Schadenfreude 355 (A Continuing Series)

Game 2
Yankees - 001 000 001 - 2  4  0
Dodgers - 013 000 00x - 4  8  0

Aaron Judge in the Postseason pic.twitter.com/1bMSlTd2Vi

— Cancún Muse (@Phillies_Muse) October 27, 2024

Every Aaron Judge Strikeout this Playoffs in 60 Seconds pic.twitter.com/J07ab6ODDy

— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) October 27, 2024

Yankees fans : “Judge we need you”
Aaron Judge : pic.twitter.com/9SwUPCGet3

— 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯 (@xJahstin) October 26, 2024

Aaron Judge right now..
pic.twitter.com/tL9PgWUDTF

— Boston Strong (@BostonStrong_34) October 27, 2024

Notable Aaron Judge postseason stats since he decided to play “New York, New York” on his boom box at Fenway following game 2 of the 2018 ALDS:

-23 hits in 151 at bats (.152)
-9 XBH (8 homers)
-16 RBI
-56 strikeouts https://t.co/tNZ4e3mmhK

— Fitzy Mo Peña (@FitzyMoPena) October 27, 2024

Yankees May Need To Go Spiritual To Save Aaron Judge This World Series
Mike Vaccaro, Post

This CAN'T be the way this season is going to play out. . . . No. This can't be the way it's going to go the rest of the way, however long that is.

Surely, Aaron Judge will snap out of it.

Surely, he will return to form, and revert to being the most fearsome hitter in the game.

Because if he doesn't … . . .

"Our fans will have our back," Judge said. "They always do."

What the fans will need . . . is for Judge to play like Aaron Judge again, and as soon as possible. . . . [If not,] then they'll be lucky to last another 15 minutes. . . .

Judge came into Saturday night's Game 2 of the World Series with a postseason slash line of .167/.304/.361. He'd struck out 16 times in 36 at-bats. And things got even worse on Saturday: 0-for-4, three more strikeouts . . . 

If he can't turn this around, and quick, we might look at a second-straight season dying in Hollywood. That can't be the way the season is going to turn out, either. Right? . . .

The Most Surprising Concern About Aaron Judge's Deflating Yankees Slump

Greg Joyce, Post

Yankee Stadium will host its first World Series game in 15 years on Monday, but will it actually feel like a party?

The Yankees headed home in a [0-2] series deficit after a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers in Game 2 on Saturday night in which their offense was lifeless until the ninth inning, when their rally was too little, too late.

The Game 2 loss only made falling in Game 1 more regrettable. On Friday, they had two crucial defensive miscues that cost them and a few strategic decisions that were left for second-guessing. On Saturday, they straight up got beat. . . .

— The Yankees are not going to do anything if they don't get Aaron Judge back looking like Aaron Judge. [He] went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts Saturday and is now 1-for-9 in the World Series and 6-for-40 with 19 strikeouts this October. . . .

Judge has fallen back into a slump at the worst time over these first 11 playoff games — reminiscent of a 6-for-43 with 20 strikeouts stretch he had in 11 games from April 15 to April 26, only these at-bats come with a heck of a lot more weight.

Judge was booed at home during the 2022 ALDS . . . A few empty at-bats on Monday night and history could repeat itself. . . .

In 11 first innings in these playoffs, Judge is 0-for-10 with six strikeouts and a hit by pitch. He has come to the plate with runners in scoring position seven times in 11 first innings and has not been able to do anything with it. The more it happens, the more deflating it threatens to be. . . .

— So much for the perceived rotation advantage the Yankees held coming into the series.

Some of it was just by nature of having four starters compared to the Dodgers' three, but that doesn't mean a whole lot when Carlos Rodon is only lasting 3.1 innings in Game 2 on a night when he was completely outdone by Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6.1 innings of one-hit, one-run ball). . . .

Rodon got hurt with his fastball on Saturday, as it was responsible for all three of the home runs he gave up . . . Rodon gave up four straight hits in the third inning and all of them came off his fastball.

— Tim Hill's performance in Game 2 won't quiet any of the second-guessing from Game 1. The lefty reliever . . . entered Saturday's game in the fifth inning and immediately got Freeman to pop out. That was the first of four straight batters Hill retired on 14 pitches. . . . [It] makes you think "What if?" again. . . .

Teams that have gone up 2-0 in the World Series have gone on to win it 80.4 percent of the time (45 out of 57). 

 

Yankees Remain Defiant, Even As The Dodgers Expose All Their Flaws
Joel Sherman, Post

There are no medals for mettle. Certainly not in the $300 million payroll megacoastal superpower division. . . .

[T]he Dodgers came back not once, but twice late to win Game 1 — or what the Yankees couldn't do in Game 2. And whatever surge the Yankees offered in the ninth inning Saturday did not erase that, for the first eight innings, the Dodgers were the far superior team en route to a 4-2 win and a two-games-to-none lead. . . .

What was expected to be the Yankees' main advantage in the rotation, wasn't. Jack Flaherty pitched Cole to a draw in the opener and Yoshinobu Yamamoto badly outpitched Carlos Rodon in Game 2.

The ability to go homer for homer and star for star and long lineup for long lineup with the Dodgers? Not quite. . . .

Central to that silence is that Aaron Judge continued to be missing in October, going 0-for-4 with three more strikeouts. . . . These Yankees are not built technically sound or well-rounded. They win with the long ball and that means having Judge at his fullest power — but so far the Dodgers have the edge there too . . .

The only way the Yankees can win this series is to get it back to Los Angeles, which means the 27 innings in The Bronx must be a lot better than what the Yankees offered over two days at Dodger Stadium.

[27?!?! MFY will be lucky if there's more than 18 innings in the Bronx.]

Carlos Rodon Sucked Life Out Of Yankees With Latest Collapse
Zach Braziller, Post

The bad Carlos Rodon showed up at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night.

With the Yankees in need of a big outing, Rodon instead imploded . . .

He yielded three home runs and failed to get through the fourth inning . . . 

"This start is hard, and it's unfortunate because it is Game 2 of the World Series," Rodon said. . . .

The Yankees gave Rodon a six-year, $162 million contract prior to last season . . . 

Rodon wasn't up to the task against the powerful Dodgers.

He registered just six swings-and-misses on his 63 pitches.

His three strikeouts were his fewest since June 21 against [Atlanta], 19 starts ago, and his 3.1 innings of work equaled his shortest outing of the regular season.

It was the worst start of Rodon's uneven postseason, in which he has allowed five homers and given up 11 earned runs in 17.2 innings, good for a dismal 5.60 ERA.

Of his four outings, this was the shortest, and it came at a bad time, with the Yankees in need of length after they went deep into their bullpen in Game 1.

