2021 Baseball Post-Season

[danfrank]

Yes, I think the Jeter comparison is apt. Catchers are in a special category, of course, but both Jeter and Posey had a particular presence, one that inspired winning all the way through to the end. Players that inspired confidence and rose the game of everyone they played with. I got to watch Jeter only in spurts, but I imagine that the Yankees fans who got to watch him play on a daily basis just knew that they were witnessing something truly special, as has been true for me as a Giants fan witnessing the miracle of Buster Posey these past dozen years.

[Mister Tee]

Hadn't seen the news about Posey when I went to bed last night, so your post was the first I'd heard. Really makes one feel old, to see someone retire when it feels like he just got here. It's actually not that rare for a catcher to retire young, especially when he played so much as a quite young man. Johnny Bench was gone at 35, and had been a shadow of himself the previous two seasons. Carlton Fisk is the rare catcher who lasted to a ridiculously old age, but he missed quite a few games in his 20s/early 30s, the age when organizations tend to run catcher ragged. Or he just had extraordinary genes.

I presume Posey is to these Giants what Derek Jeter was to the mid/late 90s Yankees: he came along, seemingly full-grown, and the team started winning and didn't stop for a while (both won Rookie of the Year and a championship right off the bat, and followed up with more championships). He was indeed a franchise player, and I'm sure his absence will be keenly felt.

[danfrank]

Oh, and yes, welcome aboard, Sabin. Baseball is a great game.

[danfrank]

Just when I was ready to put thoughts of baseball away for a bit, the news breaks today that Buster Posey will be announcing his retirement tomorrow, effective immediately. It’s typical for an athlete to stay a bit longer than he should, but Buster is walking away after a phenomenal season, not to mention a $22 million option that he certainly would have been offered for next season. This isn’t a complete shock because there had been speculation by some writers that Buster might walk away from the game, but it is a punch in the gut nevertheless.

Buster has been a truly special player, someone who comes along maybe once in a generation, and he is certainly on the Mount Rushmore of San Francisco Giants players. You can point to all of his accomplishments (Rookie of the Year, MVP, 3 World Championships), but these don’t begin to tell the story of Buster’s greatness. From his rookie year he has been this incredibly poised, thoughtful, quiet leader whom everyone looks up to. He plays the game the right way, and expects everyone around him to do the same. Any pitcher who has worked with him will say that Buster upped his game. He just had this incredible presence that made the fans and his fellow players feel confident when he was in the lineup. Kids adore him. It’s been a great privilege to watch him play these past 12 years.

In the end Buster chose his health and his family over more money and time in the spotlight. Being a catcher takes its toll, and Buster has had his fair share of injuries and concussions. I think he was especially concerned about the impact of getting hit in the facemask a few too many times, and wants to be fully there for his kids. You have to respect that. It’s a huge loss, though.

[Mister Tee]

Mister Tee wrote
And that's it. Baseball is gone for the winter. Time for me to catch up on other life pursuits (starting with my booster shot, tomorrow). Hope everyone got at least some modicum of pleasure out of this less-than-glorious tournament.

I mean... I became a baseball fan for the first time.

Welcome aboard!

You've now done what Roger Angell says is necessary to become a genuine fan: you've experienced your team winning and then subsequently losing. Tasting both the highs and lows is how you truly join the club.

[Sabin]

Mister Tee wrote
And that's it. Baseball is gone for the winter. Time for me to catch up on other life pursuits (starting with my booster shot, tomorrow). Hope everyone got at least some modicum of pleasure out of this less-than-glorious tournament.

I mean... I became a baseball fan for the first time.

[Sonic Youth]

It's apparent, from the lack of posts two hours after the game, just how much enthusiasm for this Series there was. (Mrs. Sonic excepted; I presume she views this as recompense for her pain in recent seasons.)

Yesterday was also her birthday, so you can only imagine how doubly-blessed she's feeling right now.

[danfrank]

It was a not very exciting ending to a not very exciting series. I was more interested in the election results than I was in this game, so I kept switching back and forth. I’m glad that the cheaters did not prevail, though a little sad that Dusty Baker has not won a World Series title in likely his last best chance as a manager. Until Spring!

[Mister Tee]

It's apparent, from the lack of posts two hours after the game, just how much enthusiasm for this Series there was. (Mrs. Sonic excepted; I presume she views this as recompense for her pain in recent seasons.) I was rooting for the Not-Astros, and am glad they triumphed -- but every time I heard that damn chop (even in Houston!), it made it harder to root.

If you had told me after the 1st inning that one starter would cruise to 6 shutout innings, I would have guessed it was the Astros' Garcia -- he seemed to start every hitter 0-2, and breezed through the beginning of the game. Max Fried had a rougher start -- two infield grounders got men to base (one on his poor cover of first base), and he had to really dial it up to escape damage. But, from there, he was -- rather than the flop of the past two weeks -- the Max Fried whose regular season stats bespeak a star: allowing few base runners, and getting rid of them with easy double-plays.

