To err is human on TBS

Some of the highs and lows of watching Dodgers-Cardinals, Game 3:

Say hey

With their ovation at the introduction of Matt Holliday, St. Louis fans were saying, “We don’t care if you blew a catch and cost us Game 2 and maybe the series.” Nice people, those Midwesterners.

Say what?

In the top of the third, James Loney was safe at first when Cardinals pitcher Joel Pineiro, covering the bag, dropped Albert Pujols’ perfect toss. Play-by-play man Dick Stockton said, “Manny safe at first.” Except Manny Ramirez was on third.

Replay this

The cameras caught Yadier Molina’s bad baserunning in the bottom of the seventh that led to the Cardinals’ catcher’s being tagged out at third on a ground ball to short. He should have stayed at second. While different angles were being shown, analyst Bob Brenly was saying, “Oh, what a horrible baserunning play by Yadier Molina.”

Replay this II

There was a funny bit showing home plate umpire Mike Everitt and Dodgers catcher Russell Martin, side by side, throwing balls back to pitcher Vicente Padilla. Padilla caught Everitt’s ball. He wasn’t expecting the one from Martin. That one hit Padilla. It looked like a carnival game.

Sharp shot

A called third strike against the Cardinals’ Joe Thurston in the top of the sixth caused St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa to shout his disagreement to the umpire and Brenly to say, “I think PitchTrax is going to say otherwise,” in response to La Russa’s shouting. The pitch was a strike according to all angles.

Before & after

First postgame studio comment from Ernie Johnson was about how “a lot of folks” thought that the powerful 1-2 starting pitching punch of Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright would be too much for the Dodgers. Who were those folks, anyway?

Not in the box score

A graphic used in the bottom of the fifth was illuminating. Cardinals’ hitters had averaged just over four pitches per at-bat during the regular season. Those numbers dropped to 3.9 in Game 1, 3.7 in Game 2 and, then, to 3.4. Brenly said that showed “desperation” by the Cardinals. Instructive, not intrusive.

And another thing

I had hoped there would be more discussion in the later innings, when the outcome seemed pretty clear, about whether the effect of the Colorado-Philadelphia snow-out would be positive, negative or neutral, on the Dodgers.

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