Thursday, October 18, 2007

Top 5

This inning starts the third time through the order. Will that mean anything?
Pedroia's up...and strike one. Great play by Peralto to backhand a vicious shot on 0-1.
Youk grounds the first pitch to Blake for the second out. I thought this was the guy who sees more pitches than anyone else in baseball?
Papi takes ball one, feinting a bunt with the shift on. He's done that a few times this year. At 1-1, Papi singles to left against the shift. The ball was to Blake's right as he stood at the shortstop's normal position.
Manny takes strike one. When Fox reflects on Manny's peculiarities, they break into "Don't Worry, Be Happy" in the background. That's an insult? If Manny is Rain Man, pitchers are his Judge Wapner, and pitches are his toothpicks. Sabathia wild pitches to fill the count; Papi goes to 2nd. The Indians seem bent on pitching to Manny here--be hard to walk him on 3-2. Willis comes out to talk. How good is Manny? Ball two was a 98 mph fastball that would have been a called strike three to anyone else. Kind of like the old story about Ted Williams facing the rookie pitcher. Ted walks three times; the kid goes 3-0 on the fourth appearance. He yells in to the ump, "When are you going to call a strike?" "Young man," the ump responded, "When you throw a strike, Mr. Williams will hit it." Manny walks, unintentionally.
Lowell takes a curve for strike one. On the fifth pitch of the AB, Lowell missed a two-run double down the left field line by about an inch and a half. Mike is hit by the next pitch to load the bases.
Kielty has a great record against Sabathia. This would be a great time to see some of that! He takes strike one. Sabathia's 1-1 pitch was about a million mph, and about 10 feet high. He's overthrowing badly enough that Fox showed Willis on the bullpen phone. The count goes full. Everybody'll be running now...and it does no good, as Bobby hits a can of corn to Gutierrez in right.
Three more left; another squander of epic proportions.
Sabathia's in trouble: inning, 24 pitches, 14 strikes; game, 93 pitches, 57 strikes. One more inning, maybe. But does it really help to get to Lewis, Betancourt, et al?

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