ALCS Game 2: Trot Nixon Turns Tide for Tribe
The year was 1999, and Trot Nixon was a Red Sox right fielder when I first started paying attention to him. You see, Boston had just shredded the Indians to the tune of 23 runs, and Trot was a big part of that with a couple of doubles, scoring two runs, and driving in five. From that point on, he became a late inning staple of my fantasy teams. I loved the scrappy play of Trot Nixon.
Eight years later, the Cleveland Indians signed Trot Nixon to a deal. Nixon had battled injuries in his last seasons in Boston, and was trying to rejuvinate his career with the upstart Indians. It wasn’t all that successful.
Trotter has struggled all year, hitting like a singles hitter, and fielding like the last player picked in a sandlot game. He was absolutely terrible. He turned into that perenial guy you’d talk about whenever you’d mention clubhouse personalities. He was the guy you’d see pie-facing guys while they were getting interviewed. In other words, he was a guy getting paid to do everything BUT play baseball.
I would like to personally apologize to Trot Nixon, because tonight, he turned this series around on it’s ear.
In the ninth inning, Eric Wedge made a relatively controversial call when he pinch-ran for Travis Hafner with two outs. Pronks big bat was out of the game. I will stand by what I said though…that it would be okay. You see, Nixon has seemed to have gotten his bat back. In game three of the ALDS, Nixon drove in two on a dinger and a double. Both hits were drives. My feeling was that Trotter had his bat back…just couldn’t field a lick…as his error put the game away for the Yankees. Nixon would be replacing Hafner in the lineup, if his slot came up again.
It did. This time, Grady Sizemore singled, and Asdrubal Cabrera walked. Up came Trot Nixon, and Terry Francona brought in the lefty, Javier Lopez. Nixon is a career .214 hitter against lefties. That’s right, a CAREER mendoza line hitter against lefties. Eric Wedge left him in.
Trot Nixon promptly took a ball, and followed it up with a single to centerfield that scored Grady Sizemore. For the first time in his career, Trot Nixon silenced the Fenway crowd. The flood gates were open.
Lopez threw a pitch BEHIND Victor Martinez that scored Asdrubal Cabrera, and moved Trotter over to second. He was then replaced by pinch runner, Jason Michaels. Again, it was dead silent in Fenway, but not in my living room. Trotter got a standing O.
Terry Francona then intentionally walked Victor Martinez for the second time in the game. This brought up Ryan Garko, who had grounded into a fielder’s choice the last time VMart was intentionally walked. This time, Garko roped a single, scoring Jason Michaels. This knocked out Lopez, who retired noone, and brought in Jon Lester. Lester was facing the ultra-hot Jhonny Peralta, who doubled, scoring VMart. Then game the final nail.
Kenny Lofton would fly out, bringing up Franklin Gutierrez, who’s stick has been more like a wet noodle. The scuttlebut, however, has been that Gut could change things with one swing. That’s exactly what he did. Gut launched a three run dinger over the left-field wall, putting the game completely out of reach…even for Joe Borowski.
Thanks to Trot, the Indians took a 6-6 tie, and turned it into a 13-6 lead.
So…I apologize Trotter…one hit…wipes the slate clean. Let’s hope it tilts the scales in the Tribe’s direction.
How about that bullpen. Yeah, Perez got knocked around, and I’ll get to that later, but the rest of the pen did what the pen does. The post-Perez pen went 6 2/3 innings, giving up three hits (two by Borowski), NO walks and four K’s. Jensen Lewis came in after getting beat around a bit last night, and did the beating this time. Rafe Betancourt looked like Rafe Betancourt, including a massive 11-pitch battle with Kevin Youkilis that nearly ended the game in the bottom of the ninth with a line out to Sizemore. My biggest props and apologies go to Tom Mastny. The guy struggled all year, and yours truly hammered the snot out of him every step of the way. I wanted him traded more than any player on the team. Thankfully, I was wrong. After pitching well last night, Mastny came in and got Papi, Ramirez and Lowell in order in the 10th inning. It was miraculous to watch, and that’s NOT an understatement. Congratulations Tom Mastny…you’ve earned it.
Rafael Perez got worked. I haven’t said that all that much this season. He gave up a fielder’s choice to David Ortiz, who actually beat out a double play ball. Then, he gave up a moon shot to Manny, followed by another shot to Mike Lowell. When your best pitchers get this worked over by an offense…well…you just have to shake your head, and hope for the best. This Boston offense is just in the zone right now…simply incredible. I think the Indians are making pitching mistakes as well…but this offense…wow…
Jhonny Peralta is having an incredible post season. I’m thinking the discussion about moving from shortstop will be over. When this kid is on…he can carry a team. Let’s not forget that Peralta, at one time, was more highly thought of than Grady. That jack in the fourth inning was in the same place as his near homer against the Yankees in game three of the ALDS. He ended up going 3-5, with three runs and four RBI. He LOOKED like the Peralta of old. The most impressive moves were saved for the field however. He had an early play that saw him move deep and to the right…field a grounder…and make a long throw for an out. In the tenth, Papi hit a sharp grounder that caught the edge of the grass and hit Peralta in the throat. He quickly recovered, and threw out a sleeping Papi, who didn’t start running until he saw the bump. Peralta was everywhere tonight.
