Frayed Knot

It occurred to me as I was watching the final outs of the no-hitter that this was Cincy's first playoff* game since getting 2-hit by Leiter. That's not a good "streak" to be on. * and, yeah, I know it wasn't technically a playoff game, but it qualifies as first 'extra' or post-#162 game.

Yeah, that's a player thing and I can't see them cutting him out of even a fraction of whatever the Giants wind up with.

The official wording that the umps use is apparently "intent to swing" but that seems to me to be more arbitrary than anything. Every swing and non-swing alike starts out with intent. Pitchers-turned-announcers (particularly Leiter) like to complain about how not one change to the game over the last two decades or so has benefitted the pitchers but the half-swing is absolutely called more often now than it ever was. Btw, they also like to complain about modern stadiums while ignoring the fact that more than a few of them (Atl, NY (N), Sea, Det, SD, SF) are better pitchers parks than their predecessors, but that's a separate issue.

So much for Lincecum 'losing it' like it started to seem two months ago. I hadn't realized until this morning's paper that the Giants left Zito off the roster completely. I knew they were going to take him out of the rotation for this round, but I guess when he gave wish-washy answers as to whether he would even be a help in the bullpen they erased his name completely. If they advance and need more pitching in the later round(s) I suspect they'll put him back on but, right now, that's a lot of money sitting on the sidelines. They dropped trade deadline-acquired Jose Guillen too - although that seems to be for more of a physical problem.

The call to Berkman was a strike; on the corner maybe, but a strike and he should have been out. But the bigger problem was Pavano giving up the leadoff walk to Posada in the AB preceding it and then the booming double to Berkman on the following pitch. The Rays voiced similar complaints about a half-swing NOT called on Michael Young before he promptly HR'd on the next pitch (Maddon got ejected as did Gardenhire) and, surprise, the Reds were yapping about Halladay benefitting from a generous strike zone the previous evening. And are the Braves also crying about the Posey steal of 2B? Not surprising that all that complaining is coming from the four teams that not only lost but combined for about 9 hits over 36 innings. Some of those calls were bad (Berkman), some were borderline (Young, Posey) but none were egregious and none were the main reason(s) why the teams lost. And maybe Wendelstedt is an ass, but it seems to me that the cry for increased instant replay has become such a cause-celeb in some circles that many are seizing on a handful of borderline calls to make it seem as if umpiring is the main story over the first six games. It's not.

Ashie62 wrote: Texas @ MFY's..that should be good. Sure. Follow up the Twins with the only team who can match them when it comes to getting beat by the Yanx (1-9 during post-season).

Some big-time relief pitching by Jon Rauch that should give Minnesota a big shot of emotion and inspire them to score just enough runs to lose the game close instead of by 8 runs like it looked like it was going to be a minute ago. 4-2 Yanx - bottom 7

Twins out to an early lead (1-0) in game 2 ... guess that means they're doomed again. Of course they might help themselves a bit if they could get more than one run out of bases-loaded/one-out situations.

In the meantime, Tampa is getting one hit thru 7 and trailing 6-0

See that would have been a little different as any adjustments could have been made before game 1 started. MLB, in that case, just stubbornly stuck to their previous deadline even after the rain delay. Now, it seems, they've gone from that extreme to one where they let teams make rosters changes with players who have already appeared in the series. Now I'm sure there's some kind of requirement in that rule where the team has to show cause as to why they should be allowed to make a switch but, at the same time, it's not like Tampa just became aware of Baldelli's potential problems last night.

The time lapse between the institution of new rules in sports and the teams trying to figure out ways to circumvent and abuse them is usually measured in nano-seconds.

metirish wrote: Rays' Baldelli out of Rangers series with fatigue.......he has some sort of syndrome or malady right? You didn't used to be able to shuffle players in and out of the roster within a playoff series. Not sure when they started allowing them to do so. I also don't really like that rule because, while it's probably legit for Baldelli - yes, he's dealt for years with some sort of affliction - I can see teams abusing it just to get new players in for what they think are better matchups later on in a series.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Yeah, thrilled that Takahashi pulled out that reliever award. He quickly rises to the best Takahashi the Mets ever had. In the Non-Schaeffer World, I 'd say we got 2 of 3 correct. (I kinda like Dickey over Johan slightly) Fortunately we'll also have a venue to discuss points like that this winter.

