Gotta luv the Brew crew, Royo out piched Sheets as expected, too bad about his injury though its only day to day.
after TIVOing that play over and over again, there are two veterans there that made that happen. 1st and foremost, Bags catching Posednik offguard with the cutoff and quick toss (and i mean it was QUICK) back to first 2nd, Kent timed the rundown PERFECTLY ...he kept his eye on Magruder the whole time WOW
man... I just watched that play by Baggy again... AMAZING (and nobody will really notice it because it happened so fast). That's like Jeter in the 2001 ALDS... you can't teach that... just pure instincts, and intangibles... HOORAY BAGGY!
That's a good comparison...a lot of people (including myself) have been ripping Bags all year but man did he step up tonight.
btw... anybody still think that Garner hasn't had much of an effect? I never thought this group of aging veterans would play with this much youthful exuberance and intensity... It was almost as if Jimy's clockwork periodic days off made the older guys believe that they were really at the tail-end of their careers, and they should oblige and calmly head off into the sunset. I can officially say that this team has responded big-time to Garner... its not just Beltran, its not just Roy and Roger, and its not all just bad opponents... Phil is a big time player in all of this.
Here's the million dollar question: How did Bags know the runner was gonna be stopped coming around 3rd? If he wouldve kept going, there wouldn't have been a play at the plate.... huge gamble, great payoff
Maybe, with the way that Lance cut-off that hit, he knew the 3rd base coach would have been CRAZY to send him on a suicide mission to the plate to end the game (especially since Lance had already thrown out a guy earlier in the game). Or, maybe, the runner pulled up early, Bags saw it, and made a last-second dive... (which is probably more likely... and I think Lamb said something to that effect after the game).
It may have still been a gamble on Baggy's part. He might have thought that Posednik would dive back to the bag and Kent would apply the tag for the out. If so, the runner wouldn't have scored before the tag was applied.
Simple - someone on the field told him to cut the throw (most likely Ausmus). In every situation, a player should tell another to cut the throw or let it go. The bad thing for the Brewers, is that throw, most likely, would have bounced 2 or 3 times and the runner would probably have scored.
Very possible... hopefully the Chronicle beat writer (Jesus de Ortiz sp?) was as perceptive as we were, and will ask Baggy about it... or... (more likely)... I'm sure Richard Justice will write a huge testimonial type column because of this play by him (and, he'll forget Jeff Kent's name when talking about the last play as well... he'll just refer to him as the guy who caught Baggy's amazing flip... )
I don't know about that... Lance charged and fielded it perfectly, and unless McGreuter was speedy (which I don't think he is), it would have been much like the 2nd inning play at the plate. Lance had a lot on that throw as well (almost caught Podsednick right as he was just rounding 1st). Good call on Ausmus calling the cut-off though... that's very possible as well.
Maybe someone yelled "Cut!" once they saw the lead runner stopped at third, to prevent Posednik from getting into scoring position. Bagwell noticed Posednik being over-aggressive, and reacted with the dive and toss to Kent. Was Kent supposed to be the cutoff man? I can't imagine it was supposed to be Bagwell because of his shoulder. If Bagwell misses Berkman's throw, the ball goes all the way to the plate and TWO runners are in scoring position. Whatever the case, that was a great play.
Bad News: The Cubs already won tonight, and the Giants are up 3-0 in the second. I have a bad feeling that losing those three games to the Pirates are going to come back and haunt us.
Well, we can take care of the Giants ourselves next week... so we still kinda control our own fate there. I'll wait till the Cubs play the double header on Monday in Florida before I vault them (again) to wild-card favorite... they're kinda just taking care of Pittsburgh and Cincy like we did. And, if we don't eventually make it... its the mediocre first 2/3's of the season that will come back and "haunt" us... not a late, unorthodox 5 game series on the road in September. EDIT: meanwhile, Bonds just hit his 700th.
