2023 World Series: Arizona Diamondbacks vs Texas Rangers

I fell for Thomas like no player in years...I was just going to advise 龜 to take an interest in Alvarez, who feels very much like a version of Thomas (not quite there yet, but close).

― clemenza, Saturday, October 28, 2023 2:01 PM (four hours ago

yeah yordan has such an easy grace to him, i heard on the broadcast he had surgeries to both knees last year and that was hard for me to believe. unfortunately i came back hating the astros because in the course of beating the phils last year my friend got me up to speed meant on 2017. now that they've lost this year i they seem more fallible so less unlikeable. i like yordan a lot, i like altuve, i like that you can be 5'6 in this game and still be a monster.

Not quite as close as I thought--will post in the Alvarez thread I started.

MLB just had Adrian Beltre on the their pre-game show (along with his son, an up-and-coming prospect). Amazing, but it's the first time I've ever heard him speak. He's throwing out the first pitch with Fergie Jenkins tonight.

I've seen very little of A-Rod/Ortiz/Jeter in the broadcast both--maybe a few minutes of each, not ever together, I don't think. In the past, we usually got an alternate broadcast to Fox's that I would watch. Anyway, I'm really enjoying them. Ortiz, talking about Garcia: "Pitchers, look at me. Do not hit this guy. It brings out his evil side, and then he's even more dangerous."

i love jordan montgomery

Hitting slumps like Semien's are so mysterious. Do consistent NBA players ever go two weeks where they lose 100-150 points off their shooting percentage?

absolutely

I hope Smoltz is right, I hope that was an attempt at a surprise hit. Bunting against Texas for one run in the third inning just doesn't make sense. (I still question the wisdom of yesterday's bunt in the third, although it was their ninth-place hitter.)

13 ways to score a runner from third without a hit, I believe. (Graduate of the Joe Garagiola/Tony Kubek school of old-school broadcasters.)

thomas pants ripped from just one slide. they gotta stop making everything out of polyester.

wow, mlb uniforms have been made from polyester since the 1970s? need to switch back to flannel.

You can't cue up Seinfeld clips for me--I'm helpless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTQvIq0ritI

As the sportscasters up here like to say, "Jays fans, close your eyes."

love that - and buck went on to design the dback uniforms!

Fantastic play by Jung--someone needs to superimpose that on Brooks Robinson's play against Lee May in 1970.

Jays fans--you know the rest.

"Well, all of a sudden there's a problem with Tartabull's swing..."

that little puff of dust when the ball drops in the outfield - astroturf, dead giveaway. when was the last world series played where both stadiums were astroturf? i understand the modern baseball stadium eschews astroturf (bad, wrecks knees) for grass (good), except where there's a dome and no sun gets on the field.

Game is just zipping by here.

(To Smoltz): "Got a costume?"

Smoltz should absolutely alternate between Maddux and Glavine on Halloween.

The Scherzers usually have a good costume

Every walk/single a double--Texas better continue to hit some HR.

nice prompting! reverse jinx?

yes, good idea!

I feel like...God.

Oh! The ultimate ice-cream cone.

Why haven't the Diamondbacks adopted some kind of "We Are Phamily" schtick, in honor of the '79 Pirates?

Ah, that's why.

No way.

How does montegomery have no strikeout through 6? Crazy!

what about a Who schtick based on Tommy (Walker). 2 birds with that one

i had Rangers in 6 going into the series, just ftr

I think they're about to lay claim to "Kelly's Heroes."

Shocked Montgomery's still in there...That's got to be it.

Bochy's magic touch one (or maybe two) batters late.

Objectively, that bunt definitely worked out.

Man, the Rangers are getting fooled up there...So weird to see two starting pitchers go so deep in a WS game. I'd like to think a page has been turned, but I doubt it. Think both kept their pitch count down tonight.

Texas' defense has probably kept them in the game.

Kelly pitched an absolute gem. Everything right on the edge of the zone. Dominant performance solely responsible for getting the dbacks back into this World Series. Can’t get enough credit

Both a great game to get my bone baseball friend into the game (corner pitching is impressive) and a bad game for it (where was the back and forth like yesterday). Definitely a great game, really enjoyed what both teams were able to do. For a moment there was a possibility we’d get a CG from both teams

Now that it's basically over, would you call that a great game? Kelly pitched great, but I'm not sure if anything else will be remembered, and now it's a rout.

It was 6 innings of a great game followed by 3 innings of a great game for diamondback fans in particular. Wouldn’t call it a bad one by any means. Happy to see the series tied up

Very interested to see what the Rangers get out of Scherzer on Monday. Don't mean to sound cold, but I don't know how far "Well, Max has been hurt, and it's amazing he's even out there" will go this time. They need five pretty strong innings from him (two runs or less, let's say).

what about a Who schtick based on Tommy (Walker). 2 birds with that one

― francisF, Saturday, October 28, 2023 6:43 PM bookmarkflaglink

Christian Walker didn't come home
His unscored run will never know him
He's believed to be LOB with a number of men
Don't expect to see him again

brilliant! lolol

Even Garcia took some tough borderline pitches last night.

Everybody is talking about the homer.

I want to talk about the take.

