Sun Oct 14, 2012 11:21 pm
A comment that reads as snarky and dismissive is difficult to recognize as a joke, especially when it isn't actually funny.
Anyway, I got fed up with Cards fans going on and on about how their team got jobbed out of the series by that call. Bad calls happen. If we're lucky, they don't decide games, but even if they do you still play the thing out.
As for facts, here is the sequence of play in the bottom of the ninth, game six: (Todd Worrell pitching).
J. Orta. Ground ball to 1b, runner safe. Clark argues. Replay shows Denkinger blew call.
S. Balboni. Line drive single to LF. Orta to 2b. O. Concepcion comes in to pinch run for Balboni at 1b.
J. Sundberg. Bunt fielded by pitcher. Orta thrown out at third.
H. McRae. Passed ball. Runners advance to 2b and 3b.
H. McRae. Intentional walk. Bases loaded. J. Wathan in to pinch run for McRae at 1b.
D. Iorg. Line drive single to RF. Concepcion scores. Sundberg scores. Royals win 2-1.
This is the point that no Cards fan will admit. Even with the right call by Denkinger, the Royals have tied the game, have the winning run on (Wathan) with two out, Lonnie Smith due up (9-for-27 in the series; 4 RBI) and they are splattering line drives all over the park off Worrell. Even if they get out of the ninth with no more damage, the Cards have lost the lead and, having scored only 13 runs in six games, are facing an uphill battle. They had only five hits in the game (all singles), with their one run coming on a pair of singles and a walk. The Royals, meanwhile, have the top of their lineup coming up in the tenth, and ten hits in the game to that point against a Cards staff (Cox, Dayley, Worrell) that looks like it's pitching batting practice. Yes, it's conjecture to think that the Cards were basically toast at that point, but it's a lot more reasonable than blaming the whole thing on Denkinger.
That's just nuts. He cost them one lousy out. So did Jack Clark a few minutes later when he misplayed a pop foul.
Lots of teams have to get an extra out in an inning due to an error or bad call to hold the lead and they do it. Worrell cost them the lead and Tudor cost them any chance they had to win it back in Game Seven. The better team won. Then the losers acted like crybabys who'd had their rattles taken away, and their fans egged them on. It made for an ugly winter.
So says a Bostonian and a Red Sox fan.