Friday, October 28, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Frozen In The Cold October Night
 |
| Freese, the St. Louis native did his best to force a Game 7 Friday night. |
After dropping a routine popup that allowed Josh Hamilton to reach to start the fifth inning and eventually score on a Michael Young double, the St. Louis native was determined to redeem himself and continue his remarkable postseason. With the Texas Rangers holding a two-run lead, threes outs away from capturing their first World Series title in franchise and their All-Star closer headed to the mound, Tony La Russa's club had their backs up against the wall like they have all season long.
With two on and two out, Freese walked to the plate against Neftali Feliz, someone he'd yet to face in his career. Feliz quickly got ahead 1-2, but on a 98 mph fastball, Freese launched a drive over right fielder Nelson Cruz's head for a game-tying two-run triple. Yaider Molina lined out to the right, sending Game 6 into extra innings.
No closer in history, not even the great Mariano Rivera, had converted their first eight save opportunities in the postseason, that's exactly what Feliz was trying to accomplish in Game 6. Instead St. Louis handed him the first blown save of brief postseason career.
But Texas would pick up their closer in the 10th. After a one-out single by Elvis Andrus, Hamilton followed with his first home run in the postseason and first since Sept. 23. The reigning American League Most Valuable Player had gone his last 65 postseason at-bats without a home run, but it couldn't have come at a better time, giving his team their fifth different lead of the night, 9-7.
Faced with their second two-run deficit in as many innings, the Redbirds would have to rally yet again to keep their Cinderella season alive.
Rangers skipper Ron Washington elected not to have Feliz return for his second inning of work after only 22 pitches, but instead send 18-year veteran Darren Oliver, who recorded his first World Series win in Game 5, to the mound to close out the biggest game of his career, something he has only done six times in his entire career.
After back-to-back singles, a sacrifice bunt and a RBI groundout, Washington called on right-hander Scott Feldman to get the games final out. The former 17-game winner intentionally walked Albert Pujols with the potential tying run at second base, setting the stage for the native Texan, Lance Berkman.
Down to their final strike again, Berkman lofted a single to shallow center field, bringing home John Jay for the game-tying run.
Berkman, who signed a one-year $8 million deal in the offseason, was rewarded with a one-year extension earlier this season after a fantastic 2011 season that saw him hit .301 with 31 home runs and 94 RBIs. That has carried into the postseason, especially in the Fall Classic, where he is batting .435 and an on-base percentage of .519.
 |
| Berkman watches his game-tying singel in the 10th inning of Game 6. |
After a scoreless top of the 11th by veteran Jake Westbrook, who was added to the World Series roster after being left off the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers, Freese took center stage.
Freese hammered his fifth home run of postseason and first of the Fall Classic to dead center field for a game-winning walk-off blast, reminding Cardinals fans of another Game 6 walk-off home run, Jim Edmonds in the 2004 NLCS, but this time in the World Series.
For Freese it was a moment frozen in time and one that will forever live in postseason lore.
The 28-year-old third baseman, who quit baseball after his senior season of high school, joins Bill Mazeroski (1966), Carlton Fisk (1975), Kirby Puckett (1991) and most recently Joe Carter (1993) as the only other player to hit a World Series walk-off home run in games six or seven.
Like just Fisk and Puckett did for their respective team, Freese is the third player in World Series history to accomplish that feat when his team was trailing 3-2 in the series.
Not to mention his 19 postseason RBIs are a new franchise record and becoming the first player in postseason history to tie the game in the ninth and have the game-winning RBI in extra innings.
With so many twists and turns, peaks and valleys, St. Louis is also the first team in World Series history to score in the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th inning of a game, doing so while making numerous mistakes on the defensive side. The Cardinals committed 3 errors in Game 6, the most since 1943.
As the Rangers, they have yet to lose back-to-back games in this postseason and haven't lost consecutive games in over two months, Aug. 23.
Cruz added his eighth home run of the postseason, tying a postseason record for the most in a single postseason. It has been magical back-to-back postseason runs for Texas, but history is not on their side. The Rangers have never played in a Game 7 of the World Series in franchise history, while the Cardinals will be playing in their eleventh and their first since 1987. St. Louis has won 7 of those 10 Game 7s.
It's the first Game 7 in the World Series since 2002 and the last eight home teams have won those games. Also, teams that hold a 3-2 series advantage and go on to lose Game 6 have lost 8 of the 9 Game 7s. The 1997 Florida Marlins are the one exception.
History aside, two teams that traveled far different ways to get here, what sports fans dream of, the two greatest words in sports, Game Seven. So as Fox broadcaster Joe Buck paid homage to his late Hall of Fame father, Jack Buck, "We'll see you tomorrow night."
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Lack Of Pitching
 |
| Lackey's often expression of frustration on the mound sometimes were thought to have shown up his teammates. |
Newly appointed general manager Ben Cherington broke the news in his promotion press conference just hours after his predecessor Theo Epstein was formally introduced as the new president of baseball operations of the Chicago Cubs.
Lackey is coming off the worse season of 10-year career, where he was 12-12 and posted a career-worst 6.41 ERA in 160 innings. He led the majors in earned runs surrendered with 114 and hit batsman, 19.
