Prepare to be bombarded tomorrow by articles and columns claiming we saw “vintage Pedro Martinez” tonight. That was not the case. However, Petey was exceptionally impressive over his last four innings. He can’t hit 97 and blow people away anymore, but when he’s on and pitching smart, like tonight, it’s a thing of beauty. So do Sox fans start to relax knowing they have four games to win one, or does the traditional pessimism still hold, especially after what they did to New York?
If the Sox do close the Cards out, the sequence in the ninth inning against Mariano Rivera in game four of the ALCS will be documented in as great detail as the fourth quarter and overtime of the Patriots-Raiders playoff game three years ago.
Of all the mildly inappropriate and slightly blasphemous t-shirts celebrating the similarity of Johnny Damon to the commonly believed image of Jesus, I think my favorite is the one that says “Johnny Is My Homeboy”. I say that several times a day and laugh.
New Fox low of the night: Chris Meyers speaking with “Leon” of Budweiser commercial fame and basically reading the script of one of the commercials while play was going on. I know they were in St. Louis and all, but that was truly, truly awful. While less offensive, Meyers’ attempt to interview the Walker brothers during a tense portion of the game was also brutal. As always, Fox finds a way to fuck up a perfectly good sporting event.
People I hate: All these idiots who said all summer long that the Cardinals didn’t have enough starting pitching to get through the playoffs. They will smugly remind us all of their theory unless the Cards win the next four games. Of course, that completely ignores the fact they managed to win the requisite seven post-season games that qualify a team for the World Series. Roger Clemens and Roy Oswaldt are sitting at home. As are Pryor, Wood, Clement, and Zambrano of the Cubs. The starting pitching may have let them down in the series, but I think the Cards can be plenty happy of how much they got out of their rotation this year.