Tim Hill's Game 2 Success Only Makes Aaron Boone's Nestor Cortes Decision Look Worse
Dan Martin, Post

A day late and a dollar short.

The Yankees brought in lefty Tim Hill in the bottom of the fifth inning on Saturday after going with Nestor Cortes in the 10th inning of Friday's Game 1 of the World Series that ended with Freddie Freeman's historic grand slam.

The results in Saturday's 4-2 Game 2 loss only made Friday's decision look worse, as the side-arming lefty Hill came in and got Game 1 hero Freeman to pop to short and then got Tommy Edman — who had homered and doubled earlier in Game 2 — looking to end the fifth with the Yankees trailing by three runs.

Hill retired all four batters he faced . . . It was another example of the journeyman Hill . . . getting batters out — which is something Cortes hadn't done in 37 days before he came into Game 1 . . .

As for Cortes, the lefty said he'd be ready to pitch again whenever called upon . . . Still, pitching coach Matt Blake acknowledged he was worried about Cortes' mindset — at least to a degree — after he allowed one of the biggest gut-punch home runs in franchise history.

Carlos Rodón Crumbles, Aaron Judge Keeps Struggling As Dodgers Ice Yankees For 2-0 World Series Lead
Gary Phillips, Daily News

Shortly before Game 2 of the World Series began, Ice Cube emerged from an opening in the center field wall at Dodger Stadium.Dressed in a shiny blue Dodgers jacket, a matching hat and Nikes, the rapper made his way from the warning track to the mound and then home plate. Each step came with a bar, as the Los Angeles native performed "Bow Down" and "It Was A Good Day" in an effort to hype up his hometown crowd. . . .

"Bow down to a team that's greater than you," O'Shea Jackson Sr. demanded while pointing toward the Yankees' dugout. He then asked a roaring Chavez Ravine, "Are we going to win Game 2 or what?" before transitioning to his second song.

The answer turned out to be yes, as the Dodgers took Game 2, 4-2, on Saturday. After getting walked off in Game 1, the Yankees now face a 2-0 series deficit with the Fall Classic heading back to New York. . . .

With Yankee Stadium set to host its first World Series game since 2009 on Monday, the odds are not in the Bombers' favor. . . .

It's a good day in LA as @icecube gets us ready for Game 2 🧊 pic.twitter.com/0z2Hzmj4Om

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 27, 2024

Schadenfreude 354 (A Continuing Series)

Game 1
Yankees - 000 002 000 1 - 3 10  1
Dodgers - 000 010 010 4 - 6  7  1

Yankees Blow Game 1 Of World Series On Freddie Freeman's Walkoff Grand Slam
Mark W. Sanchez, Post

After a 15-year wait, the Yankees returned to the World Series with a classic. 

And with the kind of emotional roller coaster and dizzying devastation that can only be delivered in October. . . .

[T]he Yankees squandered one-run leads in the eighth and 10th innings and let Game 1 slip through their fingers with one Freddie Freeman swing at a sold-out and shaking Dodger Stadium on Friday night. 

The Yankees were stunned by a walk-off grand slam, Freeman pouncing on the first pitch he saw from Nestor Cortes, for a 6-3, gut-punch of a loss . . .

In the bottom of the 10th, Jake Cousins walked Gavin Lux before Tommy Edman singled. In came Cortes, fresh off a flexor strain, who did his job against Shohei Ohtani with Alex Verdugo's assistance. The left fielder crashed into the foul wall and tumbled over it for a remarkable grab. . . . Aaron Boone's decision to go with Cortes over Tim Hill did not work out when Freeman blasted Cortes' fastball into the Los Angeles night. . . .

This all-timer included . . . Juan Soto defensive deficiencies leading to the first Dodgers run . . . an Ohtani demolished double leading to the tying run; a Gleyber Torres deep drive that turned one fan into Jeffrey Maier, reaching out and gloving a ball that was ruled a double; and Aaron Judge getting his chance and letting it go, all before the 10th-inning uppercut. . . .

In such tight contests, small mistakes are magnified, and the Yankees made those small mistakes. 

The Dodgers tied it in the eighth with some help from sloppy defense. Ohtani sent a double off Tommy Kahnle and off the right-field wall that Soto handled and threw to second. The ball deflected off Torres' glove and bounced into no-man's land, allowing Ohtani to take third. The extra 90 feet mattered when Luke Weaver entered and allowed a Mookie Betts sacrifice fly. 

The Yankees came maybe a foot shy of retaking the lead in the top of the ninth when Torres smacked a deep fly ball to left-center. It had a chance and ended up in the glove of a fan — who had reached into the field of play for the souvenir. Torres was only awarded second base and stranded on third, Judge popping out with the bases loaded.  . . .

The Dodgers' run against [Cole] came in the fifth, when Kiké Hernandez sent an extra-base hit into the right-field corner. Soto went for the catch rather than the carom, the ball just out of reach and Soto running past it. The overrun allowed Hernandez to wind up at third with a one-out triple. Will Smith lifted a fly ball down the right-field line that became a sac fly when Soto hurled a two-hop throw home that arrived too late, the game's first run scoring. 

The last four runs would hurt the most.

Michael Kay, YES Hosts Eviscerate Aaron Boone Over Costly Nestor Cortes Decision
Ted Holmlund, Post

Aaron Boone blew it.

That was the evaluation of Michael Kay and his YES Network compatriots regarding Boone's questionable decision to bring Nestor Cortes in during the bottom of the 10th inning in what became a Yankees' 6-3, 10-inning loss to the Dodgers in Game 1 of the World Series in Los Angeles.

With runners on first and second and one out, Boone decided to take out righty Jake Cousins and go with Nestor Cortes, who hadn't pitched in a game since Sept. 18 . . .

Cortes got Ohtani to fly out to left field, thanks to an incredible catch by Alex Verdugo, who fell out of play in left field but held on to the ball . . . Boone then intentionally walked Mookie Betts to load the bases so Cortes could face lefty slugger Freddie Freeman. Freeman sat on a first-pitch fastball and made Cortes and the Yankees pay, blasting the game-winning grand slam.

After the brutal loss, Michael Kay ripped Boone's decision and said he should have gone with lefty Tim Hill, who was warming up in the bullpen at the same time as Cortes.

Ohtani entered his at-bat going only 2-for-12 against Cortes . . . "I don't care what the numbers say about Nestor Cortes [against Ohtani]," Kay said. "He hadn't pitched since September 18. Those numbers against Ohtani were every five days [with Cortes as a starter]. Tim Hill has been lights out for the Yankees. That's the guy you bring in. I don't care about sim games. I don't care how he looked in the bullpen. That did not seem to be the move to make." . . .

