AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > October > 28 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USRockies’ streak ended by ‘big boys’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Denver — It was fun while it lasted, but it’s over now. The Colorado Rockies, who forgot what it was to lose, have been rudely reminded. The only thing wrong with winning 21 of 22 games was that all 22 were played against National League opponents, and there is a difference.
The National League is known as the Senior Circuit, but in contemporary baseball it’s more akin to Class AAAA. The American League is where the big boys play, and the biggest boy on any block is the kid who, for 86 excruciating years, was Charlie Brown.
The Red Sox used to be the team that couldn’t win, but everything changed in October 2004. Boston clambered from a 3-0 hole to beat the imperial Yankees in the ALCS, and since then the Sox have graced two World Series and haven’t lost a game yet. They overwhelmed St. Louis in 2004, and now the cute little Rockies are in danger of being similarly swept.
All that time New Englanders were praying for deliverance, who knew it would arrive with such force?
Here’s how lopsided this Series has gotten: Rockies manager Clint Hurdle changed his lineup for Game 3, deploying as his center fielder the legendary Cory Sullivan. Who’s Cory Sullivan? He’s the guy who drove in 14 regular-season runs, who entered Game 3 with one postseason hit. He exited having gone 0-for-2.
Said Hurdle, speaking before the game: “I don’t believe you ever want to put a lineup up at this point in the season where the guys go, ‘What?’ ” This one, however, came close.
To be fair, a young Willie Mays could have patrolled center field Saturday night for all the difference it would have made. The Colorado starter, the regrettably named Josh Fogg, faced 19 batters. Twelve reached base. The Sox scored six runs in the third. The fourth and fifth runs stemmed from a single by Daisuke Matsuzaka, who hadn’t had a big-league hit since arriving from Japan. At the point in the 2007 World Series, the imported pitcher had as many RBI as the team that led the National League in hitting.
In their breathless September-into-October surge, it was often said the Rockies have almost an American League lineup. The Sox, as has been apparent for years, have the American League lineup — a batting order that will take pitches until the cows come home and often long thereafter, that will put the ball in play and more than occasionally over the fence. (Though it must be noted that the Sox have hit only one homer in the Series, that by Dustin Pedroia on the second pitch of Game 1.)
To their credit, the Rockies finally put up a fight. They scored twice in the sixth inning and in the seventh Matt Holliday launched a preposterous three-run homer. That pared the Colorado deficit to a run, and for a heady moment it seemed the team that won 21 of 22 was alive and well and swinging a hot stick.
But these Red Sox aren’t the 1996 Braves, who wasted a six-run lead in the pivotal Game 4 of that World Series, or the 2002 Giants, who squandered a five-run lead in Game 6. With the game back in question, the Sox promptly scored three runs in the eighth — the top-of-the-order rookies Jacoby Ellsbury and Pedroia had run-scoring doubles — and the big ballpark on Blake Street went silent again.
And now all that’s left is the clinching. It could come tonight, when Jon Lester, who has beaten back a cancer diagnosed 13 months ago, starts for Boston. If not then, the untouchable Josh Beckett awaits in Game 5.
It was a nice story, this rise of the Rockies, but it has been trumped by a much better team from a much better league. That’s the trouble with nice stories: They sometimes meet a not-so-nice end.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Mark Bradley
Comments
By reddawg
October 28, 2007 2:28 AM | Link to this
“The only thing wrong with winning 21 of 22 games was that all 22 were played against National League opponents, and there is a difference”
Such Drivel
You have as much ability as a columnist as Lou Holtz does as a coach/announcer.
They should keep sharp objects away from you
By ssiscribe
October 28, 2007 7:14 AM | Link to this
Spot-on, Mark. The Red Sox, as I’ve opined over on the Notorious DOB’s blog throughout the Series, are sick-good from top to bottom. Awesome how their team is constructed.
I didn’t realize the BoSawx had only hit one homer in the Series. Unlike a lot of teams that hang too much hope on the three-run homer, the Red Sox take what they’re given, fouling off pitch after pitch and wearing down the opposing pitcher. I love their approach at the plate, their emotion, and it helps to have Beckett and Schilling at the top of the rotation.
Good column. You guys enjoy the final game of the baseball season tonight, then the countdown to spring training begins (you always can get that Glavine comes home column in the can, though).
—30—
By BirdMahn
October 28, 2007 10:22 AM | Link to this
I flipped over last before going to bed at 1am and they were still playing a baseball game that started at 8pm the previous night. FOX HAS KILLED BASEBALL…with their home field advantage allstar game, expanded playoffs and waiting days between postseason games. Only diehard fans of the teams involved could stomach baseball played late into the night into late October.
By Torpedo
October 28, 2007 11:04 AM | Link to this
The key here is pitching, their pitching as allowed the potent offense to explode, when their pitching wasn’t there in the Cleveland series, they lost badly and the offense couldn’t get going.
By Jerry
October 28, 2007 1:14 PM | Link to this
The senior circuit is now the short circuit.
By T
October 28, 2007 2:14 PM | Link to this
Wait a minute… wasnt it just a few days ago you were writing “Boston off to a familar start”? …. please please make up your mind…
you guys are worthless…
By Dixbram
October 28, 2007 2:25 PM | Link to this
When is baseball going to get back to the beginning, and play weekend playoff/WS games in the daytime? Baseball is not played exclusively at night, never has been, and should never be.
By Chuck in NC
October 28, 2007 2:31 PM | Link to this
reddawg: I’m a NL fan, but let’s look at recent evidence (interleague play, all-star games, World Series). The AL is clearly ahead right now. That’s not a permanent state, of course, but all of the top NL teams (including the Rockies) were clearly very flawed.