What really puzzles me about the Curse of the Bambino and the curse of the Billy Goat in Chicago, is the fact that the managers of the Cubs and Red Sox actually respond to questions as to whether the respective curses effect their teams.

Last time I checked curses don’t have any basis in reality, so it amazes me that responsible journalists actually are asking Dusty Baker to comment on the curse and he is answering, albeit denying that such a curse exists.

The drama of postseason baseball, I suppose having nothing to write about on an offday brings out this type of journalism as opposed to analyzing the game and the actual pitching matchup of Mark Prior and Carl Pavano tonight in game six.

The difference for the Red Sox is clearly in the bullpen. When this postseason began, most baseball analysts rightly underplayed the Boston chances of making it to the world series because of Boston’s ineffective bullpen.

No more!

Mike Timlin has been every bit as good as Mariano Rivera was when Rivera set up John Wettlend in the mid 90’s for NY.

If only Grady Little would go to Timlin before trouble starts, he would bypass the nailbiting the Red Sox Nation experienced last night.

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So, what was the most bizarre part of Saturday’s game in Boston?

No surprise in the way Pedro Martinez pitched, basically the same game he threw at the A’s in games one and five of the ALDS. Struggling to keep his head above water every inning.

Pedro is a very frustrated pitcher, knowing that he no longer can just go to the hill and blow the opposition away with 95 MPH fastballs followed by 78 MPH changeups.

It leads him to do strange things like throwing behind the back of Karim Garcia with first base open and a righthanded swinger (Soriano) on deck. What is amazing about Pedro is when he decides to hit someone it is so obvious. He has impeccacble control, probably ranking with the best pitchers over the last fifty years. So, when he goes up and in, it isn’t with a pitch that suddenly got away, but with a toss that is intended to knock someone down or hit them and he doesn’t miss with the knockdown either.

Funny, but Roger Clemens, one of the all time hot heads, turned out to be the calm one in the whole fiasco Saturday.

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Is it just me or are you wondering when the Red Sox are going to start mashing the ball in this postseason? Billed as the greatest hitting team since the 1927 Yankees, and yes, they did break that team’s season slugging record, this bunch has not shown the firepower at the bat to make me believe that they will bust loose this October.

Granted they faced the best starting pitching when the locked up with the A’s in the ALDS, but do you get the feeling that they are still groping at the plate against the Yankees.

David Ortiz crushed one off of Mike Mussina. Nomar has yet to deliver the big bomb. Trot Nixon hit one against Rich Harden, Manny had his big hit facing Barry Zito, etc. etc. Still no consistent hitting from Bill Mueller or Kevin Millar. Jason Varitek is one bright light for the Sox offense, that’s the kind of hitting I’m looking for. The Yankees hit the ball in gaps, they are having tougher at bats right now than the Red Sox, and that doesn’t bode well for a Boston victory in the ALCS.

A long way to go, but it will be Roger Clemens Saturday hooking up with Pedro Martinez in Fenway and the Sox nation better hope the bats come alive at home or this one will not turn out well for the Olde Towne team.

The A’s made two minor moves Thursday, click below for more! [Read more →]

The Marlins needed to win game one knowing that they will face Mark Prior tonight in Chicago. With the wind blowing out, the game tonight is a tough one to figure. Usually pitchers like Prior and Brad Penny can be counted on to hold the opposition down, but you saw what happened last night as the teams continuously blasted the ball over the short fences in Wrigley.

Carlos Zambrano again struggled. At some point he has to learn how to sink the ball and change speeds. Major league hitters can turn around a jet plane if they know it is coming. The key to pitching is changing speeds, throwing something with a wrinkle in it, and keeping hitters off balance.

Prior does that even though he relies on a 96 MPH hard fastball. Kerry Wood is a Nolan Ryan clone, and his curve buckles hitters too.

Jason Schmidt blew the ball past the Marlins with little other than his fastball, perhaps at this time of the year the bats have slowed down a tad allowing a dominant power pitcher to survive with the heater. We’ll see tonight. The script for the Cubs is simple: Wood plus Prior, four starts, four wins.

