What was that Granderson slipped on?

So now I get my wish. A game 5 where the Cards could close out the series at Busch and a painful decision for Leyland.

You see, I couldn’t post the post below this one until after it happened. You can’t jinx it.

There’s a lot of kharma in sports. Baseball players have their lucky socks, Hockey players never shave in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and Nuke Laloosh couldn’t pitch without wearing garters.

Anyone who has ever played any version of video game football in the post Super Tecmo Bowl era knows it all to well. There are few rules in playing such games. One, you NEVER try to run out the clock by waiting for the game clock to wind down. Doing so will lead to inexplicably bad things befalling your team.

The other rule is beware the NFW game. (The “N” stands for no, the “W” for way, the “F” for firetruck.) In the NFW game, your team will be leading until the computer decides its going to make you lose through a series of fumbles, int’s, and other bizarre occurances. You never try to wind down the clock because you fear the NFW game.

Detroit came out fighting in game 4. Or at least, Sean Casey and Pudge did. Watching the replays, the pitches to Casey didn’t appear to be bad pitches. He just squared them. An inning later it looked like Rolen had tied it, but his drive fell just short.

When the Tigers added two in the third, it felt like their night. But as soon as they got this lead, the Tigers started stepping out of the box, stepping off the mound, and Pudge set a record for mound visits in a three inning stretch.

The game ground to a halt. Why did Detroit do this? Well, with a lead in the third inning, and rain forecast for an hour later, Detroit appeared to be trying to run out the clock. It’s so rare to see it happen in baseball, what with the absence of a clock, and all.

The Cards doubled home a single run in the third and fourth on doubles by Eckstein, Rolen and Molina. Eckstein had three doubles, and Rolen had two. Two guys who, coming into the series, looked like they couldn’t lift their left arms above their heads.

But the Cards couldn’t break through, despite their opportunity in the 6th. I figured the rain would arrive as forecast between 9:30 and 10:00 (fifth and sixth innings), and the Tigers would win a cheapy.

Then came the 7th, and the first NFW inning I’ve seen in the World Series in a long time. In case you missed it, Granderson fell down. He fell. He slipped. He said it was on a patch of water. I say, on a patch of EA Sports Kharma.

Fernando Rodney lollipopped a throw to Polanco, and for the second time in the series, the Tiger Phenom Arms failed to get an out when they failed to accurately throw a ball to a base.

Good teams take advantage of mistakes like that. The Cards, for the first time since June, are a good team.

Even after taking the lead, the game didn’t feel over. Looper, who is about three blown saves from adapting the face of Sloth from the Goonies, gave up the tying run in a classic Cardinal inning.

Looper comes into the game, and I’m thinking, well, something I shouldn’t type. But who else was there? Perhaps Tyler Johnson would have been better, though a lefty against three righties is a tough call. You also don’t want to use Wainwright for two innings when you could be playing every night for four nights.

So what happened? Of course Looper gives up a leadoff hit, and Wainwright has to come in for two innings.

And why didn’t it matter? Because David Eckstein had the presense of mind to hit a double two centimeters to the right of where Monroe could have caught it. When that ball fell, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sean Casey kick the ground. For a brief moment, he stopped playing baseball to say NFW.

Wainwright may have pitched his best inning of the postseason in the 9th. The Tigers did everything they could to disrupt him. It didn’t work. Monroe, who led off the inning is a notorious first-ball, fastball hitter. Wainwright has a devastating curve. So Monroe, Adam, Molina and even Keith Law must have known Wainwright would throw that curve. He threw a slider. One strike, and one pitch inside Monroe’s head.

Two pitches later, Monroe saw the fastball, and swung through it.

Wainwright started Ordonez with the same slider. Magglio had to be hoping to reach for Sean Casey to bat. He swung at the first pitch that looked like a fastball. It was a slider, it was a grounder, it was the game.

So now it’s Weaver v. most likely Verlander at Busch. There is only one reason not to go with your insanely hot lefthanded pitcher at Busch tonight. Only one.

We wanted punishment for Rogers. Well, consider this a one game delay for him. Let’s hope it lasts six months.

