Walks in the Park

The Catbird in the Nosebleed Seats ^ | October 28, 2010 | Yours truly

[BluesDuke]

So what happened to the great pitching duels we were supposed to see in at least the first and maybe the first two World Series games? One of them got obliterated in what threatened to become a San Francisco Giants blowout, and the second got walked not so gently into that good gray night by a Texas Rangers bullpen to whom the strike zone suddenly seemed low, away, inside, or all the above.

And when the Rangers' walking men finished gift-wrapping what turned out to be a second straight night's six-or-better run inning, the bottom of the eighth, Aaron Rowand---yet another of the Giants' revival projects---hit a two-run triple so far that you could have forgiven Texas center fielder Josh Hamilton and right fielder Nelson Cruz for calling the police to report a missing ball.

They probably should have called to report a missing bullpen. Or, at least, a bullpen missing its ability to work the strike zone, especially after Andres Torres swatted Rowand home with a clean slash of a single to left.

Darren O'Day, who'd begun the inning in relief of Darren Oliver, could only shake his head in the Rangers' dugout. Remember how this inning opened? he must have wondered to himself. Back-to-back swishouts. OK, it got a little hairy getting Torres to open, and the guy managed to fight me off to a ninth pitch, on 3-2, but I nailed the sonofabitch and then got that double-dealing Freddy Sanchez on three straight.

Spoken often enough was new principal owner Nolan Ryan's first rule of pitching: First pitch strike. Until he walked Cody Ross after an epic contest of will to open the San Francisco seventh, C.J. Wilson got the hang of the rule, slowly but surely. His relief, Darren Oliver, got it right away---the only first pitch he didn't throw for a strike, to Juan Uribe, cost him an RBI single on the next pitch, but Oliver kept the Giant lead to 2-0 and nobody had any reason to believe anything amiss might come next, except possibly for the Rangers tying the game soon enough.

Except that Matt Cain, the Giants' starter, managed to remember the unspoken followup clause to Ryan's Rule in the top of the eighth---if you can't throw a first pitch strike, you'd better make bloody well sure the other guys don't get much profit out of it. Which is what happened when he threw his only ball one of the inning, costing him a one-out walk to Elvis Andrus. Next two batters---first-pitch strikes. Next two batters (Michael Young and Josh Hamilton)---fly to right, fly to center.

Cain also managed to remember the same clause two innings earlier, when he squirmed out of first and second on a pair of one-out singles (Young and Hamilton) and second and third on a wild pitch (to Cruz) by luring a foul out to first (Cruz) and a fly out to right (Ian Kinsler).

The Rangers bullpen behind O'Day must have missed the memo. And, the top of the eighth. In fact, O'Day fought Torres back after starting him with ball one. He threw the only first strike of the inning en route bagging Sanchez on three straight. And when Buster Posey swatted a 2-1 service up the pipe, with Nate Schierholtz coming up offering a none-too-guaranteed threat and Derek Holland coming in to relieve O'Day, the Rangers may have thought it wouldn't be too long before they could get another crack at the Giants, possibly a Giant relief pitcher.

But Schierholtz looked at four straight unintentional balls.

And Ross looked at four straight unintentional balls.

And Holland had the nerve to interrupt the burgeoning San Francisco walkathon on 3-0 to Aubrey Huff with a called strike, before serving up ball four and sending Posey home.

And Mark Lowe threatened to halt the walkathon when he recovered from ball one on Uribe to drop one called strike and pound one swinging strike on the Giants' third baseman. But Lowe regrouped to the script in plenty of time to throw Uribe three straight balls and send Schierholtz home.

Then Edgar Renteria decided he'd seen enough of his mates walking on the job. As well he might. He'd hit a strike one pitch from Wilson into the left field seats in the fifth to break the scoreless tie in the first place. Now, following three straight balls and two called strikes, he was in no mood to slip into his walking shoes. He sliced one to left for a two-run single.

