The Commissioner of Baseball is objective, right? He’s the caretaker for the game, the objective overseer who makes certain it runs right — and each season his fondest hope is that the best team wins, no matter who it is. But in a most fundamental way, fans of the game know that’s a crock: baseball is a business. At the end the year, what’s important is the bottom line.
Which is why the 2011 Brew Crew are Bud Selig’s nightmare, it’s the team that keeps him awake at night. For the truth is that, if the Yankees and Phillies make it to the World Series, baseball will benefit from television viewer ratings in two of the most important media markets in the U.S., while if the Brewers and Tigers (say) make it to the series, the numbers will . . . well, they’ll be less good.
The numbers don’t lie. Since the mid-1980s, baseball’s post-season television numbers have suffered an overall decline, and it’s worse if a big market team isn’t playing. While the 2009 Phillies-Yankees ratings weren’t any great shakes (as compared to 1986 — when the Mets and Red Sox played each other), they were a damned sight better than 2010. If the Brewers beat the D-Backs, and then the winner of the Phillies-Cardinals tilt, those post-season numbers will continue to slide.
Of course, this view can be totally wrong. The Brewers have turned into one of the most successful teams in the sport, and not just on the field. This year the Brewers set an all-time attendance record, selling 3,068,781 tickets — which made them seventh in MLB in total attendance, and fourth in the N.L. And this in baseball’s smallest metropolitan area.
The story of the Brewers is, in fact, the best business story in the major leagues. After limping into Milwaukee from Seattle in 1970, the Brewers built a fan base and a new ballpark — cultivating a market wedded to the Green Bay Packers in a town with rust belt and failing industries. The man who authored this transition was Bud Selig.
. . . because, while the Nationals keep winning in Philly, they still have seven games to play and, no matter what they do, will finish no better than third. We’re not just being killjoys: while it’s wonderful to see our Anacostia Nine play so well (especially at “Nats Park North”), there are some among us who (in the middle of the 7th inning last night — and then again in the 8th) stood up and screamed — “that’s just great, but where were you in June?”
The answer oughta be obvious: trying to find a pitching staff. That the Nats have now won consistently, when it counts the least, is evidence that (finally), that seems to have been done. John Lannan didn’t pitch brilliantly last night, but he fought hard and well (he’s not the same pitcher we saw last year), and a whole handful of other arms have now emerged: Milone and Peacock, and Wang and Detwiler — not to mention Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg (and, just maybe, Livan Hernandez). And those are just the starters.
Then too, the bats have nearly ended their slumber: the Nationals pounded out ten hits last night, which included home runs from Danny Espinosa (his 21st, setting a Nationals rookie record), and the vastly underrated Wilson Ramos (who hit his 14th, which is none too shabby). More importantly, the Nats shook off their disturbing habit of serving tea to men on base — eight were left on base last night, but that number is going down, and they’ve damned near returned to the league mean.
As important (we think) is that the Nationals are now 9-8 against their in-division rivals — with the bonus that Nats fans have started to stream north. That an indication (perhaps), that Nats fans are anticipating what might (might) happen next year. “It’s a fun time,” Danny Espinosa said of his visit to the not-so-friendly confines of The Bank. “It’s a fun game to play against them. I want to play them hard because I know we can beat them. We are showing that. For myself, personally, I enjoy playing against the team.”
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: We’ve decided to change the description of the New York Mets — they’re no longer “the chokes.” That description more aptly fits the Atlanta Braves, who barely showed up to play the Marlins last night in Miami, and lost to the stinking Fish. It wasn’t even close. Now they know how it feels. The Braves now lead the Cardinals (who woulda thought — and certainly not us), by a single game and some spit. The Cardinals surprised everyone (including their own fans) and rallied to beat the Mets in St. Louis, 6-5 . . .
Former hockey player (and Washington Nationals) Nyjer Morgan turned “chippy” in Milwaukee last night after striking out against Cardinals’ starter Chris Carpenter. Morgan had battled through the ten-pitch at bat and was headed back to the dugout when he said something to Carpenter and tossed his chewing tobacco at him. Albert Pujols sprinted down the line to confront Morgan and the benches emptied, but no punches were thrown. Morgan was tossed.