It was the bottom of the third inning. The Rangers had coughed up an early 2-0 lead as the Diamondbacks’ speed tore some holes in their defense. A Corey Seager walk and an Evan Carter double brought Adolis Garcia to the plate with two outs and two on, down 3-2. Zac Gallen was 55 pitches into the game and had gotten just eight outs.

Gallen started Garcia with a changeup down, and Garcia caught the top of the ball, fouling it off. A couple of fastballs up and in put Gallen behind. He came back with a cutter middle-middle at 91, freezing Garcia to run the count to 2-2.

Now Gallen went to the pitch that was supposed to get him to the dugout, a knuckle curve that dropped under the zone and Garcia’s bat path. It’s the pitch that undercut Garcia earlier in his career. Back in 2021, he saw 223 breaking balls in the lower third or just below the zone. He swung at more than 60% of them and missed on 42% of those swings. He hit .143 with a .317 slugging on those pitches. Pitchers could go down with soft stuff and get him to chase.

Now, in 2023, he’s just enough better at those pitches to give himself a fighting chance. He chases those same breaking balls down a bit less, and when he does, he makes better contact: .250 average, .456 slugging. Overall, he’s posted the lowest chase rate and highest contact rate of his career. All of that work came to a head as Gallen’s 2-2 knuckle curve in the first game of the World Series began dipping out of the zone. Two years ago, it’s a swinging strike three. Tonight, it was ball three.

Garcia would then take a changeup low and walk down to first base. Mitch Garver drew a walk to force in a run to tie the game at three. We’ll never know how things play out in alternate timelines, but if Garcia chases that 2-2 breaker, the inning ends, the Rangers don’t score, and maybe we’re talking about how Corey Seager’s two-run homer was too little, too late. Maybe Garcia never even gets to take a 3-1 sinker oppo for a walkoff home run.

The home run is the highlight. The take, though, the take is all the work that went into making the highlight. Adolis Garcia is the player he is today not because he was DFA’d twice, he’s the player he is because of everything he did to get better after that.

great take by Sheehan.

Speaking of borderline, good lord everything Kelly threw was on the corner this series! I was disgusted in the Dodgers series how every diamondbacks pitcher seemed to be able to locate the edge of the zone (any edge) with literally every pitch and thought it was a fluke and just some bad luck to the Dodgers.... but they've just kept doing it this whole post season. It's exhilarating to watch (when it's not your team on the receiving end!)

I should clarify, it was the edges, not corners Kelly was living on last game. Can't wait for game 3 in snake country!

Xps re Garcia, I don’t know if you remember the Rangers series at Fenway but he pretty impressively showed this in real time during Bello’s game. He hit a home run off him and didn’t try for Bello’s changeup & instead cracked a 2-run homer off his sinker. But I looked back at his previous two ABs that game and the first one he was flailing at the low changeup and eventually struck out, second one was a flyout on a changeup. Sheehan otm with the significance basically.

I thought these were identical, but Jung's might be better; Robinson is able to throw without ever hitting the ground, whereas Jung has to first pick himself up

Jung, 2023: https://www.mlb.com/video/christian-walker-grounds-out-sharply-third-baseman-josh-jung-to-first-bas?partnerId=web_video-game-index-page_video-share

Robinson, 1970: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_XHZbhR9qc

Or else Robinson, like Devon White, is just better at making the impossible look routine.

There was a good piece about Evan Longoria’s bunt in the Athletic:

Longoria came to bat in the third inning, with no score, after Alek Thomas’ leadoff walk. He knew that Jordan Montgomery, the Rangers’ 6-foot-6 starter, is not a nimble fielder. Since he was struggling for hits, Longoria thought, why not bunt?

Here’s why: Longoria never bunts. Not in games, not in spring training, not even a courtesy bunt or two at the start of his batting practice rounds. In 8,395 previous plate appearances, postseason included, Longoria had exactly one sacrifice bunt, for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2014. And yet …

“I bunted so much in college; we just had to do it every day,” said Longoria, who played for Long Beach State. “So even if I hadn’t done it in forever, I feel like it’s a part of my toolbag.”

Longoria was bunting for a hit, he explained, and he didn’t get it. But he moved Thomas to second and got credit for a sacrifice. And when he came to bat in the seventh, after Thomas’ leadoff double, the Rangers remembered.

Third baseman Josh Jung moved up on Longoria, positioning himself on the edge of the dirt and the turf. He acknowledged that the third-inning bunt was on his mind.

“Yeah, just in case,” Jung said. “In hindsight, probably shouldn’t be up there. But that’s baseball. It happens.”

It happened in 1980, and it happened again on Saturday: Longoria smashed a single off Jung’s glove to bring Thomas home, pushing Arizona’s lead to 3-1. The hit chased Montgomery, and the Diamondbacks soon singled and bunted their way to six more runs.

Probably the most incredible part of Robinson's play in 1970 is how quickly he released the ball.

When I watch old clips I'm amazed at how much stronger shortstops and third baseman can throw compared with fielders from even 20 years ago. I think (not based on any evidence, just a feeling) that plays like Robinson's can't happen much anymore because *everyone* hits the ball much harder than in the 70's, there's just no time for a third baseman to cover that much ground.

Jung's play was the apex of modern day fielding at third -- the ball was *smoked*, he had to react much quicker, lay out, and unleash a ridiculous laser throw for the out.

(you can't cheat a bit by bouncing throws like in the 70's and 80's either, because almost nobody plays on turf anymore)