And Rowand---pinch hitting for Mike Fontenot, who was supposed to be a pinch hitter for Giants reliever Javier Lopez, until Ron Washington brought in Michael Kirkman to relieve Lowe---was in even less of a mood to strap on the walking shoes after looking at two balls and swinging for a strike. What he was in the mood for was to hit something somewhere. He hit it to that no-man's-land at the back of right center field.

Leaving the Rangers to wish they really were in no man's land instead of in AT&T Park in an 8-0 hole.

Finally, Kirkman got ahead of Torres, 1-2, before Torres banged a double to the back of left field and the Rangers found themselves in a 9-0 hole destined to hold when Guillermo Mota, yet another San Francisco resurrection (and once a lights-out setup man for the Los Angeles Dodgers), survived a two-out walk to David Murphy by luring pinch-hitter Jeff Francoeur into lofting a long foul down the right field side for which Schierholtz saddled his horse to haul down for the game.

Pitching duels?

Cliff Lee chose to attack the strike zone in Game One, something that doesn't normally earn his vittles, and he got attacked a little bit before his bullpen got nuked. Tim Lincecum chose to spend the same game staying at least within range of the zone and managed to get away with it, though he wasn't even close to the form that won him a pair of Cy Youngs back to back.

Wilson and Cain spent most of Game Two providing the pitching duel the world expected of Lee and Lincecum. About the only other truly dicey spot for Wilson, before Renteria teed off, was Kinsler's fifth-inning leadoff loft to the back of center field that hit the absolute top of the wall and missed being ruled a bomb by about a hair. Cain had little trouble squelching that one with an infield lineout and two infield groundouts sandwiching a free pass to Mitch Moreland.

Just why Washington called for not even a peep from Neftali Feliz, his closer, even with the Rangers down 2-0 but with two Giant outs to open the eighth and Posey on first, is going to be pondered for a very long time. Remember, boys---it's a lot easier to overthrow a two-run deficit than it is a nine-run hole.

Even when the Rangers' bulls had only walked the bases loaded while there were still two out and nobody scoring just yet, here's where Washington might have remembered Casey Stengel's rulebook---you need a stopper like right now. Assuming the Rangers might tie or go ahead in the ninth, with Cruz and Kinsler the first two hitters scheduled to bat, why wouldn't you ask Feliz to give you four outs to finish it out?

About the only thing that can squelch that conversation would be a Texas uprising back in Arlington. It wouldn't necessarily be impossible even if you're down two games to none, but it wouldn't necessarily be simple, either.

[Doomonyou]

Texas ha s a team ERA of 10.00 after two games. Who woulda thunk it?

GO GIANTS!!!!

[Grams A]

GO GIANTS!!!!

Being from Houston, this is the only time I would ever support a Dallas team. Boo hiss Giants!

[jiggyboy]

That eighth inning was painful to watch, and I’m rooting for the Giants.

[Mariner]

This Giants rotation AND bullpen is the best in the majors. MAYBE best all time.

The bats, I have no idea where they came from...unless AL pitching is just SO much weaker, overall than NL.

I still say Giants in 5.

[canuck_conservative]

Especially in October baseball, it ain’t over till it’s over ....

Texas’ performance in the first 2 games was truly horrific, hopefully they just got some WS rookie jitters and can wake up at home. They’re better than this!!

[Sporke]

The Giants held serve in their park, nothing more. If the Rangers do the same at home, then I like their chances. Personally, I think the Giants won because Pelosi was there. Ranger players are used to seeing gorgeous Texas women in the stands. Pelosi would be more than enough to throw any team off their game....

[at bay]

“The Giants held serve in their park, nothing more. “

Bet money you didn’t see the game.

Speaking of money, when I see a manager fare as poorly as Washington, I think of the tens of millions bet on these games and the one guy that could throw it.........he’s on my radar.

