Giants sweep Tigers in World Series with win in extra innings: Griffin

DETROIT-The Giants swarmed over the dugout rail at Comerica Park arms raised to the sky and raced to the mound, bouncing around their excited closer Sergio Romo in wild celebration of a well-earned World Series sweep of the heavily favoured Tigers.

It was a moment the 37-year-old Marco Scutaro had been waiting for his entire life. In the top of the 10th inning, the gritty second baseman reached out and slashed a single over second base. The DH Ryan Theriot raced around third and slid home to give the Giants a 4-3 win. Romo entered for the final three outs to earn the save in the bottom of the 10th and the Giants were World Series champions for the second time in the last three seasons.

It seemed fitting Theriot was the one that scored ahead of Scutaro's clutch single. The second base position had once belonged to the 32-year-old Theriot for the first 81 games of 2012. Then on July 27, GM Brian Sabean acquired Scutaro from the Rockies for a minor-leaguer. Now, three months later, the two men had combined for the winning run in the clinching game of the World Series. Theriot know how much it meant to his teammate.

“Marco's Marco, he's been doing the job ever since he got here and without him, we wouldn't be here,” Theriot said, graciously, champagne goggles perched atop his head.

“There's other guys in the locker room as well. There's him and there's Hunter (Pence). There's guys this is their first (World Series ring). It's something special. It's something that doesn't happen a lot. I'm very fortunate and blessed to be on two championship teams. You cherish these moments. You don't take these moments for granted. You thank your lucky stars that you're in this position.”

Theriot was with the Cardinals a year ago when they oulasted the Rangers in seven games. This year, he began the season in San Francisco, with the trade for Scutaro completing a virtual makeover of Giants' position players from 2010, with only catcher Buster Posey playing the same significant role he did against the Rangers, when they won in five games. Scutaro came up big in the NLCS and was MVP vs. the Cards. That''s why they were here.

Nobody thought the Giants could do this once closer Brian Wilson was disabled and out for the year. Nobody thought they could do this once Melky Cabrera, leading the league in hitting at the time and the All-Star Game MVP in July was suspended for 50 games – then told to go home when he became eligible to return. Nobody thought they could do this when Tim Lincecum in the first half looked like the freak instead of The Freak.

“(Manager Bruce Bochy) pushed all the right buttons,” Theriot said admiringly. “The way he handled that bullpen this year was absolutely amazing. I think that's going to be talked about for a long time. Everybody said bullpen by committee and this and that. It was the whole bullpen. I'm talking everybody. Every opportunity they got the job done. You go down the list, those guys, they answered the call.”

Nobody thought the Giants could do this when they faced triple elimination games against both the Reds in the NLDS and the defending champion Cardinals in the NLCS. But here they are finishing the season, finishing the playoffs with a seven-game winning streak.

“When you look at the clubs that we played and having our backs to the wall, it's pretty remarkable what these guys have done,” Bochy said. “It's amazing what a club can do when they do play as a team and they're unselfish and they do whatever they can do to help a club win and that's what these guys did. You know I count my blessings.”

Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval set the tone for the World Series with home runs in his first three at-bats of Game 1 and a four-hit game. He batted .500 with eight hits, three homers and four RBIs. He was the World Series MVP.

“I still can't believ that game, it's the game of your dreams,” Sandoval said.”You don't want to wake up. I think this is one of the keys, you know, when you fight and you win. You learn from things tha happen in your career. You get up, you get down. You never give up. I'm just blessed to be here.”

For the first time in the four games of the World Series, the lead changed hands from the Giants to the Tigers and it was a real game, one that ebbed and flowed through a steady rain that didn't dampen the Giants resolve.

But it was not easy. This was a different Tigers team than had rolled over, offensively, for the Giants in the first three games of the Fall Classic. In the bottom of the sixth, with Matt Cain needing a shutdown inning to keep the fans at Comerica out of the equation, DH Delmon Young tied the game with an opposite field blast into the right field stands. It was his eighth post-season homer as a Tiger, the franchise record.

“I'm a little bit flabbergasted, to be honest with you,” Tigers' manager Jim Leyland said in the aftermath of being swept out at home. “I never would have thought that we would have swept the New York Yankees and I never would have thought that the Giants would have swept us. But it happened.”

The Giants took the early lead in the third inning but left a run on the table. With one out, Pence, the emotional leader of this team, doubled one hop into a bush in deep left centre. That was followed by a triple off the right field wall by Brandon Belt. With one out and the second run on third base for the Giants, Max Scherzer manned up and induced a grounder to second by Grego Blanco, right at Omar Infante holding the runner. A flyball to right into the alley by Theriot ended it.

By the way, that Tiger guy, Miguel Cabrera has pretty good power the other way. In the third inning, the Triple Crown champ stayed back and drove a pitch from Cain high and deep to right field. Pence tracked the ball all the way to the fence as it landed two rows up in the bleachers. Cabrera's first homer of the World Series cashed Austin Jackson from second base. Cain had no decision but was the starter in all three clinching games.

“It just seemed like all the pieces fit together,” Cain said. “A lot of us kind of had the same mentality about the game. Nobody really stood out and tried to steal the spotlight.”