Kay and [Jack] Curry also said Boone's decision to pull a dominant Gerrit Cole after just 88 pitches was the wrong move because it pushed everyone in the bullpen to come in sooner. . . .

Kay said the Yankees blew a big chance to take advantage of a strong start by their ace, who was pulled after giving up a single to the first batter in the seventh inning despite allowing just one run. "When you get a start like you did out of Gerrit Cole, you got to win that game," Kay said . . . "Probably should have gone longer . . . This one stings." . . .

John Flaherty said this was a "brutal" loss for the Yankees . . .

Derek Jeter Rips Aaron Boone For Costly Yankees Decision: 'I Don't Know What Reason'
Ryan Glasspiegel, Post

Boone pulled Gerrit Cole in the seventh inning, having given up just four hits and one run on 88 pitches, after the starter gave up a leadoff single to Teoscar Hernandez.

Speaking on Fox's World Series postgame show, Jeter shredded the decision.

"Look, I know we talk about this all the time and I don't want to be one of those guys who says, 'Back in the day when we played …' but we were talking about how when we played the Mets in 2000 Al Leiter pitched Game 6 and threw 140-something pitches," Jeter began.

"Gerrit Cole was dominating this game. He was dominating the game! And if you take him out after 88 pitches for I don't know what reason, it's a domino effect on not only this game tonight, [but] tomorrow's game and the rest of the series. I just think when you have someone who's dealing like Gerrit Cole was dealing tonight, you leave him out there as long as you can." . . .

The immediate "domino effect" that Jeter is referring to is that the Yankees ran out of pitchers.

From the seventh through the ninth innings, the Yankees burned Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver. The game went to extra innings and with a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 10th, Boone brought in Jake Cousins.

With the Dodgers having first and second with one out, Boone then turned to Nestor Cortes for the high leverage situation to face the powerful trio of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. . . .

Boone told reporters that he "thought [Cole] got a little bit taxed" near the end of his performance. "The last probably 20, 30 pitches, I thought he kind of grinded a little bit,'' Boone said.

Nestor Cortes Was Set Up To Fail In Yankees' World Series Disaster
Dan Martin, Post

Pitching in the bottom of the 10th inning on over a month's rest in a World Series game is apparently not a recipe for success.

Nestor Cortes returned from his elbow injury in time for the World Series before it was completely healed, saying he would risk missing next season with a worsened the injury if it meant he'd have a ring.

The plan got off to a brutal start in Friday's 6-3, 10-inning loss in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium, as Cortes missed with a pitch to Freddie Freeman, whose grand slam gave the Dodgers the victory. . . .

Aaron Boone defended his decision to go with Cortes — who has pitched in relief before, but spends most of his time as a starter — to face Ohtani with one out in the 10th. . . . Cortes started well, getting Ohtani to pop out to left, helped by a terrific diving catch by Alex Verdugo. Boone decided to walk Betts intentionally to go left-on-left again with Freeman coming up. . . .

"It wasn't a perfect pitch, but it was a good enough pitch,'' Cortes said. 

So far, so good, Nestor!

Aaron Boone's Nestor Cortes Call Was Stunning — And Not In Good Way

Jon Heyman, Post

Nestor Cortes is known for having a lot of guts. . . . But sometimes guts aren't enough.

Though it wasn't quite shocking Aaron Boone showed amazing faith in the gutsy, beloved Cortes, choosing him to pitch to Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman with the game on the line in the 10th inning, it was a gamble not worth taking.

Tim Hill was ready, and that should have been his spot. Hill has dominated this October, allowing just one run in 5.2 innings.

"You can't throw someone in there who A) hadn't pitched in five weeks, and B) is a starting pitcher without a high-velocity fastball," one scout said of Cortes . . .

"He hasn't pitched in over a month!" a second scout said incredulously. . . .

Though it wasn't quite shocking Aaron Boone showed amazing faith in the gutsy, beloved Cortes, choosing him to pitch to Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman with the game on the line.

Nobody in the Yankees clubhouse questioned the call to go with Cortes. Hill said, "Whatever Boonie decides, we all trust him."

Yankees' Self-Induced World Series Gaffes Had Crushing Domino Effect

Greg Joyce, Post

. . . an epic gut punch.

Nestor Cortes, who had not pitched since Sept. 18, was one out away from a save. Instead, on his second pitch of the night, he left a fastball in Freddie Freeman's bread basket and allowed the injured first baseman to enter Dodgers lore with a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning for the 6-3 win Friday at Chavez Ravine.

For just one game, there's a heck of a lot to unpack. Here's a rundown:

— Aaron Boone might never have had to make a decision between Cortes and Tim Hill if his club had done a better job of not giving the Dodgers an extra 90 feet multiple times.

It happened too often during the season and now is magnified on the biggest stage, with the Yankees doing it twice before they arrived in the 10th inning.

In the fifth inning, Kiké Hernandez roped a fly ball to right field that Juan Soto had to run a long way for. Instead of pulling up and playing it for the double, Soto kept the gas on and still could not reach it, but could not stop himself quickly enough as the ball bounced past him, allowing Hernandez to reach on a triple.

Then in the eighth inning, Shohei Ohtani crushed a double off the right-field wall against Tommy Kahnle. Soto fielded it and fired a one-hop throw to second base that Gleyber Torres tried to backhand, only for the ball to ricochet off his glove toward the mound, allowing Ohtani to take third.

Both times, the Dodgers cashed in with a sacrifice fly. . . .

And at this time of year, when every game is tighter, the little things add up. 

— Would Boone have had to decide between Cortes and Hill in the 10th if he had given Gerrit Cole a longer leash? . . .

— Maybe Boone doesn't have to decide between Cortes and Hill if Aaron Judge had made his mark.

The game seems to keep finding him in big moments this October, but after going 1-for-5 with three strikeouts on Friday, he is batting 6-for-36 with 16 strikeouts this postseason. . . .

— Kahnle has now thrown 56 consecutive changeups. He has to throw a fastball at some point … right? . . .

— Three of the Yankees' last four games have gone to extra innings. Gray hairs for everybody.

Yankees Can't Hide From Their Miscues Against A Fellow Heavyweight

Joel Sherman, Post

Hey Yankees, you are not in Kansas City anymore.

Or Cleveland.

The lightweight portion of the postseason program is gone and on the other side of the World Series field is a mirror image of the Yankees — just one that plays the game cleaner. One certain to make the Yankees pay for transgressions in a way that the less star-studded, less powerful Royals and Guardians could not.

The Yankees made mistakes in the field and on the bases and could not overcome it.. . .