The final series to kick off features Derek Lowe vs Tim Lincecum Full sked: Thur - @ SF - 9:37 PM Fri - @ SF - 9:37 PM Sun - @ ATL - TBA * Mon - @ ATL - TBA * Wed - @ SF - TBA At least MLB had the decency to make this one the late start (though not late local time) rather than pulling a travesty of shoving the night game in October in Minnesota to an even later start than usual just to get the Skanks in prime time again.

The only thing I didn't like about Gardenhire last night was his 1st inning bunt; no outs, leadoff hitter and fastest guy on the team on 1st, Orlando Hudson up. Gee thanks dude, I coulda got Jerry or Willie to do that. Other than that I had no strategic questions about him, his players just never got a hit with anyone on base and, as usual, at least one member of his bullpen decided to put 'Suck LIke a Porn Star' on his list of things to do today. Overall though, I do tend to think that Gardenhire gets a whole ton of credit for being some kind of great field general on account of the Twins being the small market darling of the media. The fact that they finish 1st often with a low-ish payroll can't be denied, but they're also in an entire division of lower payroll teams which factors into things more than a bit. But at some point they've got to actually advance to be considered something other than likable contenders even in the land of low-key and really polite fans for an org that rarely changes managers. That's now 2-10 vs the Yanx in Gardy's post-season era (and none during the MFY's best years) plus a 1st round wipe-out by Oakland which makes it 2-13. They've led in each of the last 7 playoff games against the Yanx, including scoring first six times, and managed to lose every one of them.

What were the Twins tonight, like 0-9 w/RiSP and about a dozen LOBs? Hell, aside from the 2nd inning HR, the only runs they got were via a WP and a bases-loaded walk. That's [u:2f3aefr1]ONE[/u:2f3aefr1] RBI hit despite having runners all over the place. Then, once Rivera came in, they had about five times as many broken bats as baserunners - and the one baserunner they did have was via a bad call.

CAN SOMEONE WHO CALLS THAT SCANDINAVIAN/LUTHERAN STATE HOME GET A FUCKING CLUTCH HIT?!?!?!

Jesse Crain: Career ERA = 3.42; Career WHiP = 1.257 Career vs MFY: ERA = 7.31; WHiP = 1.750 ... which doesn't even include tonight's disaster. And I expect we'd find similar shit if we went through any present or recent Minn relievers. Same shit, different year.

Put a couple of poles under that uni and I think it'll be able to sleep six.

Great, now those sophisticated NYTimes readers will be able to find this place just in time to check out our ultra-gay 'Sound of Music' thread plus the one where repeatedly list boobs and vaginas on our 'Most Awesome' lists. I couldn't be more proud.

ARod caught napping as Hudson goes 1st to 3rd on a groundout ... then immediately scores on a passed ball !! Got Darling & Smoltz (who I've liked the few times I've heard him) in the booth on this series - although neither of them questioned why ARod was being a spectator there. Also didn't question why Gardenhire was bunting in inning 1 with his best runner on base. But it's 3-zip Twinkies thanks to an earlier 2R HR from Cuddyer.

That was almost very interesting. Phillips' tossed bat hit the dribbler up the line a few feet. I saw the ump point to it so he appeared to notice the contact but I'm not sure what the call w/should have been if the bat knocked the ball enough to prevent catcher Ruiz from making the play.

The only hope the Reds have right now is if Jim Joyce is umping at 1st.

It might even be enough to push Randy Moss off the lead story on SportsCenter .... Nahhh. Just for kicks I flicked over to the 6PM SC during breaks in the early part of the game and, with one playoff game already in the books and one more in progress, they devoted the full first 15 minutes of the show to the Randy Moss trade: the specifics of the deal, Moss's reaction, Brady's reaction, Farve's reaction, Balicheck's reaction, the reactions of ESPN's talking heads to the previous reactions, analysis of the upcoming schedule, etc.

He's making it look easy.