A few disjointed observations:
*Gradually, Scott Rolen seems to be getting his swing back, or at least admirably gutting out his shoulder troubles.
*Justin Verlander must be unpleasant to face in any conditions, but the fact that tonight wasn’t as cold as originally predicted had to be a factor in the Cards having a fighting chance against him (which they made the most of).
*As we have known for some time, Anthony Reyes has a good arm and the makings of a good pitcher. Like Oliver Perez, he really isn’t at the stage where you trust him in a big game, but he could be that kind of guy some day, and tonight’s performance obviously puts him on the road to that.
*That said, I have to think that every now and then Cardinals fans wish they had Dan Haren back.
3 thoughts on “Game One Thoughts”
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The Tigers are a young team and they looked like it last night. I’m guessing they’ll be settled down somewhat today.
On the face of it you’d think a team that had a week off would be in better shape for this than the Cards, having played to the point of exhaustion to win the LCS just 2 days ago. This game it just looked like the Cards were ‘still’ fighting the battle they fought against the Mets rather than starting a new series, whereas the Tigers looked fresh but jittery.
That is, the Cards looked better prepared mentally Saturday to me.
Baseball is a game that players play every day. Asking a team to wait around a week is against the grain of normal game play. It’s like the extra week added to the Super Bowl.
Great teams normally sweep, and then don’t suffer for it, but that is why they are great teams. But then, rarely do we see two great teams matched head to head in the Series. Great teams have no rivals.
A week off can dull your edge quickly. That being said, the Tigers are not really a young team. Take away Verlander, Zumaya, Minor and Granderson and they get old real quick. Even Bonderman and Monroe have 2-3 years of big league experience.