Bleacher Creature Feature

#33: Tween Games 2 & 3

4 October 2002

Scioscia didn't bring in Percival because that's not how he did things during the season, forgetting that the playoffs are a different animal. Torre, supposedly, should have brought Stanton or Karsay in because the eighth inning is when one of those two always came in during the season, also forgetting that the playoffs are a different animal.

Besides, Hernandez had been pitching well, and he'd only thrown 50 pitches in four innings. Remember, Hernandez is a starter -- this tracks with his ordinary workload, and from Torre's POV, there was no reason not to leave him in.

Of course, why he stayed in after Garret Anderson's leadoff home run is utterly beyond me.....

I have to confess to taking great sadistic glee out of the Diamondbacks losing their first two games, reminding everyone that there are 23 people on that team besides Schilson, and they can't do everything. In Randy Johnson's case, he couldn't even do what he normally does. (Curt Schilling I feel a bit sorrier for, though at least he didn't get the loss in a game he pitched quite well.) But the offense has been woeful, scoring just three runs on fourteen hits and seven walks -- and twelve of those fourteen hits have been singles.

Even with Scott Rolen potentially out for the rest of the series (if not the rest of October), the Cardinals have enough offense to put the back end of the Snakes' rotation out of commission, and could easily achieve a sweep tomorrow.

Me, I'm wondering if Bob Brenly's going to trust Tony Batista or if Johnson's going to get the ball on three days rest.

Speaking of Rolen, the Snakes only have themselves to blame for losing, as Alex Cintron's collision with Rolen that injured him also ended the inning, as Cintron -- brought in supposedly because he's a superior base runner to Chad Moeller -- was rightly called out for interference. Given that the D-Backs had two runners on base at the time and that Tony Womack might have outrun the slow-hit grounder, it might well have cost the Snakes the game.

And speaking of the Diamondbacks, one of their fans gave new meaning to the word "despicable" yesterday. A radio DJ for KUPD-FM with the improbable name of Beau Duran called the hotel room of Flynn Kile, the widow of Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile, who died of heart failure earlier this year. He called her "hot," and asked if she had a date for the game last night. She hung up on him.

I'm not sure what I find more outrageous, the act itself, or the followup. The market manager for the company that owns the station, a fellow named Chuck Artigue, said that, although the prank "was in terribly bad taste" (DUH!), that no action would be taken against Duran. Artigue also talked to MLB and the D-Backs and apologized.

Please to note that Artigue did not talk to the Cardinals or to Kile -- y'know, the ones who actually deserve -- hell, require -- an apology.

I must admit, I've never liked the D-Backs much, even before last year's World Series. I found it bitterly amusing that a team that really did buy its way to a world championship is never tarred with that brush while the Yankees, whose regular lineup includes five or six home-grown players, constantly are. (The Snakes have all of one home-grown player, the excellent Erubiel Durazo, and he can't even crack the starting lineup because Brenly labors under the delusion that Mark Grace is better because he's been playing longer.)

I like them even less now. This is the sort of behavior that makes Red Sox fans look good.

Gee, Mike Mussina pitching Game 3 on the road in the LDS after a loss at the Stadium. I've heard this song before.....

Interesting that, after all the fighting for home-field advantage at the end of the season, three of the four series had splits for the first two games and the other one saw the visiting team take the first two.

My favorite quote of the playoffs so far is from Jason Giambi at the Game 1 postgame press conference, on what he said to first-base coach Lee Mazzilli after his game-tying single: "I said, 'Thank God I'm in this dugout, and not the other one this time.' I've been in the other one two times, going, 'Oh shit, here they go again.'"

I'll be on the road at a convention this weekend, but I'll have my laptop, so there will be reports on Games 3 & 4.....

NEXT: LDS Games 3 & 4

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