Friday October 3, 2003

PLAYOFF REPORTS

            TWINS/YANKEES

            A’s/RED SOX

KG’s CONTRACT

NFL “EXPERTS” PICKS

TV THOUGHTS

 GAME 2 IN GOTHAM – Series Evened up

PLAYOFF REPORTS

The National League teams had their travel days yesterday, so the only playoff games were of the American League variety. Be sure to check out yesterday’s posting to see my predictions for Game 3 of both the Braves/Cubs series and the Marlins/Giants series.

TWINS/YANKEES SERIES (SERIES TIED 1-1)

Game 2 Recap – (Yankees 4, Twins 1)

A pitcher’s dual between Andy Pettitte and Brad Radke for the first 6 ½ innings, but a meltdown in the bottom half of the 7^th inning was the Twins undoing.

Random Game Notes –

1. The game’s big winner had to be the bat manufacturers. Both Radke and Pettitte broke a lot of bats in the early innings. The weather appeared pretty cold, and both pitchers were working inside well!
2. The first inning – Radke broke 3 bats in the first inning, yet gave up three bloop singles to the first three hitters. Radke did well to give up just one run that inning.
3. When Torii Hunter hit his home run to center field in the 5^th inning, it was the first, and really the only, well-hit ball the whole game.
4. The 7^th inning – Radke hit Nick Johnson to lead off the inning and was then taken out. Clearly, bringing in LaTroy Hawkins was the right decision at the time. It had to be made. Soriano didn’t hit his single to left (that scored Johnson from second) hard. Jeter bounced one off the plate and Hawkins actually just threw the ball too hard to 1B for the error. Then Hawkins just threw one too many strikes to Giambi. Tim McCarver made a great point (I’m sorry, I will bash him later, so I have to be fair and get this in) in that Hawkins needs to work up in the zone to be effective. He threw Giambi 3 straight fastballs; the first blew right by him, the second he was closer on, then the third was down and right into Giambi’s swing.
5. It could be argued that Radke should have stayed in, but that said, if the Twins want him to pitch Game 5, 98 pitches last night was enough.  I realize that you need to win Game 2 and try to make Game 5 unnecessary, but when your bullpen option there is LaTroy Hawkins, you have to make that decision.
6. The Yankees defense was certainly in question again last night, this game it was the infielders that made mistakes.
7. Why was Juan Rivera in the lineup against Radke and not Karim Garcia?
8. Rivas and Koskie… not even close at the plate. They made Jacque Jones look good at the plate! Rivas played a little defense though!
9. OK, to the McCarver bashing… let me count the ways:
   1. Early in the game, he called Cristian Guzman “one of the best all-around shortstops in either league.”  Huh?
   2. McCarver continued to say that both pitchers were getting pitches off the plate. Not at all true! Pettitte was getting a lot of calls off the plate, the most glaring being the called third strike to Guzman. It was a slow, big curveball that Posada caught outside (meaning that it was actually further outside than it looked). Radke didn’t get anything off the corners.
   3. OK, I’ve decided to be nice to McCarver for now. Hopefully the Twins will stay alive and have many more games on Fox. If so, there will be plenty of time for McCarver bashing.
   4. I didn’t realize just how bad Joe Buck is either. It is obvious to me that the announcers really don’t know anything about the Twins, or particularly care. I really wish, especially since the game was on Fox, that they would have brought in Jim Kaat and Bert Blyleven and had them do that game. How fun would that have been to listen to?
10. Despite the loss, the Twins did take away Home-Field Advantage from the Yankees. If they do their part and win their two home games this weekend, they win the series! Whatever happens, the Twins are ensured having two home games, something many in the country didn’t think would happen.

Game 2 MVP – I hate to keep doing this, but as I mentioned before the playoffs started, that particularly in the early games of the series, we’ll be seeing good pitching in all of the series. And, most of my Game MVP’s have been the winning starting pitcher. This game can be no different, Andy Pettitte was great! 7 innings, 4 hits, 3 walks, 1 run and 10 strikeouts. Also of note, Alfonso Soriano was 3-4, knocked in a run, and scored 2.

Game 3 Preview- @ Metrodome, Saturday, 12:00 p.m. on ESPN

Game 3 starters -

Game 3 Predictions -

The game will be a little different than the first two games, which were well pitched. The key to Game 3 is, without question, Kyle Lohse. And, more specifically, Kyle Lohse in the 1^st inning. If he can put a 0 on the board in the top of the first, that would bode very well for him, and the Twins. However, look at how he pitched in other ‘big’ games late this season. His start in Chicago in September, when he gave up 5 runs in the first inning, then none in the next 5. Or, a week and a half later when the White Sox were at the Dome, Lohse gave up 2 first inning runs before settling into his rhythm. Key to the game – Kyle Lohse, Inning 1! Roger Clemens is one of the best pitchers ever. He’ll be keyed up and ready for this game. Hopefully the Twins can do exactly what we don’t want the Yankees to do… score early! Prediction: Yankees 8, Twins 4.

Your turn… what do you think about the Twins/Yankees series? What is your take on Games 1 and 2 in New York? What do you think will happen in Games 3 and 4 in the Dome? Can Kyle Lohse come up big for the Twins. E-mail me your thoughts.

For a look at this series from a little different perspective, be sure to check out a great website, Bronx Banter, written by Alex Belth.

On a side note, while your watching the games this weekend, be sure to look for this sign!!  Hey Bert

A’S/RED SOX SERIES (A’S LEAD 2-0)

Game 2 Recap – (A’s 5, Red Sox 1)

One bad inning! That’s all it took. That’s all Barry Zito needed as the A’s won 5-1 and took a commanding 2-0 lead heading to Boston. A Ramon Hernandez single scored one. An Eric Byrnes double scored two more. An error by 2B Todd Walker scored 2 more runs, and gave Zito and the A’s a 5-0 lead. Zito went 7 innings, giving up just 1 run on 3 hits and a couple walks. He also used his big curveball to strike out 9 Red Sox batters. Red Sox starter, Tim Wakefield actually pitched well aside from the one inning.