I’m not so sure it will be that easy.

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What was most impressive about the Red Sox win last night was they did it in Oakland where the A’s are a very tough team to beat.

The pitching matchup played out just as I expected. The A’s had their few chances to break the game open against Pedro Martinez, who did not have the career defining performance everyone looked for, rather it was a duplicate of game one with the aid of a twilight start.

Barry Zito, with the same help from the setting sun, breezed through five innings before clearly running out of gas.

Here’s where the game turned in my opinion.

Zito, who had not pitched on three days rest before, had to be watched very carefully. It was obvious to me and about 49,000 other people in the park, that Zito had reached his endurance point after he hit lefty swinging Todd Walker with a pitch to put runners at first and second with Manny Ramirez coming up in the sixth inning.

Forget the pitch count, Zito had lost command of his outpitch, his curveball, earlier in the inning. Jason Varitek homered to start the sixth on a fastball, tying the score 1-1, Zito struggled throwing strikes after the homer.

Now, Zito and Manny got into a classic battle. What makes great sluggers special is they do not miss their pitch if they get it. Barry Bonds comes to mind first. Ramirez fouled off a fastball at 2-2. Zito has been plagued by inside fastballs that don’t make the desired spot all season (Bobby Kielty in Minnesota). Without his curve, Zito threw another 86 MPH fastball, almost in the indentical spot, and Manny didn’t miss this one and the Red Sox were on their way, it was just a question of how far Pedro would take them and who would close the game.

To me this was the moment that the A’s needed to go to the pen, and make sure Manny didn’t do what he is paid to do and that is drive in big runs.

Great players come through in the clutch and great managers do too, this time the manager let his pitcher stay in a game when he should have gone to the pen like he had done all season long. Ramirez wouldn’t have homered off of Chad Bradford, I’ll guarantee that.

The A’s wouldn’t quit and the game got very tense quickly.

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Seen enough of the five game playoff series?

Not so fast, one more game tonight between the A’s and the Red Sox.

The Marlins, Cubs, and Yankees are in, who will follow?

The A’s play differently at home (59-24), they better continue to do that because they have not looked like a championship team the last two days.

Strange series, not much hitting on either side. Eric Chavez is not getting many good swings even though it is different than in other postseasons when he was swinging wildly, neither Chavez nor Miguel Tejada are swinging at pitches out of the strike zone. The ball just isn’t falling for them right now.

Boston’s achilles heel had been its bullpen. Not anymore, in the last two games Mike Timlin and Scott Williamson have emerged and are throwing fastballs past the A’s. To me, that is the biggest change for the Red Sox, no longer can you count on catching them in the late innings as these two look to be on top of their game.

Power pitching in October, just ask the Braves about trying to handle a big league fastball this time of year.

Barry Zito versus Pedro Martinez. How is this game different from game one?

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So, how do you like the five game format for part one of the playoffs?

You play 162 games spread over the course of six months and 180 days during the season. In the back of your mind there is always tomorrow no matter what the situation until about September 25th, when the games have dwindled down to a precious few.

You get into the playoffs and they tell you here’s how it works.

First you have to run through fire, then you have to jump over some alligators, then swing by rope over a lagoon, and then who ever survives gets to play a seven gamer for the right to go to the world series.

Yes, the five game series tests every strength and emotion you have. There is no other series like it in baseball. Every game, every inning, every situation makes you feel like you are playing in the seventh game of the world series.

I have never seen such excitement over a five or six day period in baseball. Mood swings are inevitable, pitching decisions debated forever, errors branding the offending player for life, and all this because there is little room for error in the five gamer.

The tension created during the five game series prepares you for what lies ahead. I think it is a warmup for the rest of October.

Is it fair? What do you mean by fair. It is the same for all teams, everyone has to jump through the fire. Does it diminish what you have accomplished over 162 games? Absolutely not. You still have to pitch, play great defense, and come up with timely hits. You just don’t have a lot of room for mistakes.

And you know what I like it and I cannot wait for today’s games to begin and I’m not sure I have this feeling at any other time during the season.