[The loss was] a heartbreaker for the Yankees, who helped the Dodgers to this victory.

The Dodgers' first two runs came on gifts.

Juan Soto could not corral a ball twisting away from him in the fifth inning that if played properly is either caught and held to a double, but went for an Enrique Herndnez triple and Torres allowed a throw from Soto to kick away from him to permit Ohtani to add an extra base to his double on the eighth-inning error. Because they were on third, both were positioned to score on sacrifice flies.

In the top of the 10th, Chisholm singled, stole second, Anthony Rizzo was intentionally walked and Chisholm stole third. Anthony Volpe then hit a slow grounder that shortstop Tommy Edman bobbled as Chisholm scored the tie-breaking run. But for some reason Rizzo stopped before second base and allowed himself to be easily forced out. Would the Yankees have scored more if he just slid in safely – we will never know. . . .

Judge was 1-for-5 and struck out his first three at-bats. He came up with two out and two on in the ninth and a chance to break the tie after Soto was intentionally walked in front of him. But he popped out. And the Yankees simply cannot outdo their mistakes if Aaron Judge is going to continue to fail on a large scale in the postseason. . . .

Judge is 6-for-36 this postseason with 16 strikeouts. He is hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position. . . .

Aaron Judge Flops In Big Spot As October Woes Continue In WorldSeries
Dan Martin, Post

Aaron Judge had the perfect opportunity to change his playoff reputation.

It came after Juan Soto was walked intentionally with Gleyber Torres on second and two outs in the top of the ninth in Game 1 of the World Series.

But Dave Roberts brought in Blake Treinen and the Dodgers closer got Judge to pop up to short to end the threat . . .

It was the latest bit of disappointment for Judge . . . who hasn't been able to break through in the playoffs for much of his career.

And his first World Series game of his career looked a lot like his prior October performances.

He whiffed his first three times at bat against right-hander Jack Flaherty, twice with Soto on first base and the Yankee trying to build a rally. . . .

Judge credited the Dodgers with throwing him "curveballs, sliders and a couple heaters all over the place."

The rough night was nothing new this time of year for Judge, who entered the game just 5-for-31 with 13 strikeouts this postseason, with a pair of homers. . . .

When it comes to the playoffs, Judge has been at a loss for a while. In 37 postseason games since Judge went deep in three consecutive games in the 2018 playoffs . . . he entered Friday just 25-for-142 [.176] with 50 strikeouts and an ugly OPS of .634.

Yankees Need To Drop Aaron Judge In Batting Order — Before It's Too Late
Jon Heyman, Post

The great Aaron Judge needs to be moved down in the batting order. Not all the way down to the No. 8 hole, a la slumping Alex Rodriguez in 2006. But down to the cleanup spot, anyway. . . .

Judge just isn't himself again this October.

In Game 1, Judge finished one for five with three strikeouts, is batting .167 this October and suffered the indignity of popping out after the Dodgers intentionally walked Juan Soto to get to him during the Yankees' 6-3, extra-inning loss Friday night. . . .

Yankees Lose Game 1 World Series Lead After Gleyber Torres' Awful Error
Matt Ehalt, Post

Another Yankees defensive lapse burned them.

A Gleyber Torres error in the eighth inning led to the Yankees blowing their one-run lead, and the Dodgers evening the score at 2-2.

It marked the third defensive blunder by the Yankees and the second that led to a run, with Juan Soto playing a double into a triple, resulting in the game's first run in the fifth inning.

With the Yankees leading, 2-1, with one out and none on in the eighth, Shohei Ohtani almost homered off reliever Tommy Kahnle, but instead settled for a ball off the wall. Soto could not grab the ball cleanly and fired to second late, and Torres nonchalantly attempted to snag the ball on one hop without getting his body in front of it.

The ball skipped away from and moved Ohtani to an unoccupied third with one out. Mookie Betts followed with a sacrifice fly off Yankees closer Luke Weaver to tie the score . . .

Gleyber Torres' Crucial Miscue Spoils His Big Offensive Night
Zach Braziller, Post

Game 1 of the World Series provided the entire [Gleyber] Torres experience.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, Juan Soto's throw that Torres couldn't handle contributed to their heartbreaking 6-3 loss at Dodger Stadium in a major way.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, he couldn't come up with a Soto throw at second base, allowing Shohei Ohtani to reach third base on a double with one out.

The next batter, Mookie Betts, then tied the game with a sacrifice fly. . . . Soto was charged with an error on the throw. Torres said he never saw the ball after it caromed toward the mound. . . .

The following frame, Torres nearly went deep with two outs, his drive going over the left-center field wall when a Dodgers fan reached over. It was ruled fan interference on the field and upheld after a review. . . .

'Awful' Umpire Torched For Brutal Strike Zone In Yankees-Dodgers World Series Game 1
Dylan Svoboda, Post

It didn't take long for the ump show to take over in Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night. 

Home plate umpire Carlos Torres didn't make it through the first inning of the Fall Classic before an egregious call behind the dish.

With two on and two outs in the top of the first inning, Jazz Chisholm showed bunt on the first pitch out of Jack Flaherty's hand, pulling the bat back before the pitch reached the batter's box. Despite being a few inches outside and a tad bit low, Torres called the offspeed pitch a strike, putting Chisholm down 0-1 in the count.  Chisholm would ground out to second base on a ball in the same location a pitch later, ending the Yankees' threat. 

And it didn't stop there. 

An inning later, with Will Smith at the plate, Yankees starter Gerrit Cole threw a dart of a 98 mph fastball on the outside corner, well inside the strike zone on the Fox broadcast. Torres called the pitch a ball, puzzling both Cole and catcher Austin Wells. 

But that wasn't all. On the very next pitch, Cole threw another fastball in essentially the same exact spot — this time, Torres called it a strike. 

Torres made it three straight innings with a terrible ball-strike call, with Juan Soto hitting in the top of the third, giving the two-finger strike call on a pitch that appeared to be a full baseball outside. . . .

"This is [too] high level of a game for Carlos Torres to be working the plate, let alone working. He's an awful umpire, he's terrible to work with and hasn't earned anything," [ex-MLBer Eric] Hosmer wrote on the platform. "Can't keep missing these pitches. 0-1 versus 1-0 huge difference let alone with a guy like Juan Soto at the plate. It's [too] long of a road for these teams to get here, [too] much on the line and we can't have it."

World Series: Dodgers / Yankees

The 120th World Series begins tonight in Los Angeles.

It will be the 12th time the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees have met in the fall classic. An average of once per decade. In reality, it's been 43* years since the two teams clashed in October, and half of those meetings occurred in a 10-year mid-20th century span. Yes, from 1947-1956, the Bums and Bombers battled six times -- back in the good old days, when the sport enjoyed a robust competitive balance that no longer exists.

