Cards Over The Tigers In 7

[swerb]

After the exact opposite of what I thought would happen in the 1st rd happened, I'm now of the opinion that the Tigers are going to win the WS. I stayed in denial with the White Sox last year right to the bitter end, and overlooked the fact that they had the best starting pitching staff as they romped to the title.

The quartet of Verlander, The Gambler, Robertson, and Bonderman is the best out there right now, and Rodney, Walker, Zumaya, are filthy ... with the gritty vet Todd Jones at the back end. Carlos Guillen may be the most underrated player in all of baseball, and the rest of the lineup
seems to be clicking again after a September swoon.

Tigers over the As in 6.
Mets over the Cardinals in 6.

Tigers over the Mets in a great 7 game WS.

[Guest]

This is with my heart, not wallet.
A's in 7
Cards in 7
I hate the f-ing Mets

[pup]

Tigers over A's in 4
Mets over Cards in 6
Tigers over Mets in 4

A carbon copy of last year's run by the White Sox. Lose game 1 in the first round, then run the table. Best staff. Best bullpen.

Everything about this year's Tigers and last year's Sox is identical, right down to the stiff third baseman, hitting 9th and having a career year.

[Guest]

As long as the Mets don't win, I'm happy
Tigers looked pretty damn good last night.

[British_Pharaoh]

if the tigers win the world series I'll choke to death


I f***ing cant stand them I was actually rooting FOR the Yankees in the ALDS


I hope the A's can pull of a BoSox like comeback cos I dont even want detroit at the World Series

the Mets should sort them out though (I hope)

I dont think baseball would recover if those Detroit scabs won the WS title

[consigliere]

If the Tigers win the WS......the Choke Job of 2005 by our beloved Indians will hurt even more. That team in 2005 was probably the 2nd best Indians team we've seen, second only to the 1995 team. Seeing the White Sox and then Tigers win in back to back years makes me want to gauge my eyeballs out with a pencil. We should have won it last year....

[British_Pharaoh]

if detroit even makes it to the World series it will ruin my sporting delight cos i wont be able to enjoy the fall classic as much as I would with the mets playing the A's (the only other AL team I like)

if the tigers make it I'll be yelling and moaning and crusing every time they score a run, win a game or make a good play, and i constantly be telling my TV how much of a wanker Craig Monroe is.

[Guest]

Bye Mets
I love it!

[dpdad]

No New York teams in the World Series. The TV network execs have to be singing the blues this morning! Prediction: Tigers in 6.

[consigliere]

This is a worthless WS. I'll probably only watch it if it goes 6-7 games.

Personally, I want the NY teams in it. It gives me a rooting interest. Whether it be rooting for or against the NY team (I actually rooted for the Yanks in 2001 post-911 and in 2003 and 2004 to beat the Red Sox because I loathe the Red Sox more).

[ACrank]

Why is it worthless? I have more than a pasing interest in the Tigers (having seen about 25% of the roster close up for a few years) but even if that wasn't the case i would still be interested because of the quality of baseball expected.....

now if the Cardinals look like they will sweep in 4 - then i might lose interest....

(i'm disappointed in one thing - i am hoping ESPN Classic rebroadcasts a the Lolich/Gibson match up from the last Tigers/Cards series, but i am not expecting it)

[pup]

Why is it worthless? I have more than a pasing interest in the Tigers

Then it is not worthless to you. To someone with an interest in one of the teams it is The World Series. I think, and sorry for answering for you Consig, what he is saying is that if you can't have a team you have an interest in here, then the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets all provide enough reasons for a fan to get into it.

[consigliere]

It's just a worthless series to me. I don't hate either team. There are no compelling matchups. Etc.

I just have a hard time getting into any game not related to C-Sports unless 1.) I absolutely hate one of the teams and want to see them lose in the worst possible way and/or 2.) there are some great individual matchups of player vs. team/player. I.e., Schilling vs. Pujols, CLemens vs. Schilling/Johnson, etc.

This series offers none of it. THe only stud player in the lineup for either team is Pujols. And, neither team has a stud starter or closer. The only thing that I sort of look forward to is a Zumaya/Pujols encounter....but I'll wait for Sportscenter to see the highlights of that one.

[swerb]

It's the World Series for cryin outs! I can't stay away, regardless of the combatants. It's baseball history in the makings. To me, while watching baseball night in and night out in season can become tiresome, watching it play out at the highest level is some of my favorite programming. LaRussa vs Leyland? Those young Tiger arms vs Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds? Come on!

