World Series Game Two, Cardinals at Tigers
Jeff Weaver versus Kenny Rogers. What crazy lineup will Leyland run out tonight? Will the Cardinals be dominated by a left-hander, or will LaRussa find the right buttons to push?
Tony LaRussa, incidentally, makes an extended appearance in “The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball“. Pre-order now.
Cardinals
SS-R David Eckstein
DH-B SCOTT SPIEZIO!!! featuring Jenn Pankratz
1B-R Pujols
3B-R Rolen
RF-R Encarnacion
CF-L Edmonds
LF-R P. Wilson
C-R Y Molina
2B-B Miles
That is insane. I don’t understand that lineup at all. Why would you do that? Oh well, LaRussa’s a genius, I’m sure Miles will go 4-4 with 2 SB or something ridiculous and make us look awful.
Tigers
CF-L Granderson
LF-R Monroe
2B-R Polanco
RF-R Ordonez
1B-B Guillen
C-R Rodriguez
DH-L Casey
3B-R Inge
SS-“B” Santiago
Again with that lineup. Huh.
World Series Game One, Cardinals at Tigers
As Kool-Aid Man says, “Oh yeah!”
Cardinals
SS-R David “The Golden Retriever” Eckstein (also: The Ignitor)
DH-L Duncan
1B-R Pujols
CF-L Edmonds
3B-R Rolen
RF-R Encarnacion
2B-R Belliard
C-R Y Molina
LF-R Taguchi TONY LA RUSSA = GENIUS!!!!oneone!!
Tigers
CF-L Granderson
LF-R Monroe
2B-R Polanco
RF-R Ordonez
1B-B Guillen (1b? I wonder who’s at short)
C-R Rodriguez
DH-L Casey (Casey at DH? what?)
3B-R Inge
SS-“B” Santiago
Yes, the Tigers are playing Carlos Guillen at first, the guy we traded him for at short, and Sean Casey is their DH. Wooow.
I wonder if this is a case of Leyland trying to out-LaRussa LaRussa. “Think you’re a genius, huh, like making weird moves, huh, well I made some weird moves in the ALCS and this one… heh heh heh… you’re not going to believe what I’ll do to play a good defensive third baseman.”
I’ve got some beer, some snacks… actually, I note that my snack stockpile is clearly inadequate for a World Series game and requires reinforcements. Excuse me for a minute.
Ahh, playoff baseball for 10/17
Glavine v Weaver in a battle to see who gets to lose to the Tigers! I’m excited.
Playoff Baseball for 10/15
Mets at Cardinals, RIGHT NOW!
Cards already up 1-0.
Playoff Baseball for 10/14
Oakland at Detroit, 1:30pm
New York at St. Louis, 5:05pm
Hooray (woosh) for games (ba-dum) with different (buzz) start times (ka-chunk).
Playoff Baseball for 10/10
Uh, it’s the third inning. But knock yourself out. Tigers vs. A’s.
We go three-for-three
Yankees v Tigers. Go Tigers! Woooo!
Not-live blog, NCDS Padres @ Cardinals
1:00pm: Chris “You’re With Me, Leather” Berman is an astoundingly bad baseball guy. Going from Jon Miller to Berman is possibly the most jarring transition ever.
Also, every Fox promo I’ve seen has been all about the Cardinals. But the Padres are easily their equal. Is there really no way to market the Cardinals?
1:02: Berman manages to use “rumbling, stumbling…” for the first time. To quote Bart Simpson, “Snipers, where are you?” We do get Orel, though, for color… who immediately says that the “stats don’t show..” Peavy’s good, because his W-L record is 11-14. WHEEEE!!
1:07: YWML does a toss to the third man in the booth, the guy on the field. It takes him about 20s to do the toss.
Eckstein! “What’s that coach? Time to go to playoffs? Is it? Is it?”
1:11: Eckstein can be an ignitor. Hee hee hee.
