6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: The Ballad Of Kenny "Controlled Substance" Rogers: Tigers 3, Cardinals 1

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Sunday, October 22, 2006

The Ballad Of Kenny "Controlled Substance" Rogers: Tigers 3, Cardinals 1

Bad Boy Kenny Rogers just can't keep his name out of the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, it seems; he came into the game with something on the ball of his thumb, which he promptly washed off after the Fox cameras made it evident. Tony LaRussa refused to comment about the episode during the game, but Rogers himself said it was "a big clump of dirt". Well, whatever, not that it helped the Cardinals hit any of the stuff he was throwing. Lasting eight innings and giving up exactly zero runs, it was exactly the kind of performance the Tigers needed after yesterday's scattershot game by Justin Verlander. In fact, Rogers extended his postseason scoreless innings streak to 23, the longest such since Curt Schilling's 25 in 1999 and 2001.

Jeff Weaver wasn't awful, but he did get the letter "L" hung around his neck, mainly because his offense didn't provide against Tigers pitching. He only showed his typical frustration — yelling into his glove — once, after Sean Casey singled in the third run of the game. Weaver was also involved in Yadier Molina getting nailed in the family jewels with the same pitch that hit Sean Casey. That's gotta be a record for self-destructive activity. Nonetheless, Weaver's going to get somebody to give him a juicy contract this year, all things considered, and I keep thinking it's going to be the Cardinals.

One of the things that's bothered me about the last couple of World Series has been their relative tedium — two consecutive sweeps will do that — and this game followed yesterday's script almost to a tee: one team gets an early lead and that's it.

Well, almost. Todd Jones set down Scott Spiezio (only a few days ago the ridiculous postseason hero) on a lineout and got Albert Pujols to roll out to third, but gave up a single to Scott Rolen and then botched fielding Juan Encarnacion's tapper to the box. Jimmy Edmonds doubled in a run, and then Jones made things really interesting by plunking Preston Wilson, loading the bases. He finally got Yadier Molina, the hero of the deciding NLCS Game 7, to tap out to short, ending the game. It reminds me of Troy Percival's scarier saves; has he been taking lessons from Percy in the short time Troy wore a Tigers uniform?

ESPN Box

Update: THT now says Tigers in 6 based on the results of the present game.

Update 2: Joe Hamrahi's Baseball Digest Daily interviews umpire coordinator Steve Palermo, who concludes there wasn't anything of interest on Rogers' hand.

// posted by Rob @ 10:46 PM link // 0 comments