Game 3 of the World Series on one channel and Leafs-Sens on another? This fairly demands a LIVE BLOG.7:33. Good thinking on part of Leafs management: Delay the start of the game because some of the arena lights are on the fritz. It's still not enough of a delay for the people in the platinums to be in their seats for the opening faceoff.
7:35. You know how
Tom Cruise is always seen with these beautiful women, as if to dispel certain rumours? This Leafs fan is reminded of that when the Sens announcer start talking up how many hits the Sens were credited with in their last game. You never hear about this when the Sens are on the road, which suspects the hit counter at Scotiabank Place is about as precise as, well, the one on this blog.
7:40. On the A-Channel (TSN's broadcast is blacked out in Ottawa),
Dean Brown just said Sens goalie Martin Gerber "needs some run support." See, I'm not the only one jumping between baseball and hockey?
By the way, who has the more white-bread local broadcast team? The Senators with Brown and
Gord Wilson, or the Leafs with
Joe Bowen and
Jim Ralph?
7:41. Thankfully for one
Katie Atkins, we set the bar for anthem singers pretty low around here. So long as they can walk out, remember most of the words and get off the ice without slipping and falling like that girl at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, it's considered a success.
(
Théo, the
Ottawa Sports Guy, e-mails later: "Oh my goodness, that was a terrible anthem. Which MLSE executive pulled a favour to get his daughter to sing it?"
Given what's ensued, that tone-deaf screeching ranks as one of the more dignified events of the evening, from a Toronto perspective.)
7:46. Just 2:42 into the game,
Mike Fisher finally breaks his maiden, breaking in on a 2-on-1 and deking Andrew Raycroft in the Toronto goal. Sens 1-0. Guess who was the one back for the Leafs?
Wade Belak. Don't blame him, blame Leafs management for not finding anyone better.
7:49. Number of times the Leafs have iced the puck: 3. Number of times
Jason Spezza has turned the puck over: 1. So much for that bet.
7:53. Mats Sundin gets a good chance but puts the puck over the net.
8:01. Quick check on the baseball broadcast. Jeanne Zelasko opens with, "The Detroit Tigers
may have tied the World Series."
8:06. A-Channel's
Gord Wilson talks about the Toronto's "lack of penetration" on the power play. No joke here, just an observation.
8:07. Andrej Meszaros scores from the point -- helped by
Chad Kilger tipping the shot -- and it's 2-0 Sens.
8:12. Seriously, can the politically connected suits at Maple Leaf Sports score some sweetheart deal where they receive federal disaster relief for every second
Wade Belak is out on defence? The big plug gets another penalty for putting Mike Fisher in the kind of hold that usually comes with a 2-drink minimum.
8:15. Eaves, who's six inches shorter and 50 lbs. lighter than Hal Gill, outmuscles him down low on the power play and beats Raycroft for a power-play goal.
3-0 Sens.END FIRST PERIOD: Sens 3, Leafs 08:20. They haven't even finished announcing the starting lineups in St. Louis, but already the Leafs' night it's over. The Sens lead 3-0 after one. The Leafs might have had four shots on goal, but it's safe bet Martin Gerber only remembers two.
Can the Leafs get that giant American flag they just unfurled at Busch Stadium and put it on defence? It would cover a hell of a lot more than
Wade Belak and
Hal Gill combined.
8:37. Second period underway. The Leafs draw a penalty on
Anton Volchenkov. Naturally, it takes
Darcy Tucker all of 12 seconds to get an even-up call.
8:42. This looks like practice for Sens --
Antoine Vermette scores, and it's
4-0 Sens. There's nothing much Raycroft or
Bryan McCabe could do. The pass was right there.
8:47. Belak and
Brian McGrattan fight. McGrattan gets the last punch in, but it's pretty much a draw.
8:55. Dany Heatley scores to put Ottawa up 5-0, and it's all
Gord Schrieber on the Team 1200 can do to stifle a laugh. Time to give Raycroft a mercy pull.
8:58. Checking on the baseball game (no score, and neither pitcher's been in trouble) when Matt Stajan scores to get to Leafs on the board. Neil instantly MSNs: "Horns and whistles after you score are useless and make you look dumb. Especially when you score one after letting in five."
9:01. Darcy Tucker has the bright idea to pick a fight with Patrick Eaves, who looks like he'd rather be picking out wallpaper. It's Eaves' first career fight -- and it gives him an unlikely
Gordie Howe hat trick, since he already had a goal and an assist.
