With Dusty McCully still out today, Joe Wicker starts at shortstop, although the Cardinals are now very, very thin up the middle. Tom Depew is essentially the backup shortstop now but nobody's left on the roster who can reasonably play second. Should the Cardinals advance and McCully still be unavailable, they do have UT Jerominmo Argumendo (.212, 0, 1), a 31 year old minor league journeyman and September callup, who can play the middle infield passably. For the time being though, Ricardo Gomez (0-1, 5.40) will try to pitch better at Busch Stadium than he did at Fulton County and, in doing, the Cardinals will see if they can get to George House (1-0, 2.00) and avoid having to return to Atlanta. And if they can... they even get an extra day off heading into a World Series where the opponent is still very much up in the air.
Speaking of "the air", we've got our worst weather game yet! It's not too bad. 54 degrees with the wind blowing out to right. Hope the fans are wearing sweaters!
Top 1st: Chris Ward grounds out 3-1 to lead off the proceedings. Ricardo Gomez has the reputation of a guy who gets grounders, as you'd expect given that his out pitch is a split-fingered fastball (which didn't technically exist in 1971 but I mean, pitchers have thrown pitches in their own special way since the dawn of time). That said, he only had a 49% GBO rate in St. Louis this year. Vicente Luna, 2-14 this series so far, strikes out swinging. Kevin Dwyer on the other hand keeps up his hot hitting in the postseason (now hitting .538) and 1971 in general (he was 3rd in the NL in average with .314) by poking a 2-out single to right field. Henry Riggs follows up with his own single up the middle, putting runners on 1st and 2nd. No dice, though, as Dante Chairez hits into a 5-4 fielder's choice for the final out. 0-0.
Bottom 1st: Jim James flies harmlessly to right. Tom Depew lifts one over 3B Vicente Luna's head and into right field, where he's able to get into 2nd base easily as LF Chris Ward's throw is off the mark. He runs on a 1-0 count and is safe, sliding into 3rd with his 1st steal of October! Casey Satterfield hits a ground ball to 2B Kevin Dwyer, who looks the runner back to third before throwing his man out, 4-3, for the second out. Lorenzo Martinez belts one to the deepest part of the park. Chris Ward can't catch up to it before it lands and bounces off the wall. By the time he gets it in, Martinez is on at 2nd and Depew scored about 4 hours ago. 1-0! Disla grounds out 4-3 and that retires the side. 1-0, Cardinals.
Top 2nd: Damon flies to left and right at Rafael Disla for out #1. John Reid hits one towards first base; Lorenzo Martinez scoops it up and Ricardo Gomez races to the bag in time to take the short toss for the out. Danny Coyle, 5-10 with 2 RBIs so far on the series, strikes out to retire the side. 1-0, Cardinals.
Bottom 2nd: Mike Galeana flies to right. Jon Stuart hits a fairly hard hit ball right to 2B Kevin Dwyer who converts it into a 4-3 putout for out #2. Joe Wicker, who had just 52 at-bats the entire regular season, grounds out to Mike Galeana at 3rd to retire the side. 1-0, Cardinals.
Top 3rd: George House lofts a fly ball into left; Disla's got it for the first out. Chris Ward hits a liner up the middle that Ricardo Gomez is just barely able to stick his glove out in time to catch. Right place, right time. Out #2. Luna singles up the middle and (because I must have hit the escape key) we immediately go to Kevin Dwyer, who hits into a 6-4 force to end the inning. 1-0, Cardinals.
Bottom 3rd: Gomez whiffs. That's George House's first strikeout tonight after a 10 K performance in the opener. Jim James grounds weakly to second base. Tom Depew hits a 2-out single into center field. That brings up Casey Satterfield, who pops out into short center field. 1-0, Cardinals.
Top 4th: Riggs is caught imitating a statue on a 0-2 slider that... sure as heck looks to me like it missed down and away, but I'm not the umpire I guess. Dante Chairez hits what looks like a routine groundball to short but Joe Wicker bobbles it and he reaches first base for free. Ricardo Gomez is having none of that and picks Chairez off. That's two. Damon hits one towards the hole at second base but Tom Depew is able to rein it in and throw to first in time for the final out. 1-0, Cardinals.
