Game of the Week

I’ve never cared much for the National League. There are people who like the small ball; those who believe that’s the purists way to play the game, the way it was before all these over muscled sluggers came to the park. I myself, don’t appreciate the slappy little smack hits, nor do I have an appreciation for waiting with fervent anticipation to find out whether or not a pitcher can lay down a sacrifice bunt.

I’ve always been partial to the American League. Sure it’s partly because my team, the Blue Jays play in this league, but it’s also partly because of the fact that the American League has the slugging style that I’ve come to admire. In baseball there’s nothing better than some good ol’ fashioned rawhide smashin’.

Nonetheless I was busy during what were probably the real games of the week (LSU-Kentucky; I caught the end, and Patriots-Cowboys), and the other article I had planned fell through. So you and me both are stuck with this game.

Man, the Rockies are getting arrogant. The press-conference before this game was ripe with comments from Rockies players who are clearly very impressed with themselves. The goalie on my hockey team is from Denver, and even he talks like this now. I guess if they’ve won 19 of their last 20 they’ve forgotten what it feels like to lose. For some reason I wouldn’t be surprised if they lose this series.

Okay, to set up the contest for you, the D-Backs are sending Livan Hernandez to hill and the Rockies are going with the ‘Dragon Slayer’ Josh Fogg. The pre-game show had a piece on how Hernandez is calm under pressure because he’s from Cuba. I was only half listening but what I came away with is that Major League Baseball is not as nerve racking as fearing for your life, which is how Hernandez passed his time in Cuba. That’s not taken verbatim.

On the other side of the ball, Fogg is called the Dragon Slayer because he beat Curt Schilling, Mike Mussina, Derek Lowe, Jake Peavy and Brandon Webb. He also went 10-9 this year. I saw him pitch in the NLDS and he was less than impressive. So, if you’re throwing out your ace, he’ll win. If you play anyone else, you’ll win. Sounds like a fair trade to me.

Top 1st- It’s raining pretty hard. One fellow feels he’s never seen a MLB game started with this much precipitation before. That was verbatim. Chris Young opens with a base hit and then Stephen Drew bloops one into center field. Much is being made of the big outfield at Coors Field; I’ll keep an eye on this story line.

Eric Byrnes, who was doing some talking before the game steps up with two on and no outs and promptly hits the ball into Fogg’s glove, and the D-Backs narrowly avoid having a triple play turned on them.

Bottom 1st- Rockies center fielder Willy Taveras opens with a bunt. He is thrown out easily at first by the pitcher. Now THAT’s baseball. Gotta love the NL.

Matt Holliday shuts me up big time with a huge solo home run. They say he’ll be the MVP and maybe he should be. Jimmy Rollins made history, but the Phillies bats didn’t get it done when they had to.

Top 2nd- I saw a stat that showed the Rockies hit .308 with RISP and 2 outs. This is extremely impressive. There’s not much going on right now in the game, so I thought this was as good a time as any to bring this up.

After another D-Backs single, Troy Tulowitzki makes an incredible turn at second for the double play. The Rockies are talking the big game, and they’re backing it up right now as well.

In a related story it’s nearly impossible to do these live journals. I get distracted by the typing, and I missed the last play while researching some stats. Thank goodness for replays. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to give you that stunning and accurate description of what took place.

Bottom 2nd- A clip is run of all the catastrophic things that have happened to the D-Backs at 2nd base this series. It is actually surprising considering it’s only the third game and already tonight they’ve been burned there twice. Nonetheless it’s a bad sign if the excuses are coming out already and you’ve only played two games.

Top 3rd- While I’m thinking about it, there are some great Holiday Inn commercials out right now. Obviously the Cal Ripken one is hilarious, but now that same guy is back and he’s been tanning.

Bottom 3rd- Great news! After doing a simple search, I found that you can view the Holiday Inn commercial here.

While I was looking that up, the Rockies ended the inning with another double play, their third of the game, meaning they’ve turned one every inning tonight. And while I was doing that, Yorvit Torrealba hit a double off the wall in center. I am missing everything.

Josh Fogg is at the plate. He hit .132 this year with 1 RBI. But hey, he had 9 sacrifice bunts! I’m going to keep milking this joke because, as it turns out, baseball is not very funny on its own.

Fogg draws a walk. I’m assuming the D-Backs are looking for a double play, but for some reason, I think this is going to backfire in a massive way.

Turns out I’m wrong again. Hernandez struck out mighty Matt Holliday to end the inning.

Top 4th- Mark Reynolds hits a two-out home run and finally the D-Backs show some life. Really, this is a game they need to win. Josh Fogg isn’t that great of a pitcher, he puts the ball in play and relies heavily on a good defense behind him. Livan Hernandez has the upper hand, especially since he’s never nervous, so if the D-Backs lose this game, they’ve earned their fate.

Bottom 4th- Our gracious hosts welcome us back from commercial with more jokes about the cold. These guys are really funny. I mean, I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. Then again, I should withhold my sarcasm, as this column isn’t very funny either. Ah, there’s nothing quite so refreshing as hypocrisy.

Great catch by 2nd baseman Augie Ojeda! I won’t even try to describe it because there’s no time to do it justice. Is this a shift in momentum? I have no idea. Does baseball have momentum?

Reynolds follows up his home run heroics by nearly throwing the ball into the dugout. Now, instead of getting out of the inning the D-Backs are stuck trying to get out of this jam. Is this a shift in momentum? Just kidding.

Torrealba grounds out to third.

Top 5th- I’ve been telling everyone who’ll listen that the World Series will be won by an AL team regardless of who gets in. I’m not going back on that, but for the Rockies to win 19 of their last 20 games is really impressive.

