The highest scoring Game 1 in the history of the World Series occurred today (what is with the Red Sox and history?) with the Red Sox taking an 11-9 squeeze over the Cardinals on a Mark Bellhorn eighth inning home run off the foul pole courtesy of reliever Julian Tavarez.
Tony Womack was hit by a ball off the bat of David Ortiz in the seventh inning (ruled an infield single) that brought a run home to make it 9-7. In the top of the eighth, the Cardinals would score two runs off the trio of Mike Timlin, Alan Embree, and Keith Foulke. The ball seemed to go off of Womack’s collarbone. It’s a shame that Womack got hurt, he’s a good guy and does not begrudge the Sox for trading him in spring training. He was glad the Sox traded him to the Cardinals to give him a shot to play. Hopefully Tony gets better. (I can’t imagine writing this about Miguel Cairo if this had happened in the ALCS.)
It was a good game. It was an ugly game, but it was a good, competitive game that saw way too many walks by both pitching staffs and some key errors by the Red Sox staff (and one key error by the Cardinals’ Edgar Renteria) to provide the final margin of score. It was a good introduction to the World Series. I’m really enjoying this World Series. I had gone on record saying I wanted the Astros over the Cardinals (even though the Cardinals are my second favorite NL team) but now I’m glad it’s the Cardinals. Old-school World Series, good attitudes between each team, it’s going to be enjoyable through and through. Don’t get me wrong, an implosion would be nice, but I’m not wishing daggers and poison upon the Cardinals as I was for the Yankees and I’m not wishing for an implosion as I was for the Angels.
It’s also nice for me to write a semi-lucid post, something I haven’t been doing in the last week or so. That’s nerves for you.
Curt Schilling goes tomorrow with a bloody ankle. They sutured him up today, four stitches (as opposed to three for the ALCS) and apparently felt good enough about Schilling to remove Ramiro Mendoza from the roster and put Youkilis on. There are two rumors floating around for Mendoza. One is that Mendoza was hurt. Two is that Mendoza asked out of the game that he balked a run home, and therefore was shut down. Either way, it’s good news to have Mendoza off the roster (even though he pitched well in the regular season) for it means we can have a deeper bench and Schilling is A-OK. This year, Schilling was 12-1 at home with 18 GS, 127.2 IP, 3.45 ERA. Away was 14 GS, 9-5, 99.0 IP, 3.00 ERA. The reason he is not pitching on the road because they want to avoid having Curt Schilling bat with his foot.
3o-year old Matt Morris will pitch on three days rest tomorrow when he opposes Schilling. “I think the last time I pitched on short rest was a Wiffleball game when I was 10,” the Cardinals right-hander said before Game 1 on Saturday (ESPN).
This is good news for us. An already ineffective Matt Morris will be worse. In the NLCS, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa slated it so that Morris would pitch at home, not away. Why? Before we get into that, let’s look at his statistics from 2001 – 2004.
| 27 | 22 | 8 | 3.16 | 34 | 34 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 216.1 | 218 | 86 | 76 | 13 | 54 | 3 | 185 | 5 | 1 | 9.07 | 2.25 | 7.70 | 1.26 | ||||||
The table above may not look right to some people. If not, visit the link I provide to Matt Morris to view the last four seasons.
As you can see, Morris took a downturn this year. Virtually everything is down! From IP (excluding last year) to a big rise in ER, a low number of strikeouts, a K/9 ratio, WHIP, the list goes on and on. This is not good news. Morris is not the Morris of old, and this is his free-agency year. (I temper enthusiasm with the Red Sox version of Morris that did pretty darn well in the ALCS – Derek Lowe.)
On the road, Morris … well, let’s check out home first. At home, Morris had 16 games started, a record of 9-4, 112.1 IP, and a 3.69 ERA. On the road, 16 GS, 6-6, 89.2 IP, and a 6.02 ERA. And this is in Fenway, where the Red Sox hitters thrive. Good move, Tony …
Game Two is tomorrow, the coverage starting at 7:30 and first pitch at 8:10 PM. For all first-pitch times, the schedule, and recaps of the games, simply go here, for quick information.
Congratulations to the Red Sox for overcoming the flaws, congratulations to the Cardinals for taking advantage of the flaws. Onward!
PS – Are we really in the World Series? When is it going to hit me?
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It didn’t hit me that the Ravens had made the Super Bowl until about halftime of the game, and then I didn’t realize we won it until I was celebrating in the streets. Sometimes it takes a bit of time for it to set in. Don’t worry, though. It will.
It was a great game though. I take back everything I said about Mike Timlin. He’s nails. Slightly rusty nails, but nails.
Another reason for removing Mendoza is the fact that Arroyo is in the bullpen now, so he can be either our long relieve or setup man with Mike Timlin and Alan Embree. How effective the starter is decides what Arroyo’s role is.
Right now it looks like the Sox in 4 or 5, I just don’t see the Cards having
good enough pitching to keep the Bo Sox of the board. And to top it off the
Red Sox pitching has been great. Evan, what do you think?
I think we have a great chance of sweeping, but dang it, I want Sox in Six! I know it’s selfish, but at least I’d take a sweep. I won’t openly root fo the Red Sox to lose, no way, but I’d prefer to see it. Fortunately it doesn’t matter whether or not I have game six tickets or not, the Red Sox are going to finish the Series when it’s possible – four, five, six, seven games. I will NOT root for the Cardinals because it won’t change the outcome of the game at all. I just want us to win AT Fenway number one, and number two, with me there. But again, I’ll be happy winning in Busch. So I guess I’m both selfish and not.
Frankly, last night shouldn’t even have been close.
We all love Wakes, but he lost it in a hurry last night. Besides the control troubles, he didn’t have the late movement you like to see. Having the wind at his back probably didn’t help him. Hopefully he’s strong in his next start. And if so, that’d be great, because it’d STILL be like the Cards were seeing him for the first time . . .
And the errors! Millar, where was that throw headed? Arroyo, hold that ball! Manny . . . it’s a good thing you can hit, fella. Well, actually, I can understand the second error he made, where his foot caught in the turf. But the first was inexcusable.
So yeah, this one shouldn’t even have been close. And check the pre- and post-AS splits for Woody Williams: he’s their best pitcher right now. We’ve still got our two best yet to go. I refuse to get over-confident, of course, but I like our situation, right now. Everybody except Varitek and is swinging the bat well. No, sorry: Nixon needs to warm up a bit, too. And I’m hoping for a Manny power surge soon . . .
And then there’s Ortiz. The Yankees had Mr October. We have Mr April, May, June, July, August, September, AND October.
Sam, the point is – we won. We won with our #5 starter against their #1. We won. Who cares how?
But that’s exactly my point: we won, with our #5 against their #1. And if this game shouldn’t even have been close, what does that say for their chances against us in the rest of this series?
I’ll take that situation, every day of the week. And I’m hoping the bad D was a blip . . . we’ve been so much better lately. I mean, c’mon, 4 E’s, we’re certainly not THAT bad. Safe to say, we’ll be better.
But since we’re on the topic of gloom and doom predictions, did you catch the warm greeting Sveum got in the pregame introductions? Yeah. The Damon blunder in the 1st inning of ALCS game 7 proves that Sveum hasn’t changed. Probably wise to keep that thought fresh in our minds . . .
How was it a blunder? I don’t get it. It was THISCLOSE to being safe. You can’t boo on that.
Way too shallow a hit to be sending him. And it isn’t as close a play if you consider that Posada was standing two fwwt in front of the plate . . . he made a good block on Damon. Almost Varitek-esque.