This is just a baseball blog I follow, but it offers a different view of the game than most we have seen here. Interesting to look at:
Some post-game thoughts
Th_buckykatt_tiny by Adam J. Morris on Oct 15, 2010 11:47 PM CDT
ARLINGTON TX - OCTOBER 15:
First of all, I'm not as upset right now as I would have thought I'd be.
Maybe part of it is that the Rangers have never even made it this far, and I feel like they are playing with house money.
A lot of it, though, stems from the fact that I'm not worried about a "snowball" effect from this game, or the possibility that there will be a carryover to tomorrow's game. This team is like Jason...it gets stabbed in the heart, gets run over by a truck, gets rocks dropped on its head and buried at the crossroads at midnight. And every time it seems like the team's backs are against the wall and the death spiral is imminent, they suck it up and come up with a big performance.
The national storyline is going to be that this was the Rangers' inexperience showing, the Yankees big game experience coming through, the Rangers being exposed as green n00bs who have been a nice story, but will be shuffled offstage in short order so the grownups can play. I don't think that's happening, though...I still think the series goes at least 6, and I still think the Rangers win in 7.
That said, there were some troubling items. Despite a first inning that looked like the Rangers made make it a blowout, the offense was strangely silent for most of the game. There were no outs when Josh Hamilton homered in the first inning. For the rest of the game, 9 innings, 27 outs, the Rangers scored a whopping two runs. Texas had 8 baserunners over the final 8 innings. And the guys in the middle of the order, who we said needed to show up? After Hamilton's homer, the Young/Hamilton/Guerrero triumvirate went 1 for 11 with 6 Ks.
This game was eerily similar to game 3 of the ALDS. Missed opportunities to score and put the game away. And then a bullpen meltdown in the 8th inning that turned a win into a loss.
There were two key decisions Ron Washington made in the 8th that I disagreed with. First, I didn't get pulling C.J. Wilson for Darren Oliver. Wilson had been pitching well, and was only at 104 pitches. Brett Gardner's infield single was a routine grounder to first base, and Derek Jeter's double wasn't particularly hard hit (although it was weird to me that Michael Young, who is normally guarding the line in that situation, was well off the line).
That said, the decision to go with Oliver was understandable. You don't want to go to Darren O'Day with the switch hitters Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira due up. Alexi Ogando has had issues pitching from the stretch this year. While I would have stuck with Wilson, I don't think going to Oliver was necessarily a bad, or inherently wrong, move.
Rest of Entry:
http://www.lonestarball.com/2010/10/15/1754970/some-post-game-thoughts
