Fun While It Lasted
by tgirschOctober 7th, 2008
I’m late with this, but as you know, my team (the Brewers) and Kevin’s team (the White Sox) have been eliminated.
I’ll let Kevin handle the Sox, but the Brewers’ demise didn’t go down quite how I expected it to. With the exception of a subpar outing by Sabathia (which really amounted to one bad inning) and a terrible outing by Suppan (which Brewers fans have come to expect), the pitching wasn’t the problem. The much-maligned Brewers bullpen only allowed one run in four games. The problem, as it so often was during the regular season, was lack of hitting, especially with runners in scoring position. During the regular season, they were 29th in the league in that category, and this series was no different.
Defensive errors squandered a great outing by Yovani Gallardo (who, in my opinion, should have been the game 4 starter for Milwaukee) — 0 ER in 4 innings of work, with three runs thanks to an error by Rickie Weeks, and another should-have-been-an-error by Mike Cameron. But despite all of this, the Brewers had chances to tie or go ahead late in two of the three games they lost, thanks in large part to the fact that the Phillies also forgot how to hit in that series (excepting game 4).
One more nit: Though it didn’t impact the outcome of the game, and though the umps got the call right according to the current rules, I think the rules should be changed so that “catches” like Corey Hart’s spectacular almost-catch from Game 3 would actually be ruled as a catch, and an out. If you didn’t see it, Hart caught the ball as he crashed full-speed into the outfield wall; he bounced off the wall, landed on his back, and rolled over; the ball popped out of his glove just as he was completing the roll, a good second after he made the catch. (The rules currently stipulate that the catch isn’t legal until you remove the ball from your glove with the other hand, no matter how long you hold on. You could die, with the ball tightly clutched in your glove and rigor mortis setting in, and the catch currently wouldn’t be legal.)
My “A-Rod October Disappearing Act” award goes to Prince Fielder, who was just 1-for-14 with 5 strikeouts, 2 RBI (one on a sac fly), and one homer (after it was two late to matter) in the series. He walked twice, but both of those were intentional. The bright spot for the Brewers offensively was J.J. Hardy: 6-for-14 (.429), 2 RBI, 2 runs, and an OPS of 1.000. (Relief pitcher Carlos Villanueva put up a sick 2.000 OPS, but he singled in his only at-bat, so it’s nowhere near as impressive as it looks on paper.)
At this point, I have to set aside my hatred for all things Philadelphia (except the cheesesteak!) and root for the Phillies to go all the way (sorry, Ted), for two reasons:
- I can say that at least the Brewers lost to the eventual World Series champion
- The Uncle I lost to cancer this year was a Phillies fan, so it’d be a nice way to honor his memory in some small way.
Finally, the “rub it in” statistic of the day: Over the last five seasons (2004-present), nineteen of MLB’s thirty teams have qualified for the playoffs. Eighteen of those nineteen have won at least one game. The nineteenth? The Chicago Cubs, who couldn’t win even a single playoff game this year, despite having the NL’s best regular-season record, and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. (If the Angels are any indication, having the best regular-season record really doesn’t count for much.)
