World Series

I'm not sure that Joe Girardi had a better option than cycling all of his starters through on 3 days rest. Joba Chamberlain was one of the 4 regular starters during the regular season but he was moved to the bullpen for the postseason when he struggled with high pitch counts late in the season. Chad Gaudin? He made 6 starts for them. I don't know that I could send him to the mound to start a WS Game. You can't "throw" a game away and that might have happened if he started Game 5. They would have had Burnett and Pettite on normal rest for 6 (7 if necessary) with Sabathia available (why I understood the move to start him in Game 4). The extra risk that I see is when pitchers go on short rest they also tend to make shorter starts. That's not a good sign for the Yankees who only trust 1 reliever right now, Mariano Rivera (though they trust 1 more reliever than the Phillies do).

Thinking about Rivera, in Game 2, the Phillies didn't send their runners on a 3-2 pitch in the 8th inning. Chase Utley grounded into a DP and the rally was done. The Phillies played for power but that usually doesn't work against Rivera. The Red Sox have had the most success against him; rarely do they beat him with HRs. They foul off lots of pitches, draw walks, run aggressively, and score on bloop hits. That is all Rivera gives up.

ALCS Game 5

Once Nick Swisher worked the count full, I thought for sure Rivera would take at least an 8-7 lead to the bottom of the 9th inning. But Fuentes only needed to throw one 3-ball pitch and it was enough of a strike for Swisher to loft a fly ball to shallow left.

Manny and Ortiz

Curious when we'll learn the other 95 names on MLB's 2003 steroid list. Someone over there needs to the rest of the names instead of the 1 or 2 every now and then. This is making Mr. Obama's handling of the Cambridge Police story look smooth. The Beer Summit? What a lame staged photo op.

MLB Extra Innings

So glad that Mass. Senator John F. Kerry threatened to review MLB's exclusive contract with Directv wrt MLB's antitrust exemption status. If MLB felt it would generate more revenue from Directv only, it should have been free to do so. I wouldn't need to switch since there still are a good number of Braves games available on TBS. Sen. Kerry should have spent his time attending Senate Intelligence Commitee Meetings, or at least enough time watching the Red Sox to know that Manny Ortez isn't on the roster; that the #3 and #4 hitters are David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez (at least for now).