mulder oswalt
16-8, 3.64 20-12, 2.94
so it's a sure thing: he gives up 11 runs in 2 2/3 . . . .
i'm curious who saw what as regards the big stink over in the alcs. it's obvious the catcher caught the ball and the batter should've been out, but that's a judgment call. more at issue is all the stuff that came after -- did he punch the batter out or not, and did his gesture mislead the angels' catcher? after a bazillion replayings of this thing, it's clear to me that the catcher had already flipped the ball out to the mound and left the home plate area before eddings made his punch-out motion. in which case, whether he did or didn't punch the guy out seems beside the point to me; you can't argue that the catcher took his cue from the ump. he made his mistake before geddings made his.
geddings' mistake -- indicating "out" with his fist when he considered the play to be live -- is more difficult to understand. at the press conference last night he said (quoting directly) "sometimes you go off reactions on what you're doing." i think he believed the ball hadn't been caught cleanly, but then paul ran off the field and pierzynski took two steps toward the dugout and prepared to fling his bat in that direction. since batter and catcher both acted like it was an out, maybe eddings thought "oh what the f**k" and decided to call him out. terrible umpiring, to be sure. but before he made the punchout, pierzynski suddenly took off. watch the replay: it looks like he's had a moment of realization -- as if he's been anticipating either a) an "out" call from the ump or b) a tag from the catcher, and then it suddenly it dawns on him that neither a nor b has happened and therefore he might not be out yet. so he starts running, passing eddings just as he's making the "out" signal . . . . and now the ump is completely lost, because pierzynski's actions now confirm eddings' initial gut impression that the ball wasn't caught cleanly. in a sense, pierzynski's dash to first gave eddings the cover to make the call he wanted to make all along . . . . something like that?
whatever. i'm glad it happened in their series and not ours.
Update [2005-10-13 18:15:47 by lboros]: miklasz has the lineups up:
| HOU | STL |
|---|---|
| biggio 2b | eckstein ss |
| taveras cf | edmonds cf |
| berkman 1b | pujols 1b |
| ensberg 3b | walker rf |
| lane rf | sanders lf |
| burke lf | grud'k 2b |
| everett ss | nunez 3b |
| ausmus c | molina c |
| oswalt p | mulder p |