Fausto started off with a strikeout, than began struggling in that first inning. He walked Youkilis after getting to 1-2 on him. He walked Papi on three straight pitches…then induced Manny into a double play. That had to be a morale boost. In the third inning…he really looked like Carmona the closer. Credit has to go to those Boston hitters for just sitting there, taking those pitches. Boston may be giving the rest of the league a “book” on Carmona. Of course, it’s a whole lot easier saying you’ll sit back, then actually sitting back. Look what he did in the next inning though. He got it back together. I know that he struggled…but there was some good there too. You get the impression that the starters just aren’t throwing enough strikes. If they do…and when they do…it will make Boston swing. I think you’ll see a different 1-2 punch the second go around.
Speaking of Manny Ramirez, when I see that cat walk up to the plate in a Boston jersey, it makes me want to puke. With that said…I sure do miss him on OUR club. There has always been something about Manny that’s the essence of baseball. Perhaps it’s that naive attitude that he carries. I’ve always thought to myself…when he was in right in Cleveland…that he seemed a lot like that kid that’s out in right because he doesn’t know what’s going on. He rarely did…but always has that smile on his face. Fact of the matter with Manny is that he may very well be the best all around hitter I’ve ever seen. This isn’t Ted Williams, who knew every pitcher, and every WAY to hit a baseball because he practiced and studied. He’s a natural…and just amazing to watch.
Grady Sizemore is such a big piece for the Indians. last night, he went 0-5 with three strikeouts, and the offense was essentially dead. For the second game in a row, thanks to Sizemore, Cleveland got the first run. This time, Grady Sizemore doubled to lead off, and VMart doubled with two outs off the Green Monster to score Sizemore. Then Sizemore’s shot in the fifth inning extended the lead. Grady went 3 for 5 with three runs and an RBI. He was creating havoc tonight, and really changes the complexion of the game when he’s on base. He was a different player tonight, and the Indians fed off of it nearly as much as they fed off of Peralta’s Big day.
I can’t believe I’m actually going to admit this…but I was starting to question keeping Franklin Gutierrez in the ballgame. Yeah, that means I’m thinking Trotter. Nixon was swinging a big bat in his only start, with a homer, and a double. Then, he comes through tonight. Of course, he fields like he has no arms because he can’t, apparently, bend. So where do you draw the line? You could start Michaels as well. It’s just good that we have options.
You’ve got to give a bit of a hand to the Tribe defense behind Carmona. No, we aren’t talking about Brooks Robinson…but still, solid stuff. This team really is a bunch different than the first few months.
Can you feel the irony? Yeah, Trot wins the game with a timely hit. Who got the loss? Eric Gagne, who Cleveland struck out getting not once, but twice. Let’s just say that he’s wearing the best uniform. Who woulda thunk it that Gagne would STILL play a big part in our winning or losing. Thanks Eric…for being a money grubbing piece of garbage. You got exactly what you deserved.
Boy did today’s five hour ball game eat up the pitching staffs. Boston used eight different pitchers tonight, while Cleveland used six. If either pitcher gets beat up on Monday, it could be a long day for that team.
Why is Aaron Laffey on the roster?
Monday’s game will see Jake Westbrook against Dice-K Matsuzaka. Do you think the’s guys have some pressure on them to try and get through seven innings?
This entry was posted
on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 12:17 am and is filed under Franklin Gutierrez, Aaron Laffey, Rafael Betancourt, Fausto Carmona, Jake Westbrook, Eric Wedge, Asdrubal Cabrera, Tom Mastny, Jason Michaels, Rafael Perez, Dos Rafael, Jensen Lewis, Travis Hafner, James Pete, Mike Lowell, Trot Nixon, Manny Ramirez, Josh Barfield, Boston Red Sox, Joe Borowski, Kenny Lofton, Grady Sizemore, ALCS, ALDS, Jhonny Peralta, Ryan Garko.
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12 Responses to “ALCS Game 2: Trot Nixon Turns Tide for Tribe”
October 14th, 2007 at 12:49 am
“Why is Aaron Laffey on the roster?”
Hopefully NOT to eat up innings on Monday. He’s our 12th inning option (which the way things are going, we will need)
October 14th, 2007 at 1:32 am
Christ, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen Trot get a key hit against a left-handed pitcher.
