Jeff Sullivan with, of course, a great article, this one on how strange it looked to watch Cliff Lee getting knocked out of the box.
Visualize for a moment --- > how you'd feel if the M's were in the Rangers' place, and if we had Cliff Lee but not Felix Hernandez.
You've overcome 50 years' worth. You won the ALCS. You won it against the 27-time champion New York Yankees and their insufferable fans -- in the media.
You won it without having to go to Cliff Lee a second time! Now, that was completely unpossible -- Yankees without using Lee again. You had a long, delerious 4-day nirvana, in which to bask in the visuals of using Cliff Lee in game 1 ... and, who knows, we're delirious here -- maybe even in games 4 and 7, depending. (He's a free agent, Egbert.)
...............
It's all set up. Seven months, the tragic loss of Justin Smoak, everything else ... but here's Lee in Game 1 ...
And do we have to spell out the difference between inheriting our 1-0 birthright, and the 0-1 gutkick that we actually got?
One day, the Mariners did experience a feeling exactly like this one. It was in 1995, in game five against the Yankees. In the 11th inning of the final ALDS game, we had maneuvered the Yankees down to "Next Run Wins All 162 Games." We had Randy Johnson pitching.
And Randy Johnson in the top of the 11th inning .... gave up the losing run.
I just couldn't believe it. A year's worth of script went into that, and then Randy Johnson ... blew it?
.................
Jeff writes at Lookout Landing,
Remember this the next time someone tells you that baseball is unpredictable.
It is. Over individual games, baseball is absolutely, completely unpredictable. And there's nothing anybody can do about it.
Coming in, Cliff Lee was a lock. That was the consensus opinion. Lee had been pitching as well as any pitcher anyone had ever seen, and that was against AL opponents. In an NL ballpark, against an NL lineup, the sky was the limit. Why wouldn't Lee be able to control the game and spin eight strong innings?
... If the Giants were to win, it would be because Tim Lincecum threw a shutout, or because Lee made one or two mistakes, the way Roy Halladay did back in Game 1 of the NLCS.
No one considered the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Lee would go and get his butt kicked.
And Lee got his butt kicked. He gave up seven runs in 4.2 innings, getting yanked before completing the fifth. He threw strikes, but he didn't look like himself, and the Giants pounced. ... Here we are, fresh off a game in which arguably the best playoff starter of all time got destroyed, and no one's really sure how it happened...
Mitch Levy was arguing with Mike Gastineau this week on radio. Gas argued that the Giants had a shot to win the World Series.
Levy argued, reasonably, "You are saying that the Giants are going to win every game that Cliff Lee doesn't pitch?" (You know what he means.)
Gas argued back, unconvincingly but with gusto --- > the very same thing that Sully said he'd be arguing. Only way to win: 2-1, but that could happen.
Dr. D, listening on I-405, froze for a second ... the implications of Cliff Lee (TM) are kinda scary. Is that really the case, that one pitcher, if good enough, guarantees a series win?
But then Dr. D remembered: when cooler heads prevail, the fact is, Cliff Lee's chances of winning TWO (2) games are not 100%. And they're not close to 100%.
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