Hey, Leyland: You killed Kenny's chances of pulling a Lolich
DETROIT -- One day after the crime, Detroit manager Jim Leyland says he's innocent. Leyland says he wasn't wrong to pitch to St. Louis' Albert Pujols in the third inning of Game 1. Pujols homered, Game 1 was broken open, and Detroit's home-field advantage in the 2006 World Series was finished.
Leyland says pitching to Pujols was the right call, but you know something? It's inconsequential. The real issue wasn't Pujols. The real issue was the Detroit starter who threw that pitch in Game 1.
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| Luckily for the Cards, they won't see Kenny Rogers again until a potential Game 6. (AP) |
What went right Sunday night for Detroit in Game 2 showed what went wrong in Game 1. Leyland should have started Kenny Rogers in Game 1, which would have set up Rogers -- who is having a postseason worthy of Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford and Christy Mathewson -- to make three starts in this World Series.
As it is, Rogers will pitch just twice. His first start was Sunday in Game 2, when he shut out St. Louis for eight innings in Detroit's series-evening 3-1 victory. Rogers' next start will be Game 6, assuming the World Series goes to a sixth game.
Rogers has thrown 23 consecutive scoreless innings this postseason, and he's getting better as he goes. He doesn't throw as hard as Verlander, and his breaking pitches don't move as much. But Verlander was blasted for six runs in five innings on Saturday. Rogers was almost unhittable on Sunday. That's baseball.
And it wasn't something on the baseball. At least, not after the first inning. Fox cameras clearly showed some sort of yellowish-brown substance on the palm of Rogers' pitching hand in the first inning, but after the Cardinals complained to manager Tony La Russa -- and La Russa complained to umpires -- Rogers was forced to wash his hands. Subsequent TV close-ups showed Rogers had a clean hand.
As for the bill of his cap ...
Just kidding. Really. This is baseball in the modern age. Players can and do cheat off the field, taking HGH or steroids and corking bats or storing balls in humidors, but they cannot cheat on the field. Not like they used to, anyway. Gaylord Perry, who spit-balled his way to the Hall of Fame, wouldn't be able to muck up the ball now like he did from 1962-83, when he was winning 314 games, most of them away from TV viewers.
These days, Fox or ESPN or whoever has a million cameras from a million angles, all capable of counting the seams on the baseball as it is released from the pitcher's hand. So invasive is television that players now cover their mouth with their glove so the other team can't read lips from a dugout monitor. So pervasive is that mentality that 11-year-olds are doing the hide-the-mouth thing during the Little League World Series.
Did Rogers think he could hide pine tar on his left hand? If so, his lack of sense is astounding, but then, this is Kenny Rogers. He was suspended 20 games in 2005 for shoving a cameraman, and while he was being booked for that offense he had an ugly staredown with another cameraman. Earlier this postseason, Rogers was involved in another unnecessary incident, with a fan outside Comerica Park. Reports indicate the fan was angry at Rogers for not signing an autograph and banged on his car. Rogers cursed the fan or shoved him. Reports differ. Whatever the case, no charges were filed.
Rogers is a meathead, but he's become an unhittable meathead. And Detroit loves him. He's their meathead. The affection this blue-collar town has shown this blue-collar pitcher is staggering, bringing to mind the magic of 1997 when Miami embraced Cuban exile Livan Hernandez during the Marlins' World Series run. Hernandez won two games in that World Series.
Rogers can and probably will match Hernandez, but he should have done more. At the least, he should have been given the chance. Rogers may be 41, but his arm has been indestructible. He has averaged nearly 200 innings per year since 1993 because he has a big, strong body with solid mechanics and a repertoire that requires more precision than power. If anyone on either staff could be reasonably asked to pitch on three days' rest, Kenny Rogers is the guy.
