2041

Glad I made it home in time to start watching the game instead of relying on the DVR…would’ve had a nice long rain delay before the recording shut off.

Nice work, Ogando!

2042

Interesting roster decision by the Cardinals for the NLCS.

In the NLDS, starter Jake Westbrook didn’t come close to coming into a game (Ok, in Game 2 he was the last reliever in the bullpen, but even so he never even unzipped his jacket.) Meanwhile, in the final game of the LDS, Skip Schumaker had to be lifted with a sprained oblique. He’s likely done for the postseason.

So…Cardinals are going with 12 pitchers, which means a short bench for LaRussa. If you figure that TLR won’t pinch-hit with his backup catcher, that leaves just 4 pinch-hitters: Daniel Descalso/Ryan Theriot, Allen Craig, Adron “Collider” Chambers, and Nick Punto. That’s a little scary…

…but the 2 pitchers they added to the roster are interesting. Westbrook gets dumped off the roster with a “broken toe” (one wonders if they held him down and did a Kathy Bates on him). Added to the roster is Kyle McClellan and Lance Lynn.

McClelllan starter the year off in the rotation, after spending 3 seasons as the primary 8th inning setup guy. By the end of the year his arm was dead with the heaviest innings total he’d ever carried. He’s had 2 weeks of rest, at least. What’s interesting and what will be missed I think, is that Mac has some kind of crazy reverse splits going on. Thanks to relying on a heavy 2-seam fastball, Kyle has a .206 BAA vs. lefties. Essentially he gives LaRussa a third LOOGY (righthanded hitters rake McClellan at a .297 BAA pace) to put up against Prince Fielder and Nyjer Morgan.

The other addition to the pitching staff intrigues me far more. When the Cardinals acquired Octavio Dotel and Mark Zep-chin-sky (who will now be known as “Scrabble” henceforth) at the end of July, they’d seemingly already found their 8th inning setup guy. Lance Lynn is a gigantic man-beast, but was frustrating as hell for the team. He spent two years in the minors as a starter showing a fastball that–with a good breeze behind it–maybe topped out at 91 mph. Last season in AAA, struggling and losing his “prospect” tag due to poor velocity, someone in the organization noticed that Lance Lynn was short-arming the ball. They began tinkering with his delivery. By August of last year his fastball was topping at 93. In Spring Training this year he impressed by hitting 94. He got a brief look as a starter in May of this past year at the big league level, but got sent down…and then brought up again in June, this time to be used as a reliever.

And as a reliever, with a stronger delivery and with short innings to throw, he flourished. Fastball started topping at 96-97 with movement. In 24 relief innings, dude fanned 32 hitters, gave up 15 hits, put up a .176 BAA and became one of the most trusted relievers the team had in a little over a month. With the two new guys from Toronto, the Cardinal bullpen looked very strong…and then Lynn pulled an oblique on August 9 and went on the 60-day DL. He was just activated, and is on the active roster for the NLCS. I know the Milwaukee bullpen is a huge strength for them, but if Lynn can shake off the rust, having him with Motte, Dotel, Salas, and Scrabble gives the Cardinals a very good pen in their own right to match up.

Should be a fun series. Hope it goes 7 games.

2043

ALCS game two postponed until tomorrow. Tigers lose Ordonez for the rest of the way.

2044

That was an amazing Houdini job by the Tigers.

2045

That was one crazy, intense game capped perfectly by Nelson Cruz. Oh man (also the first walk-off grand slam in playoff history by the way). Worried about the bullpen situation now, since the Rangers went through both long relievers in this game (Feldman and Ogando), but this also means Wilson could possibly go in Game 4 should Game 3 get messy. In any event, Colby Lewis will need to go deep and I expect Uehara to finally make an appearance.

— Alan

2046

Cards are beating the bloody hell out of the Brewers tonight. I thought both starters might have bad nights (Jackson not a lot of success in Milwaukee, and Marcum isn’t great at home either), but the Cards are holding up pretty well.

— Alan

2047

I’m pleased that the Cards took one of the first pair in Milwaukee.

2048

Brewers are crazy good in their home park, and Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder are about as scary a 1-2 punch as you’ll ever find in the postseason (Braun seems to be playing slow-pitch softball out there, in fact.) That said, the Brewers might have a real pitching problem on their hands.

Shawn Marcum was a fantastic addition to their staff this year. Throughout the summer, he threw a fastball that topped out at 91 mph. That’s important, because Shawn’s best pitches are his changeup and his cut fastball. He needs his regular 91 mph fastball to keep hitters from sitting back.

For the last month, though, Marcum’s fastball has been topping at 88-89. Last night it was 87, with a few 88’s. That’s bad. Cardinal hitters just sat back and waited on him, and Marcum didn’t really miss any bats. Greinke has been hit around of late. Wolf got his tits ripped by the D-backs as well. In fact, Brewer starting pitchers not named Yovani have a postseason ERA of 11.32.

The Cardinals may be too squirrelly to beat the Brewers…but even if the Brew Crew does prevail against them in this series, the Rangers are going to maul them.

2049

The Boston Globe has a fascinating look at the dysfunction in the Red Sox clubhouse, including Francona, as they collapsed down the stretch.

