Conventional Wisdom
The prevailing analysis now is that St. Louis is going to win the World Series because they have three of the five games at home and Wainwright and Wacha pitch at least two of them. The prevailing analysis has apparently never watched a playoff series before.
The team that wins the World Series is the team that gets to four wins first, not the team whose pitchers had a better year or were hotter or had home field advantage. Each game is its own drama. If actual talent dictated how World Series proceed, every series would go seven games.
We Have A Winner!
When St. Louis starter Michael Wacha left Game 2 after pitching the sixth inning, his team trailed 2-1. When Boston starter John Lackey left Game 2 in the seventh, his team led 2-1. The Cards scored three runs of Red Sox relievers in the seventh, making Wacha the winner and Lackey the loser. The game summary sounded like this: Wacha beats Lackey 4-2. Goodnight everybody!
One Wrong Makes A Right
Thank you to the umpires for getting the call right in Game 1. That's all that matters: get the call right. The entire planet can see when a call is wrong on replay . . . except the umpires. A guy in Nepal watching streaming video live at 11 a.m. the next day can watch the replay, but the umpires responsible for getting the calls correct can't. Jenius!
Johnny Gomes Fairy Dust
Johnny Gomes has mysteriously become the new Derek Jeter. Evidently we have to have one. It's worse with Gomes, though, because Jeter at least has talent.
The Fox crew actually made the point that while Gomes can't hit, field, run the bases or contribute much on the diamond, he is pure magic to the Red Sox because of his bonhomie. Cincinnati, Oakland and Boston all made the playoffs because Gomes spread his good cheer around the clubhouse like so much peanut butter. That he performed below replacement level for the Reds and also played for dismal teams in Tampa and Washington, are inconvenient facts that cloudy the picture of a happy-go-lucky leprechaun spreading post-season rainbows from his pot of gold on otherwise moribund teammates.
For the record, Johnny Gomes has played parts of 11 seasons, mostly in a part-time role. He has contributed roughly five wins compared to a replacement player to his employers, or less than half a win per season. His .788 lifetime OPS is about average for an outfielder, but his glove should be euthanized for its own good. He's complemented that with a putrid .350 OPS in five playoff series (though in fairness, he barely gets playing time in those crucial games.)
Gomes isn't a bad player -- he's smacked 149 lifetime home runs -- he's just . . . a guy. No team has ever made the playoffs because Johnny Gomes wears a cape with their emblem. Quite the reverse. He's been fortunate to have some really talented colleagues the last four seasons. Let's try to keep cause and effect straight.
Oh Beautiful Say Can You See
When the series returns to Boston -- if it does -- let's hope that Red Sox brass finally hangs up the Boston Marathon pathos already. They have so milked that teet dry that they had to recycle James Taylor in Game 2, much to his confusion. The bombing was a terrible tragedy and an attack on the city, but it's half a year old. Something like 20,000 people have died in car crashes nationwide since then, roughly 3,000 of them because of morons who couldn't put down their phones.
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