Garcia, meantime, suddenly became vulnerable in the 3rd, putting 2 on with a hit and walk. It looked momentarily like he might escape it with his strikeout pitch, but then Jorge Soler tattooed a 3-2 pitch out of the ballpark entirely, putting the Braves up 3-0. That was hardly enough, given the Astros' ability to rally (as we saw just a game ago). But when Dansby Swanson hit another homer in the 5th, and Freeman followed with an RBI single, it seemed all over but the crying. Freeman threw in a home run for punctuation (making 13 of the Braves' last 14 runs homer-derived), and that was about it.

Though I must note: despite his having thrown only 72 pitches, Fried was lifted after the 6th. Granted, it was 7-0 by then (6-0 when the decision seemed to be made), and the bullpen was rested (the over-worked Minter was passed up this time, giving Matzek two innings, where he struck out 4.) But it pains me to see that even the best-pitched game of the Series ratified this new world, where starting pitchers are only a cog in a larger machine, rather than the engine.

I'm guessing, in their heart of hearts, the baseball overlords didn't want the optics of the never-really-punished team getting to hold the trophy immediately post-scandal. (And, as I said back in 2019, I've been shocked at how many baseball folk seem to really dislike the Astro organization, so that mild happiness was likely widespread.) Manfred probably also didn't want to face those fans whose All-Star Game he took away, so it worked out well for most everyone. Though those who did make it from Atlanta booed him rather roundly.

These Braves join the '87 Twins and 2000 Yankees as teams who won the championship without being able to get to 90 wins in the regular season. Proving...something or other.

And that's it. Baseball is gone for the winter. Time for me to catch up on other life pursuits (starting with my booster shot, tomorrow). Hope everyone got at least some modicum of pleasure out of this less-than-glorious tournament.

[Mister Tee]

I have no way of knowing this for sure, but I think the Braves management may have come into the game in semi-punt mode. The absence of Charlie Morton, the fact of having relied hard on their bullpen for the two most recent wins, and the 3-1 game lead added up to "let's reset our rotation for potential games 6 and 7, rather than pull out all the stops tonight." Even after the grand slam in the 1st (which certainly had to put their fans into a "We're going to be champions tonight!" frame of mind), they left the struggling starting pitcher in till he let the game be tied.

I think, when Freeman gave them another lead with a solo home run, they momentarily thought to abandon the plan. They brought in Minter to attempt to hold the lead...but Minter's performance only underlined the wisdom of the overall plan, as he was clearly exhausted from his efforts in the earlier games, and let the Astros first tie it up and then take the lead (following a very questionable intentional walk: Bill James has long contended that the intentional walk, unless it's to get to a terrible-hitting pitcher, is not a high-percentage play, and this proved out tonight, as the intentionally walked batter ended up crossing the plate).

In any event, from then on, the Braves stayed with the original plan, resting up their better relievers. The B-team didn't do anything great -- allowing 2 more Houston runs -- but that was moot, seeing the Braves never even threatened against the Astro pen.

A lot of people are now warning Houston will run away with it from here on, the way they did against Boston. This is of course always a possibility. But there are lots of cases of a team with a 3-1 lead losing Game 5 and then coming back to win the series in 6 -- the Braves vs. the Dodgers just last week, for one; I can think of a couple of World Series where the Yankees did just that (1977 and 2009); and the Dodgers, in fact, did the same vs. the Rays one year ago. The difference would be, all those winning teams were headed home, where this series is going back to Houston.

Thinking back on the rallies from 3-1 deficits I've seen in the World Series -- 1968, 1979, 1985, 2016 -- most of them were unexpected not just because the task seemed so difficult, but because the teams that held the leads had seemed the favorites going in. The '68 Cardinals were defending World Champions; the '79 Orioles had won 102 games in the very competitive AL East; the '85 Cardinals had won 9 more games than the Royals (who, like this year's Braves, had the lowest win total of any team in the post-season). Only the '16 Indians/Cubs, of this group, seemed even evenly matched going in.

This year is different, odder: the Braves, by won-loss record, were decided underdogs; that they should have been the ones to run off to the 3-1 lead was the utterly unexpected part. Do they keep hold of that magic and win down in Texas? Or do the execrable Astros demonstrate greater talent wins in the end? Neither outcome would surprise me.

The best part of this latest turn, though, is what dan suggests: if the Braves win, at least we won't have that damnable chop making us regret it.

[danfrank]

With that first inning grand slam it sure felt like the Braves were poised to put the series to bed on their home turf. Credit the Astros for getting immediately back in the game. Their bats, largely asleep throughout this series, finally came to life in a big way. Now that we’re heading back to Houston, and the damnable war chant is done for 2021, anything can happen. We have ourselves a competitive series.