“I just got in the middle to make sure that Morgan didn’t jump on Carp,” Pujols later explained. “The last thing you want is our guy that’s trying a shutout game to lose his focus. I actually like that guy. I don’t mind having a guy like that on my team. He brings a lot of energy to the ballclub, and you want to have a guy like that. But sometimes I think he goes (a little overboard) and tries to put too much energy.”
After the game, Morgan claimed that Carpenter had cursed him from the mound, and Morgan returned the favor before tossing his tobacco and shouting at him. The Cardinals won the game, a pitchers’ duel that pitted Cardinals’ hurler Chris Carpenter against Milwaukee’s Zach Greinke. Carpenter pitched a beauty, blanking the Brew Crew 2-0 on a four hitter. But the Cardinals still trail Milwaukee by a wide margin in the N.L. Central.
Morgan seemed to shrug off the incident after the game . . . but wait, wait — there’s more. Later, on Twitter, “Tony Plush” talked about Pujols — as if the game was the baseball version of Hockey Night in Canada. “Alberta couldn’t see Plush if she had her gloves on!!!” he chirped. “Wat was she thinking running afta Plush!!! She never been n tha ring!!!” Ugh.
The incident overshadowed a very, very fine game. With St. Louis struggling to catch the Brewers in the N.L. Central, the team needed a good outing from Carpenter, and they got one. He struck out five and threw a complete game, despite being up and down (he’s 9-9 on the season), during the 2011 campaign. As important, perhaps, was that Carpenter threw this magic while facing Zack Greinke, who was nearly as effective (seven innings, two earned).
Following his shutout performance against the Nationals on Tuesday, it’s easy to understand why Arizona righty Ian Kennedy (16-4, with a sparkling 3.09 ERA), is being mentioned so prominently as a candidate for the N.L. Cy Young Award. Kennedy threw seven innings of six hit ball while striking out eight, to lead the Diamondbacks in a 2-0 skunking of the Nationals. While facing a revived Washington line-up known for stunning last minute wins, Kennedy was never really in danger — and added a single and a double of his own to the victory.
While the D-Backs win was hardly seizmic, the Snakes are suffering through the aftershocks of a six game losing streak — and we can hardly fault them for being concerned about losing their fragile lead in the N.L. West to the San Francisco Giants. Kennedy’s performance outshone that of Nationals’ lefty Jordan Zimmermann, who was nearly as good — giving up a home run to Sean Burroughs (with a man on) that proved the difference.
Zimmermann — who must be accounted as the Nationals most effective pitcher this season — lasted into the seventh, but could not complete the inning, taking his eleventh loss against eight wins. It is likely that Washington fans have seen the last of Zimmermann for the year, as he will probably be making only one more start for the season, and that one will probably come on the road.
For a time on Tuesday, it appeared that the Nationals and D-Backs would pick up where they left off in Arizona, the last time the two teams met, back in early June. That knock-down contest came close to sparking a donnybrook, and the same thing nearly happened on Tuesday — when Justin Upton (knocked down in Arizona) was hit by Zimmermann in the top of the fourth. In the bottom of that frame, Ian Kennedy seemed to retaliate, hitting Morse. Both benches were warned.
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Speaking of earthquakes, the ground is opening up under the St. Louis Cardinals. St. Louis fans rarely boo their hometown boys, but they did last night when the Redbirds gave up two runs to the Trolleys in the top of the ninth, losing 2-1. The catcalls came down as the Cardinals then went quietly in their half of the inning . . .
It wasn’t so long ago (the Nationals were playing out in Los Angeles, to be specific) that we wrote about walk-off grand slam home runs. They’re really, really unusual — a walk-off grand slam that results in a single run victory has happened (by our count) just 25 times in major league history. A two out walk-off grand slam is even more unusual. And, as we noted in our previous post, an inside the park walk-off grand slam home run has happened just once.
