He looks tired to me. His slider doesn't have the bite it usually has and he's having trouble locating it. Last night his velocity was noticeably down also. It looks like the rest he got didn't do any good. Maybe being back in decent weather will help. It's ridiculous to be playing baseball when it in the 40's and raining. If he doesn't look sharp in his next outing, I'd say he's not going to improve until he has a winter of rest. Then hopefully when his arm feels better he'll be able to move on and not be bothered by what's happened this post season. The list of pitchers who have been ruined by 1 or 2 bad outings is very long.
The weather was amazingly bad. No question about it. Are the Sox accustomed to conditions like this? Have they had to play in weather like this very much this season? Did they have better longjohns? Better heaters in the dugout and bullpen? I'm genuinely curious. Those were some horrendous conditions. Surely, it's almost never that bad!
Qualls and Wheeler just sucked, but Lidge's problem has been on-going. He hasn't looked dominant since the NLDS. In his last 4 games: NLCS Game 3 - finally gave up a run to the Cardinals NLCS Game 4 - needed a miracle after putting men on 1st and 3rd with no outs NLCS Game 5 - Pujols WS Game 2 - Podsednik Lidge's struggles are on-going. He's still the closer and as he goes, the Astros go, but something's not quite right with him.
You could even take it back further and look at the last series against the Cubs: Friday - blown save after the team somehow got a 3-2 lead. Saturday - bounced back with a straight-forward save Sunday - Had runners on, and induced a game-ending line-out that was hit pretty hard, right at Bruntlett. There had to be a learning curve against Lidge... and hitters have developed a much better approach now (lay-off the slider, attack/foul off the fastball, and overall make him throw lots of pitches). The fact remains that his stuff is still good enough. He may not get back to where he was at the end of last year (where it seemed like he could have tossed the ball underhanded, and they still would have swung and missed)... but he's still better than most others not named Rivera.
That pretty much sums it up. If Lidge can't throw his slider for strikes, he's not Lights out Lidge. His slider has to be in the strike zone or close enough that guys can't lay off of it. He can't control it right now and it's not breaking as sharply. Lidge was dominant last year throwing his slider most of the time. Garner and Hickey worked with him on using it less this year. I'm sure it's better for his arm, but I'm not sure it makes him more effective. Like I said earlier, I don't think his struggles can be fixed this year.
Good point - I didn't remember the Cubs series. I don't know that it's a learning curve issue, though. This seems fairly sudden - it's not like he's progressively getting slightly worse - he just suddenly in a short period (a few weeks) became hittable. I think it's an injury or something like that, honestly. Remember Wagner the season that he pitched with a bad shoulder and blew something like 8 or 9 saves in 2 months? He wouldn't admit an injury, and the velocity was still there, but he didn't have the control and the fastball didn't have movement. I'm concerned that something like that is going on, in which case, this isn't going to get better between now and the rest of this series.
i don't buy that argument. how many times have White Sox batters faced Lidge this season? ummm, i'll take 0 for 1000 Alex. you can't learn to face/approach someone you've never faced. this just leads me to believe that Lidge has lost his touch, at least for this season.
Maybe the Sox did a better job of scouting our players than we had of theirs. I remember hearing a couple times that we didn't know their players from Garner and Ausmus on the radio. S hit.. how long before we figured we were going to the WS did we start scouting? I think none. I think they were too worried about St. Louis to think ahead like that... while the Sox had extra time to figure that out especially with the Astros up 3-1 in the series.
Yeah the weather was bad for both teams and since the Sox and most of their players have never been to World Series they haven't experienced it much either. The difference maker was that they had the last at bat. As someone else pointed out we had four normally very solid relievers look very shaky out there and if we had another at bat its very possible we get that run back.
I hate to say it but we're seeing what has historically been the norm for the Stros in the Postseason, very good starting pitching but then problems with relievers and unfortunately Biggio and Bagwell going into an offensive funk. The Posednik homer brought back shades of the Chipper Jones homerun in 2001 off of Dotel and the Dykstra shot off Dave Smith in 1986. The difference though is that we've got Berkman whose been on fire this post season and Taveras is ripping up Sox pitching. We're a seeing a similar pattern but I got faith that Garner and the team we got this year can still come back. Lets take 3 at home under a closed dome!
Let's not forget the weather last night. It was 45 degrees and NOT just "light rain". It took the starters two innings to get warm and the bullpen on both teams looked suspect... even Jethro Jenks who looked like he was going to cry in the dugout after being pulled. Not a night for pitchers although Andy acquitted himself well. I mean the sponsors got on the phone probably around 4 or 5 and told MLB, By God, we WILL play tonight come the proverbial hell or high water. That Assistant General Ass Clown Yes-man from MLBwho stood there and told the interviewers that we would "play between the showers" looked like he'd been kicked in the nuts by the commissioners for having even SUGGESTED the game be called. Rule 1: It's ALWAYS about the money. Sponsors first, on-field product second.
easy fix for lidge. seriously. LOCATION. he needs to start locating his pitches better. his stuff is still nasty but guys aren't swinging at the slider (when he isn't hanging it to pujols) because they know they can't hit it, so they're waiting on the fastball. brad isn't locating the fastball, he's just reaching back and throwing it. he needs to work on throwing up above the letters to change eye levels with it, and then down around the knees.
Thanks. I strive to make people feel conflicted. Now if I could only do that in the D & D. "Brah I don't know if I owned or got owned on that last post.."
Man, I didn't know that Posednik didn't hit any HR's the entire season!!! And then he hits that one in the WS!
