UTK World Series Mid-Notes
We Need A Live Rooster
There’s a lot of things going on after Game 3 - an instant classic - and the extra innings.
All the notes below were written before midnight Eastern. The 18 inning marathon changed everything and with Freddie Freeman letting Mary Hart and Bert Sugarman finally go home, everything has changed. The pitching? Gassed. Yoshinobu Yamamoto warmed up and I’m told Blake Snell had done his between start work throwing ahead of the game, but that he was down there about to get ready as well. Shane Bieber was down there, but I never saw him actually throw. The bullpens - already an issue - are flat gassed with two games and no off days coming. The managers are going to “make mistakes” if the starters don’t go deep the next two days.
Shohei Ohtani is fine. The late cramp isn’t a big deal, as Tom Verducci reported. My sources tell me it was barely that, but that Ohtani often has issues with travel and hydration. He regularly — not always, but more than occasionally — relies on IV fluids ahead of starts. That’s the expected path, but my source was not in the dugout or clubhouse after the game.
Clayton Kershaw getting “dry humped” and then used is more of an issue than people think. “He’s pretty much done now,” said my source “and there’s some discussion of his back.” With Alex Vesia off the roster but eligible with an injury, it certainly bears some discussion, though no one could say whether Vesia was in fact available. If not him, there’s other options like Ben Casparius and even Michael Kopech.
Max Scherzer is in much the same situation. I compared his issues with adrenaline in 2021 to this and yeah, dead on. The Jays’ rotation is set to go to him in Game 7, but probably not for the start and probably not with any sort of expectation that he could go deep. In part, that’s why he was in Game 3 - Game 7 is all hands in every situation and they have to get there to make any of the calculations work.
Bo Bichette is a bit of a thing. The bone bruise is actually more of an issue currently than the PCL sprain. While stable, he’s just not comfortable going a full game, nor day after day. The Jays are trying to accommodate, but this is the World Series, when whatever the medical staff is saying could be right, but “if this was the playoffs” mentality is strong. My expectation is that they’ll stick with the plan, with Bichette off for G4, especially given the extra work in G3, and back in G5. After that, with the day off, all bets are off.
As Clayton Kershaw walked in during the 12th, I texted Joe Sheehan “I want this to be a capstone moment.” He got out of it, but watching the best pitcher of his generation get that out, with a Fernando Valenzuela memorial on his left shoulder, with Sandy Koufax watching in the stands? Chills.
The other thing I thought is that Kershaw is arguably the best pitcher of his generation - there’s arguments for Scherzer, for Justin Verlander, and that’s the list. No one else gets in that team picture and yet, none of those get within shouting distance of the previous generation - Pedro, Maddux, Johnson, and Clemens. I was watching two of the best pitchers to ever play the game last night, as were you, and they might not be in the top ten of pitchers in my lifetime. It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that both things are true.
That game was so long they should have played Warren Zevon at the end instead of Randy Newman. I don’t care which song.