In his first two years in Boston, Lackey's record is barely above .500 at 26-23 and has a 5.26 in his 61 starts. Prior to the 2010 season, the Texan signed a similar five-year $82.5 contract that New York gave A.J. Burnett just an offseason before.
Next season will be the third year of that contract and with this recent news, it has been three years of disappointment.
Lackey is the third pitcher in the Red Sox organization to undergo reconstructive elbow surgery, joining Japanese import Daisuke Matsuzaka and left-hander Rich Hill to suffer the same fate. Fortunately for Cherington and the Red Sox, Matsuzaka, who will be in the final year of his current contract, should be pitching for the club midseason.
In the team's historic September collapse, where Boston went 7-20 in the season's final month to miss the postseason for the second straight, Lackey, along with fellow teammates Jon Lester and Josh Beckett, was accused of drinking beer and eating fried chicken in the clubhouse on days they were not pitching.
And when he was on the mound he didn't provide much help either. In his five September starts, opponents hit .353 against Lackey, going 0-2 and 9.13 ERA.
There had been speculation the San Diego Padres would be interested in acquiring the 33-year-old right-hander from Boston this offseason, but this injury has quieted any talk of that now. San Diego and Boston have a well working relationship thanks in large part to their now former GM Jed Hoyer.
Hoyer had been the assistant GM to Epstein in Boston until he took the GM job with the Padres in October of 2009. He will now join Epstein in Chicago as the GM of the Cubs.
A move back to the West Coast would have ensured Lackey a reunion with his former pitching coach in Anaheim, Bud Black. Those were the best years of Lackey's career, including winning Game 7 of the 2002 World Series as a rookie, winning a career-high 19 games in 2007 and leading the American League in ERA at 3.01 that same season.
The Red Sox are in the midst of some major personnel changes with the change at GM and the uncertainty who their next manager will be after Terry Francona decided it was time for a new voice at the helm after the season, but that won't stop owner John Henry and CEO Larry Lucchino from putting a contender on the field for the Fenway Faithful in 2012.
With their lack of pitching, Boston will be in the market for starting pitching this offseason with the availability of left-hander C.J. Wilson and possible open bidding for another Japanese import phenom, 25-year-old Yu Darvish.
As for Lackey, it has been a long two years for the 6-foot-6 righty in Beantown and it will be an even longer road back to a big league mound and his once All-Star form.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Double-Dipping
 |
| Napoli, much like his teammate Nelson Cruz did in the ALCS, is carrying the Texas offense. |
In a 2-2 game with the St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols at the plate and Alan Craig running at first, Texas reliever Alexi Ogando sailed a 0-1 fastball into Napoli's glove. The former Angels backstop promptly threw a dart down to second to nab the would-be base stealer for the second out of the inning.
Then in the ninth with the potential tying run at the plate in the person of Pujols, manager Tony La Russa sent Craig on the 3-2 count with nobody out only to have Pujols strike out and Napoli nail Craig for the second time in three innings for a strike-'em-out-throw-'em out double play.
Sandwiched in between Napoli's two magnificent defensive throws came his third extra-base hit of the Fall Classic.
With the bases loaded in the eight inning. Napoli drove in the eventual game-winning runs with a two-run double into the right-center field gap and showing his range of emotions when reaching second base like he has all postseason long.
The six-foot catcher is batting .308 in his first five World Series games with 2 home runs and 9 RBIs. Compare that to the 10 RBIs the rest of the Texas squad has combined for during that time. What makes his nine runs batted in even more impressive is, Napoli has yet to record a multi-hit game in those five games, but he has walked three times.
In the 1997 postseason, Cleveland Indians backstop Sandy Alomar Jr. drove in 17 runs en route to their Game 7 World Series loss to the Florida Marlins, setting the single postseason record for a catcher, Napoli has driven in 12 thus far.
Once considered a defensive liability and traded twice in a five-day span, Napoli turned into the best hitter in baseball since this year's All-Star break, batting .378 since Independence Day and becoming a postseason hero this October.
On the mound, it was a battle of aces and a rematch of Game 1. Both C.J. Wilson and Chris Carpenter were brilliant, but reach receiving a no decision.
While Wilson has yet to record a win in this year's postseason, 18-year veteran Darren Oliver recorded his first career World Series win.
As for Wilson, he allowed only one earned run in this 5 and 1/3 innings of work, the fewest since his first postseason start in 2010 against the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS. Although, Wilson was another Texas player to draw comparisons to a member of the '97 Indians team. The left-handed matched Jaret Wright's record for the most walks in a single postseason with 19 and both coming in five starts.
Wilson handed out five of nine walks the Cardinals received in Game 5, but only saw two of those cross the plate.
 |
| La Russa, right, struggled to get his bullpen through the eighth inning Monday. |
41 for the 61 teams that have held a 3-2 series lead go on to win the series. However, this will be the fifth time the Cardinals have faced this deficit in the World Series and the four previous times they have comeback to win games six and seven to win the series.
The Redbirds call on left-hander Jaime Garica in Game 6 to fin off elimination as he will be opposed by Colby Lewis, who is 4-1 in his seven career postseason starts with a 2.22.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)