K-Rod and Other October Surprises
It certainly appears there’s something to my assertion that Angels phenom Francisco Rodriguez, now known as K-Rod, may indeed be the real Rally Monkey. During Sunday night’s epic slugfest, the Halos scored three more runs to back his three dazzling innings, coming from behind 9-8 to beat the Giants, 11-10. The Angels have now scored 26 runs to back K-Rod’s 13 postseason frames, enabling him to garner five wins in October.
Even the Angels are bying into it. Says fellow reliever Ben Weber, “I don’t think Frankie is just lucky to be in there when our offense comes alive. Seeing him come in and do what he does to teams has a way of firing everybody up. I don’t think it’s a coincidence they hit for him.”
Practically every sports section in America has at least one article on K-Rod today. In the Daily News, they’re even giving Brian Cashman heat for not signing him. According to the Yankee GM, the Angels outbid the Yanks, who weren’t willing to give the young Venezuelan the $950,000 bonus that the Halos offered. Who said George wins every bid?
Rodriguez is hardly the first unheralded player to surprise everybody in the postseason. ESPN’s Jim Baker weighs in with a Baker’s Dozen of October surprises, including Dusty Rhodes, Gene Tenace, Brian Doyle, Buddy Biancalana, Kurt Bevacqua, and current Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher, who hit .368 with 2 HR and 5 RBI against the A’s in 1988. Number 13 on the list (which requires a subscription to ESPN Insider) is Dr. Bobby Brown, who never found a full-time job as a big-league player but did go on to become President of the American League. Notably absent from the list is Howard Ehmke, the surprise starter for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s against the Chicago Cubs in 1929. Ehmke, at the tail end of his career, struck out a Series record 13 Cubs, but never won another game in the big leagues.
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Given how much I’ve enjoyed the first two games of this World Series, I don’t want to nitpick too much. But in Game One, Mike Scioscia made a move that’s still driving me crazy. In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Angels trailed 4-3, facing Giants righty Tim Worrell. With two outs, Worrell walked first baseman Scott Spiezio. Scioscia sent in designated pinch-runner Chone Figgins (I love that name) to run for Spiezio, and with weak-hitting catcher Bengie Molina (596 OPS) due up next, the decision to pinch-hit for him was a no-brainer.
It was Scioscia’s choice of pinch-hitters that bothered me. He had only one left-handed batter on his bench, Orlando Palmeiro, and three righties, Alex Ochoa, Shawn Wooten, and Jose Molina. With his 626 OPS, Molina bears a bit too much family resemblance to his brother, and he was slated to enter the game as catcher anyway, so we won’t consider him among Scioscia’s options:
REG SEASON POST RUNNER ON vs. RHP
OBP SLG OBP SLG OBP SLG OBP SLG
Palmeiro .368 .354 .000 .000 .377 .367 .348 .341
Ochoa .361 .404 .000 .000 .331 .270 .361 .416
Wooten .331 .442 .471 .647 .368 .481 .333 .429
Scioscia played the straight platoon, choosing Palmeiro, despite the fact that he doesn’t even hit righties as well as the other two (689 OPS vs 777 for Ochoa and 752 for Wooten). Palmeiro’s virtue is that he can take a walk, but he’s got almost zero pop in his bat (3 major-league homers in over 1600 plate appearances). With two outs and a man on first, a single or walk would have kept the inning going, which is certainly nice. Wooten, on the other hand, offers a reasonable amount of thunder and a chance to drive in Figgins; he’s been swinging the bat very well during the postseason, not to mention relatively frequently (17 at bats, while the while the other two have seven between them). Since Scioscia ended up putting Wooten in the ballgame as the defensive replacement for Spiezio, why the hell didn’t he just let him swing the stick as well?
Scioscia’s preference for Palmeiro (who ultimately popped out foul to third base) in that situation may have been tied to keeping the inning alive for Adam Kennedy, who’s swinging the bat well enough to be called the most feared #9 hitter in baseball. But I still think the Angles best option was taking a shot at a big hit by the Man from Moose Jaw.