Game 2 MVP – Eric Byrnes had the 2-run double in the big 2^nd inning. Keith Foulke should be commended for pitching an inning in relief after pitching 3 innings 12 hours or so earlier.

Game 3 Preview- @ Fenway Park, Boston, 6:35 p.m. Saturday

Game 3 Starters -

Assuming Lowe is 100% after his two innings in Game 1 on Wednesday night (or was that Thursday morning?, I think that he should induce plenty of ground ball outs against the A’s. Ted Lilly, despite his very solid post all-star break numbers, is definitely not going to intimidate any of the Red Sox hitters. He may keep them off-balance once through the order, but I would expect him to get hit hard. I would think that the Green Monster could be hit a few times Saturday. Prediction: Red Sox 9, A’s 2.

Again, be sure to check yesterday’s posting to see my predictions for today’s National League Game 3’s. If you have any thoughts on those series as well, please send me an e-mail.

KG’s CONTRACT

Yesterday, I reported that that Kevin Garnett had signed a 5 year extension to his current contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves. I had heard rumored that the contract was for slightly more than $105 million, and called it great for Wolves fans and Garnett had done them a favor by signing for so much less than he could have. Well, no one really knows how much the deal would be. ESPN and other sources have stated that the deal was worth $179 million, the maximum allowed. Sources closer to the situation are reporting that it is near $100 million. So, I don’t have much more to say other than… If it’s $100 million, or close to it, I’ll stand by those things I wrote yesterday. If it is actually closer to $179 millions, well, then the expectations by Timberwolves fans should be very high for both Garnett and the Timberwolves, because that would severely limit the window for success to about two years!!

NFL “EXPERT” PICKS

Here are this week’s picks of the NFL Football games. I figured also that most of us are primarily baseball people, I would include all of our picks for the major end-of-season baseball awards. You can see the logic behind my selections by looking here and here. After last week’s picks, I really need to have a comeback week. (Let me also congratulate Aaron Gleeman, who’s website, Aaron’s Baseball Blog passed the 200,000 hits mark! Be sure to check out Aaron’s Bio, along with the other panelist we have here on our Football Picks Page. And don’t forget to check out Ben Jacob’s article in today’s Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle.)

So, to summarize, here’s what we think:

Minnesota @ Atlanta – Vikings 8-1

Cincinnati @ Buffalo – Bills 9-0

Oakland @ Chicago – Raiders 9-0

Arizona @ Dallas – Cowboys 9-0

Seattle @ Green Bay – Seahawks 5-4

Denver @ Kansas City – Chiefs 9-0

Tennessee @ New England – Titans 6-3

Miami @ NY Giants – Dolphins 7-2

New Orleans @ Carolina – Panthers 8-1

San Diego @ Jacksonville – Chargers 6-3

Detroit @ San Francisco – 49ers 6-3

Washington @ Philadelphia – Eagles 6-3

Cleveland @ Pittsburgh – Steelers 9-0

Indianapolis @ Tampa Bay – Buccaneers 8-1

Award Winners

NL Manager of the Year – Jack McKeon (6), Bobby Cox (2)

AL Manager of the Year – Tony Pena (8), Grady Little (1)

NL Rookie of the Year – Brandon Webb (5), Willis/Podsednik (2)

AL Rookie of the Year – Angel Berroa (4)

NL Cy Young – Mark Prior (4), Eric Gagne (3)

AL Cy Young – Roy Halladay (3), Hudson/Loaiza (2)

NL MVP – Barry Bonds (4), Albert Pujols (3)

AL MVP – Carlos Delgado/Alex Rodriguez (3), Garciaparra (2)

TV THOUGHTS

I’m sure some of you are wondering exactly how I settled my what-to-watch quandary that I described in yesterday’s posting. (Here’s another one you can think about for me over the weekend, k? Why is ‘Colonel’ pronounced ‘Ker-Null’?) Well, here’s what I did. As I’ve mentioned, I do have two TVs in my living room. During the regular season, I normally watch the ballgame on TV2 (a 13 inch TV), while watching the network programming on TV1 (a 27 inch TV). That way, I can keep updated on the ballgame as it’s going on, yet focus on the dialogue of the sitcom or drama.

But tonight was different. Normally, nothing gets in my way when Friends is on. I can admit it. Normally on Thursday nights, it’s a big Must-See-TV night on TV1, tape Survivor and then watch it after ER. But this is the playoffs. This is the Twins at Yankees Stadium looking to go up two games to none. So, what I did is watched the Twins game in its entirety, with nothing on TV 2 to distract me! I taped Must-See-TV on TV1, and Survivor on TV2, then after the Twins game was complete, and I got the majority of this posting typed up, I watched Friends, and will watch the other programs at a later time. (By the way, this was one of the best David Schwimmer Friends episodes. He was funny! The whole Ross/Rachel/Joey thing is really going to be interesting to see play out!)

So, I did it, and I am ok!

Well, it’s the weekend again! I am not quite sure of my weekend plans at this time, so I may, or may not, have a Special Saturday morning posting. So, be sure to check back, tell your friends or anyone you know who loves baseball or even just playoff baseball, to check this out! In the past few days, we have added a number of really great baseball blog links to the left side of the screen. Take a few minutes and check some of them out too. There should be plenty of playoff baseball information on their sites too! You can never get enough baseball and baseball reading, right?

Have a great Friday and a great weekend!

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