[at bay]

Still, I respect what you did for the colonel in combining the spoon and fork and wonder if you also might have had a hand in the wetnap.

Tissue?

[Rodney Dangerfield]

TX must win 4 of 5 against the Giants, including a possible two games in SF - not going to happen.

Giants in 6 games tops.

SF need only win 2 of 5, including the aforementioned 2 possible remaining games in SF

If the Giants win on Saturday or even on Sunday, this series is finished.

TX must win 2/3 or 3/3 at home to have a shot, which is unlikely and even if they do, they will have to face Lincecum and Cain again.

And the TX bullpen is rattled as the Giants weak hitters are living in their heads and have put up a staggering 20 runs in the first two games against TX pitching, which was supposedly the strength of the Rangers.

As mentioned in a post above, the Giants have the best pitching staff in all of baseball.

Their starting 4 are all 26 years or younger and guys like Johnny Sanchez and Madison Baumgarner will only get better, as will Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain. And they have Reinier Roibal and Zach Wheeler dominating in the minors.

BTW, someone made the following sign before Game 2, which was seen in the crowd on local TV right after the game: Oh, and the East Coast media is livid - you could hear Tim Mc Carver's irritation with the Giants winning game 1 and game 2 coming thru your TV

He sounded like he bet a ton of money on TX

I spent a lot of time at cold, windy, cavernous Candlestick Park in my younger years and have been waiting 40 years for the Giants to win a World Series.

My wait may end as soon as Halloween night.

[RayChuang88]

Here's what killing the Rangers so far: AT&T Park.

Why? Because of the shape the outfield from center to right field, unless you're a really strong hitter (e.g., steroid era hitter like Barry Bonds) the park is NOT home-run friendly. And players not used to the sheer size of the center and right fields at AT&T Park will play poorly, as witnessed by OF Vladimir Guerrero figuratively dying out in right field during Game 1; it resulted in Guerrero not playing in Game 2, and as such the Giants could pitch around Josh Hamilton, who normally bats right after Guerrero in the batting order.

[BluesDuke]

Here's what killing the Rangers so far: AT&T Park.

The Giants' pitching isn't doing them any favours so far, either. AT&T Park is a good park to hit in if you're a righthanded hitter and you're not just trying to jump all over the pitcher, but the Giants' staff has been very good about pitching to the Ranger hitters' weaknesses with or without Guerrero and Hamilton back to back in the lineup.

Cliff Lee inexplicably fell away from his usual game plan---work the periphery of the zone instead of attacking it dead on. He attacked the zone against a lineup that thrives on it and he paid for it. But one thing to keep in mind: his postseason success until Game One obscured the fact that Cliff Lee isn't and hasn't been as great a pitcher as his postseasons have made him look. His postseasons until Wednesday night made him look like something resembling Sandy Koufax. So it's been said.

But in only two of his nine seasons has he looked like that pitcher: both times, he led the American League in winning percentage and in the second was he a 22-game winner; only once---in his 22-game winning season---was his earned run average below 3.00; his lifetime walks and hits per inning pitched average is 1.26. (He led the American League in that category for the first time this season, with a 1.00.) He's been a good pitcher in his career to date, but his lifetime ERA through the end of this season is 3.85. Now, marry that to that 1.26 lifetime WHIP.

That ain't Koufax.

I don't think the park size bothered Vladimir Guerrero so much as the inactivity playing the outfield did---he hadn't played much of any right field on the season and hasn't for the last couple of years, what with the injuries having worn him down to a designated hitter. (People forget now about the toll the old ard Olympic Stadium artificial turf took on him during those Montreal years, not to mention how he got worn down further during those otherwise stellar Angel seasons by pitchers throwing at him almost constantly, taking a certain advantage of Mike Scioscia's no-retaliation policies, policies I think hurt more than helped the Angels.) He was once a fine outfielder with an above average throwing arm but he's been worn down to a shadow defencively.