Bottom 4th: Lorenzo lines one into right field for a leadoff base hit. That's followed by an 8 pitch at-bat that ends with a bloop single to left field by high-average guy Rafael Disla (who does, to be fair, lead the Cards in HRs this postseason with 2). Martinez does not even try to get to 3rd and so it's runners on 1st and 2nd, nobody out. Oh right, he and Mike Galeana were tied. Also, Galeana is up and he also works George House into a long count that this time ends in a walk that loads the bases. It's House's first base on balls but it could not come at a worse time. Jon Stuart flies to left field. The third base coach waves Lorenzo Martinez home and he's out by a mile! Both Disla and Galeana move up but suddenly there are 2 outs and the 8 hole hitter due up. You can only guess what happens next: that's right, Joe Wicker is walked to face the pitcher, Ricardo Gomez, career .136 average and all. You can tell where the luck is going today because Gomez hits a weak ground ball that somehow crawls all the way to the deep infield and Kevin Dwyer at 2nd. Everyone is safe and it's a 2-0 game! Jim James flies out to retire the side. 2-0, Cardinals, in an inning where it seemed like a lot more was possible but damage was done anyway.
Top 5th: Jon Reid hits a solid base hit to left to lead off the inning. That's the 4th allowed by Ricardo Gomez tonight. Danny Coyle continues to find open spaces in the field to a much greater extent than he did in the regular season, when he hit just .218. This time it's a bloop single to right field. Jon Reid moves up 90 feet. George House is now up, somehow an even worse hitter than Ricardo Gomez with a .076 career average and 103 Ks in 264 career at-bats. He tries to sacrifice but instead pops it up. C Jon Stuart pulls it down for out number one. Stuart then allows a low and outside pitch to get by him and hit the backstop. Both runners advance and it's ruled a passed ball. Chris Ward works the count to 3-2 (the passed ball came on a 1-2 count) and hits a towering fly into center field that is nonetheless deep enough to bring in Reid for Atlanta's first score of the game. 2-1! Vicente Luna then hits a line drive single to right that allows Danny Coyle to lumber in from second base ahead of the Casey Satterfield throw and we are all tied up! 2-2! Kevin Dwyer chases a 2-2 splitter to retire the side. 2-2.
Bottom 5th: House walks the leadoff man Tom Depew on 5 pitches. Casey Satterfield then jumps on the first pitch he sees, socking it into right center where it hits the wall for the RBI double. St. Louis is back in the lead, 3-2! George House is now starting to look more than a little bit wild: he walks Lorenzo Martinez, which does at least set up the double play ball. It also means he's thrown 93 pitches already and it's only the 5th. Disla gets it to a 3-1 count himself before bailing out House by swinging at ball four and flying out to Chris Ward in left. Mike Galeana hits one down the left field line that Chris Ward is able to get to quickly, but it does bounce and everyone moves up 90 feet. The sacks are filled with birds with one out. And then the Atlanta defense really comes through: Jon Stuart hits a hard groundball to Vicente Luna at 3rd, who goes home to Danny Coyle for the force-out, who then fires to first base in time to catch the opposing catcher. Somehow, some way George House emerges from the inning with a single run allowed. 3-2, Cardinals.
Top 6th: Henry Riggs grounds to Lorenzo Martinez at first base, who takes it to the bag himself. Dante Chairez, 9-15 heading into this at-bat, gets his first base hit of the game... and also hit first homer of the series, as he launches one over the right field fence! It's tied up again, 3-3! Josh Damon grounds to third base for the 2nd out. Jon Reid hits it to the shortstop Joe Wicker, who this time is able to convert it into an out to retire the side. 3-3.
Bottom 6th: George House is laboring but he is after all the staff ace so I'll try to use him through this inning and then replace him with a pinch-hitter in the 7th. It doesn't hurt that he's facing the 8-9-1 guys. Joe Wicker puts a 2-2 pitch in play - House still only has 1 K to his name tonight - and flies to left field for out #1. Ricardo Gomez makes it a 2-2 night with a bona fide line drive single into left. Chris Ward singles up the middle and in spite of what I said, I think that has to be all she wrote for House, who's gone 5.1 innings, allowed 10 hits, walked 4 (one intentional), and struck out 1 for 3 runs, all of them earned.
