Staff Infection

Dave Paisley

Ah, the post-season. It’s all about, as they say, good pitching beating good hitting and such. We all know that the pitchers step it up a notch when there’s the smell of a pennant in the air (note optional spelling "penant" if you’re Fox TV...) Well, not exactly, at least not this year. Of the twelve pitchers who have started post-season games only two can truly lay claim to ace status so far, those being Matt Morris and Mark Mulder. Hmmm, maybe there’s something about alliterative M’s? Of course, If I add Russ Ortiz it blows the M&M theory.

What about the rest? Washburn? Three homers? Nope. Clemens? Nope. Johnson? Nope. Hudson? Nope. Radke? Barely. Pettitte? No way. Appier? Not really. Glavine? Um, no. Mays? Not a chance.

So with all these so-called ace pitchers failing to show up for work, post-season hitters have been scoring like rich drunken sailors on shore leave in a New Orleans brothel. Of six games so far, the lowest scoring has been the 9-1 thrashing that Oakland handed Minnesota on Wednesday. The run totals have been (lowest to highest) 10, 12, 13, 13, 14, and 14. Nary a 1-0 pitchers duel in sight. Defense has been pretty nasty, too, with numerous unearned runs and generally nervous glove work.

No doubt things will settle down, but it looks like anything can happen in the four series we have going now.

Let’s take a look at the matchups so far and yet to come.

In the NL, the Giants-Braves series checks out thus:

Date	Atl	W-L	ERA	SF	W-L	ERA	Game	Series
1-Oct	Glavine	18-10	2.96	Ortiz	14-10	3.61	SF 8-5	SF 1-0
3-Oct	Millwood	18-8	3.24	Rueter	14-8	3.23
5-Oct	Maddux	16-6	2.62	Schmidt	13-8	3.45
6-Oct	Glavine	18-10	2.96	Hernandez	12-16	4.38
7-Oct	Millwood	18-8	3.24

With the recent flip-flop of Millwood and Maddux due to the latter’s blister problem, it appears the Braves will stick with the three man rotation idea, allowing the healthier Millwood to pitch in game 5 if needed. While the Braves are down 1-0, there’s nothing much about the Giants pitching that strike fear into my heart, and Kirk Rueter and Jason Schmidt aren’t quite the quality of the Braves starters. Still they’ve got that Bonds guy, so who knows?

The Diamondbacks —Cards matchup got very interesting with RJ’s flameout in game 1. After shaking the post-season loser tag last year, Johnson opened the closet door wide open on those demons with a very poor performance. Here's how things shape up:

Date	Az	W-L	ERA	StL	W-L	ERA	Game	Series
1-Oct	Johnson	29-6	2.32	Morris	20-12	3.42	StL 12-2	StL 1-0
3-Oct	Schilling	23-7	3.23	Finley	7-4	3.80
5-Oct	Batista	8-9	4.29	Benes	5-4	2.78
6-Oct	Helling	10-12	4.51	Stephenson	2-5	5.40
7-Oct

With a suddenly shaky Curt Schilling going in game 2, the Diamondbacks are finding out that putting all their eggs in one (well, two) basket(s) may not be such a good idea. If Johnson and Schilling don’t excel the team’s going nowhere. If Schilling bests Chuck Finley, though, the Snakes could repeat last year’s close Division Series win. With Woody Williams out, Andy Benes moves up to game 3 against Miguel Batista. Even if they were down 2-0, I like the D’backs chances here because Benes will likely fold like a sheet of rice paper at an Origami convention. It’s kind of a habit. After that, the cards are forced to throw out Garrett Stephenson. Down 2-1 I’d expect to see Johnson and Schilling come out for games 4 and 5 rather than say Rick Helling, but that will be up to mastermind Bob Brenly.

Now for the AL. In the Yankees-Angels series, they stack up like this:

Date	NYY	W-L	ERA	Ana	W-L	ERA	Game	Series
1-Oct	Clemens	13-6	4.35	Washburn	18-6	3.15	NYY 8-5	NYY 1-0
2-Oct	Pettitte	13-5	3.27	Appier	14-12	3.92	Ana 8-6	Tied 1-1
4-Oct	Mussina	18-10	4.05	Ortiz	15-9	3.77
5-Oct	Wells	19-7	3.75	Lackey	9-4	3.66
6-Oct				Sele	8-9	4.89

With none of the starters covering themselves in glory so far, it comes down to Mussina-Ortiz in game 3. Looks like a toss-up to me. The game four matchup favors the Yankees heavily if you value experience, because the Angels will go either with Lackey, who has been decent in limited action, or a dubious Aaron Sele. Dubious for two reasons — health and previous post-season history. The Angels better just win game 3 and likely try to take game 5 with a rematch of Washburn over Clemens. Personally, I think it would be just great if the Angels could acquire a pitcher called Flunkey, who would be just a fabulous tandem with Lackey. Still, I digress. The Yankees have looked vulnerable and the Angels look nervous, so anything can happen here.

Over in the A’s-Twins series, the situation looks like this:

Date	Oak	W-L	ERA	Min	W-L	ERA	Game	Series
1-Oct	Hudson	15-9	2.98	Radke	9-5	4.72	Min 7-5	Min 1-0
2-Oct	Mulder	19-7	3.47	Mays	4-8	5.38	Oak 9-1	Tied 1-1
4-Oct	Zito	22-5	2.75	Reed	15-7	3.78
5-Oct	Lidle	8-10	3.89	Milton	13-9	4.84
6-Oct

The interesting thing here is that the Twins will be expected to lose to Barry Zito in game 3 and then it’s all jam from there for the A’s. Well, Rick Reed has been pretty effective and that game is far from a foregone conclusion. Then in game four, if the A’s go with the eminently beatable Cory Lidle, Eric Milton is quite capable of taking charge and tying the series again. That would leave game 5 as a rematch between Hudson and Radke, and Radke got the better end of that matchup the first time around (the four unearned runs made that game closer than it need have been.) Overall, I’m not too pessimistic about the Twins chances.

So, apart from the run scoring resembling cricket more than playoff baseball, it’s been an interesting six games so far. Here’s hoping for a return to some kind of pitching eventually, though.

about the author

Haven't scored a run this post-season? Then you must be the only person left in the world who hasn't. Send your sob story to Dave Paisley at:drdjp@strikethree.com and he'll sympathize. Maybe.