In Need of a Holliday

I'm sure you all saw what happened in the St. Louis/LAD game, but in case you missed it the Cardinals got a gem of an outing from Adam Wainwright and led 2-1 in the Bottom of the 9th with 2 outs and no one on. Ryan Franklin induced what looked to be a routine line drive at Matt Holliday who was jogging in for the catch to tie the series at 1-1 when suddenly the unthinkable happened - he missed it. It never even hit his glove, it hit him right in his stomach. The Dodgers ended up rallying and won 3-2.
Wainwright threw incredible though I heard him complaining "I don't think they should be allowed to wave white towels when we're trying to catch a white ball" Shut it down, Wainwright. No one else had a problem catching the ball, Holliday just blew it, no excuses, period.

I would like to point out an excellent bit of managing by Joe Torre that not many will credit but in hindsight may have won them the game. In the top of the 8th, with the Dodgers trailing 2-1, the Cardinals had Pujols leading off (with Holliday and Ludwick also due up)...so who does Torre wheel out of his bullpen? His closer, Johnathan Broxton. This is such an easy decision but it's not one most managers would make. Broxton got them to go 1-2-3 and the rest is history. If he went with anyone else there is a very good chance The Cards would have scratched some more runs and they would be headed back to St. Louis 1-1.

Hamels got beat and didn't look too sharp. Aaron Cook was dominating. I don't want to give the game too much credit as the umpire was miserable. He was giving Cook pitches about 6 inches off the plate. To his credit, Cook noticed this and utilized it more effectively than Hamels...but the umpiring in almost every game this playoffs has been brutal...and speaking of which...

The umpiring in the Red Sox/Angels game last night was absolutely the worst I have ever seen. The 1st base ump was criminally bad missing routine calls that were obvious to the naked eye on a non-high def 13" tv to me. There was also a terrible call at 3rd..and the balls/strikes calls behind the plate were laughable. Again, credit Lackey for noticing this and taking advantage of it...I also would like to say that it appeared to me (and I did bet Boston so I'll acknowledge a possible bias) that especially early on Lackey got every strike call on close pitches and Lester got nothing..they even showed Lester pitches clearly in the K zone that were called balls and Lackey with pitches inches outside it that were strikes. Hopefully the umps get it together because that is not what should be the focus in these games...

Kudos to Torii Hunter for breaking the game open with a 3-run moonshot.


Yanks should roll through the Twins again today.

Interesting game will be Beckett vs. Weaver. I think the winner of this game will probably take the series.

Phils and Colo head back to Denver and it will be interesting to see...Phils used Blanton and Happ out of the bullpen so it appears they'll go with Pedro. Happ only faced one batter though and got hit in the leg - Manuel immediately pulled him..so maybe he would be available. More than likely it's Pedro with Happ being the first up if he gets in early trouble. Phils should not be in this situation - they over-worked Pedro in meaningless regular season games and now need him to come up big. The lineup better come up big or I think the Rocks take the lead.