Thoughts on Game 4 Rain

I wrote the following before game 4. There are no great predictions in the piece, but I couldn't post it because I was afraid if I did, my scenario wouldn't play out. I'm not stable. Three rounds of playoff baseball is officially too much. I want morphine. Anyway, I wrote the following:

I’m talking myself into wishing for a rainout in game 4. In a perfect world, we play tonight, and it rains Thursday, forcing Game 5 to Friday. Here’s why:

If we were to lose game 4, we could pitch Weaver on regular rest in Game 5. Then if we won that game, Reyes could go in Game 6, with an extra days rest in a cavernous ballpark, with Carpenter on regular rest in game 7. If Weaver loses game 5, we can counter with Carepenter and Suppan, our best, albeit on short rest, in their last starts of the year.

But the real reason I’m hoping for rain is because of what would/could play out if we won game 4. Forget the obvious, that being up 3-1 in a series is a good thing. We’d be up 3-1, with Weaver pitching on regular rest at home, where he’s won four of his last five starts, with the one loss being his best pitching performance of the lot.

If Weaver lost that game, Reyes could go game 6 with Carpenter on regular rest for game 7.

But the really fun question to ponder belongs not to Tony, but to Jim. Leyland.

Mr. Leyland, you’re facing elimination in the World Series, you have two options to start game 5, a rookie who has thrown more innings this year than at any point in his career and who got rocked in game 1; or a 41 year-old veteran with a 23 inning scoreless streak and who is left-handed and would be throwing against a lineup that can’t hit any lefty including Darren Oliver. Who do you start?

What’s that, you’re going with Verlander? Does it have anything to do with Rogers palm?

Of course it doesn’t have anything to do with the Palm. It would have EVERYTHING to do with the Palm.

Oh the prospect of watching the Cards in a game where they could wrap up the WS, against Rogers. It’s too much to hope for.

The house Carp built

So Carpenter’s line was this:

IP H ER BB K PC-ST
8.0 3 0 0 6 82-55

Carp needed less than 3.5 pitches per hitter to dispose of the AL Champs. A quick check of Carp’s game log reveals no other game this year where Chris was nearly that efficient and effective. This was something we haven’t seen since he made his amazing run that began last year in Toronto, and ended with the Cy Young Award.

The Tigers had three hits, and advanced a runner past second only once, and that was on a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch.

That was somewhat expected.

On offense, the Cards did benefit from the error on Zumaya, but the Cards were threatening to break the game open all night. The Birds put runners in scoring position in every inning from the fourth inning to the end of the night.

Pardon me, but did I see the Tigers intentionally pass Yadier? To face Taguchi? Did they just start watching the Cards in the LCS?

How about that Jimmy Edmonds? Seems like two years ago we were wondering if he’d ever even play again, and tonight, he’s taking tough at-bats against the lefty Robertson. His two run double was the hit of the game.

So now Bonderman takes the hill. Jeremy was perfect through five innings against the Yankees, before he started grooving pitches with an 8-0 lead.

Against Oakland, Bonderman was far less effective. Merely 5% of the strikes Bonderman threw in that game were swung at and missed. What happens if he pitches against Encarnacion? Will the universe cease to exist? Dogs and Cats, living together, mass hysteria.

Wait a minute, that stat concerned pitches in the zone. Encarnacion doesn’t swing at those.

Suppan gets to face the impatient Tigers tomorrow night, assuming it doesn’t rain. Can another veteran Cardinal pitcher take advantage of the aggressive Tigers?

Like I said, it feels good to have an edge.

Game 3---Coming Home

So it’s back to baseball, and we put the talk of cheating behind us until Game 6 (if necessary.)

For the first time in weeks, I feel like the Cards are favored in a few games. We have Carpenter and Suppan at home. You’ve heard the splits, how they are both better at home than away. That’s useful.

Carpenter got roughed up against Detroit earlier this year, on the road. Detroit can hit him, but I like Carps chances. Of the Tigers, Casey has the best numbers against him since Chris came to the NL. It will be interesting to see if the torn calf is such that Casey can play. There is no DH in St. Louis.

