Facts and Figures, Game Three

Well, the Rays wandered back into the headlights last night, losing to the Dodgers, 6-2. The game wasn’t as close as the score might indicate. The teams combined for 14 hits, four walks and 24 strikeouts, 13 by the more-or-less hapless Tampa hitters; the teams used nine pitchers between them. Strikeouts are the cost of trying to hit homeruns in today’s game. Are 24 strikeouts worth the three homeruns hit last night? You decide. By the way, the game took 3:14 to play. Funny, but it seemed longer. Today’s jaunt in the time machine takes us to game one of the 1988 World Series between the Dodgers and A’s. Los Angeles won 5-4, on Kirk Gibson’s two-run walkoff in the ninth inning off Dennis Eckersley. The game featured 14 total hits, nine walks and 15 strikeouts balanced out by three homers. Six pitchers were used in a game that went 3:04. I dare any good baseball fan a month from now to remember anything remotely like the Gibson homer from this Series. I mean, other than the time the games took to play.