Sabin wrote:Okay, I like baseball now.
Just to alert you: thrilling, last-minute come-from-behind wins are probably what got a lot of us hooked on baseball...but, until you've made peace with the agony of crushing defeat, you're not a full-fledged fan.
We can skip over Monday's game -- another case of the Red Sox exploding early and coasting to a 2-1 series lead. Yesterday was a whole lot different: two teams spent the majority of their games thinking they were about to put a hammerlock on their series, but were delivered a loud "Not so fast" very close to the end. This was a day that woke everyone up.
The NL match-up started off eerily similar to the two preceding games: the Dodgers scoring 2 runs early (in fact, on the same "Seager home run before an out was recorded" as had begun game 2), the Braves coming back in the 4th -- this time not merely tying, but going ahead by 2. It could have been worse: Freeman hit a bullet for the third out, leaving the bases loaded. For most of the afternoon, it didn't seem to matter: the Braves scored another in the 5th, and their bullpen set the Dodgers down inning after inning. The Dodgers were staring at the possible 0-3 hole, from which only one team (which we'll mercifully pass on identifying) has ever rallied.
In the 8th, however, the Dodgers got a tiny piece of luck: Pollock's grounder to 3rd, which looked momentarily like the second out, was ruled foul. The reprieved Pollock subsequently singled, and was aboard for Cody Bellinger's redemptive 3-run homer. Not yet done, the Dodgers got a single/stolen base, which set up Mookie Betts' almost predictable run-scoring double. Like the Braves' 4th, this inning could have yielded even more -- the Dodgers left the bases loaded -- but it was to no avail for Atlanta, as there was only the one inning remaining, and Jansen, pitching way better this year than in previous seasons, struck out the side.
Since the Dodgers are, on paper, a far superior team, this will likely move a lot of fair-weather pundits to predicting them to romp from here on, and they may well be right. But, as always, we'll play it out.
You'd never know from the ALCS, but Houston has relied on a strong rotation (plus offense) to carry it these past few seasons. Last night, a worn-out Greinke became the third Houston pitcher in a row to not get past the 3rd inning. (He lasted only 1 1/3, in fact.) Unlike his predecessors, he didn't leave a deep hole -- a 2-run Bogaerts homer was all he surrendered -- but this did have Houston trailing 2-1 after the 1st. Given the two teams, a 2-1 final didn't seem very likely, but inning after inning flew past and the score didn't change. Until, as in the NL game, the 8th inning arrived.
Boston's bullpen had been pretty much a shambles down the stretch -- two losses in that 3-game September sweep by the Yankees came in the 8th/9th innings -- but they did have one reliable reliever in rookie Tim Whitlock, and Cora called on him for the 8th. He promptly served up a game-tying homer to the inevitable Altuve. When Brantley followed with a single, it seemed the youngster might go all Calvin Schiraldi on us (old-timers get the reference). But Whitlock got Bregman to hit into a double play, and the inning ended.
It turned out, that was just warm-up for the 9th. Cora, having used his best, opted to bring in Eovaldi, his game 2 (and presumably 6) starter to get three outs on his throw day. It looked briefly as if the move might pay off -- despite putting two men on, Eovaldi retired two others by strikeout, and had a 1-2 count on Castro. The Fenway faithful were cued up for moving to the bottom of the 9th, and, surely, yet another walk-off win. And they thought they had it, as Eovaldi threw what looked like strike 3 to everyone in the park (including the TV cameras). But Laz Diaz called it a ball, Castro's at-bat continued, and, two pitches later, he singled to drive in the go-ahead run.
Pause here to say, Red Sox fans have a complaint: the call was clearly wrong. But those probing TV cameras, with their strike-zone measurements, say it was only 1 of 21 such missed calls by Diaz over the course of the game, against both teams. And one against the Astros -- a ball 4 that should have been strike 3 to Devers way back in the 1st inning -- put him on base for Bogaerts' homer. Which is to say, it was only a similar call that had Houston tied rather than leading at that point in the game. So, Diaz's calls had a certain karmic balance.
It didn't much matter, since, unlike in the Braves/Dodgers game, the situation DID get worse. (Red Sox fans may want to avert their eyes, here.) After an Altuve walk, Brantley doubled to clear the bases. And even that wasn't all: an intentional walk, three more singles, and a Boston error, brought the score to 9-2 before the final out was recorded. It was, the broadcast informed us, tied for the biggest-scoring 9th inning in post-season history, matching 1997's Game 3 of the World Series -- a ridiculous effort, where a 7-7 tie entering the 9th turned into a 14-11 final.
This series continues to do weird things to my psyche. I hate both teams equally, but, when Brantley's double split the outfielders, I started whooping -- much as I had in some earlier games when Boston scored. I seem to be rooting for whoever's losing at the time -- with the hopeless hope that somehow both these teams can lose in the end. In any event, a series that Red Sox rooters had begun to think was carrying them aloft by magic has crashed down into a 2-2 tie. So, it's best of 3 now, and at least one more game will be back in Houston. Hold on for dear life.