Beaneater

Leave it to Peaver!

Oh, sure, there's some unquantifiable something to be said for identity and team unity, and you can get that from all kinds of stuff. Little things like ridiculous facial hair, or big things like being part of a city's response to a tragedy. What drives me nuts is the conspiracy theorizing -- the idea that MLB pulled strings to give the Sox the title as a sop to Boston in the wake of the bombing.

It's 3-0 and I'm taking all the way.

Good point. That's it! Fans of other teams, take note: if you want a WS parade next year, just organize a little terrorist event in your city. No need to actually kill people, though; just a few maimings would probably be sufficient. Then no matter how crappy your team, Uncle Bud will rig you up a WS victory! If more than one city has a terrorist attack, the World Series victory will be accorded to the team that yields the most number of inspirational photos of players bonding with victims. Gah, conspiracy theorists drive me nuts.

This makes me really happy. So happy I want to find Mike Carp and bounce on the dugout steps with him.

A final check-in for gloating purposes: Got the opponent wrong but the important part right! 6 out of 9 correct winners picked, which is not bad for me. Doesn't look like anyone else did way better or worse.

I just borrowed that set from a friend. I was looking at those three discs wondering when I would ever want to watch them. Still drawing a blank on that question.

Just watched the video of the Ellsbury rundown. That was pretty pathetic. He was dead to rights twice in that rundown. The last time Adams threw the ball, he was just about on top of Ellsbury, who was already slowing and turning back toward Adams. All Adams has to do is take another step and tag him; instead he throws (low) to Kozma (I think). Then Kozma and the pitcher have him dead to rights and Kozma double pumps when Ellsbury is already almost past the pitcher. Lame-o. Here's an actual question for those of you who watched the game. My understanding was that Wacha's deadliness was due to a mid/upper 90's fastball and a devastating ~87 mph change. Victorino's double was hit off a ~93.5 mph pitch and Drew's HR was off a 91.7 mph pitch, according to pitch f/x. I guess my question is, was the guy running out of gas after an arduous postseason? He did top out at 97.4 mph last night, which is pretty dang fast. But he couldn't muster up extra velocity for Victorino in a crucial situation and he basically threw a nothing pitch to Drew. (Though admittedly there wasn't much reason for him to suspect that Drew was going to jump all over a get-me-over first pitch fastball and hit it almost 400 feet.) Just a bad night for the kid?

And a 1-2-3 Kid WWF Heavyweight Champion shirt for Beaneater Jr.!

I'd say he did OK. In the C+/B- sort of range.

Since taking up residence in the Third World, I have been keeping my eyes peeled for these castoffs. I would really like a Red Sox 2003 AL Champions shirt; a Yankees 2004 AL Champions shirt (for the lols); and maybe a 2011 Red Sox Wild Card shirt. I can say that I wouldn't mind finding a Cardinals 2013 World Champions shirt a couple months from now. That would be acceptable too.

I'm late to the party but... BOSTON RED SOX -- 2013 WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!! Holy cow, I can hardly believe this. Thanks to all of you for providing details and analysis for me in my miserable state of not being able to see the games. It's much appreciated.

That's how I'm feeling too. You might get a lucky Lobaton off of Koji, but you're not going to score a boatload of runs off him. Taz goes in the 8th until there's a baserunner, then Koji comes in for the fatality. Also, more runs would not go unappreciated.

Beaneater posting at almost 3 AM from Africa mojo! I see you fine folks did an excellent job of ensuring a Sox lead. Now let's finish this off!

I was just saying this to 8-year-old Beaneater Jr. He was in the oven in 2004 and too young to remember 2007. He's got a solid chance of having his 2nd Sox championship (and the first one he'll remember) before he turns 9. He was trying to roll over in his mind that there was a span of time equal to the current lifespan of his great-grandfather where the Sox won zilch. It's freaky. Dang, I hope they win tonight. I think they win Game 7 if it comes to that -- there will just be too much Lester and Doubront (did I seriously just say that?) available out of the 'pen. But I need a full night's sleep sometime...

This makes a lot of sense to me.

This is one of the very most important reasons that I need the Sox to win one more game. I don't get to see any of the action for all intents and purposes, and getting a championship DVD would just be fantastic for me. I happened to be in the States for 2004, which was otherworldly. In 2007, I was back in Africa for the whole season. A friend's championship DVD went a long way toward filling the void.