The lead for the Tigers on the Cabrera homer was the first in the Series in its 30th inning. When Cabrera stepped on home plate, it was just the Tigers fifth run in those 30 frames.

But the Giants had the answer. Posey, the NL's likely MVP, has been all about quality in his production, not quantity in this post-season. In the sixth inning facing Scherzer, with his team trailing by a run, the league batting champion and Hank Aaron Award winner crushed a changeup that drifted back to the middle of the plate and pulled it fair inside the left field foul pole to give the Giants back a lead that the Tigers only held for two full innings. Posey had also homered in the clinching Game 5 of the NLDS against the Reds, a grand slam at Great American Ball Park that put the game away.

“This guy is an incredible talent,” Bochy said. “His makeup is off the chart. He's to me the MVP, no question. As important is what he did behind the plate in the post-season and helped get this pitching on track. He's the one putting the fingers down and calling the game back there. He's special and for him to come back off that injury shows you how tough he is. But what a special talent.”

For the Giants and their surprising bullpen strength, Cain went seven, relieved by lefthander Jeremy Affeldt in the eighth then winner, Santiago Casilla in the ninth, followed by Romo. The injured resident flake, Brian Wilson, black beard and all, was there to cheer his teammates on, a season that ended with a seventh Giants championship title.

 

Vogelsong leads Giants within one game of World Series sweep of Tigers: Griffin

DETROIT-Just hours prior to World Series Game 3, Triple Crown champ Miguel Cabrera was presented the Hank Aaron Award by the man himself. But that was handed out for the regular season and in the World Series, the Venezuelan slugger has struggled. Down by a pair in the fifth inning with 42,262 fans on their feet at Comerica Park chanting “MVP MVP”, Cabrera came to the plate with the bases loaded and popped to short to end the threat. The Giants went on to win 2-0 behind Ryan Volgelsong and Tim Lincecum and take a three games to nothing. In Motown there's no tomorrow.

“Right now he's the best hitter in the game,”Vogelsong said. “I just tried to make pitches. It's a lot easier to face him in that situation when there's two outs. I was just trying to make a pitch. The way we were playing defense, just trying to get him to put a ball in play somewhere, because I had a good feeling we were going to catch it if he did, with the way these guys were all over the field.”

The Giants made more plays than did the Tigers. In the first they turned a nifty double play with two men on, started by Marco Scutaro. In the third they did it again. In the eighth, shortstop Brandon Crawford dove up the middle to rob Cabrera of a leadoff single and in the ninth, Angel Pagan raced into the left field corner to retire Jhonny Peralta.

“I'll tell you it's a critical part of the game,” Giants' manager Bruce Bochy said. “That's our strength, pitching and defence. They've done a great job. Blanco, just a tremendous job he's doing out in left field, including the ninth-inning making that catch. Crawford, Scutaro, all of them. We've been doing a good job of catching the ball. Defence can win games for you and I thought it did tonight.”

Somehow in other sports it seems simpler to overcome a three-game deficit in a best-of-seven series, than in major-league baseball. In basketball you throw out the same starting five, head-to-head each night as you attempt your comeback. In hockey, it's the same goalie and if he can just get hot, you'll have a chance. In baseball you need four different starting pitchers to out-pitch four other pitchers. That's why the MLB comeback from 0-3 has been done only once.

In fact, amazingly there have been 23 World Series in history where one team has taken a 3-0 lead in games. Of that total, 20 have resulted in four-game sweeps, including the last eight in a row, dating back to the 1970 Baltimore Orioles against the Pirates that went to five games. In none of the 23 series did the series go back to the other city – 20 sweeps and three that were over in five.

“It's a good situation but there's nothing been done yet,” Bochy insisted. “It's a number just like two. Now it's three. That's not the series. You have to keep going about your business as usual and not think about where you're at, but go out and try and win tomorrow. These guys have done a great job of that, whether they've been down like we have 0-2 or 3-1. We're up but there's still a lot of business at hand. These guys are keeping their focus and that's all you want them to do. I know when they hit the field tomorrow they won't think about where they're at right now in this situation.”

On Saturday, returning to Comerica where the Tigers had won all four playoff games this season, it was a must-win game given that only the '04 Red Sox had ever rebounded from a three-game deficit in , but you had to like their chances. Prior to the game, manager Jim Leyland had explained his approach in dealing with his players heading to Game 3.

“You don't really havetotellthemanything,” Tigers' manager Jim Leyland said. “They can count. There's no secret formulas or message for them. You don't think about the four. You think about one.”

The unheralded Vogelsong continued his mastery of October. The 35-year-old righthander went 5-2/3 shutout innings, allowing nine baserunners but always pitching himself out of trouble as with the fifth inning when he struck out Qunitin Berry with the bases loaded, then popped up Cabrera. The four straight games he has started with one or fewer runs allowed is the eighth time it has been done in the baseball post-season. It's only the third time it has been accomplished in the same playoffs. The first two were by Blue Moon Odom of the A's in1972 and by Burt Hooton of the Dodgers in 1981.

