World Series

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A day or so removed from the final out, the excitement generated by this year’s World Series is still fully evident among baseball fans.

What more could you ask for from a Fall Classic than a seven-game series packed full of drama and containing one game – Game Six – that will go down as one of the all-time greats. 

The St. Louis Cardinals were crowned as champions, but we were all winners really, even if it won’t feel like that for anyone connected to the Texas Rangers.

It must be devastating for the Rangers to lose a second straight World Series, especially as they were so close to winning Game Six and completing their journey the way they had imagined all season long.

Their defeat made me think of the Cincinnati Reds team of the early 1970s, so brilliantly depicted in Joe Posnanski’s book The Machine.  The Reds didn’t lose back-to-back World Series, but they did fall short in the Fall Classic twice in three years (1970 and 1972) and when they got back there in 1975 their mindset was that they simply had to win.

The Texas Rangers will go into 2012 with that same mindset, whilst acknowledging how difficult it will be even to get back to the World Series.  They had a very strong team in 2011 and, subject to any major injuries, will have so again next season.  The trouble is, even the best planning can come undone.   Continue reading →

They think it’s all over… it is now!

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Cards win! Cards win! NL wins again!

Wow! What a game! What a World Series! What a season!

Our beloved sport has come to the end of its long, long run for another year. It’s time to swap out rally caps for santa hats, wooden bats for Christmas trees, and catcher’s mitts for woolly mittens. Continue reading →

World Series 2011: On to Game Seven

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Game Seven of the 2011 World Series will get underway at 1.05 a.m. on Saturday.

At several times during Game Six, it seemed very unlikely that we would have one more game to look forward to in the 2011 season.

However, the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals turned a very good series into a great one with an absolute classic of a game that will go down as one of the greatest in World Series history.

The Cardinals’ incredible victory tied the series at 3-3 to set up a single game decider.

ESPN America and BBC 5 Live Sports Extra will be providing live coverage in the UK. The one-day postponement of Game Six has meant that we can follow the action early on Saturday rather than Friday, which was the original scheduled date for Game Seven.

It almost seems pointless to try to explain Game Six because any writer would struggle to do it justice. The Cardinals twice were a strike away from losing, only to come back and win. On the other side, the Rangers twice were one strike away from winning their first ever World Series, only to see their dreams put on hold. Add on a host of errors and a walk-off home run and you couldn’t have asked for a more dramatic game.

Looking back over the highlights, the one thing that stands out to me is the moment you see Nelson Cruz start to go back on the fly ball in the ninth inning. Despite knowing the outcome, my reaction is still to think that he will make the catch and complete the Rangers’ victory. It wasn’t an easy play – and I suspect no play could really be called easy in that spot – but it was one Cruz would often make. That might just come back to haunt Texas.

The extreme contrast of emotions coming out of yesterday, coupled with Game Seven being played in St. Louis, would appear to give the Cardinals all the momentum. However, this series has showed that momentum doesn’t always have much of an effect, and perhaps doesn’t always exist in the first place.

The Rangers’ victory in Game Two seemed to hand the momentum their way, coming from behind in the ninth inning to level the series before the teams headed to Arlington for the next three games. Instead, the Cardinals came out and absolutely hammered the Rangers in Game Three. That would seem to have swung the momentum back to the Cardinals, but then the Rangers came back to win the next two games.

So there’s really no way to predict what impact Game Six will have on Game Seven. All I can safely predict is that it will be another great game and whichever team comes out on top, they will have done so by beating a formidable opponent.

World Series 2011 Game Five: Rangers are one win away from glory

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The Texas Rangers stand one win away from capturing the 2011 World Series.

Their 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game Five gives them a 3-2 series advantage as the Fall Classic takes a day off before resuming in St. Louis in the early hours of Thursday UK time.

Game Five marked the final contest at Rangers Ballpark in 2011, but it felt as if the game was being played in Bizarro Land rather than Arlington.

It was a confounding blend of incidents and strange tactical decisions, enough to leave anyone with their head spinning.  The effect was probably even more pronounced from this side of the pond. 

Watching the game in the early hours after limited sleep from the previous two nights made me question whether I could trust my eyes or if I had dozed off and started dreaming. The bemused comments on Twitter at the time were enough to make me realise that it was all really happening.

The most bizarre moment had to be Cardinals reliever Lance Lynn’s contribution with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning.  Manager Tony La Russa called him into the game, ordered him to intentionally walk Ian Kinsler and then called for Jason Motte to relieve Lynn. 

La Russa is well-known for mixing and matching his relievers, bringing pitchers into the game for quite specific roles. I could imagine the British press re-using their nickname for ex-Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri and referring to him as ‘Tony the Tinkerman’, if they were the least bit interested in covering baseball.  La Russa will use a LOOGY from time to time – a lefty one out guy – which is quite a specialized role, but using a pitcher simply to issue an intentional walk is taking the approach to the extreme.

It turns out that his use of the bullpen in Game Five was hampered by miscommunication between himself – or pitching coach Dave Duncan – and the bullpen which meant that Jason Motte wasn’t ready to pitch when La Russa wanted to turn to him.  So he wasn’t intentionally creating a new pitching role, which is a shame in some ways as I had come up with a name for it (IBBM – pronounced ibbum – for intentional base on balls man).  Continue reading →