After their quick dispatching of the A's, I was sold on the "Tigers as a team of destiny" theory, but right now I'm not so sure. It may be the Cards who are the team of destiny this year, and I'm leaning towards backing them in a long series of 6 or 7 games.

Cards finished the year awful. Were just a 83 win team. Swept by the Bosox a couple years back and taken down in 7 by the Astros in the NLCS this year. Im starting to think this may be their year.

The time off for the Tigers bothers me a bit, because this is a streaky team that swings at bad pitches (2nd in Ks, 3rd last in OBP). And 3 of their starters are younger kids. The time off is a bad thing IMO for a team structured like this. Carpenter, Suppan, Weaver ... the young Cards bully are all throwing well.

Will be interesting to see how LaRussa handles the starters. Reyes will have to get 1 start somewhere. Where does he give it to him?

Weaver will go Sat on 4 days rest. Do you pitch Carpenter on Sun on 3 days rest, or Tues in game 3 on 5 days rest? I would pitch Carpenter Sunday. You then have him available for Thurs again on 3 days rest in game 5 if in dire straits. Or for game 6 Sat.

I'd go like this ...

Sat - Weaver
Sun - Carpenter

Tues - Suppan
Wedns - Reyes
Thurs - Weaver

Sat - Carpenter
Sun - Suppan

Im leaning towards Cards in 7.

[ACrank]

It's the World Series for cryin outs! I can't stay away, regardless of the combatants. It's baseball history in the makings. To me, while watching baseball night in and night out in season can become tiresome, watching it play out at the highest level is some of my favorite programming. LaRussa vs Leyland? Those young Tiger arms vs Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds? Come on!

these are my sentinments exactly - its baseball, and whether they are the best teams in the league or the teams that just happened to get hot at the right time, they are playing for the worlds championship of my favorite sport...

i'd be watching if it were the A's vs the Cardinals (LaRussa back in Oakland),or A's vs the Mets (& no doubt complaining because ESPN Classic didnt show replays of their first WS matchup)

PS Tom Hagen - watch Verlander closely - you might be surprised....

[swerb]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns

Great article about the coaching matchup and strong friendship between Leyland and LaRussa.

Article is written by Jeff Passan, who is Yahoo Sports head baseball writer, and the son of former Plain Dealer reporter and WKNR talk show host Rich Passan. Passan now writes for www.theobr.com. His son is an excellent writer.

[consigliere]

You guys are wasting your time if you watch this series.

[swerb]

LaRussa goes with Reyes in game one. No surprise to see Leyland go with Verlander and Rogers in games 1 and 2 at home, but I was a little surprised to see him put Nate Robertson in the game 3 and 7 spot, and elect to throw Bonderman in game 4.

Pitching matchups would look like this if it goes the distance ...

Sat - Verlander/Reyes
Sun - Rogers/Weaver

Tues - Robertson/Carpenter
Wedns - Bonderman/Suppan
Thurs - Verlander/Weaver

Sat - Rogers/Carpenter
Sun - Robertson/Suppan

[ACrank]

You guys are wasting your time if you watch this series.

Its baseball. Its the World Series. I fail to see how it would be wasting my time.

[British_Pharaoh]

You guys are wasting your time if you watch this series.

Its baseball. Its the World Series. I fail to see how it would be wasting my time.

Crank how come u dont come by the cleveland.com forum no more??

we've forgiven you and you are no longer disgraced


LOL

[swerb]

Excerpt of Stark's phenomenal column today. Five reasons the Cards can win ...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2 ... id=2633509

Why the Cardinals will win

1. Remember the Royals: Do we all have total, incurable amnesia here? Wasn't it a mere three weeks ago that this team everyone thinks is a prohibitive favorite to win the World Series lost three straight games to the Royals -- a club that that came in riding 100 losses and an eight-game losing streak? (The Tigers also gave up 28 runs in those three games.) So there isn't just precedent for the Tigers to come unglued. There's precedent for their pitching to come unglued -- against a team from Missouri, no less.
2. The Swing's the thing: For some reason, all those people who were dumping on the Tigers' undisciplined offensive approach down the stretch seem to have forgotten that now. But we haven't. This team did finish 28th in the big leagues in walks and 24th in on-base percentage. Not to mention it struck out more than any team in the AL except the Indians. Don't think the Cardinals haven't noticed. The Mets have a more disciplined, more versatile offense than Detroit, and the Cardinals still managed to discombobulate their hitters nicely (holding them to a .231 average, .310 on-base percentage and .393 slugging percentage). "If the Tigers come out swinging wildly, the way they can sometimes," said one scout, "that gives the Cardinals a chance."