1:15: I remember when there was controversy over whether Peavy or Tankersley would be the better pitcher. Peavy just struck out Pujols. Anyone know what Tank’s up to?
1:23: ahhh, the cat-and-mouse game between pitcher and runner, the most exciting part of baseball
1:25: that’s a sweet double play by the Cardinals there
1:34: Orel talks for a minute about Peavy’s pitches and the relative difficulty, and it makes more sense than anything I’ve heard from a color guy in ages
1:45: I know this is a little obvious, but Peavy is sweeeeeeeet. 15th-round draft pick (472nd overall) in the 1999 draft.
1:49: Berman just used “literally” incorrectly. Arrrghhh.
1:54: I wonder if tonight’s game will turn out to be a tense, low-scoring affair too. Prrroooobably not.
2:00: These Peavy-Pujols matches are awesome
2:10: ahhhh, the old NL intentional walk
2:13 The Most Offensive Commercial Ever airs again.
2:23: Carpenter can get some incredible break on his pitches, just eye-popping. Gonzalez just saw one.
2:28: Orel just delivered a long speech about how they started Branyan off with soft stuff because, as a young player, he might be anxious… Branyan’s 30 with the hitting skillset of a 35-year-old slugger. Come on. And shockingly, despite YWML’s plea for a blooper, which is about as likely as getting insight from YWML, Branyan whiffs. TTO, folks.
2:38 Pujols hit a middling grounder up the middle and for just an instant, I thought “Oh, Betancourt’s got that, easy” and then saw the Padres shortstop pull up as it was already by him. We M’s fans have it good in some ways.
2:52 Piazza! On a pitchout! With the… throw!
3:09 during the “We scored!” celebration I saw a fan in the stands with one of the old Kroc McDonald’s-style jerseys. That’s dedication, wearing that thing.
3:16: the shadows remind me of Safeco’s afternoon shadows, where pitchers with brutal breaking stuff would throw them over and over and the batters would just shake their heads and walk back to the dugout
3:24: wow, Branyan went way down to get that, that was a golf swing triple
3:27: the wheels came off Carpenter fast. Ugh.
3:34: my cat makes an appearance, suddenly interested in the game. I guess she’s a Padres fan.
3:35: ooooh, she looks pissed
3:46: I trashed YWML, but he’s been remarkably restrained so far, especially compared to what I’ve seen out of him before. I’m not that annoyed at all.
Twins-A’s Liveblog in Semi-Real Time
Minnesota is in the throes of a late-summer renaissance. The weather is 80 degrees and clear, the baseball team’s torrid play clinched a division title on the last day of the season, and even such luminaries as Jonah Keri are taking notices.
I’m here, too, haunting the sports bars, hippie co-ops and collective bookstores. And I have tickets for the whole series on the 100 level, down the third base line.
The litany of events that brought me, alone, to attend the American League division series between the Twins and Oakland is too tumultuous and bizarre to fully recount here. Nevertheless, I am pleased to report that this may be the only baseball experience I have that Jonah has not had: the pleasure of attending a game in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Go baggie!
Given my recent absence from the site – you would not believe the amount of work that goes into moving out of the country, let alone other, less-enticing legal hassles – and given that my faithful bag o’ technology contains all the requisite elements of a liveblog experience, it seems clear what the correct course of action is here.
Because, after all, what do readers of a Seattle Mariner blog crave more than real-time dispatches from down the 3rd base line of a division rival’s playoff game?
It’s 1,395 miles to Seattle. I have a camera, a laptop, an ass pocket full of whiskey and internet access through my cell phone. I’m going to be inside a dome, wearing a hat.
Hit it. Read more
Game 162, Rangers at Mariners
Tejeda v Woods. 1:05.
The farewell lineup is
CF-L Ichiro
3B-R Beltre
C-R Johjima
LF-L Ibanez
DH-R Sexson
1B-L Broussard
2B-R Lopez
RF-L Snelling
SS-R Betancourt
I bet Bloomquist gets into the game