Game 2

I don't want to take anything away from The Gambler's outstanding 8 inning effort. But I wonder if Tony LaRussa helped him along by batting Juan Encarnacion fifth and Jim Edmonds sixth. I know that Rogers is hell on lefties. And Encarnacion hit .316/.346/.492 against lefties in the regular season (.261/.303/.421 against righties). But over the previous three years, the splits were much less dramatic (.285/.349/.425 vs .262/.313/.435). Plus he simply isn't swinging the bat well.

Edmonds, for his part, had truly awful numbers against lefties in 2006 (.156/.198/.281 vs .295/.404/.543), numbers likely affected by owies to his shoulder, elbow, concussion, knees, and likely a toothache. Nevertheless, when one increases the sample size (.266/.336/.505 vs .279/.405/.576), you have a much more competent hitter than Encarnacion ever was. Could go either way on this, I suppose. But El Hombre and Scott Rolen were on three times when Encarnacion came up and all three times he went down meekly (He advanced Rolen in the 9th on an error by Todd Jones).

I really wish announcers would stop calling David Eckstein pesky. First of all it makes him sound like an insect. Second of all, he's been hitting about as well as one for the past couple of seasons. Stick a fork in him.

Bases loaded, bottom of the 9th. LaRussa sends up ... TADA! ... Yadda Yadda Yadda. Yes, he's had a great post season. But let's face it, Zoe swings a better bat. And Chris Duncan is left on the bench.

Groundout to shortstop, and I can get five hours of sleep.