*: RIP Fernando Valenzuela (1960-2024).

ESPN has a big preview with predictions of how everything will shake out. The pick of who will bring home the Piece of Metal™ was split 7-7:

Yankees in 7 (5 votes)
Dodgers in 7 (4 votes)
Dodgers in 6 (3 votes)
Yankees in 6 (2 votes)

A lot of simulations were run to arrive at these %s:

Dodgers: 52.2%
Dodgers in 4     6.7%
Dodgers in 5    11.8%
Dodgers in 6    16.8%
Dodgers in 7    17.0%

Yankees: 47.8%
Yankees in 4     6.2%
Yankees in 5    13.6%
Yankees in 6    13.8%
Yankees in 7    14.2%

This World Series will also be mascot-free, as the Yankees and Dodgers are the only two major league teams without a mascot -- although the Yankees had one for a while and his name was "Dandy". (I suppose the Fox announcers do not strictly qualify as NYY mascots.)

Dave "That's The Most-Famous-Stolen-Base-Stealing Motherfuckin Dave Roberts" Roberts insisted there is no possibility Shohei Ohtani will pitch in this series. Which means . . . I'm looking forward to watching him crank five dongs in Game 7, then take the mound, and slam the door on those MFY fuckers. Hey, what if he does it Satchel Paige-style, ordering his infielders and outfielders back to the dugout before striking out the side? Well, if he did all that, he would have to kick Manfred's ass during the trophy ceremony and assume the role of commissioner himself. . . . Ah, dreams . . .

The Hater's Guide to the 2024 World Series

Grant Brisbee, The Athletic, October 23, 2024 (my emphasis)

This isn't clickbait. This is engagement bait. This is subscription bait. This is "sign up for auto-renew, then get you hooked on Wordle and NYT Cooking" bait. But it's also a deeper truth that resonates with a lot of baseball fans, and it goes something like this:

New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Dodgers is the most annoying World Series matchup possible. It might be the most annoying World Series matchup ever, which seems hyperbolic until you start looking at previous matchups and realizing most of them didn't have the full force of social media or the Pundit Industrial Complex behind them. . . .

Please note that this isn't the same as the worst World Series matchup possible. . . . In the actual 2024 World Series, there will be several future Hall of Famers playing, most of them in their absolute prime, doing unreal things to and with baseballs. It's a very good World Series if you like to watch excellent players and displays of baseball ability. I'm actually excited to watch the baseball part of it, and you should be too.

That doesn't mean it won't be annoying, though. Let us count the ways. Haters, gather around. We have some hating to do. . . .

Every October, I warm my heart by thinking about Fox executives who lie awake at night, worrying about a Cleveland Guardians and Milwaukee Brewers World Series. These chuzzlewits and pecksniffs aren't thinking about the excitement a pennant would bring to the areas that haven't enjoyed enough of them (or any of them at all). They're not thinking about specific matchups and baseball-related quirks. They're thinking about eyeballs and star power. . . . This is how they make their money:

They make money from eroding your sanity. Their homes are built, brick by brick, from the ashes of your grey matter. They wanted Yankees vs. Dodgers because it would mean they could tell more people that they can have the kind of wi-fi that lets them take ventriloquism classes in their attic, where there was previously a dead spot. . . .

Sometimes I'll be falling asleep and think about "His father is the district attorney" out of nowhere. That's a piece of my brain cracking off and floating away, like a calving ice shelf, never to be the same again. Someone has to pay. Preferably, these someones would pay by getting every Guardians vs. Brewers World Series possible.

Both of these franchises stare at themselves in the mirror when no one's looking. They also do it when everyone's looking. . . . They insist upon themselves. They think they're better than you and your team. And, sure, by getting to the World Series, that's technically true, but they don't have to insist upon themselves so danged hard all the time. . . .

Yes, the Yankees and Dodgers have more resources than every other team. They spend more money. They're spoiled and so are their fans. They have advantages that other teams don't have with more visibility, cultural cachet, history and purchasing power. . . .

But that's letting the other owners off the hook. Mookie Betts is on the Dodgers because Fenway Sports Group Holdings LLC worried about how his salary would affect their abilities to add players to Liverpool and drivers to RFK Racing. They made a business decision, and they absolutely deserve to feel bad about it. . . .

But even though it has the potential to be the best World Series, it's guaranteed to be the most annoying World Series possible. The wrong people have wanted it for years. The team that wins will throw the trophy in an arrogance juicer and get a fresh glass, even though they weren't really running low. The losing team will feel even more entitled at this time next year. And at every moment, before every inning, with every joke and comment on the pre- and post-game show, you will be told just how special this all is.

Guardians in six. They have the bullpen, even if the Brewers' lineup is underrated. What a beautiful, simple and boring dream that would have been.

Reminder: A World Series on mute is an enjoyable World Series.

JoS Prediction: Dodgers in 6.

Or 7. Or 5. Or 4. Or 3. Or 8. Or 17. I don't give a fuck.
YED 2024 must not go all Great Pumpkin on us.
No.
No.
NO!

"The Comeback: The 2004 Boston Red Sox" (On Netflix! Now!)

The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox is a three-part documentary exploring how the Boston front office built the 2004 team, the highs and lows of the regular season, and the unprecedented 0-3 to 4-3 comeback against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series, followed by the team's first World Series championship in 86 years.

The series is on Netflix right now! (You can watch a two-minute trailer here.)

Colin Barnicle directed the series:

As fans we know what happened. I want them to know how it happened – how an organization changed with new ownership, how the team was built from the front office and how the clubhouse came together. . . . There were considerable bumps along the way. But, how those trials and tribulations defined the decision-making and the chemistry of the team is how they were able to come back from three games down in the ALCS. . . .

My brother [Nick Barnicle, one of the executive producers] and I always felt the historic comeback against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS was just the tip of the iceberg to a much deeper story about a team changing their identity from sore-luck losers to champions. This series is really about what it takes for a group of people – from ownership to baseball operations to players – to change that narrative. . . .

The interviewees were extremely candid. A major theme we came across was how this organization worked through doubt. Whether at the plate or on the mound or making a decision in the front office. We look back 20 years later and all these decisions make sense because the Red Sox won. But, in that moment, it wasn't so clear. Should you hire the youngest general manager ever? Should you trade Nomar Garciaparra? Can you hit Mariano Rivera when the game is on the line? Can you get the ball down in the strike zone when your knee is hurting? What were you thinking when the team lost the last game in 2003 or was underperforming in the middle of the season in 2004?

