Happy Fun Playoff Smile Time! The Prologue
Today, we get an odd hybrid of regular season baseball and playoff baseball…the One Game Playoff!
In Denver, Colorado, two teams meet to determine the 8th playoff spot in this years MLB tournament…the San Diego Padres, who have made the playoffs the last two seasons, against the Colorado Rockies, who have made the playoffs once in their existence (1995). To show you just how long ago ’95 was (in baseball terms), the Rockies best hitter was Larry Walker, and their best two pitchers were Kevin Ritz and Billy Swift.
So tonight at 7:30, on TBS (not in high def, Cox Communications customers!!!) Rockies’ manager will send Pirate castoff Josh Fogg to toe the rubber against Cy Young favorite Jake Peavy. Given the option to start Peavy yesterday in the season finale, Bud Black opted to hold him out for a possible WC playoff/Game 1 against the Phillies.
The only real thing to note about this game, other than the obvious implications, is that your garden-variety analyst over the course of the year has been saying how awful the Padres offense is. In spite of that, the Padres have the 4th best road offense in the NL, with only the Phillies, Mets and Braves out pacing them. Even though the Rockies lead the Senior Circuit in runs at home that advantage is mitigated by the Padres starting Peavy. Fogg is having a decent enough year, considering he hasn’t been much of a pitcher in his career, and his team still plays their home games in Colorado.
When in doubt, in a single game, go with the better pitcher. The nature of baseball is that anything really can happen in a single game, but in foresight, the Padres pitching Peavy just puts them in a better situation to win the game.
Padres 6-4
Not that this means a whole lot, but Jake hasn’t pitched in Coors since 2006, and he was shelled (4.1 innings, 6 runs). Should be interesting.
I don’t think I like the “Mask-less Darth Vader” era of Cal Ripken’s life very much.