UN-FUCKING-BELIEVEABLE!!!!!!! Bottom of the 9th with Broxton on the mound, Ibanez strikes out. 1 down. On comes Stairs. A re-match of Game 4 of the 08 NLCS in Game 4 of the 09 NLCs. Stairs walks on 4-pitches, perhaps with the aid of Broxton, who may have been consciously or subconsciously pitching around him. Then on comes Señor Octubre himself, Carlos Ruiz. First pitch BANG! Off the elbow. Runners at 1st and 2nd with 1 out. Greg Dobbs comes on to pinch hit in the pitcher's spot. He's inept. Then it's J-Roll who launches a double in the gap that scores Bruntless from second, and somehow, someway Mr. Choochtober SCORES EASILY FROM 1ST TO WIN THE GAME!!!! UNFUCKINGBELIEVEABLE!!!! Surely that's the fastest he's ever ran in his life. After all, it's not like he's a Jimmy Rollins or Shane Victorino type on the base path.
But before the Dodgers fans start digging a grave for Broxton, they should think about crucifying another member of their pitching staff. His name: George Sherill. For all the hype surrounding him and the news of that acquisition, he has been the worst for the Dodgers this post-season and if I were a Dodgers fan, I'd blame him before I blamed Broxton for this one. It's simple. Sherill may not have given up any runs this game, but his mismanagement and allowing runners on base on the 8th inning forced Torre to go to Broxton long before he wanted to. And yes, Broxton got out of that inning, but he needed a decent number of pitches to do so (decent number for a closer at least in the 8th inning). And then by the grace of the NLCS, the top of the 9th inning lasted 20 minutes! Broxton is a closer. He is not built to wait 20 minutes for a long offensive inning like starters are. And don't forget about the cold weather doing no favors to help keep him loose and warmed up. So naturally Broxton struggled in that 9th inning. While he may have pitched around Stairs, how else can you explain the dinging of Señor Octubre followed shortly thereafter by the game-winning walk-off double of Rollins.
And this is not the 1st time Sherill cost his team the game. Take game 1 of the NLCS this year. Ibanez's 3-run shot was the last time the Phillies scored in a game that they would end up winning by 2. For those that can't do math? George Sherill gave up the game-clinching homerun. Twice Sherill has appeared in the game. And twice he has had a big hand in helping his team lose the game.
Nice one Dodgers. Your prized mid-season acquisition is a complete ass.
Here's the first of 3 epic videos. This is the ending with Chip Caray's TBS call and an anonymous "FUCK YEAH, MUTHAFUCKER!" at the very end.
Chip Caray can see invisible throws to the plate! Oh, the things this man can do!
For a real game-ending call and a call that is worthy of being the call to a finish of this game, I turn the honors over to Phillies radio announcer, Scott Franzke.
I don't know about you, but as a Phillies fan, I got chills after listening to that.
Another great video thanks to The Fightins. This one is of the hosts of Phillies Post Game Live watching the Rollins walkoff double.
HILARIOUS!!!!
To me, this game really felt like a classic WWE match, at least from the stand point of the Phillies fans. The
And I still can't believe that Carlos fricken Ruiz (a.k.a. Mr. Choochtober and Señor Octubre) was able to score from 1st with no throw to the plate on a hard hit double to centerfield. Bottom line is this, though, the Phillies lead the series 3 games to 1 with Game 5 being played on Wednesday. If they can win that, then you don't need me to tell you that they will be heading back to the World Series.
Update: Just for comedic effect seeing as notchipcaray did not tweet during the game, here are some of his hilarious tweets after the game.
"Great game, great call by us up in the booth. Phabulous Phillies win!"
"Seeing Jimmy Rollins covered in gooey white stuff reminded me of prom night. I fell into a cake. Why do you ask?"
"My only regret about the great job we did tonight. Not enough fisting."
FISTED!!!!!!
Update 2: I went over at
There are no wordsToo funny! If that does not make you want to jump up and scream "LOL DODGERS", then I'm not sure what does.
But I will try anyway.
I don’t think i have ever been more depressed when it comes to sports, or maybe at all, then I am right now. Broxton was dealing, he was just straight throwing fire. He seemed to pull a Lidge and couldn’t stop thinking about the 08 NLCS homerun given up to Stairs and didn’t throw a single pitch near the plate. Then he beans Ruiz. He pitched well to the next batter, and then to the start of Rollins’ at bat.
One fucking heart-breaking, smashing it on the floor and stomping on it pitch put the Dodgers chances to go to the World Series the same as the Clippers chances to make the Western Conference Finals.
I’ll still watch on Wednesday, but as a baseball fan I almost feel dead inside right now. Also, my hate for the Phillies has climbed to new levels I never dreamed possible…I hope for them to burn in Hades for all eternity.
I think that covers it for now.
I agree with you that the 9th inning layoff had something to do with Broxton's implosion, but Torre didn't have to go to him in the 8th. Putting guys on base is just something Sherrill does. Torre should have had the confidence in Flat Brim to let him go get Werth. Also, I think Stairs may have bought a mansion in Broxton's head. It looked like he wanted no part of Stairs and pitched accordingly.
ReplyDelete@ kt: Sherill's men on base combined with Torre's quick trigger cost the Dodgers that one.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I sort of alluded to that point about Stairs in the post (which is now 10 times longer as you've no doubt noticed). In that moment, there was one person that was not going to have a game-tying RBI, and his name was one Matt Stairs.
This is somewhat OT, but the best part of ESPN getting the US Open rights is no more Michael Barkann doing incredibly lame interviews during matches. What the hell was he doing yelling No Way as the winning runs crossed the play? Did he expect the Phillies to lose? And yes, Franzke's call was better than Chip Caray's and I have to imagine that Charley Steiner's was as well. Overall, what an exhilarating night of baseball.
ReplyDeleteI still am holding to last night's view that Torre should never have pulled Sherrill and let him pitch out of that 8th inning jam. OTOH, it doesn't matter as it is looking like the Orioles and their fans are going to get their own version of Pablo Sandoval playing 3rd base out of that deal, so go Phillies. And a good job pulling those videos JFein!