Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Baseball Update

Well that was frustrating. Really, in both games 3 and 4, the emotion was one of frustration. Frustration that the Sox were not coming through in big moments like they seemed to have in the regular season. Frustration that the breaks in the game were not going the Sox' way. Frustration that each game lost was there for the taking, but for a mistake in strategy (Game 2 - bringing in Gagne, leaving Tavarez off the playoff roster), a mistake in execution (Game 2 - the pen, Game 3 - Dice-K and the Double Plays, Game 4 - Wakefield knocking down the grounder that could have ended the horrendous 5th and Youk dropping the popus), or breaks gone the other way (Lofton's home run that barely made it over the fence, Wakefield's gaffe last night, the wide strike zone that cause Dice-K's pitch count to soar).

Still, after being down 3-1, I am disappointed, but still cautiously optimistic. Beckett goes in Game 5. If the Sox win tomorrow, Schilling goes at home in Game 6 (and don't forget, he was dominant in Game 3 against the Angels). I still firmly believe that the Sox bats will come back, in moments that matter (not the backtobacktoback or Varitek's homer), and that the breaks will start to even out. If the Sox lose, they will lose because of the lack of execution and the lack of breaks, not, because of some ridiculous half-baked "Sox have become the Yankees" hypothesis. Please.

This is the comment I left on Deadspin's page when i read that post.

Why does every sporting event need a meta-theory? This series does not need one.

Touring the Sox Blogs:

Jere is relatively optimistic, and points out something ridiculous McCarver said last night, reminding me of the time Steve Lyons said he'd rather a batter hit a triple than a home run in an inning because it "keeps the rally going".

Over the Monster is asking for it from the baseball karma gods. The Taxwife would not approve.

That's it for now. Taxes update and Death Update (really) t/k.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

joe morgan said the same thing on the radio the other night - a walk is better than a home run because it makes the pitcher work harder and leads to more multiple run innings. what happens when JD drew grounds into DP's though? idiots.

Jay said...

These guys just can't get their love for "smallball" out of their heads - yeah, it's life affirming when a team scores a run by walk, stolen base, sac bunt, sac fli, but that chain of events is much less likely than walk, strikeout, flyout, ground out. Hitters have little control over which outs are 'productive'.