Too Many Toys

The Brewers pulled ahead of the Rays 3-2 in the top of the twelfth inning last night when rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt homered off Tampa pitcher number-seven. The Rays stormed back to walk the game off in the bottom of the inning after a lead-off error was followed by four straight hits off of Milwaukee pitchers number-eight. Rays 4 Brewers 3, Milwaukee up three games to one. That’s fifteen pitchers total in 11.2 innings, in case you’re counting. Speaking for all the baseball dinosaurs out there, what a joke. Baseball works best when it enters the realm of things magical and unscripted. Consider game six of the 1975 World Series between the Reds and Red Sox. Sparky Anderson made just like Pat Murphy did last night, by using eight pitchers over eleven-plus innings; Darrell Johnson went with four. The magic was provided by Carlton Fisk in the bottom of the twelfth. Or take the 1991 Series between the Braves and Twins, recognized as one of the best ever. Games six and seven both went extra innings. The Twins won game six in eleven innings, 4-3, each team using four pitchers. The next night, the Twins clinched the Series when Jack Morris threw a ten-inning, complete-game, 1-0 shutout. Atlanta went with three pitchers, John Smoltz going 7.1 innings. Minnesota one pitcher 35 years ago, Milwaukee eight last night. Somebody point me in the direction of Jurassic Park.