Another day, another ten hours on the couch watching some thrilling baseball. Okay, I didn’t spend the entire period from 1:00 to 11:00 PM EDT on Sunday deepening the ass groove in front of my boob tube. The magic of TiVo afforded me a couple of hours away from the set doing the kinds of things normal human beings do to keep functioning, things like buying groceries, exercising, and interacting with other humans. Fortunately my gal has gone rabid for baseball this fall. “I’m addicted,” she tells me, worrying that between Monday night’s A’s-Sox finale and Wednesday’s AL Championship Series opener, she might be without a ballgame. It’s with great pride that I assured her that Tuesday’s NLCS opener would fill the void.
For drama, Sunday’s trio couldn’t quite top Saturday’s quartet of ballgames, but only because the Yankees made it look easy in dispatching the Twins. Behind a six-run fourth inning and some stellar pitching by David Wells, they rolled over young Johan Santana and kept the decibels in the Metrodome to a minimum. With eight runs in all, the Yanks equalled their total over the first three games, and every player in the lineup got a hit, including Nick Johnson, who broke an 0-for-26 slump with a two-run double which sounded the death knell for Minny. Jason Giambi started off the fateful rally Bernie Williams continued his hot hitting, Jorge Posada came to life, and Derek Jeter capped things off with a ninth-inning home run to leftfield that made up for Shannon Stewart robbing him of one to end the sixth.
So once again, the Yanks bucked the first-game-as-series-indicator trend. Coming into the ALDS, I noted that 22 out of 32 teams that won the first game of the best-of-five took the series, and that the Yanks had bucked the trend each of the past three years. It turns out I should have dug even deeper, as they also bucked the trend in 1995, 1996, and 1997, not always for the best (they lost in ’95, 97 and ’02 after striking first). So we’re at 23 out of 35 right now, not including tonight’s A’s-Red Sox matchup, and the Yanks have been the minority seven out of those 12 times.
The victory does a bit to wash away the bitter taste of falling to the Anaheim Angels last year, particularly with regards to the Yanks’ starting pitching. This year their fearsome foursome went 3-1 with a 1.88 ERA in 28.2 innings over four games; the same quartet went 0-1 with an 10.38 ERA in 17.1 innings the last time around. Redemption, thy name is Mussina, Pettitte, Clemens and Wells.
About Stewart, the most telling stat for the Twins in this series is that despite their leadoff man hitting .400 AVG/.471 OBP/.533 SLG/1.004 OPS, he didn’t score a single run the entire series. As a team the Twins hit only .198/.248/.282/.531 as a team, and if you remove their electric leadoff man, that drops to .172/.218/.250/.468. With runners in scoring position the Twins were just 2-for-22 the entire series. You can’t win that way.
Overall, manager Ron Gardenhire did an excellent job in getting his troops to put an ugly first half (44-49) behind them and win the AL Central. But he’s got a couple of puzzling tendencies when it comes to his lineups, namely batting light-hitting Luis Rivas and his .308 OBP second , and playing Jacque Jones against lefties, against whom he managed only a .703 OPS in the regular season. Rivas went 0-for-13 in the series, while Jones was just 2-for-16, including 0-for-8 against lefties. One of the Twins’ best assets is their outfield depth; they had Dustan Mohr (.801 OPS vs. lefties), Lew Ford (.906 vs. lefties in 37 AB) and Michael Ryan (1.158 vs. lefties in 16 AB) as other options. With the Twins struggling to score runs, one would have expected Gardy to shuffle the deck and try something new against the Yankee southpaws. But Gardenhire made some comment at the outset of the series that he was going with his best overall lineup, and that’s one reason he finds himself bounced out of the postseason.
I have a soft spot for the Twins that’s almost unequalled among AL teams besides the Yanks. Start with their two unlikely World Series wins, which thrilled me back in the day. Add to that Gardenhire’s special spot in this site’s lore, the contraction debacle, a knowledgeable fan base with a strong presence online, and the fact that my girlfriend’s got family in Minnesota who are fairly attached to the team, and it’s tough to root too hard for Goliath to slay David. So I’ll just say congrats to the Twins and their fans on another excellent season.
Much happier congratulations are also in order to the Chicago Cubs and their fans, as the Cubs won Game Five of their NL Divisional Series against the Atlanta Braves, 5-1. For the second time in the series, Kerry Wood dominated the Atlanta bats, and the Cubs got timely hits from their Pirates treasure chest of Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez (who I keep calling Alanis, but that’s another story) as well as Moises Alou and Alex Gonzalez. As the Fox announcers continually pointed out, the victory gave the Cubs their first postseason series victory in 95 years. That and a bag of ice still won’t get you drunk, but I’m guessing it’s good enough for the legions of Cubs fans who essentially blew the Braves faithful out of their own ballpark. After Robert Fick’s egregious tomahawk chop on Cub first baseman Eric Karros in Game Four, the wind seemed to come out of the sails of the Braves and their fans, nearly all of whom were embarrassed by the incident and by Fick’s less than fickle response. The NLCS now shapes up as the Battle of the Alex Gonzalez Shortstops, with the Cubs’ Alexander Scott Gonzalez (30 years old, hitting .228/.295/.409/.704) going against the Florida Marlins’ Just Alex Gonzalez Please (26 years old, hitting .256/.313/.443/.756). I’m pulling for the Marlins here based on Jack McKeon, but I’d be surpised if the Cubs’ pitching and Dusty Baker’s ass-backwards tactics don’t carry the day.
As for the A’s-Red Sox game on Sunday, I don’t have the time or the stomach to pick it apart. I’m still angry about Oakland’s baserunning gaffes in Game Three, and will have zero sympathy for them if they extend their string of elimination-game futility to 0 and 9. That’s the kind of baggage one expects of the Red Sox, but with the exception of Byung-Hyun Kim (and his itchy middle finger), these Sox seem comparatively free of same. Tonight’s matchup is the kind of marquee special you expect for a Game Five. Boston offers up Pedro Martinez on full rest, though he threw 130 pitches last Wednesday and was less than stellar. The A’s counter with Barry Zito on three days rest, something he’s never done before.
But even if the A’s get through, their rotation is a mess. Mark Mulder’s already on the shelf with a stress fracture in his femur, and Tim Hudson left yesterday’s ballgame after one inning with a strained oblique muscle. For the next round, that doesn’t even add up to “Zito and Lilly and pray things get silly,” as the former presumably wouldn’t be available until Saturday’s Game Three and the latter could only open the series by starting on three days rest. Add John Halama and pray for more drama? Or throw in Steve Sparks and watch out for sharks? There’s a good chance it won’t even matter. And here’s a kick in the ribs: the emerging story about Hudson’s injury via the San Francisco Chronicle is that it may have been caused by a bar fight with a Sox fan the night before. If so, that’s more brainy ball from the A’s in the Eric Byrnes/Miguel Tejada tradition. Don’t even get me started about Tejada trying to take first base yesterday after ball three, or Erubiel Durazo’s slide into first base…
Considering these two francises’ respective psychic burdens, it’s tempting to call upon the great Red Smith line: “I don’t see how either of these teams team can possibly win.” But there’s no mistaking the fact that the Sox have the momentum here, even in Oakland. Even if Pedro’s not able to pitch deep into the ballgame, their bullpen has built up some confidence in this series, showing exceptional mettle via a 1.26 ERA in 14.1 innings. I’d less rather the Yanks face the Sox for all of the negative energy it will produce in the fans of both sides, but if the AL’s best rivalry is going to determine its league champion, so be it.
And yes, I’m trying to jinx them.