What absolutely AWESOME game 5s for the NL!!! And no interference from the pretend baseball league today neither!!! I thought it was very interesting that BEFORE the games started today, that MLB had a pic of Ryan Braun vs Uncle – who were NOT opposing each other today – to represent the NL.
And indeed, the Brewers game was a real nailbiter. Yovanni Gallardo most certainly did NOT look like any sort of ace, but somehow, he managed to get through 6 innings giving up only 1 run, even though he had reached 68 pitches by the end of the 3rd. He was NOT exactly helped by the HP ump, Jeff Kellogg, who has a strike zone the size of his clenched fist – he called strike 3 to Justin Upton Ball 3, although it was absolutely unquestionably in the strike zone – and naturally, Upton hit the next one out. Naturally, Yuni Betancourt – who is Neifi Perez, only fatter and without the glove, drove in the go ahead run in the 6th after grounding out with 2 on 2 out int he 4th.
K-Rod looked terrible in the 8th – walk, K, single, K, walk, groundout – took him 26 pitches and it felt like 46. But he managed to get that hold.
Axford blew the save – gave up a leadoff double, a single and a run on a squeeze – although I must say that on that thre play, he and the infield defense looked like the 3 stooges. But he got a nice 1,2,3 10th and the Diamondbacks closer, JJ Putz, who got a 1,2,3 9th, gave up a double to pinch hitter Carlos Gomez, who SHOULD have been able to take 3rd on a WP, but scored anyway when Nyjer Morgan, AKA Tony Plush, singled up the middle for the walkoff.
He was All Excited for the post game show, said HECK YEAH!!! (well, not exactly “heck” but close enough for this here G-rated blog) a couple of times, said – gotta tip your cap to the Dbax, then said – I just gotta go!!! And this was all live, too and TBS didn’t really have time to, uh, bleep/censor. It was Morgan’s game – he doubled and scored the first run in the 4th. Even though Ryan Braun unquestionably had a great series. Da Prince, by the way, did not.
But you know, it was a short series and when a team only has to have 3 SP instead of 4, anything can happen.
See Cards – Phils. Halliday vs Carpenter – lots of hype and the game lived up to it. Halliday had a roughish first inning – gave up a leadoff triple to the gap to Furcal, then an RBI double to Schumaker. Uncle hit a grounder to second and Schu was thrown out easily at third – BAD baserunning. Berkman reached on catchers’ interference on what would have been a swinging strikeout – Berkman looked really sorry against Halliday all night (then again, pretty much so did everyone else) but Halliday got the next 2 outs without another run scoring. 33 pitches.
And unfortunately for the Phils, that was all the Cards needed because Carpenter was even better – 3 hits, no walk, 3 K shutout. Pence hit 4 weakass groundouts. Ryan Howard’s series reminded me of Barry Lamar in the postseason prior to 2002.
For the entire series, Pence hit .211 and Berkman hit .167 – not real too much to strut about.
So it’s 2 teams from the NL Central in the finals and didn’t none of the “experts” think THAT. Pretty much everyone expected a repeat of the 09 series between the biggest AL mopney team and the biggest NL money team and they both went byby in the first round. NO East Coast teams made it past the first round!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
Me, I’m rooting for the Brewers and hoping for a Brewers/Rangers WS but I keep thinking about that Red Siamese cat – wondering if it is an omen meaning Cards vs Tigres repeat of the 06 series.
Nah – that’s silly. There’s no superstition in baseball. Just the hard, cold stats, right?
Texas is the only team without an ex-stro, so I guess I’ll have to back the Tigers.
Tags: 2011 Postseason, Arizona Diamondbacks, Brewers, Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers
I wonder when the Brewers are gonna get their gut full of Nyjer Morgan. I can *NOT* stand the guy. He’s a self serving, little time bomb, and mark my words
his mouth is gonna get him traded again. As far as the match ups, I’d LOVE to see the Tigers win it ALL. Jim Leyland is SUCH a good manager. PERIOD.
The Brewers will pound the Cards, and I hope they lose three in a row. I simply
despise the St Louis Cardinals. The Phillies thought they were gonna win in three
THAT’S exactly why they didn’t. After they won the NL East, they played shtty
baseball, losing 7 games in a row. Ya never know……but I’m a gambler and I’m putting my money on the Tigers! Becky:)
becky,
the crew will get their fill of nyjer/tony plush if/when he stops hitting/fielding and his mouth is a problem instead of something interesting. and yeah, eventually his mouth will get him in trouble. if you don’t hit enough, exuberance becomes, uh, attitude and you get shttcanned
i prefer the crew to the cards by a LONG shot and i hate TLR too and yes i know he’s one of the top 10 mangers of all time but i hate him and his whine anyhow. i hate rooting against lance, though. it’s hard when you want a guy to get a Ring when you don’t want his team to win. besides, this is like one of the few playoff series where he hasn’t hit worth spit
as for that red siamese cat,
i don’t know how long it has been since he has lived with people, but he obviously has – he’s clearly not a wild cat. he’s very social and good with kids – freaked me out when her 4 year old picked him up, i thought the child wouldn’t have anything left of her face after cat’s claws got through with her, but nope. he squirmed a little, caterwauled a lot, and finally just jumped down. no claws so he MUST be used to small kids.