2050

Tonight’s game in STL is looking more and more likely to be a rainout. Which team does that hurt more if a Game 7 in Milwaukee is Carp vs. Gallardo on 3 days rest?

2051

Which is probably part of the reason Theo is leaving for the Cubs as well. It makes it seem that both Epstein and Francona feel its an unsalvageable situation even though they were basically the ones who created it.

Good luck to the next guys, apparently.

2052

To Epstein, the move had to be a no-brainer. You took over a franchise that hadn’t won in 100 years and built a team that won two championships. Why stick around as the team goes south and leave people questioning whether you just got lucky?

Instead, you get offered a big bag of money to take over another franchise that’s never won, and if you achieve the impossible and win a championship there as well, you get elevated to one of the great executives in the history of the sport. That had to be an easy call for Theo.

2053

While I don’t see it as too likely that the Tigers will be able to take the ALCS from the Rangers, I would love to see them get a rematch with the Cards in the WS.

The old-timer in me hate, hate, hated seeing an 83 win team take it all - they won fair and square under the system as designed (getting hot + short series), but it still rubs me the wrong way! I say this as a complete hypocrit since the Tigers were the AL wildcard team that year (albeit with 95 wins).

2054

I don’t doubt there was dysfunction, but this article is kind of a train wreck. Why can’t Gonzalez complain about flying into airports at 4 a.m. on game days? That sounds like it sucks to me too. But no: turns out this “smacked of the self-interest that is uncommon among leaders of championship-caliber teams.”

We’re also given the news flash that Youkilis is “detached and short-tempered.” Remember last year when the same demeanor meant that he was fiery and intense? Ellsbury was awesome and worked hard but “contributed little to the clubhouse culture” because he was buddies with Jed Lowrie? Ortiz “disrespected” Francona by advocating for Aceves? Wakefield was “more interested in himself than the team” because he wanted 200 wins? Most of the article is pretty small beer.

Speaking of beer, the drinking and fried chicken in the clubhouse thing is probably the most egregious activity, but this was done by starting pitchers who weren’t playing that day anyway, so it didn’t affect game outcomes. Of course, it doesn’t speak well for their dedication to conditioning, which apparently was a legit complaint this year.

Finally, the suggestion that Francona was impaired by an addiction to pain pills is dirty pool. You need more than anonymous sources if you are going to run with this kind of accusation.

As the saying goes, “Chemistry is a three-game win streak.” If Dan Johnson whiffs while Papelbon gets out number three, the Red Sox go to the playoffs and this is all water under the bridge. The 2004 Sox did shots of Jack Daniels before playoff games, won the World Series, and now they’re fondly remembered as the “idiots.”

2055

I think Gonzalez comes across as a baby. You’re making 21 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR, and you’re complaining that your team plays too many Sunday night games? Boo fucking hoo.

Has he considered that part of the reason the Red Sox could afford to give him a $150 million contract was because of their popularity, which means that yeah, you might have to put up with a few extra Sunday Night ESPN games as a tradeoff? Seems like a lame complaint to me.

But yeah, overall, no one complains about this stuff until you lose. When you win, you can do whatever you want, have all the clubhouse screwyness you want, and everyone just laughs it off. It’s not until you lose that it becomes a big deal.

2056

Wow, for all his talent, Miguel Cabrera runs really freaking slow.

I mean, on what should have been an easy sac fly to deep right, the catcher had time to make a sandwich before Cabrera finally arrived at home for the easy tag at the plate.

2057

I don’t understand why the Red Sox think it’s good policy to allow pitchers in the starting rotation who are not playing to drink during games. What good can come of that? And can’t the pitchers wait a few hours until the game is over before cracking open the beers?

2058

Wow, that was amazing…I’m shocked they walked limp-along Beltre for Napoli’s bat! Thank you, Detroit!

And thank you Cruz!!

2059

Cardinals looked as if they were ripe for the taking tonight with the score 4-3 in after five…

…and then they get 4 perfect innings–including Jason Motte fanning 3 of 4 hitters–to close it out from the bullpen.

Cardinals don’t trade Colby Rasmus in July, they’re playing golf right now.

2060

One of the Tigers fans described Cabrera running at “turtle speed”. Anybody with legs could have run that in from third–that was fairly deep. At Comerica. And Cruz’s throw was super on the ball. I think Napoli caught it, turned, and was totally shocked that Cabrera was no where close to plowing into him yet.

Bullpen got worked a bit and I was wondering if Washington insisting on using Ogando to quickly replace pitchers was going to bite him in the ass and it practically did. Harrison probably had another inning left in him (91 pitches)… but it would be getting a little close. And of course it’s all second-guessing if he gave up the tying run instead. Oliver and probably Feldman, not to mention Ogando, will be unavailable tomorrow… Uehara is suspect at this point, so again both long relievers are out in case anything goes wrong tomorrow. And with Wilson’s post-season luck continuing… against Verlander no less… hrmmm.

Cards-Brewers was funky… I would have expected a nasty run-fest after those first three innings but pretty much fizzled out after that. Freese however… wow. He’s totally stepped up.

— Alan