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Tuesday, October 02, 2007 |
More Followups To Yesterday's Thrilling Padres/Rockies Game
- With the win, the Rockies are only the second NL team to get to 90 or more wins. It's pretty cool to see the Wild Card come from the West, too. The Rockies won 14 of their last 15 to do it.
- Ex-Angel watch: Ramon Ortiz was the winning pitcher in last night's game. Since it was considered a regular season game, he doesn't get postseason credit. His last regular season win was an August 4 3-2 victory over eventual division winner Cleveland, when he happened to be standing on the mound in the fifth to claim the win; his two scoreless frames kept a fragile one-run Twins lead intact. Eleven days later, he was sent to the Rockies. Yesterday's win was his first in a Rockies uniform.
- Bad Altitude recounts Clint Hurdle's mismanagement of the game, starting with his egregious use of the bullpen. I would add to that calling for .091-hitting (at the time, now .083) Joe Koshansky when Manny Corpas' spot in the lineup came due in the bottom of the ninth. His reliever at that point had every bit as much value with the bat as the pinch-hitter, and arguably more; why not extend Corpas to six outs instead of just three? And then there was the mistake (I thought so too at the time) of pinch-running Jamey Carroll for Garret Atkins, the latter having gone 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI, and narrowly missed a home run.
- There's still disagreement on the "missing" home run. I talked to our Padres fan friends after the game, and they said that in interviews with the handicapped woman whose wheelchair some reports had making contact with the ball, the ball actually hit the yellow line on the top of the fence, i.e., it was still in play. But Mark T.R. Donohue still believes the team was robbed.
- Trevor Hoffmann is calling the game, understandably, the toughest loss of his career:
"It's not going to be easy to deal with," Hoffman said. "People don't want to hear that. They want to see execution and their ballclub moving forward. That didn't happen tonight for one glaring reason -- that was me."
- Bob Timmermann reminds us that the NL has four different playoff teams this year vs. last. "That's the first time that has happened in either league since the three-division format was adopted."
- Purple Row has video of the celebration from the stands.
- Mid-day update: The Wall Street Journal's Daily Fix column ($) points us to Tim Sullivan's San Diego Union-Tribune piece pointing out that this was not Hoffman's first blown save that could have put the Padres into the postseason; he also blew a one-run lead on Saturday's contest in Milwaukee, a game the Padres ultimately lost 4-3.
- Ducksnorts goes even further back to the Milton Bradley baiting/takedown incident during the Padres' Sep. 23 7-3 loss to the Rockies:
Or maybe we can think about Milwaukee. Sure, let’s play “what-if” there instead. Why did Hoffman throw eight bazillion change-ups in a row? What if he shows Tony Gwynn Jr. a fastball? (What if Gwynn hits it?) Or perhaps we’ll go back further and pin the blame on Mike Winters for baiting Milton Bradley, Bradley for gobbling it up, and Bud Black for taking out his own guy in the process. Or we could...
Labels: padres, postseason, rockies
Comments:
considering they were one strike away from clinching a play-off spot Saturday and thus potentially ownwers of HF advantage through out the NL playoffs, they must be very bitter; their collapse rivals the Mets in disappointment.
One wonders if Milton Bradley could have made a differnce the last week too.
One wonders if Milton Bradley could have made a differnce the last week too.
Certainly, Mike Cameron would have in yesterday's game. Running Brady Clark out there in center? I watched the condensed game this morning, and Clark flat misplayed a couple balls. Granted, Coors is cavernous, but his reads were terrible on several of the balls hit to him, and as with the Diamondbacks' choice to sub Robby Hammock for the taller Tony Clark, these things have consequences. The whole Padres starting outfield consisted of
LF - Scott Hairston
CF - Brady Clark
RF - Brian Giles
That's one hell of a step down in left and center from Bradley and Cameron, though Hairston is definitely making a case for a starting job next year, and especially with that two-run blast he hit last night.
LF - Scott Hairston
CF - Brady Clark
RF - Brian Giles
That's one hell of a step down in left and center from Bradley and Cameron, though Hairston is definitely making a case for a starting job next year, and especially with that two-run blast he hit last night.
To clarify, even the Bradley incident, in and of itself, wasn't necessarily the turning point. There were any number of moments in any number of games throughout the season that could have turned out differently but didn't. That is why they play the games. The Padres had ample opportunity over the course of 163 games to clinch a playoff berth and didn't get it done. Oh well, better luck next year...
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