I had a bit of an odd Friday night. I wasn’t feeling well; so I decided to lay down and watch Game 3 of the World Series. They where going through the player introductions and it seem as though the game was just about ready to start. I’m sure you can guess what happen to me next; you’re right I fell asleep. I woke up a few hours later to use the bathroom like I do every night and the first thing that popped into my mind was that I missed the game. Then I realized that I had fell asleep with the television on and I needed to turn it off. As I dragged myself out of bed I realized that the television was not only on, but was still showing something. As my head started to clear I realized that it was the Red Sox/Dodgers game. At first I thought maybe they where showing a replay, but after reading the television screen I noticed that it was the Bottom of the 13th and the Red Sox had a 2-1 lead. So I guess the baseball gods wanted me to see at least some of this game.
As you know the Dodgers tied the game up in the 13th inning and I got to watch 5 more innings of World Series baseball and let me tell you I thought it was a great game. Interestingly I only saw one Red Sox pitcher; Nathan Eovaldi while the Dodgers used four different arms out of their bullpen. Every position player got into the game and Clayton Kershaw even made a pinch hitting appearance. I kept wondering how long Eovaldi would pitch and with the way the announcers where calling the game it seemed as though he was the Red Sox last pitcher.
Both teams had some scoring chances in extra innings, but I don’t know if I would call them great scoring chances, Neither team was able to capitalize on any of those chances as we went through the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th inning. I believe it was almost 2:45 a.m. where I live when Max Muncy finally won the game for the Dodgers with a solo home run on the 7th pitch of the 18th inning with a 3-2 count.
Muncy had just missed winning the game I his last at bat, but his flyball down the rightfield line went foul. This time Muncy hit a no-doubter to left-centerfield for a 3-2 Dodgers win; there first win in the series.
The official game time was 7 hour and 20 minutes and I’m sure fatigue played a factor not only for the players, but for the umpires and definitely the announcers.
The players are in the best shape out of this group; so they obviously handled the longer game the best. It was the other two groups where the length of the game started to show. From where I picked the game up in the 13th inning the home plate umpires strike zone started to change. While I don’t think this had any affect on the game you could clearly see that he was calling pitchers later in the game that he wasn’t calling when I first started watching it. As for the announcers it seemed as though they had run out of things to talk about as they continued to repeat things they had said just the half inning before. How many times did you hear that Eovaldi was suppose to be the Red Sox starter in Game 4. Then they kept mentioning how the Red Sox didn’t have a starting pitcher for Game 4 and that Chris Sale would start Game 5.
I really became confused when Drew Pomeranz started warming up in the Red Sox bullpen. Now Pomeranz hasn’t appeared in the playoffs for the Red Sox this season, but he made 11 starts and pitched in 26 games for the Red Sox during the regular season. Then there’s Eduardo Rodriguez who did pitch 1/3rd of an inning in Game 3, but threw just 6 pitches. He made 23 starts for the Red Sox and pitched in 27 total games during the regular season. Are neither of these pitchers capable of starting Game 4?
Maybe Pomeranz and Rodriquez aren’t the pitcher that the Red Sox thought they’d be going with in Game 4, but they’re both proven Major League starting pitchers. Rodriguez won 13 games during the 2018 regular season. The issue with Rodriguez might be the fact that he’s didn’t pitch more than 6 2/3rd innings in any start. Pomeranz had an injury plagued 2018, but don’t forget that in 2017 he won 17 games.
I’m not sure if this is as big of a deal as everyone is making this out to be. Of course if either of these do make the start and struggle it will continue to be talked about way, way too much.
I wonder if it’s possible that will see the Red Sox use Pomeranz as the starting pitcher for Game 4 and see how many innings they can get out of him. Once he runs into trouble they could go to Rodriguez for multiple innings out of the bullpen first. Imagine if the Red Sox could get 4 innings out of Pomeranz and 4 innings out of Rodriguez before turning it over to Craig Kimbrel for an inning. do you think that could work for Boston?
It dies appear as though the Dodgers will have an advantage at starting pitcher as Rich Hill gets the call for Game 4 for Los Angeles. Hill’s 38 years old and he made 24 starts during the 2018 regular season and he almost made one relief appearance. Hill was 11-5 with an ERA of 3.66, but he hasn’t been used a lot in this post season.
Hill made two post season starts; one against the Atlanta Braves and one against the Milwaukee Brewers. He also pitched an inning in relief against the Brewers in the NLCS. You have to wonder if the fat that Hill hasn’t pitched in 8 days will hurt or help him. Extra rest can be good, but too much extra rest can be bad.
Do you think that Hill gives the Dodgers that big advantage that everyone seems to think it is? Also do you have the Dodgers evening up the World Series at 2 games apiece tonight?
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