Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 24, 2005
Thoughts On Game 2

We saw the danger of having to go to your bullpen last night for both teams. There's no guarantee that once you start using your pen in a predictable fashion that the pitchers will be successful. On the random night that somebody's off, you're in trouble.

It looks like the White Sox relievers pitch better on two weeks rest than in back to back games. :-)

There's an old adage that any major league hitter can catch up to a fast ball. Jeff Bagwell showed last night that he's still a major league hitter. Jeff was blown away by Bobby Jenks the night before, but on Sunday he waited for a fast ball down he could hit. The few pitches Jeff saw in the two nights were enough for him to adjust to the speed, then experience took over. Bad shoulder and all, he can still hit the heater.

Jose Vizcaino proved once again that if you put the ball in play, good things happen (although I still have not seen a report of Garner's reasoning in that situation). His hit along with Podsednik's home run demonstrate something else I love about baseball: Anyone can be the hero. In football and basketball, there are designated heroes. Joe Montana throws to Jerry Rice. Bird or Johnson or Jordan gets the last shot. But in baseball, Podsednik and Vizcaino get the chance to be the hero and sometimes succeed.

Last night was a higher scoring game than I expected. Given the weather conditions and the quality of the starters, I thought we'd be lucky to get three or four runs out of either team. But in a sign of Andy Pettitte getting old, the cold bothered him last night:

Pettitte was frustrated all night by the way his body reacted to the cold temperatures and persistent rain. It didn't hamper his footing and ball control as much as it simply hurt his body. Pettitte didn't have such issues in previous postseasons.

"The weather has never been a problem for me, but there are different circumstances for me now, especially coming off elbow surgery and late in the season like this," Pettitte said. "It's totally different circumstances"

The next few games will be climate controlled. Unfortunately for Pettitte, he won't go again until game 6 (if there is one) and the weather's not likely to get warmer in Chicago this time of year.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:47 AM | World Series | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Pettitte piched a good game last night. Certainly good enough to win.

Posted by: Scott Janssens at October 24, 2005 09:31 AM

Recently the trend has been to acquire power arms for the bullpen. Theo Epstein said something to the effect that it will be a long time until a guy like Bobby Jenks gets placed on waivers again. Yet, these very same power guys have killed the Astros recently. Does that mean a return to the Jim Mecirs of the world?

That's one of the great things about baseball. Just when you think you have things figured out....

Posted by: Yankee Despiser at October 24, 2005 10:35 AM

Vizcaino's hit showed more than just putting the ball in play. He went with the pitch instead of trying to cream it and the result was an opposite field base hit that knocked in two runs. Precious few major league hitters are willing to do THAT anymore.

Posted by: Tom Goodman at October 24, 2005 10:55 AM

Bagwell didn't exactly hit a line shot off Jenks. But I give him all the more credit for the fact that he found a way to do the job against a guy he was still visibly struggling to catch up with.

Posted by: Crank at October 24, 2005 11:47 AM

i thought the white sox won last night... from all the comments above, responders seem to be focused on the Astros or is everyone still not conviced the Chicago White Sox have a TEAM and it"s better than the Astros.......... whaty do they have to do to convince the baseball world they are for REAL.

Posted by: sosidegeorge at October 24, 2005 05:48 PM

I think Vizcaino was chosen to pinch hit because he was adequate for the job, had big game experience, and would be going in to play shortstop anyway. Maybe Garner wanted to be ready to go 18 again.

Somebody from Chicago is worried about the White Sox being REAL? I don't think the Sox are worried about that. And the Houstonians have seen things turn suddenly bad or suddenly good enough times that they're probably just going to keep showing up and playing. Something interesting is sure to happen.

Posted by: John at October 24, 2005 09:03 PM

Jose Vizcaino proved that he could do the job, as he had in the past. In game 1 of the 2000 World Series,
Jose got the game winning rbi in the bottom of the 12th
inning. He had gotten 2 late inning hits in 2 of the games
that year in the ALCS. Past experience doesn't always
guarantee future results, but many people try to make
a living on that premise. Please excuse the fact that
this post season and World Season late inning hitting
success was with the Yankees. It was a great move.

Posted by: susan mullen at October 25, 2005 01:36 AM
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