By the Numbers

The Brewers beat the Dodgers 6-4 last night and won themselves their first-ever NL pennant. They await the winner of the Rays-Guardians’ series. Earlier, the Guardians defeated the Rays 3-2 on an afternoon without a hint of the rain that caused the game to be moved up five hours. With two more wins, Cleveland earns its first AL pennant since 2016 and a shot at its first World Series title since 1948. So, why all the empty seats at both games? By my count, there were some 3,400 no-shows in Cleveland and 6,800-plus in LA. Yes, changing the game time in Cleveland could’ve affected plans, just as people who suddenly couldn’t attend in the afternoon could’ve sold their tickets on the secondary market. As for the empty seats in Dodger Stadium, it looks like a case of West Coast ennui. What I know for certain is this—The Rate would’ve been packed. Wrigley Field, too.

The Cynic in Me

The starting time for today’s Rays-Guardians’ ALCS game has been moved up from 5 PM to Noon, Chicago time, on account of expected rain come evening. That makes sense. But I wonder. Do you think a starting time in New York, Boston or Philadelphia would ever be that early, PM commercial rates and all? I’d ask the same about the Dodgers, but it doesn’t rain in LA, except for the little cloud dumping on the teetering Angelenos, facing elimination tonight by the Brewers, and that has more to do with age than weather.

Coming Down

The beginning of this baseball season, Michele and I were running around Los Angeles, leaving me to catch up on the White Sox through MLB.com. Last week, Clare and I were at The Rate for game four of the ALDS against the Guardians. And now my baseball season is over. On the plus side, no more anxiety or frustration. Colson Montgomery and Munetaka Murakami are done striking out, manager Vibes Venable has made his last head-scratching move of the year. Only, it’ll be another six months—or more, given the owners’ intention to lock out the players in December—before I get to see Sam Antonacci do his thing or before I can gauge Antonacci’s growth. Or Chase Meidroth’s or Miguel Vargas’s. This winter, the only hot-stove league may be in my imagination.

Eek! Eek! A Mouse!

The baseball establishment moved one step closer to full-out panic last night as the team with the 19th highest payroll per USA Today took a 2-0 series lead in the NLCS over the team with the second highest payroll. Brewers 7 Dodgers 4. The big-market team hoping for a three-peat—thereby justifying the need for a salary cap, to protect the little guys, who may or may not be worth a billion dollars—looked, how to put it, old as they got outhit 12-3 in Milwaukee. Maybe things will swing the Dodgers’ way with a change of venue starting tomorrow, or maybe not. But right now, Shohei Ohtani looks every bit the injury-ridden 32-year old. Not that Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman or Will Smith is performing any better. Pity poor Rob Manfred. If the Brewers go up three games to none tomorrow, he’ll have to start looking at new talking points to justify an owners’ lockout in December. Oh, I’m sure he’ll find them. But I can’t help but enjoy the squirm.

Bad Start

I doubt any baseball team owner outside of Milwaukee is rooting for a Dodgers’ loss in the NLCS. If LA doesn’t get its three-peat, the owners can’t argue for a salary cap when they lock out the players—you can bet on that happening—come December. Big-market, small-market disparities and all that. But lose the Dodgers did, 2-1, The home-team Brewers used fourteen position players and pitcher in total, the only recognizable name belonging to starter Jacob Misiorowski. That’s because MLB and the networks dig the fastball. Only Misiorowski didn’t get the win, D.L, Hall—who he?—did. But Tarik Skubal picked up the loss because his teammates hit like, well, the White Sox. I mean, Ohtani, Betts and company are supposed to do better than one run on seven hits, right? And being the recipients of six walks should lead to more than one run in the second inning, yes? Forgive me if I forgot to mention the three double plays the visitors hit into. The Brewers against the world? In a corporate-boardroom sort of way, yes.

Clueless in Cleveland

The White Sox embarrassed themselves in front of a national television audience last night, losing game five of the ALDS to the Guardians, 2-0. And I don’t mean the pitchers did anything wrong. No, starter Sean Burke along with relievers Sean Newcomb and Grant Taylor pretty much held Cleveland hitters in check all night, except for that two-run shot Jose Ramirez golfed just over the right-field wall in the fourth inning. Here’s the thing, though. If not Ramirez, then someone else would’ve delivered the knockout blow, on a sacrifice fly or a slide under the tag at the plate, or something would’ve done it, a balk or a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth, maybe. Whatever, because when you strike out 21 times in a game the way the Sox did last night, you don’t win games. As embarrassing as that feat was, Sox manager Vibes Venable matched and then-some in his postgame comments, which started with congratulations to the Guardians and praise for the Cleveland pitchers. As for the 21 strikeouts, an MLB record breaking a two-day old record held by you know who, Venable said this: “I thought it was less about chase and more about being attacked in the zone and swing and miss in the zone.” [quote from story today on team website] I must’ve been watching a different game. By my count, Sox hitters generated 72 strikes, nineteen of which were outside the strike zone. That’s 26 percent. In addition, ten of the strikeouts were on balls outside the zone. Seems to me there was plenty of chase, Coach. What I want to know is, what kind of adjustments were attempted? I mean, after the tenth strikeout or so, the coaching staff recognized the problem, right? If not, GM Chris Getz needs to question the team’s approach to hitting. And, if the coaches were trying to get hitters to pull out of nothing short of a death spiral, why didn’t it work? Andrew Benintendi and Munetaka Murakami need to explain their thought processes as they struck four time apiece. Ditto for Kyle Teel and Chase Meidroth for getting punched out three times apiece. Next season will be a bust if the Sox fail to cut down on strikeouts. An Opening Day lineup featuring Murakami and Colson Montgomery, who totaled whiffs between them, gives one pause, and me a queasy stomach. That is not a foundation to build upon. The Sox used ten batters last night, including pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk. The only one who didn’t go down swinging was Sam Antonacci, who also managed one of the team’s three hits. What was Antonacci’s approach, and why didn’t his teammates copy it? Fans deserve to know.

Mike Ditka

Mike Ditka, who died yesterday at the age of 86, lived a life marked by contradiction and paradox: The Catholic boy who found Jesus through his second wife. The player who stood up to George Halas and the coach who ripped his players when they went out on strike. The adopted son of Chicago who regretted not running for the U.S. Senate, thereby keeping another adopted son of Chicago out of the White House. A little bit of Ditka went a long way, and Ditka did not believe in small portions of anything, including himself. Oh, but for just a tiny bit of Da Coach showing up tonight in White Sox manager Vibes Venable, who was quoted in today’s Tribune that you have to give “some credit” to Guardians’ pitchers for getting his hitters to strike out 56 times in four games of their ALDS. Ditka would call out his hitting coach and his players, challenging to come through with the season on the line. Will Venable do that?