3. The big-pitch theory: Remember back when the Cardinals were "collapsing" in the last two weeks of the season? If you look back on those games a little more closely, you'll find they led in nearly every game of that seven-game September losing streak, and four of those games were one-run or two-run losses. "Almost all of those games came down to one big pitch or one big at-bat," said injured closer Jason Isringhausen. "We just weren't making those pitches or getting those big hits. Now we are again." How many big pitches have they made these last three weeks? Their opponents are 3 for 44 (.068) in this postseason with two outs and runners in scoring position. If they keep that up, it's almost impossible for them to get blown out.



Rolen
4. The mulligan theory: It was just two Octobers ago that the Cardinals survived another exhausting seven-game NLCS, only to get swept in the World Series by the Red Sox. Well, the nine Cardinals who remain from that team think they learned a lesson from that sweep. "In 2004, it felt like that World Series just slipped by us," said Rolen. "We were down, 2 games to 0, before we even knew what happened. And the next thing we knew, we got swept. This, to me, is an opportunity to get it right. This time, I think we're going to make sure we enjoy being in the World Series." History tells us that's almost always the way it works out, too. If you count the 1922 Yankees (who never won a Series game but did tie one), we found five teams that were swept in a World Series and then got back within two years. The '22 Yankees won the next year. So did the 1939 Reds. And the 1976 Yankees rebounded to win the next two. Even the two teams that returned to the Series and lost went down a lot tougher. The Cardinals were swept in 1928, then lost in six in 1930. And the 1963 Yankees lost in seven (to the Cardinals) the next year. So we just have a feeling we'll be looking at a similar plot line.

5. Remember the '88 Dodgers: Finally, here's one simple truth we need to remind ourselves of: It's baseball. Stuff happens. And it especially happens in October. How the 1988 Dodgers ever beat the mighty Oakland A's, we're still not sure. But that happened. And the 83-win Cardinals just finished upsetting a 97-win team. So how can it be impossible for them to upset a 95-win team, even if the Tigers come from the better league and have a pitching staff whose most important members are not all hanging around Dr. James Andrews' office? "Funny things happen in October," one scout conceded. "Strange things happen. In these seven-game series, I never cease to be amazed by the quirky things that happen. I know how this looks on paper. But I also know that every spring, when we all break camp, we all think we've got things so figured out, you wonder why we even play 162 games. But fortunately, we do." And fortunately, they're going to play out this entire World Series. Maybe that won't inspire the population of Queens. But we can't wait.

[swerb]

Alright, I've fully bought into the Cards, and this being their year despite just a 83 win reg season and a disaterous end to the year.

Reyes has looked amazing tonight. No baserunners in innings 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Shaky 1st inning, and sheer dominance after that. This kid is getting another start in game 5, and that will leave STL with a fully rested Carpenter AND Suppan for a potential game 7. Hard to imagine Suppan getting just one start in this WS, but thats how it looks like it is shaping up.

Verlander, it looked like the time off bothered him a little bit. He had good stuff, but left too many pitches waist high and catching too much of the dish. HUGE tactical error serving up that gopher ball to Pujols early in the game with 1b open and the Cards up 2-1. A Pujols 2 run job made it 4-1, and started the landslide for the Tigers.

Lotta series left. Still, was just a little surprised to see almost every national talking head giftwrap this thing for the Tiggers in 4 or 5 games. Cards are in a good spot right now.

I see this series going 7, and see Leylands choice to set Robertson up to start that game as opposed to Bonderman as a little questionable. Again, lotta time between now and then, but a head scratcher to me nonetheless.

[swerb]

Great, great baseball game last night. Eckstein ... is just a helluva baseball player.

The slip by Granderson, another Tiger pitcher error, and Monroe's diving near miss were the difference in what was a back and forth and very entertaining game.

Jadi Molina and Wainwright also continue to be clutch for the Cards. That bender Wainwright has is nasty.

[swerb]

Great column by Passan this morning ...

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=A ... &type=lgns

THE LONGEST INCH

Jeff Passan, Yahoo Sports

ST. LOUIS – Game 4 of the 2006 World Series was not a game of inches. It was a game of an inch. It was a game in which Detroit Tigers left fielder Craig Monroe propelled himself toward a fly ball and felt it ricochet off the tip of his glove, and how he ever wished baseball allowed a model an inch longer. It was a game in which the man 100 feet to Monroe’s left, center fielder Curtis Granderson, eased back on a fly ball, planted his feet and felt the ground give out, and when he came back to see what happened, there it was, a divot about an inch deep.

