Bernie: Cards-Giants blood feud continues
1 hour ago •
SAN FRANCISCO • The Cardinals’ hardest hit
of the night was Matt Holliday’s rolling-thunder takedown of Giants
second baseman Marco Scutaro in a zealous and successful attempt to
break up a double play.
Holliday nearly broke Scutaro in half in the first-inning blitz, and the St. Louis left fielder can expect a fine from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. But the tough, unyielding Scutaro didn’t crawl off. He ignored the pain of a hip injury to stay in the game to wreck the Cardinals with his own big hit.
Setting up with the bases loaded in the pivotal fourth inning, Scutaro shot a line drive across Holliday’s bow, and the ensuing implosion shifted Game 2 to the Giants. With Holliday booting Scutaro’s single in left field, all three Giants raced home for a 5-1 lead.
By the time Scutaro departed in the sixth inning to receive medical attention, the Giants had their payback in the form of a rollicking 7-1 victory that leveled the NLCS at 1-1.
It was just the kind of response you’d expect from a hardshell Giants team that won’t back down. Now the series and the burgeoning drama moves to St. Louis for the next three games. Settle in. This will be a long series that likely will carry on through the seven-game max.
“That’s a great team across the field we’re looking at,” Cardinals second baseman Daniel Descalso said. “By no means did we expect them to roll over for us. They’re going to fight until the end, just like we are. Nobody’s going to quit in this series. It’s going to be a battle.”
Scutaro answered the Holliday smackdown by smacking a Chris Carpenter pitch for the most important piece of offense in Game 2. After watching their infielder get cut down by Holliday’s tackle in this special NLCS edition of Monday Night Football, the defiant Giants fought back.
Was it a hard but clean play, or a malicious and dirty play? The Giants were none too pleased. Holliday expressed remorse for starting his slide late, but quietly defended his aggressive approach in an intense postseason atmosphere.
“It’s part of the deal,” he said. “You’re trying to keep us out of the double play. Every run in the postseason is huge. The only regret I have is I should have started my slide a step earlier, so I wouldn’t have ended up on top of him. But I try to take the second baseman out on double plays during the season, and obviously there’s no ill intent.”
I asked Holliday how he’d respond to the dirty-play accusations.
“I’m not a dirty player,” he said. “I wish I would have started my slide a hair earlier, a step earlier. But when you’re out there in the heat of the moment, you’re trying to make sure he doesn’t complete the double play. I mean, I play hard in trying to take out a double play. That’s really all it comes down to. People can say what they want. I just hope he’s OK.”
Holliday went through the bag to get Scutaro, and yes, he slid too late. That’s bad. I’m not going to defend him on that. But I will defend Holliday’s intentions. Holliday played hardball, and he put a little extra on it. And that makes him a base-running thug? Please.
Baseball players of past eras must be chortling with bewilderment and disdain. This is how the game used to be played, before ballplayers became businessmen and the culture softened into a hopeless state of political correctness.
“It’s playoff baseball,” said Ryan Theriot, the Giants' middle infielder and a member of the 2011 Cardinals. “Guys are going out giving 150 percent. Yeah, it does happen. I mean, I’ve been crushed numerous times.”
Descalso has been there, too. On the ground, rolling in hurt.
“There’s some guys in this league that take pride in breaking up double plays. Matt Holliday is one of them,” Descalso said. “Especially with first and second and one out, if you can break up a double play and get the guy to throw it away, that’s a run for us. And in a postseason game that can make a difference between a win and a loss.
“On slow-hit balls, guys like myself that hang in there we’re going to get hit, but that’s part of the game. It just comes with the territory. You don’t like getting hit. But on that kind of play, sometimes you’re going to get whacked. It’s a hard-nosed baseball play.”
Holliday got the villain treatment at AT&T Park, as the Cardinals-Giants rivalry took another contentious turn.
Put Holliday in the historical mosh pit with Jeffrey Leonard, and his one-flap-down home run trot. And Chili Davis, who called St. Louis a cow town. There’s Bob Brenly, who punched Ozzie Smith in the mouth after a hard slide and a dust-up near the second base bag.
There’s Will Clark, who took out Jose Oquendo in a Holliday-style hit. Vince Coleman is in there for sparking a brawl after swiping bases with the Cardinals up by eight runs. Other St. Louis vs. San Francisco blood feuds involved Kenny Lofton, the late Bob Forsch, and managers Roger Craig, Whitey Herzog, Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker.
Leonard’s one-flap-down tour of the bases was nothing compared to Holliday’s no-flap-down crash landing into Scutaro.
It’s a series now. Let the mind games begin.
You know it was a rotten day for the Cardinals when Carpenter was a better hitter than pitcher. Carpenter plated the Cardinals’ lone run with a second-inning double, but lasted only four innings in losing the matchup against the Giants’ Ryan Vogelsong.
Cardinals starting pitchers had a 1.73 ERA over the first five postseason games. But the last three have been duds, with Adam Wainwright, Lance Lynn and Carpenter getting popped for 12 earned runs, 18 hits and 11 extra-base hits in 10 combined innings. That’s a 10.80 ERA.
The Cardinals also need to get some timely hits from Holliday, Allen Craig and Yadier Molina. The Nos. 3, 4, and 5 hitters in the lineup are only 2 for 32 with runners in scoring position this postseason, and they had another evening of missed chances in Game 2.
No. 2 hitter Carlos Beltran doubled twice and walked; he was in scoring position three times Monday and never scored. How long can Beltran, David Freese, Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma be expected to carry the offense?