I would love to see the Tigers play Santiago at ss again. But my guess is Casey will try to go. Will he be effective?

Much has been made of Detriots inability to take pitches/walks. Detroit ranked 28th in walks, and 26th in pitches per at-bat. They are, in a word, impatient.

Hmmmmmmmm. Veteran pitchers, each with multiple pitches, against a young free-swinging lineup. I like that matchup.

Game 3 is Nate Robertson’s start for Detroit. Nate has faced Belliard 25 times, but no other Cardinal more than 5 times. Belliard hits .320 off Nate. Gracious, if Belliard is a dangerous hitter, we’re in great shape. But I’ll believe that when I see it.

Preston Wilson, who couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat right now, is 5-5 lifetime against Nate with two homers. Could be a coincidence.

Our lineup hasn’t fared well against A) Lefties or B) Pitchers they’ve never faced. However, Robertson hasn’t thrown in 13 days to live hitting, and he hasn’t been particularly sharp yet this post-season. He gave up 7 earned in 5.2 innings against the Yankees, and allowed nine baserunners in 5.0 scoreless against the A’s.

We should have some opportunities.

It’s not that I think we’ll knock Robertson out. It’s that, for the first time in two months, we have our two best pitchers, facing a lineup that, though consistent, isn’t loaded with scary hitters.

For the first time in a while, we have an edge.

Proactivity

It's so nice to see that baseball learned its lesson from the steroid era. There, they allowed cheating for years, always reacting, never getting ahead of the story.

The story consumed them the way a mudslide consumes California. After it happens, Bud takes on the same look as the California coasts residents. Well, I know I live on a mudpile, 300 feet above the ocean, but I never thought my 3,000 pound house on stilts would fall.

Things are different in baseball now.

I heard somewhere that Steve Palermo, the head of the umpires, praised the crew for being proactive in dealing with Rogers in game 2. It's a good thing they were there. For the proacting. It's the baseball way. Being proactive. Excuse me while I gnaw my left arm off.

Much has been written/shouted today about the palm. It, according to photos, was there in the previous two rounds. Paul Lukas even has a great piece about Rogers’ uniform.

In short, Rogers wears a cap with a darker color underneath the brim. Makes you wonder why he touches his left thumb there before every pitch, or why he puts the heal of his hand on the back of his cap.

Yeah, he's cheating. Thank goodness for the proactive umpires.

Should the umpires have done more? How could they possibly do more than they did? They’re told about the issue, and Rogers says it’s dirt. They don’t need to touch it, or inspect it in any meaningful way. Then they might have felt the substance. He said he didn't do it. How could you possibly convict anyone who proclaims innocence in the face of incontrovertable evidence?

How is it these umpires haven't made the CIA yet?

They simply asked Rogers to remove it. And in a related story, the new penalty for injecting steroids will be a blood transfusion. Swallow a pill, you get an enema.

Should LaRussa have done more? Nah. TLR didn’t want to make a big scene. So he told the ump about it, and by the time anyone could look at Rogers hand, Inge had told Kenny to wash it. TLR missed his chance. He was right to avoid a scene. Now no one is talking about it.

Then there's Bud. Dan Wetzel writes an excellent column about Bud ignoring the issue. This is right in Bud's wheelhouse. No way he'd fail to ignore this.

To verify Bud’s absence. I checked http://www.mlb.com/, and they do indeed seem oblivious to the whole mess, with one story burried three fourths of the way down the page. The story contains this gem:

“Rogers' ensuing edge -- he retired 16 of 18 men, around a pair of walks, second through seventh innings -- was so sharp, it was easy to discount any advantage a "dirty ball" could have given him.”

I'm now officially renaming mlb.com "Pravda."

Gee, Bud, if only there was someone who had an office in major league baseball that was empowered to deal with cheating.

It’s ok Bud. If the last decade has taught us anything, it’s that consistent ignoring of cheating will always make the problem go away. That's the baseball definition of proacting.

Game 2 Recap

Rogers was caught brown-handed.

And there’s the photo that all of America has seen, and may be talking about tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to see if MLB does anything about it. I somehow doubt Bud has the guts to interrupt the "feelgoodstory" of the post-season.