Balls and strikes and plays at the plate and everything in baseball, really, boils down to tiny slivers of space, and every player understands that. And still, the Tigers couldn’t help but pine for that extra inch Thursday night, not after its absence time and again facilitated their downfall in a 5-4 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, who now hold a 3-1 series lead and could win their 10th championship Friday night at Busch Stadium.

“You saw it first-hand,” Granderson said. “Add a half-inch to Monroe’s glove and he makes that play. I go ahead and plant an inch instep, keep my feet underneath me a little more, go ahead and stay up and catch that ball routine. Who knows what happens after that?”

Granderson, or anyone, for that matter, could have slapped the game-winning hit, and music could have pumped from the speakers in the Tigers’ clubhouse, and the series could be tied, with at least another game in Detroit guaranteed. Instead, they were left to wonder and wallow in silence, and the pain of an “if” leaves the kind of sting no antihistamine can alleviate.

Not when each instance proved so critical. Down 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Cardinals led off the inning with David Eckstein, who always seemed to show up at the worst times for the Tigers. On Fernando Rodney’s third pitch, Eckstein sent a routine fly ball to center field, one toward which the speedy Granderson glided. As he planted to adjust his line toward the ball, the grass – deluged by nearly two consecutive days of rain – separated from the dirt, and Granderson tumbled. By the time he recovered, Eckstein was on his way to second base, and he scored when So Taguchi’s sacrifice bunt turned into a two-base throwing error by Rodney.

An inning later, with Aaron Miles at second base, in stepped Eckstein again. Because the grass was acting like anti-lock brakes on ground balls, Monroe shaded in so he could have a better play at home. Anyway, Monroe figured, the 5-foot-7, 165-pound Eckstein might be the least likely player in the stadium to hit a ball toward the gap. Of Eckstein’s seven extra-base hits at Busch during the regular season, four were down the left-field line and three down the right-field line, and he’d made only 13 outs on fly balls to left-center.

So, naturally, Eckstein put a charge into a Joel Zumaya pitch, and the ball faded from Monroe. He’d gotten a late jump, surprised like the rest of the 46,470 in the stands, and made up the distance quickly.

“He came out of nowhere,” Cardinals closer Adam Wainwright said. “That ball was in the gap. He looked like Superman.”

In the end, Monroe was more Clark Kent, a mortal bound by his body, and it happened to be one that could not stretch far enough. It was a valiant effort, only valiance and effort could not prevent Miles from scoring the winning run.

“I knew it was going to be a tough play when he hit it,” Monroe said. “I wouldn’t change anything about that play. You know, game of inches.”

Inch, he meant.

“From all over, too,” said Tigers first baseman Sean Casey, whose home run and RBI single helped Detroit to a 3-0 lead. “Hitting. Fielding. You see it. (Brandon) Inge was saying that ball (Yadier) Molina hit down the line was 2 inches away from his glove.

“Unfortunately, the inches were against us.”

While Molina’s double in the fourth inning brought the Cardinals to within 3-2, it was long forgotten by the end of the game. The Tigers were lamenting lost opportunity, the Cardinals thanking their respective deities for found chances, both sides echoing the phrase “That’s baseball” like it was some kind of balm.

“Anytime you feel like you’re that close it’s tougher,” Cardinals outfielder Preston Wilson said. “The effort on their side was there. I don’t think in any way they did anything wrong. The ball just kind of kept going away from Craig.

“I’ve been on the other side of being in the outfield and slipping. You can do everything right out there, the ground comes from under your feet and there’s nothing you can do. It’s a very helpless feeling.”

The same one that 38 years ago harried Curt Flood … at the old Busch Stadium … on the day after a rainout … in a World Series game … during the seventh inning … against the Tigers. Flood, the Cardinals’ center fielder, slipped while retreating on a Jim Northrup fly ball to center field, and the miscue led to the Tigers’ third championship.

Detroit had come back from a 3-1 deficit in that series, giving these Tigers a branch onto which they can hold, even if it’s attached to a dying tree. As Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols said, “This is not 1968. This is 2006.”

And in 2006, everything is going the Cardinals’ way.

“Are you stunned a little bit? Are you down a little bit? Of course,” Monroe said. “That’s obvious. At the same time, you’ve got to refocus and get ready to play the game.

“That’s what this seven-game series is about. Laying all out.”

Maybe so. Monroe, as evidenced Thursday, will sacrifice himself to make a play. Whether the series will reach seven games is a prospect that dims by the day, by the game and by that inch Detroit just can’t seem to find.