That fear of losing and the doubt that follows and how you overcome it is a major part of the series and it's because the players and the front office and ownership were extremely honest with us. . . .

What were the conversations in the owner's box? What were the decisions in baseball operations? What were the dynamics of the clubhouse that culminated in the Red Sox being able to do something no other team in MLB history could? . . . That was what we were interested in and that's what we got.

Also: Q&A with Ian Browne (mlb.com) and Colin Barnicle.

In addition to new interviews with the prime suspects, it looks like there is a fair amount of player-shot video from clubhouses, buses, etc. Pro Tip For Watching 2004 Footage: Keep a tissue handy for your tears of intense joy and unbridled wonder. (You probably already know that, though.) And if you have (for some inexplicable reason) failed to purchase your very own copy of Don't Let Us Win Tonight, this is a friendly reminder to do so.

Schadenfreude 353 (A Continuing Series)

Guardians Rally For Improbable Comeback To Sink Yankees In Game 3 Crusher
Greg Joyce, Post

The first two games of the ALCS lacked for drama.

So the Yankees and Guardians filled the final three innings of Game 3 with more than enough to make up for it, which ultimately left the Yankees needing to get back up off the mat from the gut punch they took when they were one strike away from a 3-0 series lead.

After the teams traded haymakers in the form of stunning home runs in the eighth and ninth innings, David Fry delivered the knockout punch with a two-run homer off Clay Holmes in the 10th inning to lift the Guardians to a 7-5 win on Thursday night at Progressive Field. . . .

After being one strike away from being one win away [Seriously?!?] from advancing to their first World Series since 2009, the Yankees head into Friday's Game 4 with a 2-1 series lead. . . .

Weaver . . . has given up home runs in back-to-back games. . . . Weaver and Holmes . . . faltered while pitching for the seventh time in the Yankees' seventh playoff game, though both insisted they were OK physically. . . .

Weaver came on to record the final out of the eighth and got ahead 0-2 to Lane Thomas with two outs in the ninth. Thomas battled back to a full count and doubled before Weaver left a changeup down the middle — he said it slipped out of his hand — and Noel clobbered it for a game-tying shot.

Then with two outs and a runner on third in the bottom of the 10th, Holmes then left a sinker up to Fry that he clobbered, sending the crowd into a frenzy. . . .

Luke Weaver, Clay Holmes Implode As Yankees' Bullpen Falters In Playoff Rarity
Ryan Dunleavy, Post

The Yankees trotted out their Bizarro Bullpen in a heartbreaking loss. 

Seldom-used Tim Hill and Tim Mayza got big outs with runners on base. 

Workhorses Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes gave up big home runs with runners on base. 

And the Yankees went from one strike away from celebrating a comeback win to the shock of a 7-5 walk-off loss Thursday to the Guardians in the 10th inning of Game 3 . . .

The Yankees seemed to be in a great spot after back-to-back home runs by Judge and Giancarlo Stanton claimed a 4-3 lead — and they were until Weaver's first blown save since assuming the closer's role in early September. 

Lane Thomas doubled off the top of the wall after working out of an 0-2 count with two outs in the ninth. Johnsky Noel followed with a pinch-hit, game-tying, two-run home run. . . .

Holmes — the demoted closer . . . — allowed a leadoff single in the 10th and two-out walk-off home run to David Fry. . . .

"I probably got a little quick there with the sinker and threw it the one spot I couldn't throw it," Holmes said. "If it's a good sinker down and way below the zone, it's probably a more favorable outcome."

Guardians Have A New Energy After All-Time Thriller
Mike Vaccaro, Post

. . . It was 4-3, Yankees. By the bottom of the ninth, it was 5-3. . . . [T]he Yankees have been doing this kind of thing since Calvin Coolidge was president. 

Now they'd done it again. 

The Guardians were deflated. They were dead. Their dugout was a morgue, their ballpark a library. [Maybe they read some books about how the Yankees often choke when thinking of being up 3-0] Luke Weaver — the Yankees' version of Clase — had two outs, none on, bottom of the ninth. Lane Thomas hit one off the wall in left, and it felt like the worst kind of tease for the locals. 

Then Jhonkensy Noel stepped to the plate. His nickname is Big Christmas. And there won't be a more welcome present under any tree in northeast Ohio than the one he delivered in the bleak darkness of this Cleveland night. 

And if you listened close enough, you could hear the ruckus on the Jersey Turnpike. It was 5-5. It seemed impossible. It felt unreal. But soon it was the 10th inning. Soon an ex-Met named Andres Gimenez was making one of the most breathtaking plays you'll ever see, robbing Jazz Chisholm of a hit, robbing the Yankees of first-and-third, one out. 

And soon, David Fry was stepping to the plate. 

Fry, whose late-inning home run last week helped ensure that the Yankees were in Cleveland on this night, and not Detroit. Fry, kept out of the lineup by Vogt in favor of Kyle Manzardo at the start, but who now stared at Clay Holmes, man on third, two outs, bottom of the 10th, looking for a ball he could drive. 

"And I got a ball I could drive," he said. 

When it landed, Progressive Field rattled to its girders and struts. When it landed, the Guardians had a 7-5 victory, had sliced the Yankees' lead to 2-1 in this best-of-seven American League Championship Series, and had performed CPR on an entire city and its baseball season. 

"That," Fry said, "was fun." . . .

It's less so if you're a team in a stunned loser's clubhouse, listening to a jamboree bleed through the walls, a celebration you'd have bet your life was going to take place inside these walls. . . .

Yankees Must Prove They Can Get Off The Mat After Gut-Wrenching Game 3 Loss
Joel Sherman, Post

It wasn't three-games-to-none. But it was just about as close as you can get. . . .

Luke Weaver was ahead of Lane Thomas 0-2 with two outs in the ninth and the Yankees up two runs.  . . .

[I]t was going to be as stirring a victory as existed in the Aaron Era — Judge and Boone. One strike to three-and-oh in this fashion. The doorstep of the World Series.

Then Luke Weaver gave up a two-run homer to Jhonkensy Noel after allowing a full-count Thomas double. Tie score. Then Clay Holmes surrendered a two-out, two-run walkoff shot to David Fry in the 10th. And if you want, close your eyes Yankees fans, this all occurred on the 20th anniversary of the Yanks on the precipice of sweeping the Red Sox in the ALCS and then Dave Roberts stole a base and triggered what was the greatest comeback in MLB history as Boston won four straight, ended The Curse and won its first championship since 1918.

Yeah, these Guardians are not those Red Sox. But these Yankees are not those tough-minded champion Yankees. And now it is not three-nothing. It is two games to one, Yankees still ahead, but both teams having bullpens on fumes, which potentially opens the door to funky stuff. . . .