It was just a bad Monday night all the away around for the visiting team. A 2-0 series lead would have guaranteed the traditional “happy flight,” but the Cardinals had to settle for a 1-1 split of the first two games. That’s fine. The best thing about this flight home was leaving Game 2 behind.
Holliday nearly broke Scutaro in half in the first-inning blitz, and the St. Louis left fielder can expect a fine from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. But the tough, unyielding Scutaro didn’t crawl off. He ignored the pain of a hip injury to stay in the game to wreck the Cardinals with his own big hit.
Setting up with the bases loaded in the pivotal fourth inning, Scutaro shot a line drive across Holliday’s bow, and the ensuing implosion shifted Game 2 to the Giants. With Holliday booting Scutaro’s single in left field, all three Giants raced home for a 5-1 lead.
By the time Scutaro departed in the sixth inning to receive medical attention, the Giants had their payback in the form of a rollicking 7-1 victory that leveled the NLCS at 1-1.
It was just the kind of response you’d expect from a hardshell Giants team that won’t back down. Now the series and the burgeoning drama moves to St. Louis for the next three games. Settle in. This will be a long series that likely will carry on through the seven-game max.
“That’s a great team across the field we’re looking at,” Cardinals second baseman Daniel Descalso said. “By no means did we expect them to roll over for us. They’re going to fight until the end, just like we are. Nobody’s going to quit in this series. It’s going to be a battle.”
Scutaro answered the Holliday smackdown by smacking a Chris Carpenter pitch for the most important piece of offense in Game 2. After watching their infielder get cut down by Holliday’s tackle in this special NLCS edition of Monday Night Football, the defiant Giants fought back.
Was it a hard but clean play, or a malicious and dirty play? The Giants were none too pleased. Holliday expressed remorse for starting his slide late, but quietly defended his aggressive approach in an intense postseason atmosphere.
“It’s part of the deal,” he said. “You’re trying to keep us out of the double play. Every run in the postseason is huge. The only regret I have is I should have started my slide a step earlier, so I wouldn’t have ended up on top of him. But I try to take the second baseman out on double plays during the season, and obviously there’s no ill intent.”
I asked Holliday how he’d respond to the dirty-play accusations.
“I’m not a dirty player,” he said. “I wish I would have started my slide a hair earlier, a step earlier. But when you’re out there in the heat of the moment, you’re trying to make sure he doesn’t complete the double play. I mean, I play hard in trying to take out a double play. That’s really all it comes down to. People can say what they want. I just hope he’s OK.”
Holliday went through the bag to get Scutaro, and yes, he slid too late. That’s bad. I’m not going to defend him on that. But I will defend Holliday’s intentions. Holliday played hardball, and he put a little extra on it. And that makes him a base-running thug? Please.
Baseball players of past eras must be chortling with bewilderment and disdain. This is how the game used to be played, before ballplayers became businessmen and the culture softened into a hopeless state of political correctness.
“It’s playoff baseball,” said Ryan Theriot, the Giants' middle infielder and a member of the 2011 Cardinals. “Guys are going out giving 150 percent. Yeah, it does happen. I mean, I’ve been crushed numerous times.”
Descalso has been there, too. On the ground, rolling in hurt.
“There’s some guys in this league that take pride in breaking up double plays. Matt Holliday is one of them,” Descalso said. “Especially with first and second and one out, if you can break up a double play and get the guy to throw it away, that’s a run for us. And in a postseason game that can make a difference between a win and a loss.
“On slow-hit balls, guys like myself that hang in there we’re going to get hit, but that’s part of the game. It just comes with the territory. You don’t like getting hit. But on that kind of play, sometimes you’re going to get whacked. It’s a hard-nosed baseball play.”
Holliday got the villain treatment at AT&T Park, as the Cardinals-Giants rivalry took another contentious turn.
Put Holliday in the historical mosh pit with Jeffrey Leonard, and his one-flap-down home run trot. And Chili Davis, who called St. Louis a cow town. There’s Bob Brenly, who punched Ozzie Smith in the mouth after a hard slide and a dust-up near the second base bag.
There’s Will Clark, who took out Jose Oquendo in a Holliday-style hit. Vince Coleman is in there for sparking a brawl after swiping bases with the Cardinals up by eight runs. Other St. Louis vs. San Francisco blood feuds involved Kenny Lofton, the late Bob Forsch, and managers Roger Craig, Whitey Herzog, Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker.
Leonard’s one-flap-down tour of the bases was nothing compared to Holliday’s no-flap-down crash landing into Scutaro.
It’s a series now. Let the mind games begin.
You know it was a rotten day for the Cardinals when Carpenter was a better hitter than pitcher. Carpenter plated the Cardinals’ lone run with a second-inning double, but lasted only four innings in losing the matchup against the Giants’ Ryan Vogelsong.
Cardinals starting pitchers had a 1.73 ERA over the first five postseason games. But the last three have been duds, with Adam Wainwright, Lance Lynn and Carpenter getting popped for 12 earned runs, 18 hits and 11 extra-base hits in 10 combined innings. That’s a 10.80 ERA.
The Cardinals also need to get some timely hits from Holliday, Allen Craig and Yadier Molina. The Nos. 3, 4, and 5 hitters in the lineup are only 2 for 32 with runners in scoring position this postseason, and they had another evening of missed chances in Game 2.
No. 2 hitter Carlos Beltran doubled twice and walked; he was in scoring position three times Monday and never scored. How long can Beltran, David Freese, Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma be expected to carry the offense?
It was just a bad Monday night all the away around for the visiting team. A 2-0 series lead would have guaranteed the traditional “happy flight,” but the Cardinals had to settle for a 1-1 split of the first two games. That’s fine. The best thing about this flight home was leaving Game 2 behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment