Hello Baseball Fans,
Did you hear the good news? Baseball season isn’t over yet! Wooooo! Thanks to a most gritty performance by the Chicago Cubs’ pitchers and hitters this time, they were able to defeat the Cleveland Indians 3 to 2 and forced at least Game Six, which will take place back in Cleveland on Tuesday night. There were plenty of great defensive plays by the Cubs, particularly catcher David Ross, who was making his last start ever at Wrigley Field. On one foul pop-up, he caught the ball all by himself (wow, can you believe it?!) before gently bumping into first-sacker Anthony Rizzo to end the inning. On another foul pop-up back in the first inning, Ross luckily tipped the ball to Rizzo, who made the catch after another bobble or two, as Ross collided into a field-level camera. Ross also threw out Indians shortstop sensation Francisco Lindor, who attempted to steal second. The combination of Ross’ great throw and a great tag by second-sacker Javier Baez ended the sixth inning.
The offense, led by third-sacker Kris Bryant’s first career World Series home run, was the first of a four-consecutive hit barrage of sorts that kicked off the fourth inning. The Cubs produced all three of their runs in the fourth, and thanks to pitcher Jon Lester’s six solid innings of 2-run ball and Carl Edwards Jr’s 0.1 innings and monster save man Aroldis Chapman’s 2.2 innings, that was all they needed to keep the season and dream of a championship alive.
So let’s talk about what else the Cubs and their fans may need or even want. They have a chance to win and force a Game 7. Unless you’re an Indians fan or someone who doesn’t like Game Sevens for all the marbles (which is rare to say the least), you’re in the same mode of desiring that Tuesday night win for the Cubs. A Cubs win Tuesday night got us thinking here at VFTD. Do we want another cliff-hanger type where the Cubs hang on and Game 7 isn’t clinched until the final out at close to midnight eastern standard time OR do we want a Cub blowout of the Indians and we can salivate about Game Seven even longer as Game 6 plays out with not even a whisper of a championship-clinching comeback by the Indians? It’s a tougher choice than it may appear. Everyone likes the good, hard fought close game. But let’s look at what a blowout could do for heightening the heroics of a possible Game 7.
Fifteen years ago, the Series was at three games to two as well. The New York Yankees beat up on Arizona Diamondbacks’ relief pitcher Byung-hyun Kim at home late in games four and five to grab the three games to two lead. Unlike the current expanded playoff format, which now makes November series games a necessity, Derek Jeter was the first Mr. November due to his skill on the biggest stage and the fact that the ’01 season was delayed a week by the horrific events of Sept. 11th. Jeter’s bottom of the tenth inning home run won Game 4, thus the November nickname. After another late collapse by Kim in Game 5, the series then shifted back to Arizona. Being at home was great for the D-backs as they had future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson toeing the rubber, but grizzled playoff performer Andy Pettite was starting for the Yanks.
A funny thing happened in Game 6 though. Well, funny if you’re not a Yanks fan. Pettite didn’t have his best stuff. In fact, he didn’t even have his second best stuff. Or third for that matter. He completed just two innings and allowed the first two batters to get on in the third. Jay Witasick came in to relieve him as Arizona led 4-nil. He allowed both of Pettite’s runners to score. And then another nine batters (to be fair, only 8 earned runs) scored over the next 1.1 innings he pitched. Arizona was an amazing 12 for 22 with runners in scoring position for the game. You can’t hit that well in practice! To attempt to explain, it was a colossally bad outing by both pitchers in addition to an unbelievable case of contagious hitting on the part of the D-backs that will never happen, in this fashion anyway, again. Arizona won the game 15-2 and forced the ever important Game 7, which they also won by a score of 3 to 2 after a bloop hit over a drawn in infield in the ninth, but that’s for another day.
Witasick was the Mr. No November in that contest, but it didn’t really matter. The Yanks were going to lose that game even if he had pitched moderately well. It’s interesting to note that his ERA in his ’01 World Series appearance was exactly 54.00 and his team lost the series in seven games. The very next season, Witasick was on the San Francisco Giants’ staff and faced the Anaheim Angels in the World Series, which his team also lost in seven games. But here’s the bigger kicker. Witasick appeared in two of the 2002 World Series games. He only recorded one out in those two outings combined. So guess what his ERA was for that series? You got it, 54.00 again! Un-be-lie-va-ble!! What are the odds?! Say it ain’t so! And, unfortunately, he did not appear in any other series. His career Fall Classic line is that ‘Car 54.00′ ERA over 1.2 innings pitched. To be fair, he did have a nice strikeout to walk ration of 5 to 2 though.
So in getting back to the Cubs and Indians, would you rather the cliff-hanger or blowout to set the stage for Game 7? Obviously, the Indians fans are looking for a victory to avoid the anything-can-happen-in-a-Game-7 scenario and get the celebration started while its defending champion hoops team is in town right across the street. However, a blowout by the Cubs will surely rough up some of Cleveland’s bullpen guys unless they designate another sacrificial arm a la the way the Yanks did back in ’01. Plus, a blowout provides due relief for the Cubs fans’ blood pressure!
Here at VFTD, if we were Indians fans, we’d want the team to get it done in Game 6 since the Cubs would have ace Kyle Hendricks coming back to pitch Game 7 on full rest. And we’d want the early scoring and large blowout so we can sit back, relax, and discuss Game 7 ahead of time if we were Cubs fans. But either way, here’s to one more game!
Later Baseball Fans.