Which makes last night’s walk-off grand slam off the bat of Brian Bogusevic in Houston (albeit, on a 2-2 and not a 3-2 count, but wouldn’t that be something) even more special. The fact that thousands more watched it live than normally would have (during an MLB “live look-in”) is stunning.
The GWRBI (GS) came off the arm of Chicago reliever Carlos Marmol and sent the fans in Houston into ecstasy, and it was a bomb: Bogusevic scorched the ball to dead center and it hit above the yellow home run line in Minute Maid Park. A shot. The grand slam gave the Astros a 6-5 victory.
That’s five walk-offs in a single night in baseball, equaling the season record of five set back in late May. Still . . . still, the Houston walk-off was the most uplifting (so to speak) and jaw-dropping. Oh, and Bogusevic’s walk-off grand slam was hit by a pinch hitter . . .
Washington and the Rockies rapped out 33 hits in scoring 22 runs on Saturday — but the Heltons were just too powerful and downed the Nationals, 15-7. This was a poor outing for Livan Hernandez (now 6-11 on the year) who gave up nine hits and seven runs in just 3.2 innings.
The big bats of Colorado showed up in force: Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki were a combined 5-8, while normally light hitting catcher Chris Iannetta was 4-5. The Nationals bullpen was also ineffective. Tom Gorzelanny, Todd Coffey, Sean Burnett and Henry Rodriguez gave up a combined ten hits in 4.2 innings of work.
The Nationals fought back in the top of the sixth, scoring four runs to bring the game to within three, at 10-7. It was the only strong point of the Washington showing. “I was really pleased with the team,” skipper Davey Johnson said, after the loss. “We battled back and scored a bunch of runs with two outs, and that was a good sign. Stuff like that happens here.”
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Cincinnati Reds were swept by the Mets at the end of July, but then took three of three from the Giants — a sure sign the team was still in the thick of the N.L. Central race. But since then the Redlegs have tanked. They dropped two of three from the Astros and have now dropped two in a row to the Cubs . . .
They look awful. Yesterday in Chicago (which has a seven game winning streak, though no one knows exactly why), Dusty Baker’s boys were eaten by Carlos Zambrano, who gave up six hits in six innings and homered off Johnny Cueto in the second inning. Zambrano (whose homer was a straight-away-to-center shot), is now 9-6 . . . Cueto couldn’t make it out of the fourth . . .
Chien-Ming Wang’s debut with the Nationals was marred by a four run first inning, as the New York Mets downed the Nationals, 8-5. Wang went on to allow six runs (four of them earned), in four innings. It was Wang’s first appearance in a major league game since he went down with shoulder problems in June of 2009.
Despite the loss, both Wang and the Nationals seemed positive about the outing. “I was excited and a little too happy to get back on the mound,” Wang said. “I was a little bit out of control, so the balls weren’t down in the zone. That’s what happened in the first inning. Overall, I felt fine.” Wang pitched well after the rocky first, getting eight of the next nine batters out. The Nationals’ loss, however, was their sixth in a row — and the team is now tumbling into their April funk.
Skipper Davey Johnson was frustrated by the losing streak: “It’s getting old hat,” he said after the loss. “We are looking at things we can do to help the ballclub. We are still in that building mode. We have a couple of guys who are knocking on the door — pitchers in particular. Depending on what happens the next couple of days, we’ll see a new young arm up here.”
The Metropolitans, on the other hand, are on the upswing. The victory at Nationals Park was their fifth in a row, and are they now four games over .500 — far better than they were expected to do at the beginning of the season. D.J Carrasco was the Mets’ hero, as he came in in the bottom of the eighth with the bases loaded to strike out Danny Espinosa and Ryan Zimmerman. Jason Isringhausen pitched the 9th for his 298th career save.
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Nationals are starting to make some moves as the trade deadline nears. This morning the Nationals sent Jerry Hairston, Jr. to the Brewers, according to ESPN’s Chris Singleton. As of this writing, the Nationals have not yet made the trade official, but it’s now reported that the Nationals have acquired Double-A outfield prospect Erik Komatsu . . .