He washed it off, and still pitched really well after inning one. But you have to wonder if he had something else. He was sure keeping his glove close after he pitched.

And now we find Kenny had a similar substance on his hand in both of the previous two rounds. Rogers said he didn't know it was there. Yeah, I can see a pitcher not being worried about his hands. How important are they, really?

I can’t give Kenny a pass. Sad, really. If you’re going to cheat, talk to Gaylord Perry and figure out how to hide it. Don’t put it on your palm. Haven’t you heard of HDTV?

Everyone on Fox is saying no big deal. Like you could use a corked bat for one at-bat, then use a legit one, and everyone would say “no-harm-no-foul.”

I doubt the Cards will make much of it either.

But Monday is an off-day. ESPN will need something to talk about. Perhaps the talk will distract Rogers.

Oh well.

The game reminded me of game 1 of the NLCS. We hit the ball hard a few times, but nothing fell in. Albert’s ball was absolutely crushed.

Detroits flares fell in, like ours did in game 1, and they got the timely hits early.

Nice job by our staff, and I thought we took strong at-bats, unless the name on the shirt was Encarnacion or Wilson. It was encouraging.

Fight the Law

See the "Change the Law" post below for the Contest.

New Story Line---The Cards are good.

Is it happening again? Is the entire sportswriting world falling in love with a story line, only to watch it collapse? Are we witnessing another UT/USC or Rams/Patriots?

The world expected an easy Tiger win. What happened?

Justin Verlander gave up a homer to Scott Rolen, who has no left shoulder. Then they pitch to Pujols, but because they have no idea who he is, the pitch him away, and he takes a fastball over the rightfield wall.

Reyes had an outing I haven’t seen all year. This wasn’t like the White Sox game. There, he simply overpowered the Sox. Here, he didn’t have overpowering stuff. His fastball was clocked between 86 and 90. His change was 74-78.

But Reyes relied on his late movement on his pitches to get a lot of popups and grounders. Reyes sometimes will try to nibble at the corners, but tonight, simply let it fly. It was enough. The late movement kept the balls from being hit hard. Tons of popups and weak grounders.

So now everyone gets to say that the Tigers were stale. Yeah. That’s it. The Tigers haven’t faced live pitching in a week, so they would suck against anyone.

That’s crap.

First, if it were true that you needed to see live pitching, what the hell was stopping the Tigers from seeing it? They had a week. Dust off Robertson and Bonderman and let them throw. They could easily have made their starts in the Series and thrown a batting practice session or two. If the Tigers had needed live bp, they could have had it.

Fact is, the Cards were ready for Game 1, the Tigers were not. Fact is, this series feels different than any other series I’ve seen. The Cards are finally playing their best baseball when it counts. Something they’ve not done since the 1980’s. It’s refreshing to see. Liberating, in a way. We know we’re seeing our best shot. We’re not going to beat ourselves. Someone will have to beat us.

How's that for a story line?

Shannon was on the air after the game, and he was a little upset about the lack of respect the Cards have gotten. He pointed out that we do have Pujols, Edmonds, and Rolen in the middle of our order. Sure, they’ve had a bad year, but if they are healthy, you should fear us.

I’m not sure this is a matter of health. The Cards have found a comfort zone. They can play hard without pressing. The Tigers seemed off-balance last night. As the game wore on, they started getting themselves out at the plate, and making errors in the field. Were they pressing?

It’s not easy to play well on the big stage. Just go back in time to 2004 and ask Rolen, Edmonds and Pujols.

So now we face two lefties. We made the Oliver Brothers (Darren and Perez) look like world beaters in the NLCS. Now we get two Yankee beaters in Nate Robertson and George Clooney, or is it Kenny Rogers? The one who doesn’t sing, or address the UN.

We counter with Jeff Weaver, unless TLR takes my advice, and starts Ankiel.

I could type for hours about our ineptitude against lefties. But we’re going to see our squad at its best.

So bring us your lefties. They’re the best in the AL. But we get to watch our best play them.

Win or lose, that’s enough for me.