[Mister Tee]

Perhaps fitting for the lead-in to Halloween, tonight's game had a bit of the classic horror film to it: we in the audience could see what was coming, but the participants walked right into it, regardless.

Dylan Lee, whose prior-to-post-season career apparently consisted of a mere 2 innings, was for some reason chosen to start for Atlanta. He instantly unjustified whatever hunch the Braves were playing...lasting only 1/3 of an inning, leaving the bases loaded for his replacement, Kyle Wright. Wright got out of it quite well, under the circumstances: surrendering only 1 run, on a groundout. We didn't know it then, but the motif for the evening was set: the Astros continued to put men on base -- Wright allowed plenty over his 5 innings -- but only 1 more scored, an Altuve home run. The Astros stranded a glaring 9 base runners over those same innings, and that's where the horror-movie thing comes in: all us fans at home were shaking our heads in foreboding, as we we would if characters entered the haunted house or cemetery. This, we were all thinking, will not end well.

For a while, it appeared the Astros might get away with it, as the Braves couldn't do a thing with Zack Greinke -- the few times they got a runner on, he was almost instantly erased via double-play. This being 2021, Greinke was gone after 4 innings, but the Astros' bullpen roulette worked for them to start: the team entered the bottom of the 6th still leading 2-0.

Rosario woke up the home crowd with a ringing double, and (after a Freeman walk), a Riley two-out single put the Braves on the scoreboard. But then Maton came on, to strike out two, and now it was the Braves' turn to leave the bases loaded. Maybe the Astros would still hang on; it was 2-1.

But the luck finally ran out in the 7th, as Dansby Swanson and pinch-hitter Jorge Soler hit back-to-back home runs, to, shockingly, thrust the Braves into the lead. This was the first lead change we'd seen in any of the Series games, and the crowd was electrified.

The Astros very nearly came back -- Altuve hit a liner to left that he seemed certain would tie the score...instead, it became an out, as Rosario made a spectacular grab just shy of the wall. (The announcers told us it was a home run in 26 of 30 ML parks.) After that, it seemed a formality. The team went quietly in the 9th, and the Braves are one game away from the championship.

Which is hardly the end of things. The Astros have been here before, and have every opportunity to mount the comeback. But, right this moment, the Braves seem to have the kind of magic going that the Nationals did two years ago. And, maybe, they feel the hopes of all of us -- who'd rather see anyone win but the cheating Astros -- cheering them on. Whatever. We'll pick this back up tomorrow night.

[Mister Tee]

I forgot to mention last night: this is the first World Series victory the Atlanta home fans have witnessed since the clinching Game 6 in 1995 -- which was two stadiums (stadia?) ago.

The Yankees swept the 1999 Series, and won all 3 Atlanta games in 1996, en route to their upset championship in 6 games.

So, if these fans seem over-excited, they have good reason. If only they could resist the appalling chop...

[danfrank]

I didn’t get to see last night’s game, but you’re right about this trend toward pulling pitchers maddeningly early. There must be some metric to support it, but if a guy hasn’t given up any hits—or runs—and doesn’t show clear signs of fatigue or some other problem, doesn’t it make sense to give him a chance to finish or at least further the job?

[Mister Tee]

Tonight's game was, I daresay, a danfrank special: low scoring and tense all the way. And a little weird, because of how baseball is, these days.

Atlanta's sort-of rookie (I gather last year's 60 games don't qualify as a season), Ian Anderson, had some trouble with putting guys on via walk or hit batsman, but he didn't allow a hit over the first 5 innings. Exciting night, right? Except, in our brave new world, he couldn't be trusted to face the line-up a third time through (despite being at only 76 pitches), and was removed after just those five. You can say he might have gone further had it not been an excruciating 1-0 game, but I'm not sure -- the impulse to rush-remove the starter, something I thought was unique to the Rays (and Yankees beyond Gerrit Cole), has apparently become the new normal throughout the sport. (The Houston pitcher, despite yielding only that 1 run, was pulled after 4 2/3.)

As it turned out, the no-hitter disappeared in the 8th, on a bloop that looked like it could have been caught. But, by then, Atlanta was on its 4th pitcher, and there wasn't even the customary crowd ovation to recognize the attempt -- after all, the man most responsible was long-departed.

The game stayed at 1-0 until the bottom of the 8th, when D'Arnaud hit a monster home run. Considering how tight the game had been all night, the now 2-0 lead felt enormous, and, though the Astros put their leadoff man on in the 9th (via their 2nd hit), the Atlanta bullpen luminaries came through again, and their team is off to a 2-1 games lead. Whether this overuse of relievers will come back to bite them over the next 2-4 games remains to be seen. For now, they're in a good spot.