Thursday, October 05, 2006 |
The Hunt For The Precioussss: Division Series Day 3
Victory Through Superior Tigerpower: Tigers 4, Yankees 3
The Kittycats did that which the Dodgers could not, chasing their opponents off the field on the road with a victory in hand, ensuring a split going home to Detroit. And what a win: despite constant pressure from the mighty Yankee offense, rookie pitcher Justin Verlander — and you hear those words, "rookie pitcher", a lot around the Detroit team — got out of jams in the first (bases loaded, thanks for the K, A-Rod), the second (Johnny Damon flied out and Derek Jeter grounded out with a man on second), and the fourth (after giving up Damon's three-run dinger, Verlander surrendered a ringing double, but Abreu grounded out to end the renewed threat).The Tigers have much the same problem with their offense as the Angels do, i.e., not a lot of OBP, and so I feel a strange sort of kinship or at least familiarity when watching them scrap it out against the Yanks. Today's game was, save for Carlos Guillen's homer, a thing of treads and scratches, chip-chip-chipping away against Mister Moose, with their outstanding bullpen able to keep the Yanks down, one 100 MPH fastball after another.
Unlike the Angels, Detroit has no real positive record against the Yankees and so I'm less than enthusiastic when predicting their future success against the Bombers; it might just go to five, though, after listening to this gallant effort. Go, Tigers, because they're a great story, and because, dammit, they deserve it.
Jeff Weaver's Best Day Ever: Cardinals 2, Padres 0
What are we to make of Jeff Weaver turning the Padres into a box full of Little Leaguers? Clearly the best postseason game of his career (not to mention his first postseason victory), this game drops his postseason ERA to 6.09 over 13.1 IP; it's not hardly enough to make you think he's anything like adequate (and actually puts him in the same category as Jose Lima, only without the pornstar wife), but t'will suffice, t'will do. When you don't have a weapon like Albert Pujols, as the Padres are finding out, aging lefties aren't enough. Not much is.One more loss, and the Padres' season is over.
Grittle Me This: Mets 4, Dodgers 1
- Why wasn't James Loney brought in, instead of Julio Lugo and moving Jeff Kent to first?
- Why are Mark Hendrickson and Brett Tomko on the team?
- After this outrageous postseason, will Kenny Lofton find a job on a major league team again? (You could ask the same question of Tomko and Hendrickson.)
- How in the h-e-double-toothpicks did this team even get into the postseason?
: 10/05/2006 11:26:00 PM : 10/06/2006 07:59:00 AMSo, I'd say that worked out well for the Cubs, since they effectively didn't have a real centerfielder, Lofton worked well. He was also very effective as a lead off man, Cub fans remember him fondly.
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