Another great defensive play for Colorado, this time by Garrett Atkins at third. He dives to his left, jumps up, and guns out Ojeda at first, stealing extra bases from Augie. Great name by the way: Augie.

Don’t look now but Livan Hernandez just got a base hit. Well what do you know? They say he’s a good hitting pitcher. However, I am still not impressed. Why you ask? Because it’s my column and I can be a jerk if I want.

Bottom 5th- Commercials allow for great thinking time and I remembered a rant I had about baseball. Pitchers and hitters should not be allowed to step of the mound or out of the box after they’ve stepped in. After a pitch is fine, but once they step back in, no calling for time; if you’re not ready, it’s your problem. Same for the pitcher—no resetting, or stepping off before you’re set. This would help games move quicker and also would allow weakness to be exploited. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Meanwhile, Taveras tried to bunt again. Three plate appearances, three bunts. I don’t care how fast you are, get on base (legitimately) and then wreak havoc. Sacrifice bunts are understandable (in the playoffs) but leadoff bunts make me want to smash things. Taveras got out, but I wasn’t paying attention as to how.

Rockies catch yet another break as Kaz Matsui is called safe on a ground ball when replays show he’s clearly out. This is eerie. First the Rockies get into the playoffs on a blown call, and now they’re catching every break on both sides of the diamond. Feels a little like destiny.

Top 6th- D-Backs get the leadoff man, Stephen Drew, on base and should probably steal here. Drew does run on a Tony Clark dribbler and gets into scoring position with two outs.

Now, the Rockies have 6 two-out RBI’s in this series compared to just 1 by the D-Backs. If Arizona doesn’t cash this in, I refuse to remain neutral in this game. Mark Reynolds is at the dish and he strikes out LOOKING if you can believe it.

It’s official: I’m not on the Rockies bandwagon, but to put it more accurately, I’m cheering against the Diamondbacks. Say what you will about the Rockies getting the breaks, if you can’t get the bat off your shoulder in the 6th inning of an NLCS game with a chance to drive in a go-ahead run, you don’t deserve to win.

Bottom 6th- Come to think of it I haven’t given much thought as to who I’d like to see win the World Series this year. For the BWC predictions I picked the Yankees, because they were hot down the stretch and were supposed to be playing like the Rockies are now.

Would I have wanted the Yankees to win? Probably not.

I saw a feature story this year where Big Papi brought a kid with a terminal illness to Fenway, and gave him a uniform and took BP with him and just spent the day chilling with this kid at the ballpark. It was heart warming, and though I’ve been told I have no heart, I do recall feeling emotions after seeing this piece. I think this is enough to sway me into cheering for the Red Sox. That, and the way Manny Ramirez celebrated his walk-off home run in Game Two of the ALDS.

If the Sox do succumb to the Indians, I’ve decided this wouldn’t be such a bad thing, because you have to respect how the Indians play the game. In a related story, Paul Luikart will be mud wrestling Bryan Allain in the rain at Coors Field after this game to determine where my loyalties will lie.

While I wasn’t paying attention there are two on, two out and a full count happening for the Rockies. This is a big pitch—and the catcher wants to talk about it. This is the stuff I’m talking about! He shouldn’t be allowed to have this meeting. The crowd was up, the moment was there, and now we have to wait. After all that talking Torrealba fouled one off. Glad we waited for that.

The drama unfolds with a three-run home run from Yorvit Torrealba. Three more two-out RBI’s. I’d like to point out that with runners in scoring position and two strikes against Torrealba managed to take a swing. The full count helps, but still.
After a single Hernandez is yanked from the game in lieu of Tony Pena.

Top 7th- Craig Sager reports that the grounds crew is running out of the ‘diamond dry’ material they’ve been putting on the infield to keep it as dry as possible. Apparently they’ve used over 95 bags. I’m impressed they keep 100 bags on hand. That’s Y2K level preparation. Do they also ration chalk? Is there a bomb shelter?

Fogg’s day is also done, he’s handing it over to the famed (of late) Rockies bullpen.

Augie Ojeda lays down a bunt with nobody on and two out. He is promptly retired, ending the inning. I have shivers from the excitement.

Bottom 7th- The graphic shows that the D-Backs have left 23 men left on base in the series. That’s over three games. What a choke show.

Sager is back to report that they have now run out of ‘diamond dry’ but fear not! A local warehouse has dropped off 40 bags of crushed gravel. We are all relieved.

Another two-on, two-out situation for the Rockies. After working the count full, the fourth ball is issued and the bases are juiced. A bases loaded situation is one of the best in all of sports. Meanwhile, there is a pitching change.

Speaking of change, this is also something we should amend. The pitcher warms up in the bullpen, and then comes out and warms up on the mound. This makes no sense. I know he needs to get acclimated to the mound and all that, but can’t they just make all the mounds the same in every park? A little more work before hand, but the payoff is immeasurable. Well I guess the measurement would be that it saves me 2 minutes of my life. Completely worth it.

Troy Tulowitzki has a .478 average with the bases loaded this season, but gets down 0-2 in the count early and then eventually pops out to right field.

Top 8th- The ‘Backs get a leadoff single and then go out three straight.

Bottom 8th- This half inning would have been otherwise unremarkable except for the fact that Willy Taveras did not attempt a bunt!

Top 9th- What is Frank TV? TBS apparently believes that ambiguity is the best form of advertising because I’ve seen this promo clip 13, 000, 000 times and I don’t know what this guy does.

The D-Backs went quietly in the ninth, and so THE ROCKIES ARE GOING TO THE WORLD—— oh wait, not yet. We’ll have to wait until Monday night.