One of These Nights

One of these crazy old nights . . . Well, we went from Frankie Valli to the Eagles in 48 hours. Ordinarily that is a good playlist, but not this time. This is one of those times where I can’t find fault with the Cardinals game even though I want to assign blame in the worst way. Cole Hamels pitched a great game for the Philadelphia Phillies in game 3 of the NLDS, even though Albert Pujols and Ryan Theriot did their best to derail him. Jaime Garcia, pitching for the Cardinals, outpitched Hamels for the first 6 innings, but the 7th inning proved to be his undoing. Probably in 2 more years, Garcia will be to the Cardinals what Hamels is to the Phillies, a pitching stud who can navigate deep into a game while sidestepping any land mines the opposition tries to lay in front of him. But Garcia is not quite there. He is known around these parts as a 5 to 6 inning guy. It just seems that the whenever he faces a lineup the 3rd time through the batting order, that things tend to get a little dicey for him.

Jaime was facing the bottom four in the Phillies order in the top of the 7th inning, sailing along with only 74 pitches thrown and only 3 hits allowed in a 0-0 game. I turned to whomever would listen (my wife in the man-cave, and my friends via text message) and said this was the crucial inning. St. Louis desperately needed to hold serve against the lower part of the order because they would be sending up the top of their own order in the bottom of the 7th; and they had just pushed Hamels to the bench by forcing him to throw 117 pitches through 6 innings. The game was on the line, and it was there for the taking. But to the Phillies credit, they made their own push. Shane Victorino led off the inning with a single up the middle. Garcia managed to scrape through 2 more outs to John Mayberry and Placido Polanco, but he looked to be on the ropes. With Octavio Dotel warming up in the bullpen, Yadier Molina had an animated discussion with Garcia on the mound and then the decision was made (probably from the Cardinals bench) to walk Carlos Ruiz intentionally. Right handed hitter Ben Francisco came into the game, and I was expecting Tony LaRussa to go to Dotel; in fact I pleaded with my television for the skipper to bring in Dotel. In fairness, Garcia was still pitching a shutout and it wasn’t a horrible decision to leave Garcia in the game. But regardless, it turned out to be the wrong decision. Francisco lofted a 3 run home run into the Cardinals bullpen and the game was history.

The Cardinals, of course, did not go quietly in the late innings. They scratched out a run in the bottom of the 7th, and then another in the bottom of the 9th, but it was the 8th inning that broke their backs on offense. They loaded the bases with one out and had Allen Craig at the plate and Albert Pujols in the on-deck circle. Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel took Brad Lidge out of the game and went with his closer Ryan Madson to face Craig. He drilled an 0-1 pitch on a short hop to Chase Utley for an easy 4-3 double play. Three feet in either direction and the game would have been tied.

There were no goats in this game. You tip your hat to Hamels and you tip your hat to Francisco. They got the breaks at the right time and they made the plays. As much as I’d like to blame Garcia or LaRussa or Craig, I cannot. They just got beat.

The math doesn’t look good. Again. But this Cardinals team seems to thrive on bad mathematics.
• On August 25th, they were 10.5 games behind the Braves.
• With 5 games remaining, they were still 3 games behind.
• Facing a possible 0-2 deficit on Sunday and a 4-0 lead by Cliff Lee of the Phillies, the Cardinals rallied. If they had fallen into that 0-2 hole, history said that 93% of the time in a league division best of five series, a team in their position would lose the series.
• Now after losing the pivotal 3rd game, history once again says that they will lose. 83% of the teams that lose the 3rd game after being tied 1-1, go on to lose the series.
That is music to the Cardinals’ ears.

Speaking of math, in these three playoff games, I’ve managed to finish off 3 bottles of scotch/whiskey. Before you judge me (LOL), all three bottles were almost empty when I started. But the Jameson, the Glenlivet, and even the J&B are now in the recycle bin. It looks like it is time for a trip to the store before tomorrow night’s game. I certainly don’t want to drain my Johnny Walker Blue if things go wrong tomorrow.

And since the Four Seasons proved luckier than the Eagles, let’s try these musical musings for good luck . . .
• “Let’s Hang On” and get this series to game 5.
• And when Roy Oswalt throws his off speed assortment Wednesday night, it might be time to “Walk Like a Man”
• Who Loves You (Pretty Baby)? Cardinals Nation is in love with this team and we haven’t given up
• And finally, the Cardinals have their eye on game 5 in Philadelphia with “Working My Way Back To You”