6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Game 1: Red Sox 11, Cardinals 9

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Sunday, October 24, 2004

Game 1: Red Sox 11, Cardinals 9

The idiocy has started in the Boston sporting press. Or, maybe it's never stopped; the Red Sox have always been a target to savage, and that's been true at least since the days of the Splendid Splinter. Deprived of their local whipping boy -- really, now, how can you complain when the Sox get to the World Series and hand the Yanks arguably the worst postseason defeat in baseball history? -- the Boston press turns its attention to nyaah-nyaahing at the 28 other teams not playing, to junk like this, declaiming Anaheim and Miami as lousy baseball towns. It's a claim that conveniently forgets Southern California has supported two franchises over forty years, where Boston hasn't had two teams since 1952. Complaining about the 1997 Marlins' "fans [who] didn't know when to cheer or when to boo", it also forgets the classy behavior Fish fans exhibited when the Rocket left the hill for the "last" time.

Well -- let the chattering classes have their column space. When a bitter fellow like T.J. Simers can get paid for his spleen stylings, surely some of the other towns across America have their albatrosses in print. All this is to forget the main event, the Show's big October show.

By the time they showed the flag over the stands fluttering directly from centerfield to home plate, you knew Tim Wakefield would have trouble getting his knuckleball past the Cardinals. Knuckleballs work best against the wind, and worst with the wind, as last night, and sure enough, he got chased early, leaving the game after only 3.2 innings. The Sox' middle relief didn't fare much better, with Arroyo, Timlin, and Embree getting tagged for a collective four runs, Embree's unearned on a long, ugly chain of fielding errors (a staggering four in all) that gave the night's proceedings the feel of a Keystone Kops movie. Manny Ramirez, in that case, flubbed a routine flyball snag when his cleats stuck on the muddy turf in the outfield, causing the ball to bounce off his glove and drop well behind him.

From the other side of the mound, it was apparent from the start that the Cardinals' Woody Williams had very little to give. He had a ruddy complexion, the 49-degree weather taking an obvious toll on him as he labored on the mound. The Sox exploded for seven runs against him, and he only lasted 2.1 innings before Larussa pulled him in favor of Danny Haren. Haren escaped rough treatment at the hands of the Sox, but the same wouldn't be true for Kiko Calero and eventual loser Julian Tavarez, both giving up a pair of runs. Tavarez would surrender the game winner to Mark Bellhorn, a home run off the Pesky Pole in right. In all, a fine contest and the kind of game I think will define this series: a lot of power and scoring, with the Cards at an obvious disadvantage in the AL games because of a lack of a decent-hitting reserve to play DH.

Recap

// posted by Rob @ 6:25 AM link // 0 comments