“You know, it's my first World Series,”Vogelsongexplained. “I've been waiting for this since I was five years old, and I wasn't going to go down without a fight, that's for sure.

“I didn't think my stuff was as good as it was in the NLCS, but I really just tried to hit Buster (Posey's) glove as many times as I could. I didn't think I was as sharp as I wanted to be, but when the guys are playing like that behind you, it encourages you to try and get the guys to hit the ball in play. I definitely wasn't happy with walking -- I think I walked four. But I wasn't happy about that.”

After a walk to Andy Dirks, Vogelsong, with two out in the sixth, handed it off to The Freak, who has excitingly reinvented himself in the post-season as an important long-relief man. Lincecum appeared in his fifth game (one start) in this post-season. In 13 innings, he has allowed one earned run on three hits with two walks and 17 strikeouts. That's a 0.69 ERA.

“Right now the bullpen role is for the World Series, and that's my mindset,”Lincecum said. “I'm just going to be out there as a safety net kind of thing, and if I can pick up innings here and there in these games, that's what I'm there to do. As I said, I'm just fortunate that I've been able to come out on the top side of these, and fortunate to come out on the back side of wins.”

It can't get any simpler than it is right now for Leyland's team, heading into Game 4 on Sunday night. Win or go home. They beat the A's in one of those elimination games in Game 5 of the ALDS, but to do it four straight times. That's a different story. They are hitting .165 as a team in the Series.

A key in all Giants game this 2012 post-season has been getting on the scoreboard first. Teams scoring first in playoff games involving the Giants were 12-2 heading into the Game 3. Once again, it was the Giants opening the scoring against Tigers' righthander Anibal Sanchez.

The ever-intense Hunter Pence walked leading off the second inning, then stole second as Brandon Belt was called out on strikes. With the infield in, Gregor Blanco crushed a flyball to the base of the fence in straightaway centre field, racing around for a standup triple. With two outs, shortstop Brandon Crawford then looped a single in front of Austin Jackson that made the score 2-0. Given the efficiency of Vogelsong this post season, that made it huge advantage Giants.

For the game facing Vogelsong and company, the Tigers were 0-for-4 with runners-in-scoring-position, including grounded-into-double-plays by Prince Fielder and Berry and a strikeout.

The Tigers have lost six World Series games in a row dating back to Game 3 of 2006.

 

Giants-Tigers World Series has parallels to '90 Reds vs. A's: Griffin

The Giants have surprisingly taken the first two games of the World Series over the heavily favoured Tigers. Can the Tigers come back, heading home now for three straight, needing to win at least two of them to bring it back to California?

To me this series has the look and feel of 1990 when the A's were heavily favoured over the NL champion Reds. The A's ace was Dave Stewart, while the big bats of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, plus Rickey Henderson as the ultimate table-setter, were expected to bludgeon the Reds, with their offence that was no-name, National League and hard to describe. Just fill in the current Tiger names, Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder and Austin Jackson and you can start to see the parallels.

In Game 1 at Riverfront Stadium, Stewart faltered, with Jose Rijo and the Reds winning a laugher 7-0.That was followed up with a 5-4 nail-biter with Danny Jackson starting against Bob Welch. In the 10th inning, catcher Joe Oliver grounded a single to left field facing Dennis Eckersley, scoring Billy Bates.

The Series shifted to the Oakland Coliseum, but the results surprisingly stayed the same. The Reds scored seven runs in the third inning of Game 3 vs. Mike Moore and Scott Sanderson leading to an 8-3 victory for Tom Browing. Then in Game 4, Rijo outduelled Stewart for a 2-1 win and the unlikely sweep.

Canseco batted .083 and McGwire hit .214 for the A's. Outfielder Billy Hatcher was 9-for-12, while third baseman Chris Sabo was 9-for-16. Jose Rio was the series MVP.  

Since the advent of division play in 1969, with additional layers of playoffs being added in major-league baseball, there have been 25 teams that have grabbed a 2-0 lead in the World Series and 18 of those have gone on to win.

That's 43 World Series in all, in the era of divisional play, including the Tigers and Giants this year. The last team to win after losing the first two was the '96 Yankees, losing a pair at Yankee Stadium, then storming back to take four straight to win the series in six. 

Since '96, all eight teams that have taken a 2-0 lead in games have won the series. In fact, in only one of those eight Fall Classics has the series even gone back to the original city for Games 6-7. That was '01 when the Diamonbacks came back to beat the Yankees and Mariano Rivera in Game 7 in the desert. 

Of the eight World Series since '96 that have had a 2-0 leader, five of them have ended up in sweeps -- the '98 and '99 Yankees, the '04 and '07 Red Sox and the '05 White Sox.

There was a time over this stretch in the divisional era where coming back from a two game deficit was not uncommon. Between 1971-86, in 16 World Series, five of the eight teams that dropped the first two games came back to win the crown.

The '71 Pirates dropped the first two to the O's then won in seven. The '78 Dodgers dropped the first two to the Yankees, then won in six. The '81 Dodgers lost two to the Yankees then won in six. The '85 Royals lost two to the Cards then took the series in seven. The '86 Mets lost the opening two to the Red Sox, survived Game 6 thanks in large part to Bill Buckner, then won the series in seven, at home.