9:03. The Leafs are showing some signs of life -- about three goals too late -- and Gerber makes a nice save to block the puck with his arm just before it crosses the line.
9:06. After Nate Robertson of the Tigers and the Cards' Chris Carpenter each go six-up, six-down through the first two innings, the Tigers get a runner to third base in the top half of the third. But Carpenter retires
Curtis Granderson to end the threat.
9:10. You know how bars have Retro Night on Tuesdays to pump up business? Must be the same deal at the ACC, since tonight Toronto looks like some of the mid-'80s teams from the darkest days of the
Harold Ballard era. At least some of those teams were able to make the playoffs, though.
9:15. You don't want to know how many times I've thought about what might have been if the Jays had the Chris Carpenter the Cardinals currently enjoy. Maybe they wouldn't have had to give
A.J. Burnett $55 million for five years.
9:21. End of second period -- Sens 5, Leafs 1.
9:30. Sens right-wing
Chris Neil tells the A-Channel, referring to Tucker fighting Patrick Eaves, "We'll take care of that later on."
Ooooooooh.
9:35. J.S. Aubin is in goal for the Leafs to start the third period; the last time the Leafs and Sens played, Gerber was pulled after two periods.
Meantime, Nate Robertson is running in trouble in St. Louis' half of the fourth.
Albert Pujols goes opposite field, with the ball landing just inside the right-field foul line and skipping into the stands for the automatic double. After a walk to load the bases and a force-out, Jim Edmonds pulls a fastball by
Sean Casey at first base, scoring two runs.
Cardinals 2, Tigers 0.
Edmonds, by the way, hit .156 against left-handers during the regular season.
9:40. Mats Sundin comes down the wing, fires a what-the-hell wrist shot, which Gerber flubs, with the puck deflecting into the net. Now it's 5-2, Senators, and the "Go Leafs Go" chants start anew. How optimistic. How
bathetic, with a B.
By the way, Martin Gerber is Swiss-German for "Patrick Lalime." What, you heard that one already?
9:43. Hey, the Leafs were almost in the game for a moment there...
Jeff O'Neill hit the post on a breakaway (after getting behind
Christoph Schubert, who's pinch-hitting on D after Volchenkov left with an injury). A scramble ensues, and Matt Stajan kicks the puck in the net.
Horns blare, Leafs fans wave flags in delirium, raise their $9 beers in celebratory toasts... and meantime, it's plain as day the goal won't count. Which it doesn't.
9:46. Just to make it official,
Chris Neil tips a shot past Aubin to make it 6-2 for the Sens.
9:50. So the Leafs are getting waxed and Chris Carpenter, the ex-Blue Jay, is moving through the Tigers lineup like it was a buffet line, with barely 50 pitches through five innings.
10:01. If the Cardinals don't hang on to win, remember Ronnie Belliard hitting into a fielder's choice with the bases loaded in the fourth and then striking out to strand two runners in the Cardinals fifth -- against a totally gassed Robertson.
10:12. It's a final: Sens 6, Leafs 2. Ottawa was who we thought they were! If you want to crown 'em, crown their ass!
Seriously though, the Leafs were just brutal tonight. The defence was a shambles, and the Sens were doing what they do -- moving well out of their end, tossing the puck around the offensive zone like a lacrosse team -- and 6-2 probably flattered the Leafs.
This looked way too much like last season, with Toronto playing well in spurts, but playing poorly in their own zone.
Incidentally, Ottawa now has 24 straight successful PKs. Well done, Ottawa.
10:20. Six innings down in the ball game and still 2-0 for St. Louis. Everyone on Detroit seems to be competing in a
Russ Adams lookalike contest, which is to say most of the Tigers are 0-for-2 or 0-for-3.
10:30. With the hockey game over and not much going on in the ballgame, I'm flipping between the Fox broadcast and the international feed with
Dave O'Brien and
Rick Sutcliffe that's aired on Rogers Sportsnet.
Here's how bad an analyst
Tim McCarver has become, and how bad the Fox broadcast is.
Detroit's
Placido Polanco looks to have a hit to right-field, but
Albert Pujols, playing about well off the line, ranges to his right to make the catch. The last time I saw a first baseman snag a line drive that far away from the bag, Keith Hernandez was still active.
