What a way to make up for a bonehead play!Game 1: Pierzynski misses a sign on a hit and run and is throwing out stealing second to play a part in blowing the game.
Game 2: Pierzynski reaches first on one of the most bizarre posteason plays...ever.
Can we see the Zapruder angle on this please?
For those who didn't see it, Pierzynski, with two outs in the ninth on a 1-1 play, strikes out on a 3-2 pitch. Angels catcher Josh Paul, who caught the ball very close to the ground, chucked the ball to the mound as the game was going to the tenth inning. Pierzynski, taking a chance, ran to first hoping the umps would call that the pitch hit the dirt. Amazingly the umps called just that, even though the home plate ump (Doug Eddings) called strike, then clenched his right fist to call "out", which is what Mike Scioscia and the Angels were mad about.
Wouldn't you know it, Pierzynski was pinch run for by Pablo Ozuna who stole second, then Joe Crede banged one off the wall to win Game 2 for the White Sox.
The crew on "Baseball Tonight", most notably John Kruk, pointed out that Paul didn't play out the sequence and got burned for it. And while that may be a slightly harsh assessment, isn't it ironic that the perpetrator of the World Series play that we are all going to be reminded of because of this...was in the building wearing a White Sox uniform?I'm sure you remember.
3 comments:
qmCan you imagine if this call had gone against the Stinkees? The squealing, howling, keening and gnashing of teeth would have been deafening. St. Joe would have appeared at the postgame press conference and whined about being robbed, much like he did last year with Pay Rod's sissy-slap at first base.
Scioscia and the Angels took the ultimate high road and accepted the call and result. In fact, they went so far to say that they did not play well enough to deserve the win. When was the last time you heard the Yankees say anything so noble?
anonymous,
You can find support for your train of thought here, in an article about Yankee reaction to Buck Showalter pulling three of his starters in the third inning of the Rangers' Game 162 against the Angels:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/
story?id=2179632
But even there, A-Rod's the one making the brash statement, Torre's comment is tactfully ambiguous, and Brian Cashman had this to say:
"If we had won one more game, we wouldn't have to be worried about what anybody else did."
That's pretty noble, if you ask me. ;)
M-T,
The opposite of this play happened to the Mets on Sept. 3. Castro (a catcher) stood at home plate after swinging at strike three while LoDuca (heads up) ran after the ball and tagged him out. We had two on and were one run down a half-inning after Shingo Takatsu made his fetid debut. When ESPN said, hey, look, we have precedent, I swear I thought we'd see that, not what Pierzynski did or didn't do as a Giant.
But that tunnelvision is why I'm a Mets fan.
Greg
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