Obviously Ortiz and Lester are 1-2, with Ortiz getting the nod because he is annihilating the Cards' pitchers at an unprecedented level. Like many others have said, Lester gets a further bump if he throws a few quality innings in a hypothetical-and-not-going-to-happen-because-John-Lackey Game 7. Just want to put some Ross love out there. Is he the WS MVP? No, not with what Papi and Jon are doing. But he's taken a staff that could have been spooked after two bad, bad losses and he's guided them to consistent excellence. 3 ERs over 3 games with him behind the dish, if my memory serves. Not to mention the fact that he has come up big with the bat too. Ross is my #3.

Obvious point here, but consider just how huge Lester being his own bridge was. Taz has pitched about 35 straight games (very well, mind you), but I assume he would have been up for another appearance tonight. After that? Breslow, much as I love him from his work in the previous two rounds, is not currently trustable. Lackey's not giving us an inning of side work tonight. Can you imagine if we had to bring Dempster or Morales into the 7th or 8th inning of a tight game? Now everyone not named Koji gets an extra day's rest and we go into Game 6 knowing that in the unlikely event that Lackey doesn't shut the Cards down, we've got a well-rested 'pen ready to pitch multiple innings. And for (the highly improbable) Game 7 I assume that Peavy, Doubs, Lester, and maybe even Buch are available. Awesome. Especially Lester and Doubs, since the Cards are apparently as helpless as advertised against LH pitching. If Peavy can even give us 3 reasonable innings, there will be enough quality arms to take us home.

Lester says, "I may only play in two games this series, but wait just a sec before you start engraving Papi's name on any trophies..."

It's a testament to Lester's awesomeness that Koji is coming in and we're saying, "I dunno..." I mean, it's Koji. And that's why Koji coming in is just fine. Boom!

I am getting heartburn just thinking about this. Good thing Koji's got a swing-'n'-miss pitch so he doesn't have to rely entirely on the ump.

Awful decision by Salty. Yes, he had Craig dead to rights... when he got the ball. But he had to wait about half an hour for Molina to come to the tag, which negated any possibility of getting Craig at third. That being said, what an unaccountably ridiculous ticky-tack call by the ump. Two guys get tangled up when four things (two men, a base, and a thrown ball) all coincide in space and time. That cannot be the end of a World Series game. No, no, no. Just watched the replay about a million times. I'm not God, but here's how I interpret what I saw. Salty makes crappy throw. Middlebrooks goes down trying to snag it. He looks back -- not at Craig but to see where the ball is bouncing off to. His legs are pretty near the chalk line so he lifts them up to let Craig have the basepath. He's not aware that Craig is 2-3 feet up the second base path -- he thinks he's actually doing whatever the opposite of obstruction is. Do I expect the ump to agree with me? No. Do I expect him to agree with me upon seeing it one time in real time? No. I expect him to realize that no one has actually done anything wrong and that ending a World Series game on a highly debatable obstruction call is, how you say, not a good idea. Watched the replay again and am even surer than I was. Plus the fact that Craig, to my eyes, falls over the prone portion of Middlebrooks and doesn't even come in contact with the upraised legs. The umpire of course can't see that (especially since he was looking the other way!) but he has to NOT make that call. Awful decision by Salty, awful call by blue. Now it's time to reverse the stupidity curse and put the next 3 games away so far that no bad calls can make any difference.

Nava sighting! And Bogaerts batting 6th, eh? That's really not a bad lineup. If Salty or Drew would decide to start hitting, it would give pitchers fits. I want to see Bogaerts driving in Nava who has just driven in Ortiz all night long. You know, for the one or two at-bats where Papi doesn't just drive himself in.

I think you're right about Farrell's psychology, Bellhorn. On the other hand, I find it a bit odd to prefer Gomes over Nava because Gomes got a certain big hit. When Gomes is playing and Nava isn't, it's hardly to Gomes' credit if he outperforms Nava. We just have no idea about the counterfactuals -- i.e. what would Nava have done in the same situation? Maybe he gets a couple of big hits earlier in the game, reducing the need for one big hit late in the game. Maybe he GIDPs every time he's at bat. Who knows? Unless Gomes had gone crazy with the bat (which he didn't), it's still just the wrong decision. It's a wrong decision that paid off in the win/loss column, but a wrong decision nonetheless.