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Yankees vs. A's |
Mariners vs. White Sox |
Braves vs. Cardinals |
Mets vs. Giants
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Monday, October 9
We've seen everything, but not this
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
ST. LOUIS -- Strange and mysterious things happen on Planet Baseball.
They happened Tuesday to Greg Maddux. They happened Tuesday to Rick Ankiel.
They happened in the first game of the 2000 postseason. Which could
be an omen of a strange and mysterious October to come. Don't bet against
it.
|  | | Greg Maddux allowed six runs in a first inning for the first time in his career. |
The scoreboard tells us that the Cardinals beat the Braves 7-5 on
Tuesday afternoon, in Game 1 of their National League Division Series. But
as always, there is the story on the scoreboard and then there is the real
story.
The real story in this game is the strange and mysterious fate that
befell the two starting pitchers.
Repeat after us: Greg Maddux gave up six runs in the first inning.
That's six.
If you count the postseason, this was the 491st start of Maddux's
Cooperstown Express of a career.
In none of the first 490 did he allow six runs in the first inning.
But he did Tuesday.
Yet in the annals of the strange and mysterious, Ankiel just might
have topped him. In the third inning of this game, Rick Ankiel threw five
wild pitches. FIVE.
Not to suggest this is impossible. Oh, it's happened before.
It's just that the last time it happened was Sept. 15, 1890, to a fellow
named Bert Cunningham of the late, great Buffalo Bisons of the Players League. Cunningham was
unavailable for comment after this game.
How these things happen, we can't explain. We don't know anyone who
can. We gave a few of the participants a shot to try, though.
"There's no reason why," Maddux said. "That's the game."
"I saw some strange stuff today," Will Clark said. "But I've seen a
lot of strange stuff in baseball. It seems like every time I take the field,
I see some kind of crap I never saw before."
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The not-so-pleasant postseason
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A look at the worst playoff starts for Greg Maddux during his career:
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Date
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Opp.
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Series
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IP
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H
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R
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10/4/89*
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Giants
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NLCS
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4
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8
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8
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10/8/89*
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Giants
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NLCS
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3.1
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5
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4
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10/13/93
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Phillies
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NLCS
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5.2
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6
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6
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10/10/96
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Cardinals
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NLCS
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6.2
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9
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8
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10/7/97
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Marlins
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NLCS
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6
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5
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5
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10/3/00
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Cardinals
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Division
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4
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9
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7
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* While as a member of the Cubs
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"The only explanation I can give," said Braves pitching coach Leo
Mazzone, "is this game's screwed up, man."
It seems to us, however, that these explanations don't capture the
unique beauty of this sport. So we kept at it.
"If someone had told you when you arrived at the park today," we
asked Mark McGwire, "that Greg Maddux would give up six runs in the first
inning and Rick Ankiel would throw five wild pitches, what would you have
said?"
"I'd have said pretty much what anybody would have said," Big Mac
replied. "You're crazy.
"But with this game," McGwire continued, "you just don't know. You
never know. The matchups could be overwhelming or lopsided, and you still
never know what might happen. And that's what's so great about the game."
Of course, if this particular contest had turned out differently,
McGwire probably would have used a different adjective than "great." But
"great" works for us. It just didn't work quite as well for Maddux or
Ankiel.
Maddux seemed as mystified as to what happened to him in
the first inning as any of the 52,378 paying customers. And why not?
He gave up as many runs in the first inning of this game as he'd
given up in the first inning in his 12 previous postseason starts combined.
He had five whole months in the '90s in which he gave up fewer runs
than he allowed just in his first 22 pitches in this game.
And only three other times in his career had he allowed this many
runs or more in any inning (all within the last two years, by the way).
"My stuff was good," Maddux said. "No better, no worse than it's
been the last couple of months."
Of course, the results were a little different than the last couple
of months, which included a 39-inning scoreless streak in September. But Maddux said: "I can't worry about results. Usually, if you
make good pitches, the results follow."
But all that followed in this game was almost unprecedented
insanity.
Fernando Vina thunked a leadoff groundball that hit the first-base
bag. That's one single that probably should have been an out.
J.D. Drew stroked a jam-job single to right. Then Jim Edmonds hit a
floater to left-center that somehow fell between Andruw Jones and Reggie
Sanders.
It was scored a hit. But we are so used to seeing Jones catch
everything but the upper deckers, you have to think that this ball should
have been the second out.
Jones said so himself, even though Maddux alibied: "I couldn't believe how
much that ball sliced. I thought it was going to left-center, and it ended
up in almost straightaway left field."
Whatever. Next, Clark got one off the end of the bat and served it
into center. No Tale of the Tape necessary for that one -- but it was hit No.
4.
Chipper Jones then couldn't handle Ray Lankford's chopper to third.
That was scored an error. But it easily could have been the third out.
Instead, there were still no outs.
A bunt and an intentional walk then loaded the bases for Placido Polanco.
Whereupon Maddux made what he thought was his only mistake of the inning,
leaving a ball in the middle of the plate. Polanco whizzed it by Maddux's
earlobe for a two-run single.
