I brought up my concern of poor baserunning routes when Ryan Garko was thrown out at home by Joey Gathright of the Royals in the Indians Saturday loss against the Royals. I brought it up on the Cleveland forum and in a prior comment on these pages in the pollyannish hope that someone from the Indians would take note and give the Indians players a quick lesson in the art of taking the proper lead off of second and how to make the proper turn around third. Hopefully taking a lead off of second and defensing the lead off of second will be reviewed by the players with their coaches.
It looked to me like Jhonny took a pit stop in the dugout after rounding third so he could get a second opinon on whether he should try for home before re-emerging from the dugout to continue his run towards home plate. It was Ryan Garko all over again.
Two steps towards third, then move toward the outfield one step, two more steps towards third, then one more step towards the outfield, that is how one takes their lead off of second, ESPECIALLY if the goal is to get home on a single from second. The beauty of this concept is that by being slightly towards the outfield the runner can get a better read on where the infielders are. This allows the runner to keep as big a lead off of second as any other method AND on a basehit the runner gets a much better angle as they round third.
I just saw a national league baserunner do this very technique during the one game playoff earlier this week, I cringe when I see Jhonny and Ryan Garko not be aware of this technique and hope the Indians address this issue before we lose another run over it.
If Jhonny could have made the play in the ninth inning to end the inning before Arod comes to bat, Fausto's pitch count would have been well under 110. I wonder if Fausto would have come out for the tenth, that would have been for the ages, a pitcher going ten innings in the playoffs. When was the last time that happened?
Cleveland fans deserve an assist for yelling to Grady to run towards first after Grady had struck out. I saw Grady turn and walk back to the dugout after a strike out during a key game in September, never attempting to run to first. The Cleveland crowd truly was a tenth player last night.
It sure is fun to see Kenny swat the ball so nicely and hit those liners. No more overswings and pop ups for Kenny, and it is great to see. Anyone notice how Joe Torre alternated his line-up with left and right handed batters rather than try and stack the line-up all one way against Carmona? I think it was Leyland that tried stacking the entire line-up against Fausto and that didn't work either.
What was Joe Torre thinking starting **** in game one when **** 's home ERA is TWO RUNS LESS than on the road. Factor in that the Indians hit better at home and I think Pettitte should have started game one, Clemens game two, and **** in Yankee stadium in game three. It's quite possible the series would be tied at one each right now with **** in Yankee stadium and Pettitte available for game five in Cleveland, a scary thought.
GO TRIBE!
One more thing, I liked Kenny's stolen base attempt of third with two outs and two strikes on Grady. Either Kenny is safe, and at third, or Grady gets another chance to lead off the next inning with no strikes.
Sure enough Grady hit a triple to lead off the next inning. I'm not saying Kenny meant to get picked off, but pressing the issue at that moment in time was actually the right thing to do even though it goes against all conventional wisdom about not making the third out at third base.
