As if losing an hour tonight wasn’t enough, we also lose baseball for 4 months. Feel free to join Rogers Hornsby and me in staring out the window waiting for spring.
But first there’s a game 7 to enjoy and it’s been a heck of a World Series no matter for whom you are rooting or who you hoped would be here playing. Fitting that it comes down to a game 7 for all the marbles, which fans of both teams have lost along the way.
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Many questionable decisions last night by players and managers got us here:
– Did you really want to issue an intentional walk in the 3rd inning for the privilege of facing Will Smith, followed by Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts, with multiple runners on base? The IBB has become fashionable, even with the bases empty, to great hitters overlooking the reality that every single hitter gets out most of the time and it’s generally a poor strategy to “put more guys on base”.
The IBB has its place when used sparingly. This one backfired big time and serves as a reminder of how often they are abused, not used.
– Did you really want Andres Gimenez, a glove first SS batting .130 in the World Series, to get two crucial at bats in the late innings? He went left on left against Justin Wrobleski in the 7th with a runner in scoring position, then battled Tyler Glasnow in the 9th with the tying runs in scoring position with one out.
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To his credit, Gimenez had two creditable plate appearances, grinding out an 8 pitch at bat against the LHP before striking out and serving a pitch the other way in a bid for a single. But he is hardly the guy you want up with the game on the line when you’re trailing.
– Ernie Clement, absolutely swing at the first pitch (as you love to do) if you get a hanging slider or a fastball out over the outer part of the plate. But with runners at 2B and 3B and 0 outs trailing by 2 runs, don’t go hacking a pitch that’s running in off the plate that you can only hope to pop up. That was an unfortunate time for Clement to have arguably his worst at bat of the post-season.
– Addison Barger, talk about “caught in no man’s land”. It’s bad enough that he thought a fly ball was going to drop when Kike Hernandez caught it cap high. Worse is that Barger didn’t even commit to “going for it” by sprinting towards 3B where he would have scored had it dropped.
Instead, Barger just drifted too far to get back but not far enough to actually score if it dropped, the ultimate lose-lose. The BLAN of all TOOTs.
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Here’s one player decision that paid off in spades. Apparently, the scouting report that Kike Hernandez had said he should position himself 20 feet deeper than he was for Gimenez. I have long argued that corner outfielders should play much shallower to the off field for hitters with little power.
Think about it: what were the odds Gimenez was going to drive the ball to the warning track in LF? In contrast, especially in a spot where a single can tie the game you should be in a “no singles” alignment, which means cutting off balls that could drop in front of you.
Kike took it upon himself to ignore the scouting card and move up 20 feet and it might have been the difference between a tie game and game won. Well played, Keekster.
Tonight’s match up will be intriguing from a pitching standpoint with “all hands on deck”. Other than Kevin Gausman and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (and would ever count Yamamoto out?), every pitcher on both teams is potentially available.
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Might we see something like this for Toronto?
Scherzer – 2
Bieber – 2
Yesavage – 1
Bassitt – 2
Hoffman – 2
I tend to think that they’re not going to want Scherzer to face Ohtani and the rest of the top of the order twice, though if he looks terrific it’s also not inconceivable that Scherzer could go the first 5.
Meanwhile, Ohtani will be starting on 3 days rest and that’s always a question mark for pitchers accustomed to longer rest. He has to start, instead of relieve, in order to be able to remain in as the DH so it’s possible he’s also going short and just the starter but not the ‘bulk guy’.
Perhaps Ohtani throws a couple innings and then Glasnow pitches the next 5. Or maybe because he’s a mutant alien wunderstar Ohtani throws a complete game shutout.
Tune in to baseball one last time this evening! And then set your clock an hour back even though you want to set it 4 months ahead.