 

 

Slugging third baseman and Cy guy lead the way...not for Tigers: Griffin

The Tigers were considered the World Series favourites. The Tigers boasted the slugging third baseman that could carry the offence and the Cy Young starting pitcher on the mound for Game 1 of the World Series. The smart money knew the visitors were going to steal the first game and put the Giants in a hole, losing at home, again. But it didn't happen.

Yes, a third-baseman stepped up to be the star, but it was Pablo Sandoval. Sure a Cy Young starting pitcher was the winner, but it was Barry Zito. And, oh, what about the key second-baseman acquired at mid-season that was going to be a key. No, not Omar Infante for the Tigers, but Marco Scutaro for the Giants. It's a case of filling in the World Series blanks and the names in the lead after Game 1 all appear on the San Francisco roster.  

The Tigers have to be concerned about Justin Verlander. He was the key to their being considered the betting favourite. He's the best. By eliminating the Yankees early Verlander was going to be able to pitch Games 1-4 and likely Game 7 on short rest. If Verlander could be counted on for two wins in those three starts, then the odds shifted dramatically to Motown. He still has a chance to win two of three but the confidence must be shaken.

Verlander was a rookie back in '06 when he lost his two Series starts. That was excusable and he talked about it the day before this year's Game 1 start. But his performance on Wednesday came with no excuses. He is now 0-3, with a 7.20 ERA in three World Series starts. In the first two rounds this year the '11 Cy Young and MVP winner was 3-0, 0.74 ERA. In post-season rounds other than the World Series he is 6-1.

As for Sandoval, I'm not sure what's more surprising, seeing Omar Vizquel pass Babe Ruth, Mel Ott and Harold Baines in September on the all-time hits list or watching Kung-Fu Panda join Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols with three homers in a World Series game.

Another cause for concern for the Tigers, as if they didn't have enough to worry about, is the awful display by Jose Valverde in a low-pressure, non-save situation. Manager Jim Leyland said the coaching staff was going to work with Verlander on mechanics towards maybe getting him back to the closer's role. There is no way in the next six games that Valverde sees the ninth inning when the Tigers have a lead. It looks like lefty Phil Coke is the guy and if I was a Tigers fan that weould concern me. Is he the real thing? 

Losing the DH with the pitcher hitting at AT&T? Advantage Giants. Zito singled home a run, the fourth straight game a San Francisco pitcher has an RBI. Meanwhile Tigers left fielder Delmon Young, normally the DH, was good for two hits, but the nine-hole was 0-for-4.

But the Tigers still have a chance to even the series and steal one on the road heading home to Comerica Park for Game 3. The Tigers have Doug Fister starting Game 2, a post-season beast, while the Giants send to the hill the struggling Madison Bumgarner who started Game 1 vs. the Cardinals and did not fare well. His post-game comments re his own performance raised red flags for manager Bruce Bochy and he was passed over for Tim Lincecum in Game 4. Bumgarner was a breakout star in the 2010 World Series.

In any case, the Giants lefthander has not had a quality start since September 22. In his four starts since, he has pitched 17-2/3 innnings, allowing 18 runs (16 earned) on 24 hits, with five walks and 16 strikeouts. That's a 8.15 ERA. However, the good news is that Bumgarner has made one start against the Tigers, on Canada Day 2011, allowing a run in 7-1/3 innings with five hits, a walk and nine Ks.

And by the way, Jays' soutpaw Brett Cecil should study the performances of Barry Zito in the post-season. This is a lefthander that never throws harder than 86 mph, but pitches smart and stays a step ahead of the hitters with four pitches he can throw for strikes.

The Tigers aren't in a must-win situation yet, but they're getting close.   

Farrell contradicts Jays' GM on timing of first Red Sox discussion: Griffin

The apparent misremembering of the chronology of events and discussions by Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos is what stood out most in the lovefest that doubled as a press conference. It was manager John Farrell's official introduction to the Boston media on Tuesday afternoon at Fenway Park. It's his dream job but when did he let his boss know? 

The question needs to be asked because on a Sunday afternoon conference call, Blue Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos had stated emphatically that the first time that Farrell's desire to move to the Red Sox was discussed between the two men was 2012 in the week leading up to the trade that sent the 50-year-old former pitching coach back to Boston. On Tuesday, Farrell recalled it somewhat differently.

Farrell insisted that before the Jays even sent out their infamous 2011 press release spelling out a new club policy for no lateral moves for non-playing personnel, he had had a conversation with Anthopoulos a year ago about Boston the gist of which is as follows:

"(Boston) is a place that I cut my teeth as a major league coach, experienced a lot of success, had a lot strong relationships that still exist . . . and I was very candid and honest with them. And, when it came up again this year on the heels of two very extensive days of conversations in a (Jays) year in review I expressed the same interest again. And, fortunately, all parties were able to work out this trade."

Anthopoulos responded to his mis-rememberance on Tuesday, finally supporting the Farrell memory that the two indeed had had that discussion following his first year as skipper.