Sutcliffe immediately credits Cardinals third-base coach
Jose Oquendo for how he's worked with Pujols the past two years to make him into a good first baseman, not just a slugger who's a defensive liability. (Remember, Pujols played third base and outfield his first couple years.)
Flip over to Fox. (The international feed is a few seconds ahead of Fox, by the way.)
Joe Buck is doing some promo for Taco Bell as the Cardinal trainer comes out to attend to Carpenter, who's wincing and flexing his right (pitching) hand.
Buck says, in passing, "Something may be wrong with Carpenter." Apparently Taco Bell promos matter more in the grand scheme than the health of the pitcher throwing a two-hit shutout. Thanks, Joe.
Flip. Sutcliffe says that it appears Carpenter's hand is cramping up.
Flip. McCarver: "Looks like something with his (Carpenter's) right hand." Thanks, Tim. Here we thought it was his left hand.
Flip. Sutcliffe's explaining that this may mean Carpenter won't be able to throw his curveball for the rest of the game. No such analysis coming from McCarver. Don't worry, it's not like he caught in the major leagues for 22 years.
After
Magglio Ordonez flies out for the second out of in the Tiger half of the seventh, Sutcliffe does something McCarver's not willing to do enough -- he calls him out for not being aggressive and sitting on the fastball from an obviously limited Carpenter. Ordonez took a 2-0 pitch right down the middle before flying out to shallow right. Who's been giving him batting tips,
Carlos Beltran?
10:49. Whoa, doctor.
Joel Zumaya suddenly looks every bit the 21-year-old rookie, walking the first two batters in the bottom of the seventh, then throws away a comebacker hit by Pujols, trying to cut down the lead runner at third base instead of throwing to second to start the double play. It's 4-0, Cardinals, and this game is pretty much over with the way Carpenter is pitching, cramps or not.
11:25ish. The Cardinal half of the eighth takes forever, since reliever
Francisco Rodney loads the bases and gets pulled, then Pujols, facing reliever
Zach Miner, fouls off a pitch that shakes up Pudge Rodriguez, adding to his misery so far in this series.
11:30. Comment from an Alberta reader,
Feynman and Coulter's Love Child: "Detroit's game plan seems to be "come out of this game uninjured and try again against Suppan tomorrow.' Down 4-0 in the bottom of the eigth with Pujols coming up to the plate and the bases loaded, this isn't a half-bad strategy."
By the way, McCarver and Sutcliffe differ on what Miner's throwing. McCarver's calling it a sinker; Sutcliffe says it's a fastball with a lot of movement.
Too much movement. Miner wild-pitches home the fifth Cardinals run, although that's all St. Louis gets since
Neifi Perez starts a 5-3 inning-ending douplep lay.
11:36. Can't say it's been a good game. Carpenter was electric and dare we say it,
Halladayesque, but the Cardinals won going away despite being 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
FINAL SCORE: Cards 5, Tigers 0The Tigers aren't finished, by any means, but now there's going to be questions about whether their free-swinging style has finally caught with them. By and large, they generally acted like "plate discipline" only means skipping dessert; they drew the second-fewest walks in the American League (430) and struck out more times (1,133) than anyone than except Cleveland. Typically, you don't see that dubious dual distinction from a pennant-winning team; more often than not it belongs to a team with "Devil" or "Rays" in its nickname.
That lack of selectiveness hurt against Carpenter, who simply wasn't going to give away any freebies. He didn't walk anyone and got 12 of his 24 outs on ground balls; like I said, it was very much a
Roy Halladay-like start.
The Cardinals are playing smarter; whether that's the work Tony La Russa or scouting reports or simply more experience is anyone's guess. One case in point sticks out:
Preston Wilson's at-bat in the eighth. With runners on the corners, one out and Pujols on deck, the same Preston Wilson who once threatened to break
Bobby Bonds' then-record for most strikeouts in a season laid off a 2-0 fastball at the knees, taking it for a strike. He went on to draw a walk.
He could have gone up there hacking, but that might have ended up in him hitting the ball right at a Tigers infielder for an inning-ending double play. Instead, Wilson took one for the team, and the Cardinals pushed across another run. That's your game-within-the-game stuff for tonight.
Sutcliffe picked up on that, by the way. Can't remember if Tim McCarver did.
Back with more in a bit. Send your thoughts to
neatesager@yahoo.ca.
Heard this over the radio during the Senators-Bruins game: Red Auerbach, the legendary Boston Celtics coach and general manager, died of a heart attack at the age of 89.
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