Well, that Wednesday game was much more enjoyable than Tuesday's fiasco (as recapped for the Banter). Granted, nine and a half games back is not exactly cause to celebrate wildly in the streets, but it's... well, better than 10 and half games back. Anyway, I almost, but not quite, felt bad for Curt Schilling -- when Doug Mientkiewicz puts one of your fastballs off the upper-deck facing, it's just not your night. The Yankees cruised to a nice, one-sided, enjoyable-except-for-Kyle-Farnsworth 8-3 win. Next up, however, are the Angels... I have a bad feeling about this.
Others have pointed this out before, but it keeps surprising me -- if you look at Andy Pettitte's postseason numbers, they're okay, but not spectacular. In fact, they're worse than his regular season stats, and yet like a lot of fans, it seems, I always remember him as coming through in the big games. He did come through, of course, plenty of times; but we've conveniently forgotten all those other occasions, which include some real stinkers. Amazingly, though, Pettitte's pitched the equivalent of basically an entire season -- 212 innings -- in his postseason career. That's in thirty-four games, thirty for the Yankees. It's been quite a run.
The Mets, meanwhile, are still having trouble with the Braves, who've taken two of three in all three series this year; every Mets win has come behind Oliver Perez, and if you called that one before the season started... well, then you're insane. But correct. His balletic leap of triumph over the foul line is getting higher by the week, and I love it, except can't you imagine him landing on an ankle wrong one of these days and spraining it? I don't want to be within five miles of Willie Randolph when that happens.
Last night's loss was particularly frustrating, as one-run games usually are; it was also Smoltz's 200th career win. Insert grudging respect here. The good news is that El Duque, Mr. Eephus himself, is heading back to the Mets rotation.
Finally, can I just say, though I realize I'm late on this, that the Lastings "L Millz" (heh) Milledge rap controversy must be the dumbest non-scandal of the year? Has nobody heard any hip hop in the last 20 years? "Milledge can be heard using a racist term for blacks and language derogatory to women." Hello? That's right smack in the rap mainstream this decade -- which you can argue is unfortunate in and of itself, but it's hardly a reason for a promising player's stock to go down. The Mets, as his image-conscious employer, do have the right to tell him to knock it off; it just strikes me as a complete non-issue. With the recent spate of actual domestic violence charges in baseball, rhyming about hos is starting to seem kind of charming and quaint.
While none of L Millz's transgressions over the last two years have been particularly bad, taken together they do suggest that he is, perhaps, not the sharpest tool in the shed, and I guess that's troubling. But note that "intelligence" is never listed as one of baseball's coveted "five tools."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Remember game 6 of the 2001 World Series?
Andy really spit the bit on that bit.
Thinking about that game still makes me ill.
Post a Comment