Bleacher Creature Feature

#52: LDS Game 3

4 October 2003

Shannon Stewart was out at second on his first-inning stolen base. To my great irritation, none of the three announcers called it, David Justice and Jeff Brantley both talking about the great slide even as the replay made it blindingly obvious that Stewart was out. It didn't matter, as Roger Clemens got a groundout and strikeout to end the inning, but demerits to both the second-base umpire for blowing the call and especially to the announcers who need to stop talking about "putting the pressure on" and "having confidence" and other clichés and actually talk about the game being played.

GO GO GODZILLA!

Brantley isn't the brightest pea in the pod, but he said one thing I agree with: Kyle Lohse's first-inning approach of trying to blow the ball by the Yankees wasn't likely to last long. He could get away with it against Alfonso Soriano, who swings at everything, and Derek Jeter, who is patient only in comparison to Soriano, and Jason Giambi, who's still having trouble hitting the broad side of a barn. The second inning was a different story, and Hideki Matsui took the same pitch that Soriano, Jeter, and Giambi swung through and deposited it way over Jacques Jones's head to give the Yanks an early 2-0 lead.

Lohse has now thrown 67 pitches over three innings. That does not bode well for the Twins -- neither does the fact that they had Kenny Rogers, he of the highly entertaining (for opposing teams, anyhow) post-season pitching history, warming up in the bullpen until Jorge Posada struck out to end the inning.

Big surprise: Lohse just gave up his first walk, and it's to Nick Johnson.

Lohse just hit the 100-pitch mark in the fifth inning, right after Bernie Williams worked a walk for his third time on base in the game. (Clemens, by contrast, only broke 60 in the fifth.)

Unfortunately, Posada just grounded out weakly. Lost in the hugger mugger about Giambi's woes is the fact that Posada, in the wake of a September where his name was being bandied about as an AL MVP candidate, has yet to show up for the post-season. He's only gotten on base once in eleven plate appearances -- a fruitless double Thursday night. Otherwise, he's struck out four times and grounded out four times (though, to be fair, he was victimized by good defense twice Thursday night).

Rogers just came in. Suddenly I am having flashbacks to 1996 -- where he was functionally useless for the Yankees -- and 1999 -- when he gave up a walk with the bases loaded to end the NLCS for the Mets. Given that Rogers is pitching for the other team, these are happy flashbacks....

Bernie just added to the piles of evidence that he is not the defender he used to be by booting a base hit to center field. The calls for him to be moved to left field next year have gotten louder and louder, to the point where Joe Torre is acknowledging it as a possibility, especially with Matsui as a viable -- hell, preferable -- alternative as a center fielder.

Good for Juan Rivera! A year ago, I commended Rivera's hustle in the post-season, and he just demonstrated it again. After Rivera got his third hit of the day, Soriano hit a deep fly ball; Rivera, seeing how deep it was, tagged up and went to second.

This was a smart play, and it also changed the complexion of the inning. Now first base is open with only one out, so Rogers intentionally walked Jeter. Now (as I type), Giambi's about to come up against J.C. Romero. This was a wise move -- Rogers has a history of imploding in the post-season and Romero got the Twins out of their nightmare seventh inning Thursday night.

Giambi grounded out to first, which advanced the runners, and so Gardenhire's called for the IBB again, walking Bernie to pitch to Posada. This is dangerous generally, as Posada has walked in five of his thirteen plate appearances while the bases are loaded.

Right now, though, it's the right move, especially since Bernie's been hot. Posada popped out to end the inning. Heavy sigh.

My happy thoughts about Johnson in the last column have not been borne out. Apart from his one walk, he's been fairly useless today. He just grounded out to the left side, contributing to the waste of a leadoff single by Matsui.

And here comes Mariano Rivera for another two-inning save. Good on Torre, #2.

Mo's eighth: twelve pitches, only two of which were balls, one strikeout, and a 1-2-3 inning.

Mo's ninth: two three-pitch strikeouts followed by a cheap groundout on pitch #7.

Game over. The Yankees have already doubled last year's post-season win total.

Boomer going tomorrow. Let's hope.

NEXT: LDS Game 4

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