Monday's Bunts and Boots--World Series Wrap

Well, that went quickly. For the third time in four years, the World Series ended in the blink of an eye—a four-game sweep. For most baseball fans, it was a dull ending to a disappointing postseason that lacked drama, suspense, and twist endings. For Red Sox fans, it only cemented their team as the team of the new millennium—at least through the first seven years of the 2000s. Let’s recap the Series game by game:

Game Four:

Jon Lester, one of the best feel-good stories of the season, made himself the No. 1 headliner of the decisive game, pitching five and a third scoreless innings despite a lack of regular work throughout the playoffs. Lester’s stuff is legitimate, as is his ability to pitch inside with regularity against accomplished hitters like Matt Holliday and Todd Helton.

Lester also found ample support from Mike Lowell, who accumulated two more hits and a home run in Game Four on his way to winning the Series MVP. Having seen Lowell extensively over the last two seasons, I’m duly impressed by what he does on both sides of the ball. He still turns on inside fastballs, but has also learned to take outer-half breaking balls to the opposite field. Defensively, he’s a legitimate Gold Glover, with surefire hands, a deadly accurate throwing arm, and above-average range in the field. Are you listening, Yankees?

Once a skeptic, I’m also become a firm believer in Terry Francona. He continued to use his bullpen with the proper sense of urgency that is mandated by World Series play. As soon as Hideki Okajima wavered in the bottom of the eighth, the Red Sox skipper called on Jonathan Papelbon. Not surprisingly, Papelbon retired the five Rockies hitters he faced to bring the Sox their second world title in four seasons. By the way, all three of Papelbon’s playoff and World Series saves required more than a single inning—a message that all postseason managers should have stamped on their foreheads.

In contrast to Francona, I thought Clint Hurdle made a huge mistake in the eighth inning on Game Four, when he turned the pitching reins over to Brian Fuentes, who had pitched miserably in Game Three. Fuentes once again struggled, giving up a leadoff home run to Bobby Kielty—and that proved to be the decisive run in a one-run game. Given the desperate situation the Rockies faced, Hurdle should have turned to his best reliever, Manny Corpas, who was badly underused in the Series.

Game Three:

Rockies fans must have had a bad feeling when they saw Ryan Spilborghs’ sixth-inning drive land in the glove of Jacoby Ellsbury, just short of home run distance in center field. (Colorado fans will be forgiven if they endure nightmares of Ellsbury, who was everywhere in the outfield and made himself a doubles machine in the last two games.) Still, the Rockies continued the comeback effort in the seventh inning on Matt Holliday’s titanic blast, bringing Colorado within a single run. The decision to pitch Fuentes in the eighth made sense, but the sidewinding left-hander immediately gave back three runs.

Game Two:

I have no idea how Curt Schilling did it throughout the postseason. His velocity wasn’t much better than Mike Mussina’s and his splitter no longer drops the way it did in his early Red Sox and Diamondbacks hey day, but none of that seemed to matter. After surviving a shaky first inning in Game Two, the strike-throwing machine mowed down the Rockies, helping set the table for another Red Sox win in the World Series.

The Red Sox’ bullpen performed even better than Schilling, with Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon shutting out the Rockies over the final three and a third innings. Okajima pitched well enough to be named the game’s MVP by FOX (when’s the last time a middle reliever was the MVP of a World Series game?), baffling Colorado with his mix of moving fastballs and slow change-ups.

If you were looking for goats in Game Two, it might seem cruel to pick on Matt Holliday, whose four hits represented the lone offensive bright spot for the Rockies. But that’s how bad Holliday’s baserunning misplay was in the eighth inning, when Papelbon picked him off badly. (Kevin Youkilis had time to tag Holliday three times before he could reach the base.) Holliday’s desire to steal a base was understandable—he had 11 steals during the season—but he made the mistake of getting caught when still stepping off his lead. As Holliday took one too many steps toward second base, Papelbon spun and fired to first base. As he stumbled toward first, Holliday reminded some old-time baseball observers of Herb Washington.

Tactically speaking, I don’t think that Hurdle did much to hurt the Rockies in Game Two; they were simply out-pitched by a well-rounded Red Sox team. To his credit, Hurdle needed to make a lineup change for Game Three—and he did. He benched Willy Taveras, who had struggled to reach base, replacing him with the left-handed hitting Corey Sullivan. Unfortunately for the Rockies, it didn’t matter.

Game One:

While Game Two was taut and tense, the Red Sox and Rockies didn’t leave much to analysis in Game One. Josh Beckett pitched as brilliantly as expected, the Red Sox continued their offensive barrage from the final three games of the ALCS, and neutral observers in the baseball world were left praying for a compelling World Series, something that hasn’t happened since 2003.

How good was Beckett? His curve ball is his best pitch, but he stuck strictly with the fastball in shutting down the Rockies. Of his 93 pitches, Beckett threw 77 fastballs, leaving little room for his curve ball to have an impact. Beckett’s approach seemed to be I’ll keep throwing the fastball until you can prove you can hit it. Showing no ability to handle Beckett’s high fastball, the Rockies went down lightly over the first seven innings.

As is usually the case in blowout games, there was nothing the managers did in Game One that could have changed the outcome. Still, I have some questions as to why Hurdle left Franklin Morales in for 35 pitches, essentially making him unavailable for Game Two. After the eight-day layoff, Hurdle had his entire bullpen at his disposal; he should have been careful not to burn an important pitcher like Morales in a game that was already lost.

Then again, there was little that Hurdle could have done to make a significant difference in the outcome of the series. Nothing short of an intervention from Joe McCarthy, John McGraw, or Sparky Anderson would have short-circuited the Sox on their appointed rounds in October.