“I think when that story broke last year (regarding Sox interest in Farrell)," it was dealt with, I think within three or four days," Anthopoulos said on Tuesday after Farrell's version of events came out in Boston. "After that it was done. Never talked about it again. Never talked about it at all during the season, off-season.

"One time (in 2011 is the only discussion). It was addressed, it was handled, it was put to bed and then obviously the story started up again late in the year when the Red Sox started to scuffle. Obviously John's name came up again. The story came up again, but even at that time there was no need to talk about it. We were going through our own issues with the club. The first time we talked about it, again, was after that Canadian Thanksgiving weekend is when we first started to talk about it again."

This is not exactly the way Anthopoulos originally remembered the chronology of their discussions. He had said on Sunday in response to a direct question and then reiterated it on a follow-up query, he said that the first time the Boston issue was actually discussed between the two men was last week. The young GM is correcting himself now but what does that say about other aspects of the Jays-Red Sox narrative.

So it turns out that the Jays were already well aware of how Farrell felt about Boston and the possibility of him returning to the Red Sox even as the 2012 season played itself out. 

The bottom line, the end result, the short term negative for the Jays as a major-league organization is that letting Farrell go to Boston is embarrassing and affirms the club's position as a second-rate power, not only in the AL East but especially in the AL East.

Of course, that's the small market way the Jays have been perceived by the American public, at least since the strike in '94 when they emerged looking and sounding markedly smaller than the proud franchise that had won back-to-back World Series in 1992-93.

The Jays have really never recovered in the ensuing 18 seasons and this sand that has been kicked in their face by the Red Sox is not going to help a current perception of the Jays as being the Houston Astros of the American League...oh wait, that's right, the Houston Astros are now the Houston Astros of the American League.

In any case, Farrell tried to be gracious regarding Toronto and his two years there as manager, but the conference with the 50-year-old Farrell sounded more like a debriefing following one of those Cold War prisoner-exchange things. Relief and gratitude to be free.

It makes no difference what Farrell said about the Jays on Tuesday, the perception of the Toronto organization being second-class had already been there before and will be there long after the slap-in-the-face Farrell choosing Boston issue recedes into the mists of time.

The only way the Jays and their fans can get a sense of satisfaction is by finding a solid managerial replacement for Farrell (and the bar has been set at a reachable height), by winning next year's season series against the Red Sox and by paying gleeful attention in the press and on fan blogs as all of New England is forced to watch Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and other Sox stars hurtle over-aggressively into useless outs at third base with the tying run at the plate, foul off safety squeezes one run down on the road or get thrown out across the diamond on a line drive to an infielder straying too far off the bag.

Good luck to John Farrell in Boston. We barely knew ye. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Sox set to announce John Farrell as manager: Griffin

Reports out of Boston on ESPN.com are that the Red Sox and Blue Jays have worked out a trade for Toronto's manager John Farrell and that a press conference will be held early next week. The player compensation will be announced later, but they are saying that Farrell has agreed to a multi-year contract extension to return to Fenway Park where he had been the pitching coach under Terry Francona from 2007-10.  

Farrell had one year remaining on a three-year Jays contract that he had signed in November 2010. In two seasons as the Blue Jays maager, Farrell had a combined record of 154-170. The Jays' win total has gone down every seson since Cito Gaston managed the team to 85 victories in 2010, which was GM Alex Anthopoulos's first year at the helm. Gaston was allowed to finish out his contract signed under J.P. Ricciardi, before Anthopoulos conducted an extensive search for a manager to lead the Jays into the future.

Other candidates under consideration two years ago were Sandy Alomar, Jr., DeMarlo Hale and third-base coach Brian Buttertfield. Also on the Jays' current coaching staff with managerial potential are Don Wakamatsu, Torey Lovullo and Luis Rivera. The Jays have high regard for AA-New Hampshire skipper Sal Fasano and A-Dunedin manager Mike Redmond. The Jays had asked to interview Tim Wallach but were denied.  

Recall that last October, when manager Terry Francona was fired by the Red Sox for apparently losing control of his clubhouse -- beer and chicken -- and allowing his team to collapse down the stretch and miss the playoffs, the Sox asked permission to talk to Farrell, who had just completed the first of three seasons with a record of 81-81.

It was at that time, president Paul Beeston and Anthopoulos amended the club rules that personnel could not leave the organization to accept a lateral move, which it would have been for Farrell. He had no comment at that time regarding the opportunity that had been lost to go back to Boston, only to say that he was "committed to the Blue Jays." It's a mantra he repeated this September, although never denying interest.

The Jays believed at the time, last Octiober, that Farrell had the clubhouse credibility, the charisma, the presence and the managerial ability to quickly lead the Jays into contention. Plus, the Red Sox were a division rival and the optics were not good.

When it became apparent in August and September 2012 that Sox' manager Bobby Valentine would not be invited back for the second year of his contract, sources within Red Sox management started quietly letting it be known that they would make another run at Farrell. This time, the Jays were more willing to listen and apparently the deal is done.

