1. As part of a small spiffing up the living room and kitchen project, I made more space in our living room by moving a piece of furniture to the top floor. I enjoy having as much empty space as possible in the living room and the kitchen and enjoy our efforts to keep our kitchen counters as empty as possible. I also enjoy keeping the garage as uncluttered as possible and, in support of that cause, I made a trip to the recycling bin across from the medical center and took a handful of cardboard boxes out to the transfer station to be recycled.
2. I hadn't been to the Inland Lounge since traveling in September and Debbie suggested we go up at 3:00. We had a lot of fun seeing Cas and I had a good visit with Chuck Hansen and later with Eddie Joe. I also got to see Ginger, briefly, but she and Debbie had a good visit down at the other end of the bar.
Back about 55 years ago, give or take, I knew Chuck Hansen as Larry Chuck. His dad, Larry, was our Farm League coach when I was eight years old. I was on the Twin City Hardware team. Chuck and I got to talking about playing youth baseball back in the 1960s and Eddie Joe joined our conversation. Chuck was trying and trying to remember who coached his Little League team. He played for KPs (sponsored my the Knights of Pythias). We remembered any number of coaches in the Kellogg league, but we couldn't come up with Chuck's KPs coach. If that fact should ever surface, I'll let Chuck know next time I see him.
3. If you follow baseball at all, you know that the Dodgers organization has deep pockets and they are willing to shell out a lot of money to sign free agents and to pay players they want to keep on their team a generous salary.
In fact, in 2021, the Dodgers had the largest payroll in Major League Baseball, almost 195,000,000 dollars (staggering isn't it?).
But, there are at least two factors that all that money cannot protect a team against: aging and injuries.
As the playoffs in general and the NLCS in particular got underway this fall, the Dodgers got hit fairly hard by injuries. By the time tonight's game 6 rolled around, they were without Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner, Joe Kelly, Max Scherzer, and Max Muncy (did I miss anyone?). All but May and Kelly have been all-stars and Scherzer and Kershaw are shoo-ins to be voted into the Hall of Fame.
But, age or injury or both caught up to these players and they were all unavailable as Game 6 rolled around. In addition, the Dodgers had paid a lot of money to sign David Price, a past all-star and member of the World Champion Red Sox, but he, too, was unavailable. His effective pitching days lie in the past.
Now, all that said, the Dodgers came into Game 6 as a formidable team, capable of defeating the Braves. The Dodgers' bullpen is deep. Even without Turner and Muncy, they were still a very productive team on offense. They were battered, yes, but those injuries did not guarantee the Braves a victory in this series.
So, tonight, with Game 6 tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, there were two outs and Walker Buehler walked Travis d'Arnaud. Braves manager Brian Snitker trusted his gut feeling that a rally might be at hand and pulled his starter, Ian Anderson, and sent a pinch hitter, Ehire Adrianza, to the plate and he hit a broken bat double down the right field line.
Now the Braves had runners at second and third with the red hot Eddie Rosario coming to the plate.
Should the Dodgers walk Rosario, since he was so red hot, and then bring in a lefty reliever to face the next hitter, Freddie Freeman? Or should they stick with Buehler?
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the press after the game that he liked how Buehler was pitching so he had him pitch to Rosario.
It was a titanic confrontation between Buehler and Rosario.
Rosario swung at and missed Buehler's first two offerings.
He stayed alive at the plate by fouling off a pitch, taking a ball, and then fouling off two more pitches.
Buehler's seventh pitch to Rosario was a cutter that Rosario got around on and he hit a laser to right field, out of the park, for a dramatic three run homer, putting the Braves up 4-1.
The Dodgers threatened that lead in the top of the seventh when the Braves' once effective but now struggling reliever Luke Jackson took to the mound and faced the Dodgers' crackling bottom of the lineup.
Chris Taylor boomed a rocket to left that nearly left the park, bounced off the fence, and resulted in a double.
Jackson then walked Cody Bellinger, bringing up AJ Pollock.
Pollock lined a double down the left field line, scoring Taylor. Bellinger advanced to third base.
Things looked bleak for the Braves.
The Dodgers had runners on second and third with no outs.
That was it for Luke Jackson. Mercifully, he left the game and southpaw Tyler Matzek ascended the hill.
Matzek struck out future Hall of Famer (but aged) Albert Pujols.
Pinch hitter Steven Souza strode to the plate.
BOOM! Matzek struck him out.
Two outs. Runners still on second and third.
All-star and past MVP Mookie Betts dug in at the dish.
Matzek fired two straight heaters for strikes that Betts didn't even swing at.
Matzek served up a third fastball at 98 mph and Betts took a mighty swing at it and missed.
The Braves survived the 7th inning, shut out the Dodgers in the 8th and 9th innings and won the game 4-2.
The World Series matchup is secured.
On Tuesday night, the Astros will host the Braves and the Fall Classic will get underway.
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