Hey, you guys aren’t using Laffey, I think we can give you both Gagne and Lopez for him! C’mon, two for one! You gotta do that! Great deal for both teams…if we throw in a set of ginsu knives?
Mastny’s pitching great right now. The Sox aren’t hitting the ball hard off him at all. He handled Ortiz/Ramirez/Lowell rather easily.
October 14th, 2007 at 1:34 am
[…] Blog Editor wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptNixon had battled injuries in his last seasons in Boston, and was trying to rejuvinate his career with the upstart Indians. It wasn’t all that successful. Trotter has struggled all year, hitting like a singles hitter, and fielding like … […]
October 14th, 2007 at 6:09 am
Boy, that game went just as scripted tonight … yeah right. Tribe needed to get out of Boston with a split and they did. Now it’s a 5 game series and we have home field advantage. At this point it’s not worth making predictions or projections anymore … that why you have to love the playoffs: anyone can be the hero or the goat. Just think … if we’d started CC on short rest and he and Fausto had pitched the way they did against the RedSox, the airwaves might be full of “Joe Torre miraculously keeps his job” stories instead of “It’s the end of an era” pieces out of New York. There are no guarantees in baseball!
Outslugging the Sox in Fenway has to be a big ego boost for this young club. It would’ve been easy for them to implode and prepare the “It was a good year, a good learning experience … we’ll get them next time” lines. Instead they battled back and won a tough game in an environment second in hostility only perhaps to Yankee Stadium.
Jake’s got the biggest start of his career coming up tomorrow: let’s see if we can keep the momentum on our side! Maybe LeBron will give us good luck by wearing his Yankees hat?
October 14th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Look at ESPN News right now!
In the “breaking news” at the bottom right corner it says….
(1) LSU and (2) Cal lose; Indians defeat Red Sox
Could anyone have scripted a BETTER Saturday?????
October 14th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Dennis–but in both sports there’s still a long way to go!
October 14th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
If they were not going to use Laffey then they should have put Cliff Lee on the roster. I loved Gut’s home run but remember he did absolutely nothing when the pressure was on. He looks lost at the plate. Trot’s advantage of knowing right field in Fenway obviously goes away at the Jake so it is a moot point anyway.
October 14th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I apologize for looking ahead a little bit, but my guess is that the C.C. we see in Game 5 will be the guy we hoped to see the first two times around. If Jake and Byrd can keep us in good position by then we ought to be alright.
October 14th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
no doubt Charlie…..I was just saying that no one could have scripted a better Saturday….
October 14th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Dennis–absolutely … and the Browns won today so it’s been a very good weekend for NE and Central Ohio sports fans. How crazy is it that if the season ended today it would be OSU vs. South Florida for the championship?
October 15th, 2007 at 9:15 am
A few points about a game that (unfortunately) has a chance to be considered a classic only if the the Indians win the ALCS:
1. I didn’t see his start against the Angels, but the Curt Schilling who pitched Saturday was about two steps down from the guy who was brought to Arizona and then Boston to win titles and pulled it off. The fastball wasn’t that tough to hit, and the splitter wouldn’t stay in the strike zone.
Maybe, like Carmona, it was just a game where he didn’t have his best stuff. But Schilling made a postgame comment that would chill my blood if I were a Sox fan. He said the homer to Peralta wasn’t a mistake– he threw the pitch he wanted, exactly where he wanted to throw it.
If that’s the best he can do– on long rest– Boston might be in big trouble if the series gets to game six.
2. The most impressive thing about the game is that the Indians didn’t quit, even though they had at least three chances to do it.– when Boston scored three to take the lead, when Perez got whacked and after they missed a good chance to score in the ninth, in what looked like their last chance to score with a quality reliever in the game.
If we can believe anything a field reporter tells us (they all like to overdramatize things), Peralta’s homer brought them back. Allegedly, they were down until he got them back into the game.
3. I can’t say I was thrilled to see Tom Mastny go out for the tenth, but I wasn’t totally shocked that he worked a 1-2-3 inning. Mastny isn’t pond scum– he’s a moderately-talented pitcher with a problem that seems to be mental. In an effort to try to get ahead, he makes his first pitches way, way too fat.
In two years, batters have hit .394 on Mastny’s first pitch (1.152 OPS), and .433 on his second (1.099 OPS). After the second pitch, batters hit .214 against him.
Mastny allowed six homers this year– with one exception (Sammy Sosa’s April 26 blast), they all came on his first or second pitch.
Teams who take pitches and work the count are actually at a disadvantage against Mastny. In seven career innings against the Yankees, he’s got a 2.57 ERA . Both runs he allowed came on a two-run homer (on the second pitch of the at-bat) to Alex Rodriguez.
Saturday’s game was his fourth career appearance against Boston. He’s allowed one hit– a first-pitch, two-run homer to Wily Mo Pena.
