Tag Archives: Victorino

Baseball; The Long Season Ends, Not With a Bang But a Whimper

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The Boston Red Sox won the sixth and final World Series game of 2013 when they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1. It seemed that the Cardinals, who out hit the Red Sox 9-8, just couldn’t win this important game as the key moments all belonged to the Red Sox. The prime moment came in the third inning, when, after Dustin Pedroia singled, Series MVP, David Ortiz was walked intentionally. He batted .688 for the Series. With two on and two out, Michael Wacha hit Jonny Gomes, loading the bases, setting the stage for the big hit. Shane Victorino then cleared the bases with a hit off the wall in left. The key element here was that Wacha hit Gomes. This indicated that his control was off, he didn’t have the command that had allowed him to pitch superbly in post-season games resulting in a 4-0 record. That he was not the master this night was evident earlier as well as he allowed runners in the first two innings. This lack of command then produced the big hit when he fell behind Victorino 2-0. Victorino guessed fast ball and got it and it was up in the zone and inside, but not far enough. His hit off the Green Monster, as the left field fence in known in Fenway Park, was the game. A homerun by slumping Stephen Drew and RBI singles by Mike Napoli and Victorino, again, in the fourth ended Red Sox scoring, but it was enough.

The Cardinals never got it going in this game, or, for that matter, the last three. Their win in game three on the rarely used obstruction call (See explanation here) was their high point. After that, they were flat and lost. There is always hope in Baseball where there is no clock to end the game and a team always has a chance to continue play. Here, the final inning went in few pitches and two fly ball outs and a final strike out of Matt Carpenter on a 2-2 pitch by Koji Uehara, the Red Sox closer, ended it, not with a bang, but a whimper.

The long season that begins in the first week of April and ends the last week of October, is now over. I wrote many posts on this season that are available in the archives and can only wait for 2014. A year ago, the Red Sox finished last and now join the 1991 Minnesota Twins as the two teams who have gone from worst to first in one year. I have little hope that will happen soon. Go Cubs? Maybe not this year.

Red Sox Triumphant as Tigers Fail, Move to World Series Against Cardinals

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Today I will discuss last night’s Tigers’ failure against the triumphant Red Sox who they used the grandslam to punctuate the Tigers failure. Last Sunday, Tiger closer Benoit, threw a nothing-get-it-over-fastball-first-pitch to David Ortiz who hit a grand slam in Fenway to win that critical game that kept the series at 1-1 and not 2-0 Tigers. Last night, reliever Veras, on an 0-2 pitch to Red Sox outfielder Victorino, threw the ball high and inside so that VIctorino could hit it over the Green Monster for a winning grandslam. That a pitcher threw such a pitch at that time indicates a serious lack of intelligence, in fact, it is just plain dumb. Just as Benoit’s pitch to Ortiz was just plain dumb.  These were, “here, beat me” pitches.

During the final week of the season, I was sitting with a Cubs scout at Target Field, We were discussing the coming playoffs and I said,”I don’t think the Tigers relievers can hold the Red Sox.” This was based on instinct and turned out to be dead on. I wonder at Manager Leyland’s decision to remove Max Scherzer, who is better than Tiger relievers under any circumstance. However, the Tigers made errors as well. Prince Fielder ran into a double play in the sixth inning, when, with runners on first and third, (Fielder was on third), the ball was hit to second and Fielder, instead of running hard to score, or returning to third, went half way. This allowed Pedroia, the second baseman to tag the runner and throw home to trap Fielder. This gaffe cost the Tigers a run, or, at least ended the rally. Then in the seventh, Iglesias, the shortstop, after catching the ball in his glove, dropped it and blew a double play that would have ended that inning, preserved the lead and possibly allowed the Tigers to win. This gafffe set the stage for Victorino’s grandslam. As has been written on this blog for sometime, “it is hard to play with one hand on your throat,(choke).”

We are off to the World Series, Torii Hunter won’t be there and will spend his life dreaming of catching David Ortiz’s Grandslam, but the Red Sox earned it in direct contrast to the way the Tigers failed at it. Baseball is a hard game, what a team wishes is that when they lose, they get beat by a better team, not that they lose or give it away. Here, the Red Sox were given victories by the Tigers who just couldn’t get it done.