Worse collapse?

Oswalt is pitching tonight, then?

 

No, he will come back on three days rest to pitch Sunday and Pettitte will pitch Saturday, with Clemens on Friday.

 

but the point is, choke isn't the only explanation. Some moves Don Zimmer made were crazy during that stretch. He didn't use Bill Lee because of a personal pique, and I remember one thing which was incredible. Butch Hobson made something like 43 errors that year, and played the last 6 weeks of the season with a bad elbow. Zimmer wants to keep his bat in the lineup, but then there were games he had Frank Duffy, who was pretty good with the glove, as a designated hitter. That was insane.

However, the biggest factor during the glorious run was the fact that Bob Lemon replaced Billy Martin and told Ed Figueroa, whom Martin constantly second-guessed in the media, to just go out and pitch. Figueroa was something like 12-1 down the stretch - that made the difference and, other than the times the Red Sox faced him, they had no control over that. That's why "choke" is never a complete explanation. The Yankees went on a tear in late July and got the lead down to six games in early August, and the Red Sox won two games at Yankee Stadium in August to push the lead down to eight games. The Yankees, if you look at it over the course of the rest of the season, gained a game a week. There was the Boston Massacre I, but the Yankees in September were a lot better team than the Red Sox at that point.

 

Unless he has been moved up to tonight, there are no games for him on three days' rest... unless it's on Monday.

 

Good point, I got confused on what day of the week it is. All I know is Garner said he would be willing to throw Oswalt on three days rest if they had a chance to get into the postseason, so maybe he will be the surprise starter tonight.

 

Santo said that on the HBO Cubs documentary.
Ran out of gas.

 

Big hour for both the Houston and St. Louis clubs, to use a Mike Shannon-ism. Cardinals are tied 1-1 with the Padres through 7. Asstros rallied to tie the Pirates in the top of the ninth, now it's 6-6 mid-10th. Asstros win and Cardinals lose, and it's 1/2 game with 4 to go, anybody's race. Asstros lose and Cardinals win, it's 2 1/2 games with 4 to go, and the situation becomes better for the good guys.

Reds lost, too.

 

Wild pitch about to sink the Cards.

 

Because I could not be any more disinterested by an alleged suicide attempt by Media 'Ho Owens, I choose to comment on the Mets' suicide attempt in the last week.

This team is looking at 3-and-out.

Pedro sucked shit through a Crazy Straw on a night where he needed three strikeouts to reach 3,000 and he gets lit up by a team, unusually, with nothing to play for. Pedro is not going to be effective in the NLDS -- if he even gets a start. The dude can't even field his position right now.

 

And ALBERT PUJOLS bails out the good guys once more with a towering blast.

 

MVP baby! WOot woot!

 

You seriously can not pitch to him with the game on the line like that good job Bochey.