By Blaidd Drwg

Last night produced not one, but two epic disasters in the majors with wide ranging playoff implications.

While the Cardinals were pounding the snot out of the Astros last night, the Braves were clinging on to a lead. In the 7th, the Braves were up 3-1 with Tim Hudson cruising along nicely. With one out, Raul Ibanez doubled and then Placido Polanco hit a shot up the middle that was stopped by a great dive by Dan Uggla, preventing Ibanez from scoring, putting runners on the corners. Hudson then got Carlos Ruiz to hit a hard ground ball right at Jack Wilson. The ball was hit just to the shortstop side of second and Wilson hardly had to move. You could have hardly asked for a more tailor-made double play ball. Wilson then proceeded to let the ball bounce off him, extending the inning and allowing Ibanez to score. The Braves eventually got out of the inning with a 3-2 lead, but that run would be important.

Flash forward to the top of the 9th inning. The Braves bring in flame thrower Craig Kimbrel to close out the Phillies. Kimbrel gives up a leadoff single to Polanco and then strikes out Carols Ruiz. Two outs away. After the strikeout, the wheels come off. Kimbrel all of a sudden can’t find the strike zone and walks both Ben Francisco and Jimmy Rollins to load the bases, bringing up Chase Utley. Utley smacks a fly ball to left, easily deep enough to score the runner from third and tie the game. Another walk to Hunter Pence loaded the bases and the Braves mercifully removed Kimbrel from the game. The new pitcher, Kris Medlen got the next hitter to pop up and end the inning, but not before we have bonus baseball.

The Phillies eventually broke the tie in the 13th with a walk and couple of hits, ending the Braves season. The Braves managed to blow an 8 _ game lead in the wild card and would probably be remembered for this epic collapse if it weren’t for what happened in Boston and Tampa last night.

The interesting thing about this game is where the damage was done by each team. The Braves score all of their runs early in the game against Joe Blanton and Cole Hamels (making a relief appearance) and then managed just 2 hits and 4 walks in the final 8 innings of the game against a parade of Phillie relievers. The Phillies however did their most severe damage against the vaunted Braves bullpen – Braves relievers gave up 5 hits and 8 walks in their 6.2 innings of work, but they also threw a lot of pitches – Venters took 27 pitches to record 3 outs, Kimbrel 29 and Linebrink 32. I do have to give the Phillies credit; they played like they were trying to win the game, unlike what happened in Tampa.

Just up I-95, an even bigger collapse was brewing. Everything was lining up for the Sox to take the wild card – they had Jon Lester pitching against Alfredo Simon and were hanging onto a 3-2 lead with the Yankees pounding David Price to the tune of 7-0. Much was being made of Lester pitching on 3 days’ rest, but here is the way I see it – he only threw 55 pitches in his last start, he has dominated the Orioles over his career and he is the best starter the Sox, so who else would you want to hand the ball to? Lester did not look sharp – I don’t think it was fatigue; he hasn’t looked sharp all month. The 6th inning was a nail biter as Lester labored to find the strike zone. Three walks made it tight. The Sox were saved by a double play ball hit by Guerrero that took a great play by Marco Scutaro to make it happen. The Vlad Guerrero of 5 or 6 years ago would have easily beaten the throw to first on that play, but the current Vlad can’t run and was thrown out at first by a good bit. That ugly inning ended Lester’s night since the rain came in the 7th inning. The Sox pen shut down the O’s in the 7th and 8th, but the offence could not extend their lead. In the 9th, the Sox brought in Jon Papelbon to shut the door. Papelbon had been having a great stretch in August/September, giving up just 1 run and 6 hits over 19 innings with 25 strikeouts and just 2 walks. Papelbon didn’t have the most stellar outing of the season on the 27th when it took him 28 pitches to close out the Orioles, giving up a run and 2 hits in the process. The last time that he pitched 2 consecutive games was early August (where he pitched 3 straight days, throwing 37 pitches over 3 innings). I was concerned after watching him on the 27th – he didn’t have his best stuff and I was nervous with him closing the game out. He got off to a great start, striking out the 2 biggest threats he would face – Mark Reynolds and Adam Jones. Then the wheels came off – a couple of doubles and a single and all of a sudden, the Sox lose. Couple that with the incredible comeback in Tampa where the Rays managed to score 8 runs against a parade of Yankee relievers, and my worst fear was realized – the Sox, a team built to win the World Series, wouldn’t even be going to the playoffs.

This is not the end of the world, well as long as the Yankees don’t win the World Series it isn’t.

