2011 WS Game 6 in perpetuum

[go birds]

Recalling the 2011 World Series
Preview-Major League Baseball Productions presents the 2011 World Series film

chills.

[Jmodene]

At least Laird got into a WS game. Back in 1982, there were three guys on the 25 man roster who didn't get into a WS game - Julio Gonzalez, John Martin, and Steve Mura - and Glenn Brummer only got to catch one inning (the 9th inning of Game 6). Imagine that - we used only 8 pitchers in 7 WS games that year; nowadays, we use 8 pitchers in *one* game.

Are you sure Mura was on the roster?

Yes, he was, and NBC ran a graphic late in the series noting that Martin, Mura, and Gonzalez hadn't gotten into a game. I don't know why Martin and Gonzalez didn't get in, but Mura was our fifth starter that year, and Herzog had lost confidence in him by the end of the season after a poor September, IIRC, that featured a disturbing lack of control; he was walking a lot of batters.

Martin was our other lefty in the bullpen (along with Kaat; we had three righties - Sutter, Bair, and Lahti) and Gonzalez was our backup-backup infielder (Ramsey was the primary backup); Julio only got into 42 games that season and had 90 PA, a lot compared with Brian Harper in 1985 and Tom Lawless in 1987. (For all his blather about using all the guys on his roster, the 25th guy on the Cards spent most of his time on the bench, which came back to bite us in 1987 when Pendleton and Clark were hurt and the backups simply weren't up to the job; for all our fussing, TLR did a much better job of using his entire roster).

Oddly enough, we carried 3 catchers (Porter, Tenace, and Brummer) on the postseason roster, and 6 outfielders (Lonnie, Willie, Silent George, Iorg - who was our primary DH in the WS, Green, and Braun, who was our primary pinch-hitter). Add the 6 infielders (Keith, Tommy, Ozzie, Obie, Ramsey, and Gonzalez) and the 10 pitchers (Andujar, Forsch, Stuper, Lapoint, Mura, Sutter, Bair, Lahti, Kaat, and Martin) and there's your 25. Guys like Tito Landrum, Orlando Sanchez, and Gene Roof didn't make the postseason roster, and guys like Andy Rincon and Mark Littell were hurt; you may recall that Rincon had started the season in the rotation and was replaced by Stuper after his injury.

[Freed Roger]

Burnt a DVD of the game, and turned game 6 on to check if it worked.

amongst the many plays of major consequence - in the Ranger 7th - Lance Lynn - not exactly shutting them down, Cards losing 6-4. It seemed like the rout was on, like the Rangers did to Detroit. Kinsley up trying to bunt over the runner, and Lynn makes a dangerous whirling play on the bunt to force Murphy at second.

[pioneer98]

I re-watched it today.

In the 10th inning when Albert came up with 2 outs and the score 9-8 with Jay on 2nd...Watching it this time around, I think Washington should have pitched to Albert there instead of walking him to get to Berkman. Even if it backfires and Albert gets a big hit (or even wins it with a HR), Wash could have written it off as just not wanting to put the winning run on base with Berkman up. Berkman was on a tear. Pitching to Albert there would have been 100% justifiable, IMO.

Plus if you believe at all in the mental game, maybe it would have been a vote of confidence in his pitcher (and his team) that he felt they could get Albert out there. And what better way to end the series than to get the other team's best hitter out? Albert's 9th inning double was well placed but he didn't exactly crush it. And that was his 1st hit since game 3. He definitely looked like he was favoring his leg during the game. It would have taken big stones to pitch to Albert there, but that's what winning the World Series is about.

The other thing I missed the 1st time around was how bonkers Nolan Ryan & Company went after Hamilton hit that HR in the top of the 10th. I think I was throwing something at the time so I missed it the 1st time around. But yeah, Ryan & friends pretty much exploded. They clearly thought they had won it there.

To go back to the bottom of the 10th though...One of my favorite moments watching the 2nd time around was the Berkman hit to tie it up. Both he and Jay both did it so matter-of-factly. Berkman hit a single and went to first without raising his arm or giving a claw or a beast mode or even saying anything. And Jay just trotted home and high-fived the on-deck batter. He maybe "hooted" or something when he touched home, but really not too much of a celebration. By just looking at Jay and Berkman, you would have had a hard time telling if it was the 11th inning of game 6 or the 6th inning on May 11th. It was a nice contrast from Nolan Ryan & friends' outburst in the top of the 10th.

