Postseason Pieces: Day 1
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As posted on: http://mos-baseball.blogspot.com
Finally, the time has come - the MLB playoffs are under way. A highlight for the entire United States (except for the people in Queens maybe), the postseason started with a great day of baseball, numerous impressive performances and also not so impressive performances. From now on I will take a closer look at the action from the postseason 2007, here on mos-blogspot you will read about the winners, the losers and all the other important stuff from the diamonds that form heroes...
Let's start with day one which saw the Rockies upset the Phillies at home 4-2, the Red Sox beat the Angels 4-0 at Fenway and last but not least the Cubs lose their opener at Arizona with 1-3.
The Good
Josh Beckett: The unquestioned ace of the Red Sox staff and the frontrunner in this year's AL Cy Young Award race delivered a performance which can only be described with one word: Dominating! He baffled the Angels for his third career complete game postseason shutout and only allowed 4 hits while striking out 8 in front of a fanatic Fenway crowd. Consistently living in the mid to high 90s with movement, Beckett didn't even have to rely much on his improved changeup to secure the win for the Sox. Of course it helped that the Angels beside Vladimir Guerrero looked like a Little League team with less power but Beckett had something to do with that too.
The Fans: As much as the TBS broadcast crews tried to send everyone to sleep, the atmospheres at the parks were nothing short of spectacular. Starting with a frenetic crowd in Philadelphia led by the always funny and active "Phanatic", carrying on with the legendary stands at Fenway Park to the crazy and roaring crowd in Arizona - the fans get a clear cut A in my book for the first day of the postseason!
Steven Drew: This little kid had a great first postseason game. The 24 year old opened up the scoring with a towering homerun against Carlos Zambrano and he also had another hit in the game. What stood out even more was his outstanding defense at short. His two strikeouts really can't overshadow his terrific showing. Take a look, J.D., you can play a little better even if your name is Drew!
The Bad:
Alfonso Soriano & the Cubs offense: Sure, Brandon Webb brought his game with the well known movement on his pitches and all. But the Cubs more than once had him on the ropes and in tough situations. But the inability of moving runners over, making productive outs (for example after a leadoff double by your pitcher) and the lack of discipline at the plate prevented the Cubs from giving their ace Carlos Zambrano (who pitched even better than Webb) a lead. And it all started with Soriano who couldn't deliver any big hits despite having opportunities with men in scoring position. Come on, Fonzi, step it up, I just bought a Cubs jersey of yours and I don't want to see the Cubbie fans chase you outta town after a horrible postseason.
The umps: Well, you shouldn't complain about these guys but they missed quite a few calls yesterday, especially in the Angels/Red Sox game. Thanks to Josh Beckett, it didn't matter in the end but one call really upset me. When Julio Lugo tried to steal second base and actually was successful, he was called out by second base umpire Brian Runge. Orlando Cabrera's non existant tag clearly missed Lugo and was not even close to being in time. Runge was standing just where he couldn't even see anything yet he still made the wrong call, acting as if he was completely sure. A ref should always get in position to make a call and if he doesn't he just did a bad job. Plain and simple. Such calls can decide seasons.
John Lackey: The ace of the Angels couldn't get the job done as he ran into the buzzsaw called Boston Red Sox and Josh Beckett. Lackey didn't pitch horrible (4 ER in 6.0 IP) and battled the entire night but as fate wants it for him, the two guys he absolutely can't get out wear Red Sox uniforms, come from the Dominican Republic and can hit a baseball pretty far away. Entering last night's game, Boston's one two punch David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez hit a combined 20 for 49 with 6 homers in their careers against the big right hander for an average of .408. Lackey's nightmare with these two continued yesterday: He never retired Ortiz, who also hit the deciding two run jack in the third, and Manny scored the 4th Boston run shortly after. I would say Lackey might have preferred the Yankees in this one.
The Ugly:
Lou Piniella: Piniella's great plan of resting and saving his ace Carlos Zambrano for the 4th game of the NLDS with the Diamondbacks clearly backfired on him. Dumb, dumber... Lou! You are in a dogfight in Game one of the NLDS and have a chance to steal homefield advantage yet you take your ace out after only 85 pitches!?? Zambrano was dealing and pitched as good as I've seen him all year. Piniella better hope that there is a Game 4 after losing last night's contest. Now he has to take his chances with Ted Lilly and Rich Hill and he has to live with the possibility of being the scapegoat for a potential series loss. With that said: GO CUBBIES!!! (You just have to like them)
Ryan Howard & Chase Utley: The No. 3 and 4 hitters of the Phillies went a combined 0 for 8 with 7 strikeouts... yes, read it again and it truly was as pathetic as the line looks.
The TBS broadcast: When I'm watching postseason baseball I want emotion, I want to feel a certain atmosphere and I also want to see the best people do the games. Don Orsillo and Joe Simpson were ok... okay! But even these two struggled to really deliver this certain postseason feeling, this intensity and all that flair. What followed was just a horrible performance by the combos Ted Robinson(who?!)/Steve Stone and Dick Stockton/Ron Darling. I nearly lost it when Robinson who doesn't know crap about anything was talking about how the helmets should be cleaned before the postseason. Give me a break, just shut the hell up! We want to hear some insight, we don't need anyone to tell us that the game is called baseball. Stockton nearly missed both D'backs homers as he was in his own world (just like the TBS crew as they missed an out in the Red Sox game). Just pathetic! I actually feel for Jose Mota, a guy who can't even speak great english yet has to deal with the two booths bums and try to say something smart. Atleast, the studio crew with Frank Thomas, Cal Ripken and Ernie Johnson was funny and entertaining. Thanks for that and hopefully on to better days...
