6/30/2006:
@TOR - What should have been a nice, quaint 3-0 win on the strength of
Eric Munson's two-run second-inning long ball and
Ryan Franklin's typical solid effort went up in flames in the seventh inning as we re-established ourselves in that old cottage industry where games are blown in every way imaginable. Southpaw reliever
Mike Gallo cleaned up
Ryan Franklin's little sixth inning mess well enough, but he was ineffective against a pair of left-handed batters in the seventh, and on came right-hander
Akinori Otsuka to replace him. He ends up loads up the bases, and they're unloaded by the time the inning's ended, but only after
Alex Rios had taken care of that by blasting a grand salami to right-center field to give
Toronto a 6-3 lead.
Rios, the home club's 26 year old left fielder, is batting 85 points off last season's mark, and perhaps that's why he felt the need to bust his second career four-run four-bagger rather than go to my place of employment and pick up a big ol' hunk of
pork roll (New Jersey's second finest export) for about $14.99 instead. I don't get any commission, so normally his decision would be OK by me, 'cause less customers mean more time to bust out something else entirely.
But our ninth-inning charge falls short, as no one on our side can put quite the charge into the ball that
Alex Rios did, so I'm quite perturbed indeed.
CHW 3 TOR 6
7/1/2006:
@TOR - In a matchup of southpaws who top out at ninety-two miles per on the radar gun and have the first and last initials M.B., you might expect the man making $9.7 million per annum more to come out on top, especially since that man's got 104 career victories, or 84 more than the man opposing him, a man who is also a year older. But it is
Mike Bacsik turning in the one-two-three first inning and
Mark Buehrle surrendering a long ball to the second batter, backstop
Guillermo Quiroz. It is
Mike Bacsik who retires three in a row to escape a second-inning jam and
Mark Buehrle walking the opposing
pitcher to start the third,
Mark Buehrle watching
the opposing pitcher wander around the bases after a single by
Quiroz and a booming
Carlos Delgado two-bagger. It is
Mark Buehrle who digs us a 3-0 hole and
Mike F. Bacsik who is shutting us down. But things start to right themselves a half-inning later when
Frank Catalanotto doubles down the left field line to start the frame, and then
Brian Anderson gets us on the board with a ribbie single to left.
Buehrle himself gets into the act with an improbable two-out double to bring home our rookie outfielder, though
Jack Wilson flies out to left to halt our scoring there, and Mr.
Bacsik ends up holding us at two runs for the duration of his six frames, in a little show of bravado. Journeyman right-hander
Kip Wells pitches a pristine seventh and is replaced by southpaw
Eric Knott for the eighth, but he's
knott very good (geddit??), and chased out of Canada after
Frank Catalanotto's one-out single. On comes Proven Closer (TM)
Geoff Geary for the five-out save, and
Eric Munson steps up to the plate in
Frank Thomas's slot.
Munson's been raking like a house afire lately, but surely a pinch-hit home run is asking a bit much, i'n't it? Well...
"
Two balls and no strikes to Munson. Catalanotto at first, one out here in the eighth, Toronto clinging to a three-to-two lead. Geary to the set, Munson waving the bat lazily. Quiroz pounds the glove and sets up on the inside half. The kick...the offering, up over the plate, swing and a long fly ball, deep to right field. Going back is Restovich...at the track, at that wall, but he will just watch that one go! Eric Munson has done it AGAIN!"
But so does our bullpen.
Joe Roa gets through the eighth inning thanks to a fortuitous double play ball off the bat of
Carlos Delgado, but the ninth inning takes a sour turn after pinch-hitter
Gabe Gross reaches on a bouncing ball to second that should have gone for out number two -- until
Adam Kennedy chucked it wide of first. The cracks in our armor start to show.
Roa balks, of all things, to put the tying run in scoring position. 39 year old pinch-hitter
Robin Ventura is an easy out on a bouncer to short...but that should have been the third out, and third baseman
Eric Hinske makes us pay with a sharp base hit to left to tie the game up. Our best hope now is a win in extra time, but
Russ Adams pinch-hits and drives a single into left field, and suddenly the winning run is ninety feet away. I panic and call on "Mercurial
Kiko"
Calero to face the southpaw left fielder,
Laynce Nix. His first pitch is predictably wild, in the dirt, and an unchallenged
Adams scampers for second, not that it really matters. The second toss rings true, though if it were a pinata filled with chocolate treats, I'm sure
Nix would have grabbed the
tostadas instead. It's on the one-one pitch where
Nix finally takes a hack, and it's a low breaking ball that's literally chopped at and bounces back up the middle. Second baseman "Gumby"
Kennedy ranges far to his right, pushing the memories of
Juan Uribe out of the way as he does so, and backhands the ball while falling to his knees. "Ah," I think out loud with a little smile, "Here we have evidence that things have changed. That ball would've gotten through last year, and we would've ended up with yet another loss."
But
Kennedy's on his knees around second base, with the only out to be had at first. Any attempt to scramble to his feet would take too long, so he sort of half-stands while making the toss across the diamond. It's a girlish toss with a long arc. By the time it reaches
Frank Catalanotto's outstretched glove,
Laynce Nix has already streaked past the bag, down the right field line...
And back to home plate to celebrate
Toronto's 5-4 victory with the rest of his teammates.