Farrell has a history with GM Ben Cherington and with others in the Red Sox front office, plus a friendship with Dustin Pedroia and other players that remains from when he was pitching coach. And it should be noted, on a personal basis, that even though he was with the Jays already in 2011, it was the Red Sox organization that helped set up the difficult radiation treatment for Farrell's son Luke last Fall in Boston that was thankfully successful and sees Luke back in school and pitching again at Northwestern University. 

Why were the Jays willing to listen this time and willing to let Farrell go, when a year ago it would have been regarded as bowing and scraping in the direction of Red Sox Nation?

First, if the Jays insisted on keeping Farrell and refused to let him go this time, they would have likely had to offer him a multi-year extension. He has not earned a multi-year extension and the feeling would have been that the new contract had been forced on them.

Second, the Jays' on-field discipline from Day 1 of the 2012 season was questionable at best. You had the incident with Brett Lawrie charging the home plate umpire and bouncing his helmet off a shin, with no apology -- even if it was just for the mere act of htting him with the helmet, even if it was unintentional. Throughout the first two months, as the Jays' star player Jose Bautista struggled, his flashes of anger towards umpires did not reflect well on the organization and the team. The Jays were getting a bad reputation. Farrell was in charge.

Just as the Farrell chatter to Boston was starting to heat up late in the season, more discipline issues unfolded. Shortstop Yunel Escobar played a full game with a homophobic slur handwritten in Spanish on his paste-on eyeblack. The manager and all the players denied they saw anything, but a sharp-eyed fan that traditionally takes photos from a couple of rows behind the dugout, went home and blew up a couple of shots, Tweeted about it and the rest is history. Farrell was unconvincing that nobody could have seen it.

The Latin players argued that the Escobar slur is common in their culture and was just supposed to be lighthearted and in jest. The shortstop was suspended for three games by the Jays, with the input of the players' union and MLB. Nevertheless, the Jays were embarrassed. The Jays don't like to be embarrassed.

Farrell later on in the final week was forced to call a team meeting after the retiring veteran Omar Vizquel called him out on his preparation, teaching and discipline with young players. Anthopoulos love affair with Farrell was undermined on many levels.

Then there were the mistakes in fundamentals, the baserunning gaffes, guys thrown out because of over-aggressiveness on the basepaths, at the wrong time and in the wrong game situations. There was Lawrie stealing home with Bautista batting and two strikes, because "I thought I could make it." That was not only dumb, but potentially dangerous. Bautista never knew he was coming and if it was a strike would have had to swing. 

There were guys doubled off third base on line drives, thrown out at third to end an inning, a lack of execution of the bunting game that did not stop bunts from being called. The same mistakes were being made more than once and corrections seemed to be made only after the fact, which in major-league baseball, with the pace of the game, is too late. 

Then there was the demise of Ricky Romero. It's difficult to blame the manager for the collapse of an ace who seemed perfectly healthy, but from the moment Farrell called Romero out with the challenge, "We're just looking for that same tough kid from East L.A." the relationship started to sour. The more Romero struggled, the more suggestions and public theories Farrell had. In his final start, a disgusted Romero watched Farrell emerge from the dugout to hook him, did not look at his manager as he arrived and walked off missing the handoff of the ball having to go back and give it to Farrell, again without looking. Farrell stared Romero off the field. The optics were not good, once again.

The Farrell mystique that was present in October 2011 when the Sox made their first arrogant attempt to steal the manager away from a division rival had largely disappeared by October 2012. The fact that Farrell did not tell Beeston and Anthopoulos he indeed wanted to stay in Toronto with the organization that gave him his first chance to manage in the big leagues, combined with the fact they were not ready to give him the extension that would have been required to keep him made the response to Boston different this year.

Face it. Without the Red Sox presence in this equation, Farrell would likely have been asked to work on the final year of his three-year deal to show that corrections had been made in the clubhouse and on the field. Speaking of which, Anthopoulos had never announced Farrell's contract was a three-year deal, but late in the season when the Sox rumours began, it was the manager that answered a direct question with a direct answer. Yes, he had one more year on his contract. Again, Anthopoulos was not pleased.

In any case, the compensation for Farrell is rumoured by ESPN.com to be infielder Mike Aviles who would move to the head of the class in terms of second-base replacements for free-agent Kelly Johnson. That's not quite Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard or Rubby de la Rosa, but it's enough to keep to the letter of the Jays' law that there are no lateral moves -- without compensation.

As soon as the announcement is official, the Jays will have to interview candidates, at least one of which must be a minority, according to MLB rules. This time it should not take the Jays as long to find their man.

As for the Jays' fans, one would have to believe that the feeling is not that all is lost. In some circles it might be that depending on the choice of a replacement, the Jays may well be better off. Can Farrell handle the insatiably invasive Boston media? Time will tell. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weather still iffy as Yankees and Tigers prepare for ALCS Game 4

DETROIT-It's Thursday morning and it's raining at the airport...but this time, just before noon in Motown, it's also raining in the city. That actual precipitation coming out of the actual sky is as opposed to Wednesday evening when MLB in its infinite wisdom postponed Game 4 of the ALCS at Comerica Park due to "weather in the area".

