Random Thoughts on MLB Playoff Openers (Part I)

Homers galore, but not much drama as the second season kicks off

Jeter homers, Giambi homers, Pujols homers, Thomas homers. Twice. And FOX says you can’t script October. But if you could, wouldn’t you want all your marquee stars going deep on the first day to draw interest for the rest of the playoffs?

The game of the day was the early game. Twins-Athletics Game 1 did not turn out to be a classic but was still wildly entertaining for the brief 2 hours, 26 minutes it was on; a scintillating pitchers duel between Johan Santana and Barry Zito. They were like two gorgeous girls at a bar: everyone who went after either one of them ended up whiffing and walking away frustrated and confused. Both pitchers were working quickly and mowing down batters. This made the game so much easier and more fun to watch.

The Frank Thomas fountain-of-youth-for-the-umpteenth-time story continued in a big way, as he connected for two homeruns, one against the unhittable Santana. The second one I did not like though. Santana, having thrown 109 pitches after eight innings with no signs of slowing down, should have had a chance to go nine in a close game. Sadly, I cannot prove to you that I said this before reliever Jesse Crain gave up said homerun to Thomas. You will have to take my word for it. Prior to either starter being taken out, ESPN had put a graphic on screen showing both pitchers’ brilliant lines and I realized this could be a great chance for the rare double-complete game. Alas, it was not so.

As it turns out, that pitching change in the top of the 9th which led to the Thomas homerun did make the difference in the game. The Twins scored in the bottom of the ninth, but just once. That has to be one of the most underrated ways to lose a game in terms of frustration: giving up a late regrettable insurance run only to get just enough runs back so that said run makes the difference and you would have tied or won it otherwise. Hang in there, Twins fans.

The mighty Metrodome has not fared well in the new millennium. Remember when the Twins couldn’t lose there if you paid them Black Sox scandal money (yes, I know it was 1919. Adjust for inflation where necessary)? So now what has this Twins team done in the dome in postseason? In 2002 against the A’s, they split games three and four, then split games one and two against the Angels in the LCS. In 2003 against the Yankees, they got beat down wickedly in both games by a combined score of 11-2. In 2004 against the Yankees, they lost a blowout and inexplicably blew a 5-1 lead in a game Santana was pitching by taking him out after 5 innings for no reason. And of course, they lose today. That leaves them with a 2-7 postseason mark in the dome since their glory days.

Of course, many will mark the dome as being a clear home field advantage because nobody can possibly see a white ball in a white roof on fly balls, right? Well this phenomenon is exposed about once a game, tops. Once a game someone loses a ball in the roof and look like an idiot. Looks great on a blooper reel, but rarely does it make the difference in the game. Today it almost made the difference as the A’s lost a deep fly ball in the lights in the 9th inning. It might have helped if Thomas hadn’t hit that damn insurance homer that might not have happened had Santana stayed in the game. Yes, a two-homer game off Santana is something I have to see to believe.

I have to give credit to Nick Punto for making a great catch late in this game—not just a great catch, but one with props and style points. Punto looked like he was going to dive into the stands for the ball, but then he stopped and thought “wait a minute: Jeter already did that, Jermaine Dye already did that, I have to do something different, something creative,” so he leapt up, reached out, and caught the ball while getting his spikes caught in the netting of a pitchback near the bullpen. You can’t make this stuff up. So anyways this got him a perfect 50 from the NBA dunk contest panel. Ok, so maybe you can make some of this stuff up.

Everyone hates all games played in domes. Why? Is it unnatural? Yes. Is it unholy and not the way God intended? How should I know? But where else will you see the things you see in these wacky games? Doubles off the hefty bag in right, pop flies hitting catwalks and speakers, outfielders losing balls in white backgrounds, high bounces on artificial turf, an excuse to amplify raucous crowd noise in one giant indoor echo, and overall just an alternate look to the game. Considering that artificial turf is disappearing from the game, and domes are mostly being replaced by actual ballparks or at least those retractable roof compromises, you don’t see much of these kinds of wacky Nintendoball games anymore. I say enjoy them while they’re still around, unholiness and all.

