Good Schadenfreude!
There’s a lot to talk about in this game, but I’ll let pretty much every other commentator talk about the Giants’ “luck” and their ability to “win ugly.”
So I’m going to talk about this moment, briefly. After the workouts on the off-day Monday, the players gave their usual comments the way they always do, and Lackey did the “no offense” insult to the Giants offense (which might be me being tough, because nobody is Barry Bonds in his peak), and then followed that up with what looked to me like something that had sarcasm tags around it.
Here’s the full quote, as far as I can tell, from RedBirdRants:
Q. One thing I noticed in 2002, you faced a pretty good lineup including Barry Bonds‑‑
JOHN LACKEY: He was pretty good.
Q. You walked him four times in that series‑‑
JOHN LACKEY: Wouldn’t you? (Laughter.)
Q. Just curious, as you look at this Giants lineup, who concerns you the most?
JOHN LACKEY: I mean, no offense to anybody in their lineup but they don’t got Barry Bonds. They have got a really good lineup. It’s a deep lineup, and especially when you’ve got Ishikawa hitting eighth. That’s a deep lineup. It’s more of an American League style lineup, which I’m pretty well accustomed to. So I’m going to have to make pitches all the way throughout the lineup. They are good.
Yeah…
The only context you need further than that is that John Lackey was a member of the Angels in 2002, as a rookie, no less. So the media brought up Barry Bonds, not him. But when he’s asked which Giant hitter concerns him the most, the only one he mentions was the eighth hitter in the lineup.
Seriously, am I the only one who reads that as sarcasm? Maybe that’s my own insult to Travis, but I don’t think so. Every commentator in the world, even Giants-biased ones, have noted how shallow the Giants’ lineup is, especially with two regulars out, one of whom Ishikawa is subbing for. Maybe, MAYBE at best, he was doing the “compliment the other team” tactic, but then I would’ve thought he’d go for the obvious, the middle of the order hitters like Posey, Pence and Panda.
There was no muckraking by the media, though, surprisingly. Any bad feelings were around A.J., who had his Bull Durham quotes going. He did mock the media’s attempts to muckrake, and he’s not wrong, Giants writers played up his entry into the lineup and the bad feelings the Giants had. But I couldn’t believe how little was made of that little Lackey comment, something he’s not afraid of.
Which was all the more reason why I took particular pleasure in Travis Ishikawa hitting what should have been a grand slam off of him, if it weren’t for the wind.
If that hadn’t had happened in the first inning, with many more storylines to unravel, maybe there’s more talk of it. But that looked like trash-talking, and a great way to answer it. At least, to me.
A few other things no one is talking about:
• Today was an introduction for many MLB fans as to how the wind works at AT&T Park. It killed two would-be home runs, and possibly aided the one that did happen. Ishikawa and Kolten Wong each hit remarkably similar balls to deep right center that came up short. But watch how Ishikawa’s ball hits the wall.
That said, the wind may have helped Grichuk’s home run. The wind did seem to be blowing across the field towards left. If Grichuk’s ball got some help moving out that way, that may have helped it reach the foul pole sooner before it just bent foul. One more foot, and it would have been.
• The most amusing part of the bunt-error that ended the game was the apparent discussion between the coaches and players before it, where I assume they discussed strategy. That strategy seemed to be to not even try to get the runner at third base, and take the ‘sure’ out at first. You know this because the third baseman Matt Carpenter charged the bunt, but the shortstop Jhonny Peralta did not move to cover third.
So, the Cardinals were trying to play it safe. They still burned themselves.
LOL
