The Flood’s ALCS Game 5 Thoughts & Reactions

Team Fitzy was in full effect to watch Game 5 the other night- a couple notes from The Comeback:

--What was with pitching Kazmir over Shields and then yanking him after 6 solid? If you could pick a single moment when the Sox lost the momentum in this series it was game 2, when Tito stuck with Becket too long, pulled Masterson and Paps too early and put old man Timlin out for the twelfth—all three adding up to the pitching decision equivalent of Mike Martz and the Rams playing for the tie against the Panthers in the 2003-04 playoffs.

--After the Ortiz home run the first thing I thought about was Kevin Millar before game 4 of the ALCS in 2004 saying, “Don’t let us win today. Don’t let us win today and give ‘em Pedro tomorrow and then Schilling game 6 and then anything can happen in game 7.” It was a pretty obvious comparison and my buddy Winthorp sent a text with the same quote about two minutes later.

--Here’s where it gets strange, though. Still down by three in the 8th, the television next to the one showing the Sox game at the bar was running the Best Damn Sports Show Period, which had a segment of Manny lowlights (including the brilliant dive-fall-miss the ball by 5 feet-stand up-fall again-land on top of the ball-do a backward bridge to pick up the ball from under your ass-stand up and laugh it all off while Theo has a slow motion aneurysm from earlier this season—if anyone has a link please send it!) when suddenly there’s KEVIN MILLAR clumsily flopping a dreadlocked wig onto his head and talking about Manny. The rest, my friends, is history.

--Everyone’s making a big point of all the people the cameras showed leaving their seats after Papelbon gave up Upton’s two-run double in the 7th, and commenting with a lot of “only faux-fan yuppies can afford seats anymore!” bluster but Fitzy nailed it when they showed the shot: it was the middle of the seventh inning, i.e. the last chance to get beer before they cut off the taps. They were heading for the concession stands, not the exits (Ed.- Well, not ALL of them were going for more beer, apparently).

--Texted to me by my little sister who lives in Boston (and not very close to the Fens): “I can hear the fucking roar from Fenway!!”

--How nervous are the Tampa players now—or as Cedrix Maxwell would put it, how tight are their buttholes? In the course of three innings last night you had Gabe Gross’ late jump on Pedroia’s flare to right field that dropped in for an RBI single; Upton jogging a bad route to Kotsay’s fly ball bouncing off his glove for a double; a dead duck toss from cannon-armed former Auburn quarterback Gross after Coco’s single that barely made it to the lip of the outfield grass (going for second was the right move there, even a halfway decent throw makes for at least a close play on Kotsay coming to the plate); Youk’s 9th inning grounder and Evan Longoria’s ‘look what I found while blowing a bubble’ pick and bad throw to first that Carlos Pena should have gone after aggressively, or at least put his body in front of, but instead sat back and was eaten up on the in-between hop; and Wheeler and Howell letting a few pitches loose (including two high and tights to Youk and Drew). The Rays are probably the best defensive team in baseball, but don’t be surprised if you see some Tigers ’06 World Series-style miscues on Saturday. 

--Curt Schilling bounced the opening pitch and we’re supposed to believe that if he’d had surgery a couple months earlier he’d be pitching effectively right now?

--Say what you will about Francona’s bullpen moves in game 2 (and I’ve said plenty) but one of his greatest strengths as a manager is that he rarely makes the same mistake twice, a good job yanking Dice when he needed to and throwing Paps for 38 pitches in the 7th and 8th.

--And last but by no means least, the fact that all the media is piling onto the Sox bandwagon now is making me nervous. Even New York Times writers are getting in on the act, with Jack Curry referencing “Longoria, who had six homers in the postseason.” Had 6 homers in the postseason? I’m pretty sure he has 6 homers, as the postseason is still ongoing last I checked, and Longoria’s still in it and may very well add to that total over the next night or two. It ain’t over yet kids!

----THE FLOOD