2006 World Series: Detroit vs. St. Louis

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

The Cradinals could use a few breaks, huh?

Ugh.

[Frayed Knot]

JEEEEE-ZUS!!!!

- Tiggers take an early 3-0 lead as they got to Soupbone early.

- The Cards then peck away with two seperate 2-out RBI hits.

- Now in the 7th, Eckstein leads off with a lazy fly to CF, but Granderson falls down and it goes for a double, then pitcher Rodney throws away Taguchi's sac bunt (and he had all kinds of time: Cue Fountains of Wayne) and the game is tied.

That's the 4th error so far in this series just by Detroit pitchers

[Zvon]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: The Cradinals could use a few breaks, huh? Ugh.

I guess "ugh" works as a sarcasm meter.

[Frayed Knot]

Cards grab the lead on yet another 2-out hit - one that should never have happened in this case cuz of the error.

4-3 heading for the 8th, Looper in for StL

[Guest cooby]

Damn it I'm sick of the Cardinals!!!! Come on Tigers!

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Brandon Inge comes up with some fuckinge huge hittinge to tie the game -- off Wainwright in for Loopy -- in the 8th.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's OK. Detroit is doing a good job beating themselves without the Cards.

[Guest Edgy DC]

And then Inge blows my mind...

[Zvon]

Grandersons gotta make up for playing slip and slide in center.

[Zvon]

...or horribly not.

[Willets Point]

The wife asks: "Why is Ivan Rodriguez called 'Pudge'?"

I looked on Wikipedia and it said that it was a comparison to Carlton Fisk. The entry for Carlton Fisk says that "Pudge" is a common nickname for catchers, but it still doesn't explain why?

Any knowledge on this from our esteemed baseball experts?


PS - I f-in' hate the Cardinals!!!!

[Frayed Knot]

Cards go ahead again in an inning extended by a 3rd strike/3rd out passed ball followed by -- say it with me -- another 2-out RBI hit, this one by Eckstein off the glove of a diving Monroe in LF

[Frayed Knot]

Re: Pudge

Well catchers with short, squat "pudgy" bodies aren't exactly uncommon.
That name got hung on Fisk, IIRC, as kind of a joke since his young self was anything but the stereotyped backstop's build.

[metirish]

yeah,I'm an NL guy..yeah right, I fucking hate the Cards...

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

ah, fuggit. Stupid lucky Cardinals

[Zvon]

Crap.
Cards go up 3-1.

Tiggers cant take 3 in a row----

That would be really kool if they did tho.

Looks like this show is all but over.

[Elster88]

This just reinforces that the Mets would've won the whole fucking thing.

And that makes me hurt.

[metsmarathon]

go, reflected glory, go!

[Frayed Knot]

Eckstein had 4 hits tonight and they figured into most or all of the StL runs ... and every one of them could have, or even should have, been outs, yet none were errors.


In the next 20-some hours somebody (or numerous somebodies) are going to point out that the last two times the Cards had 3-1 leads in World Series play they wound up losing the series in 7 ('68 vs Detroit, '85 vs KC).
What's going to be interesting is to see which idiots (cough * Russo * cough) will actually see this as a predictable pattern that has some sort of bearing on this one.

[Willets Point]

Elster88 wrote: This just reinforces that the Mets would've won the whole fucking thing. And that makes me hurt.

Just reinforces that the Cardinals are that good. I don't buy that St. Louis is the underdog. A team that wins 2 of the last 3 pennants, a team that plays in 3 consecutive NLCS's, a team that plays in 5 of the last 7 NLCS's, a team that has been in the playoffs 6 of the last 7 seasons is no underdog. Especially when they're playing a young team that hasn't had a winning season since before the Republicans took control of Congress. The 83 regular season wins mean nothing. No one called the Yankees underdogs when they won 87 games in 2000.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

My 13-year-old is pleased to wake up to the news that his team won last night, despite Looper's appearance.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I agree with WP. Redbird watchers would tell ya that the Cards certainly were capable of being very good -- they just did an inconsistent job of it during the year, due to injuries and all.

In the postseason, they've been fortunate to be healthy at the right time, catch the baseball, and catch opponents (Mets, Tigers) when they werren't playing their best. They are also getting a huge boost from a closer who wasn't even supposed to be there and is ungodly hot and a mystery to most hitters, sorta like Papelbon for the Sox early in the year.

Sucks, but that's the way it's gone.

[MFS62]

How much help do pitchers in that other league need?
After this series, they'll probably want to institute a designated fielder rule, too.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

They'd still be the worst WS winner in history ... by a significant margin.

[HahnSolo]

Win tonight, St. Louis. Why?

Because road teams have not fared well in WS Games 6 & 7.

Since the last team to win a World Series Game 7 on the road (the 79 Pirates), there have been 23 WS Games 6 or 7.
The home team has gone 19-4 in those games. Seven times (in 10 chances) since 1979 a team has come home trailing 3-2 and won both to take the series.

The road winners?
1981 Dodgers won game 6 in Yankee Stadium
1992 Blue Jays won game 6 in Atlanta
1997 Indians won game 6 in Florida (then lost game 7)
2003 Marlins won game 6 in Yankee Stadium

[MFS62]

I like David Eckstein.
He is a true catalyst.
He is the kind of pain-in-the-ass player who the fans of every opposing team love to hate and the managers of opposing teams would love to have on their squad.

I recall the year when the Halos won it all. We didn't see many of the Angels' games during the regular season. But when they showed the highlights of their games on ESPN it seemd like Eckstein was in them, making a key contribution at bat, in the field or on the bases.

He reminds me of another player I saw a lot of - Phil Rizzuto. Both are listed at 5'6". Both had a mediocre throwing arm. I heard an interview yesterday in which an ex-player told us that even his own teammates make fun of Eckstein's arm. And that reminded me of comments about Rizzto's arm. It was said his throws would enfuriate batters by always beating them to first by only half a step.

When I looked at both their career numbers today, I was amazed to find that Eckstein has better BA and fielding numbers than Phil had. But when you look at both their games, the numbers don't tell it all about what kind of players they were.

Later

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

The Cardinals take a 1-0 lead thanks to a bad throw from the third baseman Inge on what should have been the final out of the 2nd inning. Inge further hurt his team by being picked off on a bad running decision in the top of the 3rd.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

A Jim Edmonds error followed by a Sean Casey homer give Detroit a 2-1 lead in the 4th.

[Zvon]

UGH!
Verlander error.
This is rediculous.

Am I watching the little league World Series by mistake?

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Can't anyone here play this game?