Bleacher Creature Feature

#20: What ... a ... Game!

21 July 2002

Actually, it was a great experience, and would've been a great game even if the Yankees lost. (Though it's funny -- I never once thought the Yankees would lose the game. I never lost confidence....) This probably was related to the fact that, even a loss would leave the Yanks in first place by two games. Instead, they're up by four, 26 games over .500, and sitting pretty.

I'm still under intense deadline pressure, so let me just breeze through today, awards-ceremony style.....

The What the Hell Were They Thinking Award goes to whoever was responsible for the decision (if indeed it was a decision, and not forced by necessity) to not sell any scorecards. I was exceedingly displeased at the inability to keep score, and it seriously dampened my enthusiasm for the game -- right up until the game started, anyhow, when it proved to be such a barn-burner...

The Rick Ankiel Memorial Throwing Award goes to Manny Ramirez for his awful throw to third in the first that allowed Alfonso Soriano to score and Derek Jeter to go to third on what should've been an ordinary single to left. Ramirez had basically no chance at Soriano, but he rushed the throw and cost the Sox a run. Runner up to Nomar Garciaparra for throwing away a ground ball out on Jeter in the third, which also led to a run.

The Repayment for Roll Call Award goes to Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams, who hit back-to-back homers into the right-field bleachers in the first to give the Yanks a 4-0 lead before the first out had been recorded.

The We Traded Our Most Consistent Pitcher for This? Award goes to Jeff Weaver, who continues to not impress after we sent off the underrated Ted Lilly and two of our top prospects in exchange for him. So far here's his line in three starts:

20 IP, 25 H, 18 R, 18 ER, 8 HR, 5 BB, 18 K, 316 PT

The K/BB ratio's the only good thing in that line -- that and the 2-0 record, which is a gift from the Yankee offense.

The Bleacher Creature Taunt of the Day goes to the guy who sits in the row behind us, who yelled the following down to Brian Daubach: "Red Sox Trivia: what do these numbers have in common? 10, 8, 4, and not born yet? That's how old my grandparents were when the Red Sox last won the Series." (This prompted me to do a similar calculation: mine are 12, 6, 2, and not born yet.)

The Play Right Field, You Pansy! Award goes to Daubach, who kept turning around and responding to the hoots and hollers from both us Bleacher folk as well as the right-field box seats, which only served to increase the taunts. You'd think he'd learn...

The Signs of Life Award goes to Nick Johnson, who in the last two games is 4-7 with four runs scored, two doubles, two walks, one hit-by-pitch, and two RBI. He's now up to .242/.329/.415, which is starting to approach expectations.

The Learn From Your Mistakes Award goes to the Yankee defense, who today were actually calling for pop ups and getting out of the way of whoever made the call. After the vaudeville routines we've been tortured with the last couple of days, this was a welcome change.

The Shawon Dunston Memorial Long At-Bat Award goes to Giambi for his lead-off at-bat in the ninth. Since I couldn't keep score because they weren't selling any damn scorecards (bitter? me? naaaaah!), I didn't learn that it was a ten-pitch at-bat until I saw the highlights on Baseball Tonight, and Giambi worked from an 0-2 count to a 3-2 count and fouled off four more pitches before finally hitting the ball, which leads to...

The Overshift This! Award, which also goes to Giambi. Teams have taken to playing Giambi the same way they play Barry Bonds: put the shortstop on the second-baseman side of second base and put the third baseman at shortstop. So Giambi muscled an inside pitch from Ugeth Urbina down the third-base line, where there was no chance of the overshifted Shea Hillenbrand getting it on time.

The Best Bill Buckner Impersonation Award goes to Trot Nixon, for letting Bernie's single go through his legs, allowing Enrique Wilson (pinch-running for Giambi) to score from first, Bernie to go all the way to third, and set up Grady Little's lovely experiment in Putting Your Closer Through A Pressure Situation.

The It Sure Looks Bad When It Don't Work Award goes to Little for the ninth inning.

Okay, let's reconstruct this, because I saw it, and I still don't believe it.

Keep in mind that Urbina was brought in to get two outs in the eighth inning, so he's already been in sooner than usual for a closer. Giambi worked his endless at-bat into a single. Bernie then got his single to right that Nixon bungled, leading to a tie game with a the winning run on third and no one out.

Robin Ventura's now up (a lefty), followed by Raul Mondesi (a righty) and Jorge Posada (a switch hitter). A long fly ball or a single ends the game. So does a double play, so just walking one batter won't help as much as Little would like.

So he walks both Ventura and Mondesi to pitch to Posada. With the bases loaded (setting up a force at any base) and nobody out.

To keep things entertaining, Little pulls Nixon into the dugout and sends out Lou Merloni to play fifth infielder. So we've got only two outfielders, Johnny Damon and Ramirez, both playing shallow (on the theory that a long fly ball ends it anyhow), and Merloni, Tony Clark, Garciaparra, Hillenbrand, and Rey Sanchez all playing on the infield grass, hoping for a ground ball that will enable them to nail Bernie at home.

Nice in theory, but is it really a good idea to put a pitcher in a situation like this where he has to make absolutely perfect pitches? Not only that, but potentially make him do it three times, as there's no one out? Worse, it needs to be done against Posada who, his current slump notwithstanding, is one of the more patient hitters in the lineup (he has 48 walks, which ties him with Jeter for fourth on the team, and has a very respectable .359 OBP). And on deck is another patient hitter in Johnson.

At this point, of course, nobody in the Stadium is sitting down, regardless of affiliation (and there were plenty of Red Sox fans in the stands, who spent most of the game being shouted down). The ninth inning had everything -- strategy, drama, tough at-bats, gritty pitching, grittier hitting, and a do-or-die situation.

Unfortunately for the Bostonians, as Kenny Rogers learned against the Braves in the 1999 NLCS, all the onus is on the pitcher when the bases are loaded, especially with the game on the line, and Urbina did the electric slide to oblivion. Like Giambi, Posada fell behind 0-2, then took or fouled off some tough pitches before taking ball four on a 3-2 pitch.

The Where Do I Put This Heimlich Maneuver Poster? Award goes to the Boston Red Sox, as the choking appears to have commenced.

NEXT: High BP

MAIN PAGE | LATEST UPDATES

Appearances | Bibliography | Biography | Bleacher Creature Feature | Blizzard Games fiction | Buffy the Vampire Slayer fiction | Commentary | Covers and other artwork | Dead Kitchen Radio and The Bronx Bongo | Doctor Who fiction | Dragon Precinct | Fanfiction | Farscape fiction | Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda fiction | Gloat page | Imaginings: An Anthology of Long Short Fiction | KRAD Fan Club | Links | Marvel novels | OtherWere | Pictures | Star Trek fiction | Stories and story & novel excerpts | Urban Nightmares | Young Hercules fiction