The Futility Infielder

What an amazing day of watching baseball. Saturday night, as the Padres worked the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, somebody on BP's mailing list said that they smelled three Game Fours on Sunday. The Padres didn't convert, ending their season with a sweep by the Cardinals as befitting the Worst Division Winning Team Ever. But we got 27 innings of baseball on Sunday, including a record-setting 18 from the Astros as they eliminated the Braves, 7-6 in a game that lasted nearly six hours.

Thankfully, I've got a TiVo. And if you don't, I pity you, because there was likely no way to make it through that ballgame sane. The lack of scoring in extra innings prevented it from being a classic on the order of the 16-inning Mets-Astros Game Six from 1986. But like that one, they'll still be talking about it 20 years from now, especially in Houston.

I tuned into the game when it was scoreless in the top of the third, spooling the recorder as I made myself a rather elaborate chorizo and black bean burrito from scratch. Mmmmm, burrito. It turned out I'd started recording just in time to see the Braves load the bases for an Adam LaRoche grand slam off of Astros starter Brad Backe. When rookie Brian McCann homered to make the score 6-1 in the eighth, I was counting on a Game Five.

But the Braves' bullpen, the bane of their existence since John Smoltz returned to the rotation, struck again. In the three previous games of this series, the pen had allowed eight runs in 6.1 innings, with Chris Reitsma surrendering six of them. Kyle Farnsworth, the closer Braves GM John Schuerholz acquired from Detroit at the trading deadline, came in after Tim Hudson yielded a walk and an infield single, got an out on a fielders choice only to load the bases by walking Luke Scott, a light-hitting (.188/.270/.288) backup outfielder. Lance Berkman then made playoff history by smacking the game's second grand slam, cutting the score to 6-5. Go figure.

It looked like the Braves might survive despite the grand slam when Farnsworth got the first two batters to start the ninth. But Brad Ausmus, with all of 71 homers and a slugging percentage of .353 to show for his 13-year career, hit a game-tying shot just inches above the yellow line in in left-center as the Juice Box crowd went wild. Hello, extra innings.

I stuck around through the bottom of the tenth, when pinch-hitter Jeff Bagwell came to the plate with two out and two on. The Hall of Fame-bound Bagwell has missed most of the season with some severe shoulder problems, but after surgery, he's recovered to the point of being able to pinch-hit. He'd already delivered an RBI pinch-single that helped to break Game One open for the Astros, but with retirement perhaps on his horizon, this was an emotional moment for the Houston crowd. Alas, he flew out to end the threat, and I left the house to go run some errands. It was 4:30 Eastern time. Reflexively, I set the TiVo to continue recording the remaining 2.5 hours of "To Be Announced," figuring I'd have time to catch up with the game-ending hit before I flipped over to the Yankees game.

Walking back home around 6:15, I passed my gym, where you can see the TVs above the treadmills from the street. I didn't look too hard, but one of the monitors had a guy wearing a red shirt and a silhouette that I knew all too well could only be Roger Clemens. I shook it off; must be a highlight previewing Game Five or the start of the next series. Whatever. I got home 15 minutes later and began playing the TiVo, watching the extra frames by fast-forwarding to get to the payoff pitch. for each batter. It wasn't purity, but it did nicely for someone tuning in late.

By the 14th inning or so, when Clemens was actually down in the Astro pen all by his lonesome, it dawned on me that what I had seen was no highlight, so I sped through to see the Rocket enter the game as a pinch-hitter for Dan Wheeler in the bottom of the 15th, delivering a textbook sacrifice bunt that put the winning run in scoring position with one out.

No luck with that, and so Clemens was left to throw not one but three innings in his first relief appearance since 1984, and on two days' rest, no less. But the Rocket had enough adrenaline to blow the ball by tired Braves hitters, yielding only a pinch-double to Brian Jordan (another wounded warrior likely headed for retirement). Meanwhile the two managers went through their entire rosters of position players, with only Braves catcher Johnny Estrada failing to see action. Astros manager Phil Garner moved Ausmus to first base for a few innings, one of four players to see time there. Eric Bruntlet, who entered the game in the eighth, shuttled between shortstop and centerfield three times.

In the 17th, Braves manager Bobby Cox called upon rookie Joey Devine, he of the grand slams in his first two major league appearances and nearly another one in Game One. Devine had also failed to retire a batter in Game Three, allowing two hits and a walk. It didn't take too much imagination to envision the Braves' season ending with him on the mound. He burned through one inning, striking out two, and came back for more, mainly because the Braves had no one left, except for a couple of fellow rookies, both lefty specialists.

The TiVo recording was running out in the bottom of the 18th, and I was cursing my luck that the last batter would apparently be Clemens striking out. But I made it through to see Chris Burke, a rookie with just five homers and a .368 slugging percentage on the year, hammering a 2-0 pitch over the wall in leftfield. My recording ran out just as he was rounding first base. Incredible.

Chalk up another bitter playoff defeat for Bobby Cox and a hefty addition to the Clemens legend. With the Rocket having allowed five runs in Game Two, he needed a bit of redemption, and he got it. Texas-sized, no less.

Back later with some notes on the Yankees game.