With no rain at the stadium and the radar showing bad weather still west of Ann Arbor, MLB put Wednesday's Game 4 into an hour and eight minute rain delay before pulling the plug without the field even having been covered by a trap. That is the height of cynicism and the fans were not happy. 

Maybe there was a good reason because under the new playoff rules a game that is official after five innings and then rained out must be completed to nine innings at the next possible opportunity. There was indeed rain on Wednesday after 10:30 p.m. which would have seen the game likely in the sixth or seventh inning.

The crisis for baseball would have been to re-schedule the completeion of Game 4 for Thursday, then have a stadium full of Game 5 ticket holders. The could have played the last 2-3 innings of Game 4 and then they could have seen the Tigers win for the sweep. Series over. What do you do with the Game 5 fans? Think they were unhappy before?

Well, the rain is supposed to stop at noon Thursday and be replace by the threat of rain the rest of the day. But the big green blob of rain on the radar has a visible backside that will allow Game 4 to be completed some time on Thursday. A Game 5 will be necessary only if CC Sabathia can defeat hard throwing righthander Max Scherzer of the Tigers. The Tigers starters have allowed two runs or fewer in all eight playoff starts this year.

Thursday is the 35th anniversary of the birth of the legend that was Mr. October. On this date in 1977 on three swings in Game 6 of the '77 World Series against the Dodgers, Reggie Jackson's career was made, crushing three straight home runs the final one deep into the centre field batter's eye. The Yankees are looking for a new hero right now.

Alex Rodriguez wil not even get the chance to be the next Reggie Jackson. The highest paid player in baseball has become a platoon third-baseman with Eric Chavez and since the Tigers have a top-heavy righthanded rotation, A-Rod will sit once again. It's sad.

Rodriguez is frustrated and instead of talking about an effort to lead the Yankees to the World Series, he is forced to talk about rumours that he could be moved to the Miami Marlins in the off-season, a team with a seemingly special affection for superstars of Latin-American heritage. A-Rod even seemed intrigued by the idea of of playing near home.

While GM Brian Cashman denied any contact with the Marlins, any discussion with any team for any of his players while his team is still alive in the post-season, Yankees president Randy Levine apparently had a half-joking conversation with Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria in which the idea of A-Rod swimming with the Fish came up.

The problem is that A-Rod is still owed $114 million for the next five years, with bonuses for every career home run plateau that he reaches. The feeling is that if A-Rod, at 37-years-old, was a free agent, he might be offered three years $20 million, at the top end. Who is going to pay the rest? The Yankees?

In any case, the Yankees will be fighting for their lives on Thursday at 4:07 p.m. and whereas they used to come at opponents relentlessly with an arsenal of sophisticated heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles, they now seem to be firing SCUD missiles, hoping one of them hits the target. These are not your father's Yankees.

 

 

Hunter Pence needs to walk-the-walk for Giants to win

Alright Hunter Pence, some advice. Yes, you did a good thing in the Division Series rallying the troops in Cincinnati after dropping the first two games at home. You rallied the boys by telling them with fire in your eyes things on the workout day in Cincinnati that they needed to hear. You told them how much you loved them and did not want this season to end. And for that to happen, you guys, of course had to keep winning those games at Great American Ball Park, the first NL team to come back from 0-2 after losing the first two at home. Yeah, that was great and all and now, out of superstition, they keep having you reenact the moment before every game to keep that feeling alive. 

That was talking the talk. That's the easy part. Now, Mr. Pence, you have to walk-the-walk. You have to back up your rhetoric with some production when needed. It ain't happening so far and your teammates are going to lose that gloving feeling if you don't start producing.

In Wednesday's 3-1 loss to the Cards at Busch Stadium, Pence had his chances to make a difference in Game Three. He failed.

In the second inning leading off Pence lined to centre field. In the third inning, with a one-run lead and runners at the corners with one out, Pence grounded into a double play. In the fifth, with Buster Posey at first he grounded into a fielder's choice. In the seventh, with runers on first and second, he struck out. He never got another chance.

The Giants are only down two games to one, so they are far from dead. But the Cards have as much aura as the Giants in this second round. Plus the Cards have more players that are now walking the walk. After all, they're defending champs.

Interesting to see Marco Scutaro step up and play Game 3 after being crushed on what amounted to a dirty slide by Matt Holliday, whether he intended it to be or not. Scutaro is now the guy that can be more of an inspiration this round for the Giants because he has cowboyed up and is producing at the plate.

As for the Cardinals, they don't seem to be missing Tony LaRussa all that much with Mike Matheny taking over the role of the man that can do no wrong. After Cards' playoff star Carlos Beltran left with a strained left knee, Matheny inserted the seldom used Matt Carpenter who crushed a two-run bomb 421 feet off Matt Cain for the winning margin.

Meanwhile Giants manager Bruce Bochy will be second-guessed for his decision in the top of the fourth with runners on first and third with one out. He asked pitcher Matt Cain to bunt and not even a safety squeeze, but just a straight sacrifice to put runners on second and third. The Giants failed to score. Gregor Blanco was the runner on third base and with two strikes, Cain laid down a bunt that if the Giants had been aggressive they could have scored and tied the game on said safety squeeze. To make matters worse, the next time up Cain slashed a single past the first baseman into right field. 

