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October 24, 2004

Prospectus Today

Game 1 Ringer

by Jonah Keri

After three weeks of non-stop playoff baseball columns, Joe Sheehan is getting the night off. But fear not, fair readers. To ensure that no World Series game goes uncovered, I'll be pinch-hitting on Prospectus Today. In far more exciting news, Joe will continue working on the playoff beard he's been growing throughout the playoffs. He's about two days from matching Kevin Millar's Abe Lincoln look of a couple weeks ago.

Having spent six hours in the sun prior to game time, here are my heat-addled thoughts on Game 1:

• Sox fans who complained about Mark Bellhorn and wanted Pokey The Outmaking Machine in his stead can officially stop complaining now. A 1-for-14 streak like Bellhorn had earlier in the playoffs means nothing, whether it's April or October, and it was just a matter of time before he got it going again. Aside from yearning for Reese's defense, it's clear that many Sox followers can't stand Bellhorn's strikeouts; he led the league in Ks this season, and strikeouts tend to look bad, or at least worse than outs on balls in play.

  But there's a reason Bellhorn was the starter at second base all year, and there's a reason Terry Francona stuck with him through his mini-playoff slump: the guy can hit. Bellhorn's two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth was his third in his last three games, and a game-winner for the Sox. For all the analysis of minutiae between these two teams, Boston can claim a big edge in bottom-of-the-order hitting, with Bellhorn and Bill Mueller dwarfing So Taguchi, Mike Matheny and Tony Womack. Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds went 1-for-12 last night--the Cards can ill afford to have the heart of their lineup neutered that way, given the likely contributions of the stiff brigade at the bottom of their order.

• Second inning, Cards down 4-0, Edmonds leads off with a well-placed bunt single and Reggie Sanders follows with a walk off Tim Wakefield. So Womack comes up and...bunts? Granted, the bunt advanced the runners, and Mike Matheny then cashed St. Louis' first run with a sacrifice fly. But against a team as dangerous offensively as Boston, willingly taking steps to bring a potential big inning one out closer to ending? In the second, down four? Of course part of this goes back to Womack and his limp bat. Surely La Russa had no choice but to bat Womack after Sanders in the lineup, right?

  Well, not really. Using a rare two-fer of lame managerial excuses, Tony La Russa opted to start light-hitting So Taguchi over a good hitter in John Mabry. The move, it was felt, would improve the Cardinals' left-field defense at the face of the Green Monster, while also preserving Mabry for a pinch-hit appearance, given his skill at that role. Of course Mabry never got used, negating that angle. Taguchi managed an RBI infield hit and looked good in the field on several plays, while Roger Cedeno rapped a pinch-single subbing for Taguchi in the eighth--it's still the wrong move not to use Mabry in the seven-hole behind Sanders.

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