October 06, 2004
Mid-season Madness
Larry Walker was a hero for the Cardinals yesterday, and Carlos Beltran is playing that role today. He had a perfect day, 3 for 3 with a home run, 3 runs scored and was hit by a pitch (which took him out of the game). Good moves are paying off, as the Astros lead 8-3 in the 8th.
Update: The Astros win with a sick Clemens and gain home field advantage in the series. Oswalt looked good in his last start on Saturday, and he'll try to put them up 2-0 tomorrow.
Wright gave up 3 HR, which was unusual for him this season. The Braves put a lot of men on base (7 walks), but like the Yankees last night, could not bring them around to score. I wouldn't blame the offense for this loss.
I thought for sure Clemens would retaliate. He must really be sick...
I'm glad Clemens didn't retaliate. I don't usually listen to the announcers but I did at that moment and they're right, the Braves don't hit people on purpose.
Justice was right and wrong. It's true the Atlanta organization teaches pitchers to work away-away-away, and only come inside occasionally to keep the hitters semi-honest. (See Glavine, Tom.) They were dead last in the majors in hit batters this year and close to last the previous two years.
But Cruz came up in the Cubs organization, something Justice forgot.
The Cubs philosphy is different. They encourage pitchers to work inside frequently and push the hitters back. (See Wood, Kerry and Zambrano, Carlos.) They were fifth in the majors in hit batters this year, second in the NL.
So I definitely think Cruz was trying to push Beltran off the plate after the 3-for-3 day. I don't think he wanted to hit him and put the leadoff hitter on. But shove him back a little? Sure.
The numbers couldn't show the difference more clearly. The Cubs have hit 205 batters over the past three seasons, the Braves 111.
BTW, the difference between the Cubs and Braves even shows up in Cruz' personal stats. In his three seasons of limited work for the Cubs, Cruz hit 17 batters, quite high for the low number of innings pitched.
This year with the Braves Cruz only hit two batters. But against Beltran, I think his old Cubs training got the better of him.
Andruw Jones believed Clemens was going to retaliate. :) He bailed big-time on a pitch that was a strike over the inside corner. And Clemens was shown on TV talking to Beltran when he came out of the game. Maybe something like "I have your back."? Anyway, Cruz has been protesting it was a mistake, but it sure looked intentional at the time. And it evidently worked too, because Beltran went 0 for 5 yesterday.
