My favorite part of the game was when they were interviewing Kershaw and he stopped the interview with “ah, there is a pitching change. Don’t you want to call it?” Just terrible when even the players know how to do your job better than you.
There wasn’t a pitching change. Buck had asked him a pretty good question that put Kershaw in a corner, and he jokingly suggested there was a pitching change to deflect and change the subject.
Joe Buck is a good announcer who lets the play develop without talking over it, unlike many of his colleagues. He’s gotten a lot better over the years, and many people haven’t gotten over his early days of mediocrity.
There was a pitching change and buck was more interested in the interview then the game. In fact buck did cram the call into 5 seconds as they were going to commercial.
Smoltz and Buck clearly get bored as the game progresses.
I agree that Buck is a much better announcer than he used to be. I think Buck’s actually interested in being a professional. When he was younger, he was maybe trying too hard to establish his own brand, so to speak. He’s less concerned about brand and just calls the game now.
Also, not having Tim McCarver perpetually trying to shove his ‘back in my day’ expertise up his ass probably helps.
I have always thought Buck was good. Smoltz and his “I don’t like baseball” schtick has been old since the first game he called.
I was in STL as Joe Buck was making his rise. He used to be awesome. It was obvious he was destined for great things.
He’s still very knowledgeable, and has an excellent speaking voice, diction, etc. But somehow his pronouncements about the game itself, the players, coaches, league, etc., have changed from him offering a well-founded opinion to a tone of The Infallible Oracle Has Spoken!
His play-by-play is still good, but his yak-yak has become off-putting for that reason.
Al Michaels on the NFL has the same grating tone.
All IMO of course.
CIA’s next enhanced interrogation technique would consist of being forced to listen to Tim McCarver and Al Michaels compete for mic time.
Interrogator: Oh yeah? You don’t wanna talk, eh? Hey Mike, roll Timmy and Al.
Al Qaeda detainee: No! No! No! Ahhh! Okay, whatever you want, please! Okay, yes, yes. I know everything. Whatever you want me to say! Turn it off!
Damn. That was one of the weirdest endings I can recall. I don’t know how many times the lead changed or it was tied in the game. Then Tampa’s winning run, Arozarena, slips and falls on his way home, looking like he’s surely out, only to have the catcher miss the throw so he scores. Sheesh.
My favorite part was that Will Smith didn’t field the ball because he was in a hurry to sweep tag a player that wasn’t there.
Yeah, that was wild. I don’t really have much of a rooting interest which of these teams wins, but I woke my wife up cheering for the Rays on that play, because it tied the series at 2-2, and a closer series means more baseball.
There have been a total of 71 innings of baseball played in this World Series (1 inning = one team, 3 outs), and a total of 86 strikeouts, for a K/9 figure of 10.9.
There have been 17 home runs, for a total of just over 2 per team per game. No game has had fewer than 3 total HR.
In addition to those 17 HR, there have been another 53 base hits, or about 6.5 hits per team per game, not including homers.
When was the last time a playoff game ended on an error? The only ones I can think of were:
-
2016, the last play of the Blue Jays - Rangers ALDS rematch, the one where Josh Donaldson scored from second on a ground ball. That is the only time in history a playoff series ended on a walk off error, and
-
1986, and you all know what game I am referring to.
That’s it. I could look it up but that’s no fun.
Yeah I think Bill Buckner’s error was the last time a Series game ended on an error. But the sequence of errors committed last night even outdoes Buckner’s mishap.
That play was certainly more bizarre than the fairly straight up Buckner error. On the other hand, the agony of losing a game 6-5 when you were winning 5-3 with no one on base and two outs and one out away from winning the World Series, man, that’s a SPECIAL kind of choke.
That was Keystone Cops hell for the Dopey Dodgers. Ground ball, game over-- BLOOOP! Bobble that one, so tie game. NOPE! Somehow the “eye on the ball” mantra went south for Will Smith with a story all about how his life got flipped, turned upside down while trying to tag a ghost. And where was Jansen going? Someone has to stay at home plate! But the winning run gets scored by a rolling, crawling man who should’ve been out at 2nd. All started by a guy who hits .150 for two years straight.
Forgotten in all the laughter about the Dodgers once again choking in a playoff game is that Randy Arozarena, that legendary slugger, is the first player, ever, to hit nine home runs in one postseason.
That’s one more homer than the Ruthian titan of bombs has hit in his regular season career.
I love the Arozarena story. He was ALCS MVP, and the only reason he wasn’t named ALDS MVP is because that isn’t a thing.
It’s worth noting that the game was going to be tied whether he bobbled it or not. Even if Taylor fields it cleanly, the runner from second makes it home. What the bobble did was allow the third-base coach to send Arozarena to the plate rather than holding him at third base, and then the screwup at the plate allowed him to score rather than being tagged out between third and home after his comical stumble and fall.
I saw this on ESPN last night after the game. Game 3 in the 2013 Series ended when Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks was called for obstruction and Allen Craig of the Cardinals was awarded home with the winning run. Obstruction of a runner results in an error charged to the defensive player.
Yeah, I know, it’s not really a fielding error, but, technically, this game ended on an error.
Does Arozarena score if he doesn’t stumble and the relay throw is handled cleanly by Smith?
I’ve looked at it from all the angles I can find, and the best I can say is that it would have been really close. Arozarena was flying when he went down, and Smith knew that it was going to be bang-bang at the plate, which is why he rushed in his effort to catch and swivel in order to try and make the swipe-tag.
Edit: Also, I think that Smith is out of position. He is too far in front of the plate; if he stays back a bit, on or level with the plate, it’s much easier for him to make that play, and also keep the runner in his peripheral vision. If he’s level or just behind the plate, with his body at a better angle, he might even see Arozarena go down and know that he’s got more time to catch the ball and make the play. Keep in mind, though, that this is advice from someone who has never played catcher once in his life, not even in city rec-league softball. 