Greatness Starts With Luck

The bottom of the 7th between the Dodgers and Braves today came down to essentially the old cliche - a game of inches. It defined the game and decided the winner of the series between division leaders. Here is my play-by-play recap:

The Dodgers go to Chin-hui Tsao, who proves the adage that many pitchers have lived by since 1993. Life is pretty sweet away from the Mile High City. It is unfortunate that Denver, as pretty as it always seems to be, is such a death sentence for a pitcher, but oh well. Go to Los Angles, land of Dodger Stadium, a lovely location to be a pitcher. Tsao was certainly enjoying it. Nine games, 10.2 scoreless innings, and one hit allowed. He was like Bill Clinton at a Hooters...he had found paradise.

The Braves, starting Matt Diaz in left, sent Willie Harris up to face Tsao. The two battled to a 2-1 count when the fouls began. Four straight. Tsao, needing to push Harris back, came in on him, hoping to set him up for a breaking ball. It broke and it appeared to be very close, but Harris started to run to first, hoping and praying it was ball four. Home plate umpire Sam Holbrook, who was highly inconsistent on the outside pitch, called ball four. Inches away from the first out, Harris was on.

Kelly Johnson stepped in, 0 for 4. Again Tsao got ahead and went inside to set up an outside pitch. However, this time, it was an outside fastball and KJ was all over it, serving a single to left. However, Luis Gonzalez was so focused on Harris, he failed to attack the ball and get it back to the infield. KJ took advantage and had himself a double instead. Edgar Renteria stood in the box and looked flatout ugly as he fell behind 1-2, but Renty is a good hitter (don't ya know?) and did what he does as well as anyone. Took the outside pitch away and sent it to the right-center gap. His seventh double plating two runs. Would KJ have scored on that double? Possibly.

Jeff Francoeur tried to go the opposite away after falling behind 0-2. They pitched Francoeur properly. Hard fastballs. Four of the five pitches he saw were fastballs. With Francoeur, he will kill breaking stuff (especially weak breaking stuff), but he struggles to get around on high-velocity fastballs. After a coaching visit, they left Tsao in. At that point, I commented in the chopnation forums that he thinks Pedro's out there.

He got a pair of called strikes (sliders perfectly placed on the corner), but three fastballs were not very close. The final pitch, another slider, failed to hit the corner and Andruw Jones was on with a walk. With Renteria and Jones on, Bobby had Matt Diaz due. Well, he had already used Willie, so why not go to the bench, especially when Chipper Jones is sitting there ready to get an at-bat in.

This was a very interesting at-bat. His first four pitches included two sliders and two fastballs. The sliders were called strikes and the fastballs were inside or low. After getting him 2-2, Chipper fouled away a slider he was trying to serve into left. Seeing that Tsao came in on him with a fastball. Chipper started his swing, but held up. Nonetheless, third base coach Bob Davidson rung him up. If you ever want to see Chipper pissed when it has nothing to do with Hooters, look at how pissed he was when Davidson made that horseshit called. Both Chipper and Bobby were ejected.

Scott Thorman pinch hit for Craig Wilson and Grady Little stuck with Tsao. Had Little been using Ramon Martinez at second, the inning would be over and it would be 4-3 heading to the 8th. As it was, Thor went around an outside slider and pulled it between Jeff Kent and Nomar Garciaparra. The single scored Renty easily.

Finally, Little had enough and took Tsao out. Chad Billingsley got the call and maybe Jarrod Saltalamacchia and he seemed to know what was coming (might have seen him in the minors or something) because he jumped all over the first pitch he saw, lining a single to right to make it 5-4.

Even Chris Woodward of all people got into it. He took a hanger toward center for an RBI single to bring in Thor.

Game of inches, people. The Willie Harris walk, Gonzo not charging the ball and getting it back to the infield during KJ's double, the walk to Andruw Jones, the Chipper strikeout, and Kent's inability to get to the ball.

Clutch? Nah. Great players and a little luck.