[W]hat Weaver failed to close opened what the Yankees did not want to see open . . . — an underdog suddenly with more of a fighting chance. An underdog who might not have The Curse, but has gone the longest of any franchise (since 1948) of last winning a title. . . .

The Yankees did not play well . . . They botched four balls at first base, two by Jon Berti contributed to runs and two were by Anthony Rizzo, who was put in for defensive reasons. Jose Trevino started at catcher for the first time this postseason and Cleveland went 3-for-3 in steals off him. And Trevino . . . continued the Yankees' unpardonable baserunning blunders by getting picked off. . . .

Weaver and Holmes have pitched in every playoff game. And Weaver was facing Thomas for the third time in three games. He bemoaned not putting Thomas away as the key at-bat, not the tying homer from Noel that followed. An inning later, Holmes left a sinker up to Fry and it was the Guardians who won with the power of three two-run homers. . . .

[T]he Yankees were so tantalizingly close to being up three-oh.

One strike away from one win [Jesus, this is so pathetic.] to their first World Series appearance in 15 years.

And now?

Yankees' First-Base Weakness Cost Them As Anthony Rizzo, Jon Berti Struggle
Dan Martin, Post

The Yankees entered the postseason with a problem at first base, thanks to Anthony Rizzo's fractured fingers on his right hand and the inexperience of his replacements at the position. . . .

With lefty Matt Boyd on the mound for Cleveland, Aaron Boone went with righty-hitting Jon Berti at first after the veteran infielder performed well there in the ALDS despite never having played the position before. 

And though Berti didn't make any errors before being replaced by Rizzo . . . in the bottom of the eighth, he botched several plays, including one in the third inning that led to a run. 

Rizzo, too, had a rough couple of innings after he came into the game, including on a Will Brennan double that got by him and into right field with one out in the eighth and an error on a Jose Ramirez grounder to open the ninth. . . .

Boone also started Jose Trevino behind the plate for the first time since the regular season, again going with Trevino's right-handed bat — and keeping the slumping Austin Wells' lefty bat out of the starting lineup. 

Trevino . . . got picked off first and allowed Cleveland to steal a pair of bases. . . .

[Wells] is hitless in his past 20 at-bats in the playoffs, but he and Rizzo figure to be back in the lineup for Friday's Game 4 . . .

Yankees' Catching Shakeup Provided Spark Before Burning Out Just As Quickly
Dan Martin, Post

The Yankees haven't gotten much out of their catchers this postseason — because Austin Wells has seen his late-season slump extend into the playoffs. . . .

Wells pinch-hit for Trevino [1-for-22 in prior postseasons] to lead off the [eighth] inning and whiffed twice in what turned into a devastating 7-5, 10-inning loss. . . .

Despite Wells' lengthy offensive downturn — which includes a current 0-for-19 stretch with nine strikeouts — Boone remains high on the catcher . . .

[T]he slump goes back to Wells' last 14 games of the regular season, when he went 3-for-45 . . .

NLCS: Dodgers / MetsALCS: Guardians / Yankees

Baseball Gods . . . if you're listening . . . please arrange a Dodgers/Guardians World Series.

MLB.com offers its picks, from 45 "experts":

NLCS: Mets 26, Dodgers 19

Mets in 5: 5 votes
Mets in 6: 17 votes
Mets in 7: 4 votes

Dodgers in 5: 1 vote
Dodgers in 6: 14 votes
Dodgers in 7: 4 votes

ALCS: Yankees 33, Guardians 12

Yankees in 5: 15 votes
Yankees in 6: 11 votes
Yankees in 7: 7 votes

Guardians in 5: 1 vote
Guardians in 6: 3 votes
Guardians in 7: 8 votes

Picks from ESPN:

NLCS: Dodgers 8, Mets 6

Dodgers in 5: 2 votes
Dodgers in 6: 4 votes
Dodgers in 7: 2 votes

Mets in 6: 2 votes
Mets in 7: 4 votes

ALCS: Yankees 12, Guardians 1 

Yankees in 5: 1 vote
Yankees in 6: 6 votes
Yankees in 7: 5 votes

Guardians in 7: 1 vote*

*: For the record, David Schoenfield picked the Spiders.

I don't know why ESPN has 14 NLCS votes but only 13 ALCS votes.

According to Will Leitch's ranking, my World Series wish is (alas) the least "fascinating", after Dodgers/Yankees (11 previous WS battles), Mets/Yankees, and Guardians/Mets.

A few Shohei Ohtani late-season factoids, courtesy of OptaSTATS:

Since RBI became official in 1920, only one MLB player has had, over the course of his entire career (same game or not), a game with 10+ RBI, a game with 6+ hits, a game with 5+ XBH, a game with 3+ HR, a game with 2+ SB. That one player is Shohei Ohtani. He did all of it today [September 29].

Last 4 games for the @Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani [September 19-22]:

14 hits, 13 RBI, 6 SB, 5 HR

If every MLB player since 1920 (when RBI became an official stat) took the best 4-game span of his career in each category separately and put them together, still no one could match that stat line.

Shohei Ohtani of the @Dodgers ha[d] 10 home runs and 16 stolen bases in September after having 12 homers and 15 stolen bases in August. All other players in MLB history have had one month with at least 10 HR & 14 SB – Carlos Beltran in August 2004.

Shohei Ohtani finished the 2024 regular season in the top 5 in MLB in runs (1st), hits (4th), home runs (2nd), RBI (2nd), walks (4th) & stolen bases (2nd). No one else has ever finished a season in the top 5 in MLB in all of those categories (since RBI became official in 1920).

Take any single league (AL, NL, etc.) in any season in the past. Take any player's HR total, any player's SB total & any player's TB total from that league that season. You still could not build a stat line to match what Shohei Ohtani did this year (54 HR, 59 SB, 411 TB).

Also: Ohtani finished second in MLB in both home runs (Judge, 58) and stolen bases (Elly De La Cruz, 67). The only other players to finish in the top-2 in MLB in both categories: 1908 Honus Wagner and 1909 Ty Cobb.

RIP Luis Tiant (1940-2024)

Luis Tiant, the Cuban-born pitcher, and beloved cigar-chomping Red Sox personality, whose unique windup was imitated by every New England kid with a whiffle ball in the late 1970s, died yesterday. He was 83.

El Tiante's delivery was described as "begin[ning] with an exaggerated mid-windup pivot, during which he turns his back on the batter and seems to examine the infield directly behind the mound for signs of crab grass", by Roger Angell of The New Yorker. With men on base, "his stretch consists of a succession of minute downward waggles and pauses of the glove, and a menacing sidewise, slit-eyed, Valentino-like gaze over his shoulder at the base runner."