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Baseball really is a simple game. Catch the ball, don’t beat yourself, get a well pitched game, a couple of timely hits, and bingo, victory is yours. They figured the formula for success out in 1903 and it hasn’t changed yet.

Barry Zito provided the well pitched game for Oakland Thursday. Once his curve ball clicked in around the fourth inning the Red Sox were toast.

A couple of weeks ago I pointed out how poorly the Boston second baseman were playing in the field. It seems when you have a below average player on defense, the ball always finds him, especially at the keystone sack (2nd). It happened twice during Wednesday night’s game when Todd Walker, the offensive hero for Boston, couldn’t turn a crucial double play, thereby prolonging Pedro’s inning and forcing his departure after seven excruciating frames. Damian Jackson couldn’t feed the ball to Nomar properly in the fateful twelfth on a routine double play attempt, and the A’s rallied to win the game.

Yesterday, there was Walker again botching a catch and throw to first base, giving the A’s a big rally. Tom Kelly, one of the most honest baseball managers I have ever met (Minnesota) told me four years ago that Walker couldn’t play for him any longer because he allowed many more runs than he drove in. Thursday, I thought of what Tom Kelly said.

Eric Byrnes also hit a ball over Manny Ramirez’s head for the big hit of the game, a ball that perhaps only Joe Rudi, one of the best leftfielders in A’s history may have caught, so don’t be too hard on Manny’s slow effort.

The scene now shifts to Fenway where things will undoubtedly look different for the Boston nine.

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So what was unusual about the A’s-Red Sox game yesterday evening in Oakland?

Not much. The A’s played to their strength bringing on the Boston bullpen at exactly the right time, allowing closer Byung Hyun Kim enough rope to blow the lead, getting a key two out hit by Erubiel Durazo in the ninth, and then shutting down the Boston attack with their own pen, utilizing a great defensive play by Eric Chavez to save the night, and then finally squeezing out two more walks which set up the surprise bunt by Ramon Hernandez which brought an end to the Red Sox’s long frustrating night.

Tim Hudson pitched like the warrior he is, but left too many pitches up in the strike zone. In fact, I have said Hudson hasn’t looked like himself since the September start against Anaheim. However, when the game is on the line and a big pitch is needed, there may be no one better in the league than Hudson who continuously had Manny Ramirez off balance as he faced the .326 hitter with too many runners on base for comfort, for the thin A’s righty.

What’s the skinny after game one?

Keith Foulke proved he can shut the Sox down in any normal save situation. Pedro Martinez is one tough cookie, but he isn’t going nine against the A’s in this series (especially not afte throwing 130 tough, maximum energy pitches Wednesday). The A’s bull pen is superior to Boston’s, and yes, this will be a series of bullpens. The Sox are a gritty, grinding club that is better than the team that was in here in August. Grady Little out thought himself because Mike Timlin proved he can pitch to the A’s (should have stayed in to pitch the ninth). Derek Lowe is a gamer who will be tough if he is ready on Saturday (he won’t be going seven innings either, after pitching hard last night in relief).

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Jason Schmidt set the bar Tuesday for all the starting pitchers in the playoffs with a complete game shut out over the Marlins.

Both Schmidt and Josh Beckett pitched power games, but walks to Barry Bonds led to both San Francisco runs and were the keys to the Giants offense.

The Marlins strategy of walking Bonds with two outs in the eighth led to an insurance run when Bonds got to second base on a botched pickoff between Chad Fox and Derek Lee (he scored on a ball Juan Pierre should have caught in center). Defense wins championships and the Marlins threw a ball away on a bunt attempt with two on, leading to the Giants first run.

However, the story of the game was Schmidt who was throwing 95 in the ninth inning as usual. Now, the Marlins must beat Sidney Ponson or face a 2-0 deficit on Friday in Miami. Ponson will be easier to hit than Schmidt, no picnic, but easier than Schmidt, arguably the best pitcher in the league. Wednesday the Giants bullpen will play a role as will the Miami pen behind Brad Penny.

The Yankees weren’t very good Tuesday either.

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