By Blaidd Drwg

A scant one month ago, on September 2nd, the AL and NL wild card standings looked like this:

It looked like the Sox and Braves were mortal locks. Injuries, poor play and a couple of hot streaks eventually brought us to this as of this morning with 2 games left to play:

The Giants were eliminated on Sunday and the Angels last night, so both divisions have a dog fight in the last 2 games. The Braves, just 8 – 15 in the month of September, have the unfortunate luck of matching up against the Phillies in Atlanta for the last 2. The Phillies are starting their regulars, so they aren’t rolling over and playing dead and making it easy on the Braves. Braves have to deal with Lowe vs. Oswalt tonight and Hudson vs. TBA tomorrow. I assume that pitcher is either going to be Joe Blanton or Tim Worley and not Cole Hamels, although Hamels would be in line to pitch game 3 of the NLDS on regular rest if he starts tomorrow.

The Cardinals play the worst team in baseball (the Astros) in Houston for the last 2. The Astros did beat the Cards last night behind their best starter, Wandy Rodriguez, and have Jake Westbrook and Chris Carpenter scheduled to start for their last 2 games, so they stand a pretty good chance, especially considering the opposing pitchers are Henry Sosa and Bret Myers.

Over in the AL, it is panic time for the Red Sox Nation. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this as a comment to a post about the wild card race:

I am most concerned about the Yankees/Rays series at the end of the Month. If the Yankees have already clinched after playing the Sox and there is still a race between the Sox and the Rays, I would be concerned about the Yankees rolling over and playing dead, letting the Rays sweep the last 3.

Well, the worst case scenario is upon us. The Yankees started Hector Noesi last night, Bartolo Colon tonight and a TBA tomorrow. I would not be surprised if the TBA is someone making their first MLB start, while the Rays are countering with their 3 best pitchers – Shields, Hellickson and Price. The Yankees have been playing their regulars for part of the game and then pulling them out, so a sweep by the Rays, who are 15-8 in the month, is not out of the question.

As for the Red Sox, what can I say? They lost last night against the Orioles (!), dropping their record for the month to 6-17(!!!). I can’t imagine that they will be swept by the Orioles, so you have to figure that either Erik Bedard or Jon Lester will salvage at least one win. The critical game is tonight – the Sox need to win regardless of what the Rays do – and I would feel much more comfortable with a 1 game lead going into the last game of the season against the Orioles with Jon Lester on the mound.

What looked to be a boring September has turned out to be one hell of a finish.

By Blaidd Drwg

Have you seen the new Miami Marlins logo for next season? Dave Schoenfeld called it an ABA logo from 1973. Paul Lukas thought it was a photoshopper’s concept of what it might look like. It is just plain ugly.

Here it is in case you are morbidly curious. Would anyone really buy a hat that looked like something a Marlin puked up?

By Blaidd Drwg

Detroit doesn’t exactly have a reputation as a tourist destination, but the city is really missing out on an opportunity here with old Tiger Stadium Site, something akin to the movie, Field of Dreams.

In case you don’t know the story, here is my really short version:

– Tigers build shiny new ballpark.

– City, not knowing what to do with historic old ballpark, demolishes it.

– Fans come to site of old ballpark to see what is left of it, see the field is still intact (albeit overgrown) and decide to play a pickup game on it.

– Owner of the site threaten fans to get off the property.

– Fans ignore owners and spend their time and money to clean up the field and host regularly scheduled games .

– Owners continue to threaten fans

– A group of Chevy employees offer to volunteer their time and money to maintain the old site as a ball field for youth teams.

– Owners of the property tell them to bugger off.

A couple things you might not know about the old Tiger Stadium Site:

– It is in a lousy part of town
– The city has no idea what to do with it and no money to do anything with it anyway
– There are a lot of abandoned lots in the neighborhood
– People still come to the site to see it, including former ballplayers

Seems like a no-brainer here – you have the opportunity to draw people somewhere that they would not otherwise go, have someone maintain the property for you without you having to put any money into it and you will actually improve the neighborhood. How does this not make sense?

While not the greatest movie, Field of Dreams does provide us with something that I think is appropriate here, spoken by the great James Earl Jones playing Terrance Mann:

Ray, people will come Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won’t mind if you look around, you’ll say. It’s only $20 per person. They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

I for one would come, to play catch on a field that some of the greatest players in the game once roamed; to sit and watch a game at a place I visited many years ago; to hear the echoes of the late, great Ernie Harwell calling one last game.

To the city of Detroit, build it – people are already coming. Do the right thing.