Losing to Clemens isn't the worst thing in the world to fall back two games to one. Morris hasn't pitched well since June and I didn't really expect to win today. Still, Clemens didn't look great and Morris pitched well enough to keep the Cards in the game, so losing today hurt.
Clearly, the Cardinals lost today because the Astros had the roof on Minute Maid. This makes it loud, or so the announcers have told us about 100 times this postseason. With all that noise, the Cardinals were unable to call any audibles at all and were constantly jumping offsides. It was terrible. Seriously, who cares how loud it is? It's a baseball game. Am I supposed to believe that these professional athletes get inspired by all that noise? Does it make them try harder? I'd think they were all giving maximum effort anyway. They can keep the damn thing shut for all I care -- I don't think it makes a bit of difference in a baseball game.
Tomorrow Brandon Backe is going against Jeff Suppan. Suppan hasn't pitched in awhile, but his last few starts of the season were great. He had basically the best year of his career, posting an ERA much better than league average. He is a remarkably consistent pitcher -- in the last three years he's done the following: 204, 188, 194 IP; 217, 192, 206 H; 23, 25, 24 HR; 51, 65, 63 BB; 110, 110, 114 K. He's a better pitcher than Backe, but that's damning with faint praise. Suppan can pitch, gives you innings, and he's consistently league average or better -- he's a valuable guy at $2.5M/year. Backe's only good game of his career came last year in the NLCS -- I'm not worried...
Today's game was fairly forgettable. Clemens only K'd one in 6 innings, throwing 97 pitches, yet the Cards only touched him for two runs. Morris was very Morris-like, which is to say average again. He never looked sharp and was giving up line drive after line drive. I was thinking he should have been removed after 5 innings (the Cards had just tied it and I thought we were on borrowed time with Morris), and perhaps he would have been if the Cards had Al Reyes. Reyes's absence hurt again. The bullpen pitched well, though, but was unable to keep the inherted runners from scoring in the 6th.
At least the Cardinals finally scored a run against Lidge and even made the 9th inning slightly interesting. For that, I was thankful. He's not the greatest pitcher to ever live and I'm tired of the Cardinals making him like it.
There's a chance today's game was the last for Matt Morris as a Cardinal. He's always been one of my favorites as he's a great competitor and used to have great stuff. He's a free agent and it's likely that someone will pony up $21M for 3 years and it's likely that team will not be the Cardinals. I wish him luck wherever he goes. We still may see him in Game 7 of this series or in the World Series. Actually, after the Cardinals win the NLCS in 6 as I predicted, Morris will start Game 1 of the World Series. That'll be exciting.
I hope Abe Nunez is okay after Lane collided with him. Maybe it's just me, but that play looked dirty. I don't think Lane had to slide into Nunez at all -- had he not hit Nunez he would have landed parallel to the baseline and surely that isn't optimal. I have no idea if he's out for long, but his glove at third has been excellent and would be missed. Hector Luna, who could be the Cardinals' starting 2B next year, took over at third. His first action was Nuke-Laloosh-throwing-at-the-bull bad. It was one of the worst throws I've ever seen made by a major leaguer. His second action, however, was an incredible diving stab to his right followed by a cannon throw to first. Luna giveth, and Luna taketh away.
You know, the umps really do suck. Today Yadier Molina picked off Burke at first and the ump called him safe. In the ALCS game, there was an obvious catcher's interference call that went unnoticed by the men in blue, leading to more heartache for the Angels. I guess merit no longers gets you a postseason gig. It must be a rotation or politics or sexual favors.
The White Sox are rolling now, up 3 to 1. They're winning it the way they did all season -- great pitching, lots of homers, and terrible baserunning. They've lost a couple hundred baserunners in these four games. During the season, their SB% was just 67%, which is below the cut off for helping your team. If I have to listen to anyone tell me how the White Sox are a "small ball" team, I'm going to puke. They win in spite of their small ball tactics. They win because they have phenomenal pitching, very good defense, and plenty of power. They get on base at a less than league average pace, they get thrown out stealing more than the average team, and judging from this postseason, they don't have baserunning drills in spring training. And the Angels swing at everything -- at least the games are moving along at a pretty good clip. Maybe there is parity in the majors: every team is very flawed.
Let's hope Suppan has a little magic left in him. After all, last year he beat Clemens in Game 7 of the NLCS, giving up one earned run in 6 innings. I'll take more of that -- regardless of how rag-tag the Cards' lineup is tomorrow, they'll surely get to Backe. I think. I hope. Go Cards.
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