The series resumes on Thursday and Pence needs to be better.

 

 

 

Tigers-Yankees ALCS Game 4 rained out with no rain: Griffin

DETROIT-Scheduled Game Four of the American League Championship Series between the Yankees and Tigers, set to have been played on Wednesday at Comerica Park has been postponed and re-scheduled for 4:07 p.m. on Thursday.

If a Game 5 is necessary, that is if the Yankees win to keep the series alive, it will be played Friday, originally a travel day to New York.

The game was officially called at 9:15 p.m. Eastern Time, following a delay of an hour and eight minutes. Fans booed the decision because there had been no rain for the first hour of the delay. The announced threat of heavy rains with the Doppler weather map being carried live and threateningly on the scoreboard seemed to be questioned by fans as the field was left uncovered until 10 minutes before the rainout. Then the grounds crew leisurely covered the mound and the infield. A light sprinkle started to fall, but stopped as the decision to postpone the game was announced by Major League Baseball.

"Based on the forecast for inclement weather for the remainder of the evening...in an effort to preserve the integrity of an uninterrupted full nine-inning game," is some of the key wording of the press release by MLB.

The rules of postponement had been changed in 2008 after severe rainout and rain delay problems in the series between the Rays and the Philies in Philadelphia. Now it states if a game is incomplete and suspended after five innings, after it is official, the game shall be played to its conclusion prior to the next scheduled game of the series.

With heavy rain expected later on Wednesday, MLB did not want to get into a situation like that, especially with the possibility the Yankees could be eliminated in Game 4. The issue, the big concern is they could have had a full house of fans waiting to see a Game 5 after the conclusion of Game 4 and if the Tigers had won, they would have all been asked to leave. It would have been a logistical nightmare for baseball refunding tickets et al.

The Yankees had their ace lefthander CC Sabathia scheduled to pitch, while the Tigers have righthander Max Scherzer. Both men are expected to get the call again on Thursday.

The Tigers lead the series three games to none, with a chance to close the Yankees out by winning one of the next two games. Neither Alex Rodriguez nor Curtis Granderson was in the lineup for the Yankees for Game Four as they faced elimination.  

Giants beat Cards 7-1 in NLCS finally win at home: Griffin

The key player of the 7-1 Game 2 victory for the Giants was obviously second baseman Marco Scutaro. The former Jays' infielder played the game in pain after Matt Holliday's take-out slide in the first inning that was borderline dirty. 

I'm a big fan of flipping the second baseman or the shortstop on a double-play pivot. Players with any of the OBA teams I've coached will conform, but Scutaro took the feed on the backside of the bag, the left field side, away from first base, so Holliday had to basically make sure he cleared the bag in the air in order to initiate contact. Not good.

He did not lead with his spikes, but instead enveloped Scutaro with his body on a leaping slide and twisted him into a pretzel. Normally a player if he is making the throw from the direct baseline, specifically, on the first-base side of the base within the runner's direct base-to-base 90 feet, will expect and look to avoid contact and leap out of the way of the sliding runner as he releases the throw. Where Scutaro was making his throw, he would not have been expecting contact.

The question becomes how and when do you retaliate if you don't like the play. Scutaro solved that dilemma with the bases loaded driving a single to left centre that Holliday raced over and botched, clearing the bases. Sweet revenge.

Scutaro could only make it through five innings of defence because of his left side stiffening up. Those injuries get stiffer in the first 48 hours and with a long flight to St. Louis after the game, where he will be sitting for the better part of 3-1/2 hours, he will need a lot of treatment in the training room if he is going to play in Game 3 on Wednesday. Ryan Theriot replaced him.

Another former Blue Jay, Chris Carpenter was making his second start of the post-season, after spending most of the year on the DL. Television showed that Carpenter was pitching with reduced velocity on his fastball compared to his start against the Nats. He was only able to make it through four innings, throwing 76 pitches. His next start would be scheduled for Game 6.

Joe Buck was telling a Carpenter anecdote early in the broadcast. Apparently as part of the most recent surgery, Carp had a rib removed. The story is that Carpenter now keeps that rib in his bathroom in a jar. He also had two muscles removed from his neck. Now he's back pitching in the post-season.

Hard to believe that there was a former Jays' GM who insisted that Carpenter was soft and that offering him a guaranteed contract for the year that he was going to be rehabbing when his shoulder was first hurt would have been a waste of money. The Cards didn't think so, gave him his guaranteed money and kept him on the 40-man roster and Carp's been to three World Series in St. Louis.

As for Ryan Vogelsong, the Giants righthander may have given the rest of the rotation the secret to containing the Cards' power bats. Vogelsong worked the inside half of the plate masterfully and kept them tied up most of the night.

The Giants needed that win at home after losing three straight in this post-season. The Series continues at Busch Stadium for Games 3-4-5 and Scutaro's injury if he can't make it, will definitely hurt. If that's the case, Holliday should stay loose in the batter's box.