Catcher Paul Bako then attempted to nail Polanco as he tried to advance to
second on the throw home -- and air-mailed the throw off Rafael Furcal's
glove for yet another error and yet another run. So it was 6-0 -- after
one-third of an inning and 22 pitches. Who'd have thunk it?
A bunch of Braves vehemently denied later that what happened in the
first inning Tuesday had anything to do with what had happened in their
previous inning -- the disastrous seven-run ninth inning off Rocker on Sunday
that cost them home-field advantage in this series.
But Clark talked later about how this inning had just steamrolled on
Maddux. And when asked if it was more likely to have that inning steamroll
in St. Louis than Atlanta, Clark said: "You never know what's going to
happen. But obviously, it's more likely to happen here than there.
"I mean, we didn't exactly kill him," Clark admitted. "One ball hit
the bag. A jam shot. A ball falls between two outfielders. A single. A cue
shot. A ball up the middle. ... What we did was, we played little ball
against him. And it worked."
Clark paused, then felt the need to toss in one important addendum:
"Today."
But it didn't work quite the way Tony La Russa had drawn this one up
in the war room. That's for sure.
Ankiel was La Russa's controversial choice to start this game. When
the Cardinals handed Ankiel a 6-0 lead after one inning, it looked like a
stroke of genius. Two innings later, it looked as if La Russa might have a
stroke, period.
What happened in that third inning had to be seen to be believed
(and even then it wasn't easy): Five wild pitches. Four walks. 34 pitches.
20 balls. Four Atlanta runs on two hits. And one 21-year-old phenom
looking for the shower knobs, even though his team was still leading by two
runs.
Ankiel threw 12 wild pitches during the regular season in 175
innings. But seven of them came in just two starts -- a four-WP game against
the Reds on May 7, followed by a three-WP attack against the Reds again on
July 6. But he had never had a game like this.
"No, not that I recall," he said. "And I hope I never have another
one, too."
He wasn't the only one. His catcher, Carlos Hernandez, seconded that
motion. He had seen this before: "Yeah. It happened to me once before. But that
was in the Instructional League."
This, on the other hand, was about as far removed from the
Instructional League as you could possibly get. This was the National League Playoffs. It just looked at time like the Pee Wee League Playoffs.
Hernandez said nothing in his career prepared him for trying to
catch those Ankiel flameballs sailing over his head to the backstop.
"I should have brought my music to the park," the catcher quipped.
"I could have started dancing to get loose."
Hernandez once caught Tom Candiotti in Los Angeles. So he's seen a
few wild pitches go by in his day. But not like these.
"Candy used to throw a lot of balls in the dirt," Hernandez said.
"This guy was too high for me. I'm a midget, you know."
Clark looked over at him from a few yards away.
"We've gotta put some spring coils in Carlos' shoes," said Will the
Thrill. "He's used to blocking balls. He's not used to doing the high jump."
Oh, it was all kind of amusing. But it was also a little scary. Was
this just a one-game attack of nerves and wildness, brought on by the
excitement of the moment? Or was this the beginning of something more
serious? When a pitcher this good can't throw a fastball without it ending
up in orbit, you have to worry.
And the Cardinals should be worrying, because Ankiel would seem to be the
logical candidate to come back and pitch Game 4 in Atlanta on Sunday. But La
Russa would not commit to that afterward. He was busier trying to head off
the second-guessers who were still questioning why he started Ankiel in Game
1 over Darryl Kile in the first place.
La Russa said Ankiel's Chuck Knoblauch imitation had nothing to do with an
attack of Game 1 nerves or even with being 21 years old, pitching on the
biggest stage of his life.
"It wasn't just our 21-year-old," La Russa said. "Sometimes,
pitching is tough. I do believe -- and if somebody thinks this is an excuse,
that's why it's America -- but I will tell you my explanation:
"I do believe that once the game is replayed and (pitching coach) Dave Duncan and (injured catcher) Mike Matheny can talk Carlos through the time
that Rick was out there. I think that Rick will have a better chance,
because he (and Matheny) had a certain style that was really working. And I
think it was hard for Carlos to get a grip on that. I think this is a good
experience for Carlos with him. If we are going to win enough games, Mr.
Ankiel is going to have to be there for us."
In other words, Ankiel has gotten used to throwing to Matheny, and
he wasn't used to working with Hernandez. Naturally, one wise guy in the
peanut gallery suggested that maybe Ankiel was still trying to throw to
Matheny -- who was sitting in the dugout.
Whatever, what becomes of Ankiel is another saga for another October
day. The saga of this game ended with Mike James, Britt Reames, Mike Timlin
and Dave Veres nursing the Cardinals through the final 19 outs.
And even though Braves manager Bobby Cox tried to shrug off these
developments by reporting, "We won the last eight innings, 5-1," that isn't
the way the commissioner's office will record this one.
The big picture is that the Cardinals lead this series, one game to
none. Just don't ask how. At least don't ask Greg Maddux or Rick Ankiel,
anyway.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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