and he isn’t slinking around or hiding under chairs/coach so you don’t know where he is. or course, you always know where he is because he almost never shuts up if he’s awake. he must have been an inside cat for at least some time because he is not trying to get out all the time.
i don’t know if my gf is gonna keep him – we’re checking BARC/humane society/siamese rescue to see if someone is looking for the cat because once upon a time he was someone’s pet. yeah, “we” and don’t ask me how i got into this when i don’t like cats because i don’t know. but she doesn’t want him put down unless he got some bad disease. and i know cats can have worms and other bad stuff and who knows if his people ever got him his shots.
montgomery animal shelter is a LONG way off and there are pretty cheap places in harris country too – but all that stuff adds up.
she hasn’t made up her mind what to do if he isn’t listed somewheres as lost which so far he is not, but at least, she says, he is not biting/scratching/spraying/doing his bidness anywheres besides the kitty litter. not so far anyhow
Becky, I’m also rooting for the Tigers as well..I like Leyland and Verlander a good deal. And speaking of sports..UT is taking it in the shorts from OU..and I’m delighted. I just don’t like the Longhorns, being a casual UH fan. (yeah, no defense there…)
So is Crane good as toast when it comes to being the Astros owner ? I’m wondering if there’s any other suitors for the purchase of the Astros other than Crane ?
Eric- Drayton McLane is gonna get left holding his, uh, well you know…in his hand. I would be *VERY* surprised if ANY one wants to deal with Drayton, after THIS debacle. Serves him right, because he evidently did *NOT* do his home work on Crane’s background. We will be stuck in the baseball purgatory, along with the Dodgers and Mets. Look on the bright side……at least the Astros don’t
have ANY player’s left to trade, after the Phillies gutted our team two years in a row!! Unless Ed Wade can *GIVE* Wandy, or Myers way. Becky:)
eric + becky,
i am HOPING crane is as good as toast because he has mostly borrowed money and no minority owners who have $$$
best i can tell, crane would be the poorest ML owner by FAR
and what i heard was that there were 4 other serious bidders who have MONEY including andrew friedman’s father – and no 300 mill in fake money depending on if a new RSN would be successful – but they all offered around 500-550 mill and not the ridiculously inflated price of 680 mill. and i would guess that after every ML player except wandy has been traded that the team is worth a LOT less than forbes said it was worth last feb. and the farm is still terrible because ed wade hasn’t drafted worth spit
i think that drayton thought that the deal wouldn’t be a problem because the artificially inflated price would raise other franchise values and look good – but then again, he didn’t think about all the problems that the mccourt thingy would expose and it just might could make the other owners a LOT more wary. that and buddy boy is very VERY sensitive about minority issues – see making drayton put in cecil cooper as manager and crane and his company not wanting to hire them troublesome no good n-words would Up Set him
i wouldn’t root for an AL team unless the NL team was the c*bs or unless the AL team was full of my favorite ex-stros or non-stros
seems like yesterday that the stros were inthe playoffs during texas OU weekend and the Box was packed and more fans were waiting in the streets. but then again i couldn’t care less about any college sports. although i have checked out the U of H and rice baseball teams
oh yeah -
wandy is VERY tradeable – the media silliness about his contract being a problem is just that – silliness. there are plenty of teams who would grab him
the ol WB on the other hand = mediocre and not worth 10 mill a year
and seeing as how this is the last year of clank, he maybe MAYBE might could dump him at the deadline IF he’s hitting with any power but if he gets rid of $$ he ain’t gettin nothin back. as we ALL know
Lisa — Have you heard anything more about those “3 or 4 other bidders”? I’ve seen a few people mention this around the internet, but no one ever mentions any names.
I’m not a big fan of the Crane deal, especially with all the debt, but Crane is FAR richer than Kenny Friedman, so I don’t understand those rumors at all. According to the stories I’ve read, Jim Crane’s net worth is over $200 million while Kenny Friedman’s is under $10 million. Unless Kenny Friedman would be playing entirely with other people’s money, the math doesn’t seem to add up.
ann,
what i heard is that ken friedman has a group of people who ALL have a lot of $$$, not 300 mill borrowed money and 45 people who are forking over little bits and not willing to be available for any cash calls