The Cardinals must have entered the postseason in one of the worst slides of all time. Yet you watch one of their games and can’t help but realize this is still the same core of players who made the LCS last year and the World Series the year before. They still have Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds (now returned), Eckstein, and Carpenter starting for them. It’s hard to say they don’t have a fighting chance regardless of their recent past.

Early in Cards-Padres game 1, Pujols pops it up behind home plate. Here comes Piazza throwing off the mask and trying to catch a foul pop behind home plate. “Now’s your chance, Mike,” I think to myself. “To show everyone you’re not really that bad of a catcher defensively, to show everyone you’re not too old to play this game. Just settle under and squeeze like most catchers do … never mind.” Piazza not only missed the pop fly, he ran into the backstop screen while the ball dropped two inches next to him so he looked even worse. And then Pujols hit a monster blast … and Piazza looked even worse again. Maybe the Mets did the smart thing after all.

Here’s a perfect example of how a pennant race can disguise the truth. The Cardinals slide made you forget that their team really isn’t that bad, while the Padres hot streak to win the West made you forget that their team really isn’t that good. Funny how that works. Look at their lineup. Dave Roberts, Piazza, who else? Carpenter pitched like an ace, Peavy pitched like he wanted the old bald guy with the robe in the Padres’ logo to make contact.

Another brilliant thing about baseball in the 21st century that came up plenty of times today: managerial interviews during crucial playoff games. This just blows my mind. Let’s make a manager talk about key moves and moments of a game as its unfolding, risk not making crucial moves during an inning because he is obligated to speak to the press, and get second-guessed about the bad move he made last inning. He has to step out of character and speak formally when he really shouldn’t have to (isn’t it bad enough to only have to deal with the media after the game is over?). But the worst repercussion is what happened in game three of the 2004 World Series. Tony LaRussa was interviewed right after pitcher Jason Marquis forgot that it was OK to score from third on a routine grounder to the right side and got picked off first base by David Ortiz. It was a completely demoralizing event, and the disoriented skipper had to talk about it only minutes later. I’d be pretty pissed too. Yet for some reason LaRussa is still doing these silly interviews. Get the manager’s take after the game, guys.

Has anyone fallen from grace farther and quicker than the Mets? No Pedro, now quite possibly no El Duque, and they don’t know who to pitch. The rumblings about this seem strange. When it was reported that the Yankees’ Randy Johnson had been speculated to be out, it was still ruled possible he could still be healthy to go. El Duque is a Cuban warrior, made to pitch in awful conditions before coming here. He strains a calf during sprinting/stretching exercises (oh the irony) and nothing has been confirmed on an MRI and everyone is already writing him off? If he is out, it may be a death blow to the Mets, or it may not. At this point, no one has any idea how good or how old El Duque is anymore. If these injuries keep up though, at some point you’re going to run out of capable starters.

Anyone notice how quickly ESPN games go compared to how slowly FOX games go? ESPN has about an 8 minute pre-game segment, and makes no demands in terms of commercial breaks, and very little post-game coverage. Games seem to fly by because the game is all you’re watching. Bells-and-whistles FOX has to have a big 21 minute pre-game show so they can run ads, ads, and more ads. Then they stretch the time between innings for more ads. The Kennedy-Zelasko pregame-postgame segments at the studio really mean nothing anymore.

If anything in baseball is a sure thing (and it usually isn’t), the Yankees should beat the Tigers violently and relentlessly over the head with a jagged caveman’s club for three straight games. Or so I keep telling myself. My faith in this is confirmed by the Yankees five run third inning of Yanks-Tigers game one. All five runs scored with nobody out.

Said faith was shaken by the spirited Tigers comeback. This is supposed to be just a bad team coming in. They are a team that could not beat the Royals at home one out of three with a division title on the line. ‘Nuff said. Detroit scored three in the fifth, and the teams later trade a run each to make it 7-4. Suddenly Tim McCarver is referring to the Yankee bullpen as their “soft underbelly” once again (I’m almost certain he used that exact term at some time during last year’s Angels series). All this after Torre decided the Yankee bullpen was so good that Rivera only needed to pitch the ninth inning from now on. Come on Joe … this is the playoffs now, remember? (continued on Part II)

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