John Powers, Boston Globe:

Luis Tiant, a Cuban emigré whose pitching heroics spurred the Red Sox to the 1975 World Series and made him the city's first Latino sports superstar, died Tuesday at his home in Maine.  He was 83.

"El Tiante," as he was known by fans who relished his bewildering swivel-hitch-nod-and-fire delivery, his outsize personality, and his bravura performances under pressure, played for six major league teams during his 19-year career from 1964-82.

But his glory days were his eight seasons in Boston, where he won 122 games and was the centerpiece of several pennant races with a bewitching style that Globe writer Peter Gammons called his "marionette abracadabra." . . .

Mr. Tiant's chiropractic motion — "wheeling and rotating on the mound like a figure in a Bavarian clock tower," observed New Yorker writer Roger Angell — baffled batters who had no idea when and where the ball would be coming at them. . . .

[Tiant was a free agent after going 1-7 in 1971 and] the Red Sox picked him up to bridge a gap in their rotation . . .

"I never gave up," he said. "I kept telling myself as long as I could get the ball to home plate, I was going to stay in baseball." . . .

Mr. Tiant, who sported a desperado mustache and smoked cigars in the clubhouse shower and whirlpool, was a beloved teammate with a knack for amusing his colleagues, to whom he assigned nicknames such as "Polaco" (Carl Yastrzemski), "Frankenstein" (Carlton Fisk), and "Pinocchio" (Rico Petrocelli).

"Luis knew exactly when to turn a bus ride into something out of 'Saturday Night Live,' " said former Red Sox right fielder Dwight Evans.

But on the mound, Mr. Tiant was a relentless and riveting competitor whose virtuoso renditions fellow Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee likened to a symphony: "Hard at the start, a little sweet, slow stuff in the middle, and then the big explosion at the end." . . .

"We haven't got anybody in the National League like that," observed Reds captain Pete Rose [during the 1975 World Series]. "Nobody who throws those high-spinning curveballs that take two minutes to come down."

Though Mr. Tiant won 21 games for a third-place club in 1976 and another 25 during the two subsequent seasons — including a shutout of the Toronto Blue Jays that guaranteed the Red Sox  a divisional  playoff with the New York Yankees in 1978 — management offered him only a one-year contract for 1979, when he would be 38.

"They never took me seriously in their negotiations," said Mr. Tiant. "They treated me like some old fool."

So Mr. Tiant decamped as a free agent to the Yankees . . . "When they let Luis Tiant go to New York, they tore out our heart and soul," said Yastrzemski.

[Tiant finished his career with the Pirates and Angels.] "It's always nice to have someone on the club uglier than yourself," joked Angels teammate Fred Lynn, who'd played with Mr. Tiant in Boston. . . .

In 2001, he signed on with the Red Sox as pitching coach for their Lowell affiliate and as a special assignment adviser. "When I'm in Boston, I always feel like I'm home," said Mr. Tiant. "I almost cry, I feel so good."

Bruce Weber, New York Times:

Luis Tiant, a Cuban-born right-hander who was one of baseball’s most entertaining and charismatic pitchers, and whose personal story was among the game’s most poignant . . . won 229 games over 19 big-league seasons, playing for teams in six cities, notably Cleveland and Boston, where he led the Red Sox to a World Series and became one of the most beloved players in the team's storied history.

In a career that necessitated a long separation from his family and from Cuba, his homeland, and that was bifurcated by a serious shoulder injury, Tiant won 20 or more games four times and threw 187 complete games (more than Don Sutton, Don Drysdale, Lefty Gomez or Dizzy Dean) and 49 shutouts (more than Roger Clemens, Whitey Ford, Catfish Hunter, Sandy Koufax or Bob Feller).

But beyond his achievements, he was one of the game's memorable showmen, distinctive in almost every way — from his Fu Manchu mustache, barrel-shaped torso and ever-present mammoth cigar (ever-present, that is, except on the field, including in the locker room shower) to his dizzying repertoire of breaking balls and delivery angles, as well as perhaps the most elastic, twisty-turny windup in history. . . .

Tiant debuted with Cleveland in 1964. Six seasons later, a shoulder injury nearly ended his career, but he found a second life after landing in Boston before the 1972 season.

No longer the consistent flamethrower he was before his injury, he now deployed a full quiver of windup and delivery tricks and velocity variations, baffling hitters with hard sliders and fastballs mixed with tantalizing, off-speed stuff — looping curves, palm balls and knuckle balls. . . .

Tiant thrived in relief and in spot starts, and by late August he was again in the starting rotation and beginning a remarkable comeback. In a string of 10 starts during a tight pennant race — the Sox finished second to Detroit — he was 9-1 with six shutouts, allowing less than one earned run every nine innings, clearly the team's most valuable player.

In spite of being mostly a reliever for more than half the season, he won 15 games and lost only six, and his earned run average of 1.91 was the best in the American League. He was voted Comeback Player of the Year, and the Boston fans had found a new hero. . . .

Over the next six years, Tiant won 106 games for the Red Sox, recording at least 20 wins in each of three seasons. In 1975, he helped the Red Sox to the American League pennant, winning 18 games during the regular season and Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the Oakland A’s, a complete game in Boston in which he gave up only an unearned run.

"He is a joy to watch, this swarthy, ample gentleman of 34 going on 44," the sports columnist Red Smith wrote in The New York Times after the game. "Black-bearded and sinister, he looks like Pancho Villa after a tough week of looting and burning. He works without waste of time or motion, glowering briefly into the sun to take the catcher's sign, pivoting on one leg to face center field, then wheeling back to deliver over the top. He is a master of every legal pitch and he never throws two consecutive pitches at the same speed."

In the 1975 World Series, one of the greatest in baseball history, which the Cincinnati Reds won in seven games, Tiant pitched a shutout in Game 1 and a complete game 5-4 victory in Game 4, in which he threw an astonishing 163 pitches and held on to a one-run lead for five innings.

He started again in the memorable Game 6, pitching seven innings in what turned out to be a 12-inning 7-6 Red Sox win that ended with a dramatic Carlton Fisk home run.

I remember watching Game 1 of the 1975 World Series, five days before my 12th birthday. Boston won 6-0, scoring all their runs in the bottom of the seventh. Tiant began the rally by smacking a high curve into left – his first hit since 1972. He slid hard into second, beating a low force attempt, and eventually scored, before setting down the next six Reds to finish the shutout.

The never-dull Bill Lee shared a few Looie stories with some Canadian friends: "He was the heart and soul of our ball club."

Cards: Topps, 1972-1979.