Last night after the Yankees scored 5 runs through the first 4 innings, I looked over at my buddy through a mountain of NA Craft Beers and empty frozen organic pizza boxes and said,
“Looks like we are headed back to LA for a game 6.”
I had confidence in what I was saying because the Yankees seemed to have confidence with Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm and Giancarlo Stanton all hitting home runs which did nothing but make The Yankees fans as ornery as ever. You could feel the energy of the stadium pulsating off my LG TV screen. Plus, Garrett Cole was out here pitching an all-time World Series gem of a game with a no-hitter through 4 innings. I thought there was no way this series wasn’t going back to LA. But not going to lie my analysis didn’t age well because about an inning later Lee Corso showed up in my living room with a sly smile on his face, leaned over to poke me with a mechanical pencil and whisper in my ear,
“Not So Fast My Friends.”
That’s when The Dodgers went on to score 5 runs in the 5th inning on the back of countless Yankees defensive errors. Both my buddy and I sat in silence with our mouths wide open as we couldn’t believe what we were watching. Garrett Cole, who had built a flawless Roman Empire through 4 and a half innings watched everything come crumbling down in a matter of minutes. First, Aaron Judge dropped a routine fly ball in center field allowing runners to advance. Second Anthony Volpe threw a routine ground ball at the feet of Jazz Chisholm which allowed the bases to become loaded.
Finally, Anthony Rizzo and Garrett Cole had a miscommunication on who was going to end up at first base to try and get Mookie Betts out. Betts hit a ground ball up the first baseline right to the 1st baseman Rizzo while Cole thought it was a good idea to just stand and point at first base while Rizzo fielded the ball and jogged lightly to first to try and beat out a sprinting Betts. It’s like Rizzo and Cole both looked at each other and decided that the 5th inning was a good time to take a stroll through central park and point at all the ducks in the pond on their way to first base.
“Oh look, it’s a Female hooded merganser.”
“Isn’t that nice. Shouldn’t we be getting to first?
“In due time…”
I’ve seen more urgency out of a Koala after consuming a dump truck worth of eucalyptus leaves than those two trying to get to first.
Normally when a team scores 5 runs in an inning you chuck it up to hey that’s baseball but when you have egregious error after egregious error you chuck it up to a collapse of epic proportions. The Yankees cooked up t-bone steaks for the entire Dodgers team and served it to them on the finest of handmade china east of the Mississippi. The Yankees weren’t done yet though. They got another run in the 6th to take the lead 6-5. But then the 8th inning came around. The Yankees just needed to get through the bottom of the Dodgers order to find themselves in the 9th inning with a lead. But that didn’t happen. The Dodgers bottom of the line up found a way to get the bases loaded for both Gavin Lux and Mookie Bets to hit sacrifice fly balls into the late October New York sky to take the lead 7-6. From that point on The Yankees had no more fight to give.
The Dodgers went on to win the game and the World Series by a score of 7-6 and I came away saying something that I thought I would never say,
“Wow what a fantastic baseball game that was. Man, I wish the season didn’t just end.”
What a wild ride these MLB playoff games have been. For the first time ever, I found myself turning off NFL football games to watch the underdog, highest payroll in baseball, Grimace lead Mets and their crazed fans try and make a World Series run. The Atmospheres in every stadium throughout the playoffs were second to none. It was incredible to watch.
How could you not enjoy the MLB Playoffs this year? We had division rivals going head-to-head in The Detroit Tigers and The Cleveland Guardians. We had two great sports towns battling it out in The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. We had two passionate Southern California teams dueling for the right to be called the best team in So Cal with The LA Dodgers and The San Deigo Padres. But to top it all off we had The World Series that baseball has been dying to see since 1981 in The Yankees and The Dodgers. Did it live up to the hype? No nothing ever does because it ended in 5 games but boy were those 5 games full of drama, grand slams, great pitching, the best player in the world, and passionate fans trying to steal balls out of player gloves. Baseball has been slowly working its way out of my heart valves for quite some time now, with the length of games and the lack of drama but with the new pitch clock, Grimace, a modern-day Babe Ruth and a postseason full of great sports towns mixed with a little intrigue and drama, it’s safe to say,
“Not So Fast My Friends, Baseball Is Back!”
Thanks For Reading and MLB We Will See You In The Spring!
Comments