[Jocephus]

if i can talk about game 5 of the nlds...man, skip had an amazing at-bat to get that run in...

[jagtrader]

At the time I remember being happy they walked Pujols. Feldman was death to lefty hitters last season, which I'm sure played a part in the decision.

[Cronos]

I'm only just now able to watch the Fox Sports Midwest post-game for Game 7 in the replay (I was out of town and, well, a little too inebriated to know much of anything that was happening that night back in the day). I'm loving seeing all of the reactions of Jim Hayes, Hrabosky, all the players, the fans...so awesome.

[Cronos]

if i can talk about game 5 of the nlds...man, skip had an amazing at-bat to get that run in...

2011 WS Game 6 might have been the most epic postseason game I've ever seen, but I don't think I've ever felt more excited about and at the same time nervous about as NLDS game 5. Halladay vs Carpenter. We had 1 run early against probably the best pitcher I've ever seen in my lifetime, and you could tell that Carpenter would have to make it stand the whole rest of it.

I lived and died with every single pitch. That game was the best postseason game I've ever had the privilege to watch. Game 6 was the best WS game I've watched...but Carpenter doing what he did in game 5 of the NLDS was [expletive] legendary.

[Gashouse]

if i can talk about game 5 of the nlds...man, skip had an amazing at-bat to get that run in...

2011 WS Game 6 might have been the most epic postseason game I've ever seen, but I don't think I've ever felt more excited about and at the same time nervous about as NLDS game 5. Halladay vs Carpenter. We had 1 run early against probably the best pitcher I've ever seen in my lifetime, and you could tell that Carpenter would have to make it stand the whole rest of it.

I lived and died with every single pitch. That game was the best postseason game I've ever had the privilege to watch. Game 6 was the best WS game I've watched...but Carpenter doing what he did in game 5 of the NLDS was [expletive] legendary.

I watched Game 5 again recently, and I agree - that AB by Skip was incredible. That whole game was awesome, and I'm afraid it will get lost to history a bit since it was "just" an NLDS game. then again, great postseason pitching duels rarely get the notoriety I think they should. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Game 7 of the 91 WS. I think the only reason that gets much interest is because it was Game 7 and Morris pitched all 10 innings. I just finished reading Summer of '49 by David Halberstam. I had no idea Game 1 of the WS that year was a fantastic duel between one HOF (Newcombe) and a Hall of Very Good (Allie Reynolds).

[Jmodene]

That was a great game, although Newk isn't in the HOF either - despite his MVP, CYA, and ROY awards.

Oddly enough,he wasn't a high-K kind of guy; in his CYA season, for instance, he had only 139 K's in 268 IP. He must have been doing something right, though, given that he won 27 games and had a 0.98 WHIP that year.

I don't know how close he came to the HOF in the voting, but one thing that probably hurt him was his reputation (a somewhat unfair one) for not being able to win the big game. He was, for instance, the starting pitcher in the 1951 Dodger-Giant game but was unable to finish the 9th inning, which is why Branca came in to pitch to Thomson. He also had a fairly short career for a potential HOF'er, but then so did Dean and Koufax. B-R tries to use his being "barred" from MLB prior to 1947 as an explanation, but I see where Newk was 23 in his rookie season of 1949, so he didn't miss much ML time for that reason - he did, however, miss two years to military service in 1952-53. And the other thing that hurt him was that 1956, his CYA season, was his last great season; he won only 37 games in the remaining 4 seasons of his career after the CYA. I know about his drinking problem, of course, but I also wonder if he simply hadn't been overpitched by the Dodgers - in his five full seasons of MLB from 1949 to 1956 (as I note, he missed 1952 and 1953 and only pitched 2/3rds of a season in 1954) he threw between 233 and 272 innings each year, including 244 IP as a rookie.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... do01.shtml

Addendum: found it - Newcombe never got more than 15% of the vote from the writers, and the best he's done in the Veterans' Committee was 21% in 2007.