Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 03, 2007
Red Sox Win

Josh Beckett pitches a complete game shutout. It's the third time he's pitched a complete game shutout in the post season. He only has two in the regular season. It seems the Mr. October moniker might be transferred to Josh if he keeps going like this. He allows just four hits, all singles. Eighty three of 108 pitches went for strikes. It just shows how important it is to stay around the plate. The Red Sox take a 1-0 lead in the series. They play again on Friday.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:05 PM | League Division Series | TrackBack (0)
Comments

He retired 19 straight after giving up a leadoff single. Complete dominance.

On a side note. Beckett pitched a shutout which by baseball definition means he pitched a complete game... but do you notice we always tend to call it a "complete game shutout" to make it sound more impressive.

Posted by: Trey Peiffer at October 3, 2007 09:17 PM

Not that Beckett needed any help, but Darling was calling a ridiculous zone tonight. Pitches that weren't even close were being called strikes, as the TBS gizmo showed with painful clarity. Next time anybody tries to tell you about the "tiny" strike zone in the majors, laugh at them.

Once Lackey caught onto the fact that you didn't have to throw the ball anywhere close to get a called strike, he looked like Beckett, too. Unfortunately for him, Lackey learned the lesson a little too late. Otherwise, there might be a 0-0 game still going on.

After the thrills and spills of the play-in game in Denver, the postseason has opened with two badly disappointing snoozers. Little offense, pitcher domination, deep restful sleep for viewers who aren't fans of either the Rockies or Red Sox.

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 3, 2007 09:21 PM

A shutout is a snoozer? I always like to see a good pitcher deal.

Posted by: Nat at October 3, 2007 10:35 PM

I agree with Nat. I would much rather prefer a close, pitcher duel game over a blowout or a offensive dominated game.

Trey, I guess you don't like watching Santana pitch, eh?

Posted by: Jesse at October 3, 2007 10:49 PM

Hehe it takes Lackey a long time to catch on to lots of things. He is not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Posted by: emains at October 3, 2007 11:12 PM

Baseball tried playing all pitcher's duels all the time back in the 60s. Nearly killed the game. Sure, hardcore fans will put up with the deadening stillness of no offense. But the overwhelming majority of people in this country are not hardcore baseball fans. The casual fans the game depends on for its economic health want to see something happen out there once in a while.

Yesterday the things that happened out there were few and far between. Maybe offense will pick up a little once the hitters settle down and the teams get past the top starters.

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 4, 2007 07:04 AM

Watching a performance like Beckett's last night is actually the most exciting baseball for me. The only way that game is better is if he's going for a no-hitter, or the Sox only had one run.

The best baseball game I've ever seen was Pedro's 17K one-hit shutout against the Yanks in 1999.

Posted by: Mr. Furious at October 4, 2007 09:55 AM

Sometimes you can predict the replies. Sure, I knew that the die-hard baseball fans who frequent this board - and I know you are die-hards, because I'm one, too - will say that great pitching is just great to watch and...well, what everybody's been saying.

If 75% of the American population were die-hard baseball fans, pitcher dominance would be no problem. Trouble is, for the great majority of the American population that cares moderately at most about baseball, the Red Sox game last night was an exercise in motionless tedium, especially after all the offense dried up from the fourth inning on.

With many other faster and more active sports on offer, baseball can't afford too many waxworks games where nobody gets on base and nothing happens. As much as die-hards like me will watch Beckett (and the Angel pitchers, once they figured out that anything in the Fenway zip code was getting called a strike), the casual fans will find other things to watch. If you don't believe me, compare football ratings to baseball ratings.

Posted by: Casey abell at October 4, 2007 12:44 PM

One thing I will say for yesterday's games was that they passed by in a relative hurry. Average time of game was 2:37. That's hardly brisk by historical standards, but for playoff games nowadays, that's downright breakneck.

Of course, baseball should speed up the game by forcing pitchers to work faster, not by draining crowd-drawing offense out of the game. (Are you listening, Messrs. Mussina and Trachsel?) But that's another discussion.

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 4, 2007 01:02 PM

By the way, the play-in game Monday night did very well for TBS, with an average of nearly four million viewers. That was the fifth-largest audience for TBS this year and beat the audiences for all but one of the Division Series games last year on ESPN. That surprises me because I figured Monday Night Football on ESPN and the very low national profile of the Rockies and Padres would murder the ratings.

The Multichannel story:

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6486334.html?industryid=47203

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 4, 2007 02:12 PM
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