The new guy is Mikhail Baryshnikov (2-0, 3.00, 1 Sv), the Russian (Latvian) ballet dancer who got called up in September to try and be the man Steve Hollopeter proved unable to be this season. He throws three pitches and could be a starter should the Braves want to use him that way; for now, they're enamored with his dazzling circle change that he's named after some kind of crazy Russian ballet move. He's tasked with putting out this fire and that starts with facing Tom Depew, who only adds more fuel to it with a single to left. With Ricardo Gomez as the lead runner, nobody is able to move more than 90 feet and so now the bases are loaded for the 2nd consecutive inning. Casey Satterfield flies out to CF and Johnny Damon's throw is just a hair too late to catch Gomez sprinting home from 3rd. It's a 4-3 game! Speedy leadoff hitter Jim James advances to third on the play. Lorenzo Martinez also flies out to retire the side. 4-3, Cardinals!
Top 7th: I'll leave Danny Coyle in just on account of he's had the Cardinals' number all series long. He obliges me by striking out. Gomez' 5th tonight, by the way. That brings up the pitcher slot; Cranklin will get the nod (and so that 2/3rds of an inning Baryshnikov threw might be his only appearance this entire series). He also whiffs on a 1-2 change. 2 down. Chris Ward hits a hard grounder to Mike Galeana at third. Galeana is able to make the throw but it catches 1B Lorenzo Martinez a bit off guard, I guess, as he's unable to catch the throw cleanly. Ward reaches first on the E3. Luna hits one to Joe Wicker at shortstop and when he makes his throw, Martinez is this time able to catch it for the final out. 4-3, Cards.
Bottom 7th: Time is running out and in order to give Atlanta any chance whatsoever of moving on to Game 5 I've got to bring in shutdown ace John Winn. Rafael Disla grounds out to second base against him to lead things off. Mike Galeana gets ahead in the count 2-0 and finds a hittable enough pitch that he places into right for a base hit. Winn incidentally allowed just a .195 BA in the regular season. Jon Stuart flies to center. This would normally be a great place to pinch hit for the shortstop but Joe Wicker is the last man standing so he's got to stay in. He hits a half-bunt roller to third that Vicente Luna cannot get to in time! It's a base hit, putting a runner into scoring position for the pitcher's... spot. Gomez has gotten the job done tonight but it's time. Ethan Keesee comes in to hit for him amidst lots and lots of applause. That said, John Winn bears down and strikes the youngster out. 4-3, Cards.
Top 8th: No question who's in for Ricardo Gomez: it's the Cardinals' own shutdown closer, Billy Munoz. It's already Munoz' third appearance this postseason and he faces the heart of Atlanta's order. He walks #3 hitter Kevin Dwyer to lead it off. Then Henry Riggs takes a couple of monster cuts but eventually strikes out. The Hammer is hitting just .188 in October. Dante Chairez makes poor contact for one of the only times this postseason and fouls out to the first baseman Lorenzo Martinez. Josh Damon flies out to center field and now the Braves are down to their final 3 outs. 4-3, Cardinals.
Bottom 8th: The Cardinals would love some insurance here... but good luck getting it against John Winn. Jim James grounds out to second. Tom Depew, 3-3 on the night, hits an easy roller to Kevin Dwyer that he turns into a 4-3 putout. Casey Satterfield never has a chance, swinging and missing badly at a 1-2 slider for out #3. 4-3, Cardinals.
Top 9th: It's hang-on time! And the Braves are putting out their 7-8-9 guys at that. Leading it off and pinch-hitting for SS Jon Reid is Jose "He Will Never" Vallin (.265, 1, 9), purchased from the A's in mid-August to provide some pinch-hitting help and maybe help out a little at third base. As it happened, he started just one game and had only 6 other appearances as he was kind of shuffled to the end of the bench. He goes down on strikes for out #1. In for Danny Coyle is Andres Gamez, who's already appeared in this role twice so far in October. Just when it looks like Munoz is going to get his 2nd K, Gamez slaps an 0-2 pitch back through the box for a base hit. That brings up John Winn, or, rather, Jeremy "Grab 'Em And" Holden, who's hitless so far in 3 attempts this series. Munoz also gets him to 0-2 before he hits a hot shot to Tom Depew that he relays to SS Joe Wicker for the first out... and Gamez upends him before he can complete the throw to first. Atlanta lives for one more at-bat. It's a slow grounder to second. Depew picks it up, shakes it off, and fires to first. St. Louis is heading to the World Series!
Man! I can't say I was MASSIVELY surprised by the result, although I thought Atlanta would win both of the George House games. In the end, I probably didn't use John Winn enough. Oh well. Atlanta was awwwwwwwwful in the last month to month and a half and backed in as it was. Let the better team win!