Diary of Joel Zumaya's night, 10/27/06, NY Times

"With the score tied, 4-4, Yadier Molina led off the inning with a walk against Joel Zumaya. A soft grounder by Aaron Miles forced Molina at second, and Miles advanced on a wild pitch as Juan Encarnacion struck out. That brought Eckstein to the plate with two outs.

• Zumaya was struggling with the strike zone of the plate umpire, Mike Winters.

• "I wasn'’t adjusting to the strike zone, so I had to adjust somehow and throw it right down the middle,"” Zumaya said. "“You can'’t go out there and throw a tantrum. You've got to adjust quick. If you don'’t, things are going to turn out like they did tonight."

On a 3-1 pitch from Zumaya, Eckstein drove a liner to the gap in left center. Monroe was playing shallow against Eckstein, who had only two home runs this season. With a runner at second, it was probably the smart move, because it gave Monroe a better chance to make a strong throw on a play at the plate.

"As he watched his ball carry and the angle Monroe took for it, Eckstein said, he thought of his old Angels teammate, Darin Erstad, who once made a spectacular catch at Yankee Stadium on the same kind of hit. Monroe dove, but his glove could only graze the ball and Miles raced in with the go-ahead run.

• In each of the first three games, a Tigers pitcher had made an error. No pitching staff had ever committed four errors in one World Series, but the Tigers made dubious history when Rodney lobbed his throw over the head of Placido Polanco, who was covering the first-base bag.

  Rodney said he threw lightly because he was so close to Polanco. "“I don'’t try to throw too hard, because it came close to him," he said."

from Tyler Kepner's article, NY Times, 10/27/06

• (I heard a pundit Thursday say the outfield wouldn't be slippery in St. Louis even with all the rain, because he was sure it had such great drainage. He might want to revisit that opinion. sm)

Tweet Stumbleupon StumbleUpon