Facing them in the tenth Saturday, Ortiz (5 pitches), Ramirez (3) and Lowell (3), worked to Mastny’s strength. All three guys have faced him twice, and only Ortiz (a walk) has reached base.
If Boston had been able to send up Josh Barfield and Trot Nixon, the game would have been over.
4. Yes, I’m being rather mean to one of the heroes of the game. It’s a reaction to the fans and talk show hosts who have said “How can you not re-sign Nixon next year after what he’s done in the playoffs?”
Real easy…. He can’t run, field or throw, and he’s not quite the hitter Travis Hafner is.He hit .154 in the last six weeks of the season, and he had four extra-base hits in 80 at-bats after the All-Star break.
That said, he hit .400 as a pinch-hitter this year. I probably would not have pinch-run for Hafner (I just hate taking one of my best hitters out of the game). But if I’ve done that, I’m going to send him up over Jason Michaels in the 11th.
Michaels hits lefties better, but that’s the only thing in his favor. Nixon is a .280 hitter in the playoffs, he’s hit well in Fenway, and there is something to a guy staring retirement in the face– thinking his career might have only a few at-bats left– and wanting to go out on a high note.
In the post-game interviews, Nixon explained his thought processes. He correctly guessed what pitches he’d probably get and where he might be able to hit it. Didn’t try to take a full swing– just wanted to bit a nine-iron into a gap.
5. I’ll keep saying it, in the hope it’ll catch on. This season,. Franklin Gutierrez hit .330 with a .928 OPS against lefthanders, and .232, with a .722 OPS, against righthanders.
He’s had one post-season at-bat against a lefty, and it came in the 11th, against Jon Lester.
Against a pitcher who can pound the ball low and inside, Gutierrez is pretty helpless right now (long-term, I figure he’ll get it). Given a lefty to face, he’s equal to the challenge.
It’s sad that opponents understand this better than people in Cleveland. There’s no other explanation for what happened in the sixth inning. When Manny Delcarmen (a righty) walked Jhonny Peralta on five pitches and then gave up a line-drive single to Kenny Lofton on his second pitch, I was expecting Terry Francona to make a change.
When Francona let Delcarmen pitch to Gutierrez, I figured “OK, he’ll let Delcarmen face Blake (also a righty) and then bring in Okajima (a lefty) to face Grady Sizemore.”
Didn’t happen. The minute Gutierrez grounded out (scoring a run), Okajima came in. Two possibilities– either that ground ball scared Francona so much that he gave up the platoon advantage, or he didn’t want to bring in a lefty to face Gutierrez.
If the Indians face Colorado in the World Series, Gutierrez will face three lefties he ought to be able to crush.
6. Whenever the Red Sox or the Yankees/Mets get to the post-season, I always figure the fans and media will work in the other team’s favor, by making ignorant statements and second-guessing the manager.
It’s happening again. Everyone unanimously agrees that Eric Gagne should not have started the 11th, but no one wants to say (a) who they would have sent out, or (b) why it another guy would have mattered, since all three options pitched in the inning and pitched badly.
They’re in the process of ripping up J.D. Drew, telling Daisuke Matsuzaka that he’d better win tonight or else and suggesting that Terry Francona is channeling Grady Little for not bringing Josh Beckett back on three days’ rest in game four.
I think my favorite might be the guys who are wondering why Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz keep walking, rather than hitting (which is what they’re paid to do). Or maybe it’s the ones who say the Indians, by splitting the first two games, have home field advantage now. I don’t know why Boston can’t just split the first two games and make it a three-game series where they have home field, but I’ve never understood Red Sock Fan.
Contrast this with people in Cleveland, who are predicting that game 5 will feature “The Real C.C. Sabathia”, rather than tearing down the fat slob who wants a big contract but can’t get his pitches over the plate when it counts (as they would in Boston).
7. Aaron Laffey is on the roster because Wedge knows the guy is his best available pitcher. He’s not pitching because Wedge is reluctant to use a starter in relief.
He told someone who asked that “there hasn’t been a good situation for him so far.” Given the results he’s gotten so far, it’s hard to second-guess him (although, again, I’m not Red Sock Fan).
Hopefully, we’ll still be wondering why Wedge isn’t using him after tonight– and not because two guys got jocked.
Frankly, the best chance the Indians have of winning game three is that they beat Matsuzaka up (as they did in one of his two starts against them). Westbrook got belted by Boston this year, had a 5-inning, two run start against them in 2006, a 6-inning shutout in 2004, and didn’t face then in 2003 or 2005. I sure wouldn’t count on a good game.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Love Jhonny. He’s been quietly clutch this postseason, but I think he would be better suited at third since they have a shortstop the calibre of Asdrubal. If Barf can get his batting in order, I think the Tribe would have one of the better defenses up the middle.
Jhon is better going to his left anyways.
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