After the count reached three balls and two strikes on Buster Posey in the eighth inning, Darren O'Day stood on the rubber and shook off a sign from Bengie Molina, who wanted a slider outside; O'Day wanted to throw a slider inside. O'Day stepped off the rubber, re-set, looked in for the sign — and Molina again was calling for slider outside. O'Day shook him off, Molina called for it again, and O'Day stepped off and the two met in between the mound and the plate for a lengthy conversation.
Molina made his case: If you throw the slider inside, that's the one place where he can really hurt you, where he can pull a home run.
O'Day listened, and knowing that Molina had half of this season with the Giants, he deferred to the judgment of the veteran catcher — and Posey rolled over the outside slider and grounded out to second base.
via Buster Olney, insider.espn.go.com
Adriana is rooting for the Rangers, I am for the Giants. Last night was actually the first time this year we saw the end of a postseason game (which is truly astonishing if you know us — all we do is watch baseball!)
ESPN.com's written coverage of the series has been excellent. I've been reading it before I get to the Baseball Prospectus' articles. The at bat Buster Olney describes above may prove to be the pivotal moment of the series, I've been telling all my webtard friends to quit it with the overconfidence. Winning two in a row is nothing for the Rangers; then it's a best of three series with the Rangers pitching Lee (who is not going to lose twice) and possibly facing Sanchez in game 7 (Sanchez ran out of gas in August).
Last night I was running in a Giants sweatshirt when a doorman on Riverside waved me down: "Giants fan! There aren't a lot of us!" I had to reprimand him: "Mets fan first, Giants fan otherwise."
Friend of Hello, TypePad and Giants superfan Andrew Anker cites a spiritual connection between these Giants and the '86 Mets, but I have to admit that the Rangers' attitude reminds me a little more of those late '80s Mets teams than the Giants do. I draw straight lines from Hamilton to Strawberry, Molina to Carter, Young to Keith, Andrus to Elster, Kinsler to Backman, Lee to Gooden, Lewis to Darling, Francoeur to Dykstra, Vlad to Foster, even Moreland to Hojo/Knight. Still, Go Giants.
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