The Baseball Desert

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

They're off!

I didn't see anything of the games last night - I finally made it home after dinner (which was great, btw, just in case anyone was worried after yesterday's post...) just in time to see the Giants' Jason Schmidt throw the last pitch of his three-hit, complete-game shutout of the Marlins. I was tempted to stay up and watch the Cubs play the Braves, but I need to keep some late nights in reserve for Championship / World Series games, so I'm catching up with that game right now on my PC at work (it's lunchtime, so don't go calling the boss just yet!)

The Yankees are already in trouble, having lost the first game of the series to the Twins (notably through some sloppy defense on the same play by Bernie Williams and Alfonso Soriano). Yankee fans would tell us not to worry and to pay attention to Yogi's "it ain't over 'til it's over", and they would be right, but New York desperately needs a big pitching performance from Andy Pettitte in Game 2.

Down in San Francisco there was a great pitching duel between Jason Schmidt and Josh Beckett - Beckett allowed just two hits and one earned run in 7 innings, but it wasn't enough to win the game. Schmidt threw a gem at Pac Bell and put the Giants in the driving seat for the rest of the series.

And so, last but not least, to the Cubs - Kerry Wood not only gave up just two hits in 7 1/3 innings - striking out 11 in the process - but he also hit a two-run double which broke open the game in the sixth inning. It's a great start for the Cubs, but I won't go on about it for too long in case I put the kiss of death on their postseason.

Tonight I have a tough choice to make - staying up a little late would allow me to see the Marlins-Giants game, but what I really want to do is go to bed early and get up at 4am to see Pedro go head-to-head with Tim Hudson in Game 1 of the Boston-Oakland series. Am I crazy enough to do that just for a Division Series game? Hey, it's playoff time, so don't bet against it...