World Series Game 1 Live Blog -- Kirk Gibson 2.0
Up until today, I've been a bit of a doomer of a Dodgers fan. I keep expecting the worst to happen and for the bottom to fall out of the season, which makes me not want to be around the masses. That collective "oh no" feeling just makes the bad moments even worse. Being at Game 7 in LA in 2017 and then having to walk to the parking lot in misery and drive home alone on that gut punch still resonates with me. These days, I just watch the game at home and isolate the bad feelings.
But lately, I've felt a bit of... hope? Joy?
So I decided to go outside and watch Game 1 at the only Dodgers bar in NYC--Tacqueria St. Marks. I knew it would be packed so I arrived an hour before first pitch to see if maybe I could at least mark a good corner of the standing room bar area. I would get no such thing--it's crammed like sardines in there.
I wanted to get out of my shell and really talk to other Dodger fans. If we have that one strong bond in common, we should be able to talk all night.
First guy I meet is James from Torrance. Good guy. It takes forever to get the bar's attention so I offer to get him a couple beers. Then he has to go the bathroom, which seperates us. For about 10 minutes I'm stuck between a lot of people so who seem to be talking to each other but not me. It's 21 year old social-anxious Pete's worst nightmare to be in this spot.
I turn behind me to try to re-engage new people. I offer the beer in my hand to another guy, he says he's good. It's still 20 minutes until first pitch. I feel stupidly awkward and decide to get fresh air.
I start chatting up Kevin on a smoke break. He's a Mexican-American from Chino Hills. Juan Soto comes up on the screen and I tell him he still gives me nightmares because of 2019. He doesn't seem to recognize that moment--the moment where Soto upper-decked Kershaw in the 8th inning to tie the game. I think he's a bit more casual than me.
Yeah I live and die with the team, I just need someone to talk out my anxieties too."
That's cool bro, let's grab this table (in the corner)"
Game starts
Right as we start, another Mexican named Alex joins us. He's from Newport Beach and he's on the same wave length as me--he knows full well the pain of the last 11 years. We decide this is our territory--this small island table behind the sliding doors where we watch from a shitty 15 degree angle with muffled audio. At least we got fresh air and we're not ass to ass in the bar.
There's a ton of people outside the bar now and one of the bartenders offers to get service to the outside. I decide to do something way out of character. I give him $100 and tell him to get me 12 Modelo's.
First inning
Top: Jack Flaherty starts game 1. My worry meter for him is 7/10 after a terrible start against the Mets and a big downtick in fastball velocity. I'm hoping he's had some rest, a bit of tylenol, a bit of red bull.
He gets through the inning only allowing a walk to Soto.
Bottom: Shohei swings first pitch and everyone's excited. It dies at the track. Mookie has the exact same at-bat. Freddie triples with 2 outs but Teo's liner gets caught.
The beers come out and they're reaching me from the bar, hand to hand, like a stadium vendor telling people to pass peanuts down the row. I hand each beer to just any random person. I let out a "LETS GO DODGERS!!!!!" to the happy crowd and return to the little island between Kevin and Alex.
2nd to 5th inning
A pitcher's duel shapes up and it's scoreless through 5. The Dodgers have been aggressive early but only getting weak contact, which leaves Gerritt Cole with a very manageable pitch count to go deeper in the game. Aaron Judge continues to struggle with multiple whiffs in every at-bat.
Bottom of the 5th: Kiké triples and a Will Smith sac fly brings him in. Crowd starts to go crazy. I'm screaming at a sac fly. I'm so ready for the Dodgers to break this open.
Some random stuff: I learned Kevin also went to UC Irvine and he didn't graduate. I share that I am also a UCI "non-graduate". He took the usual excessive partying/academic probation path. I got to the 1 yard line and founded out I failed one pre-requisite class after I had already moved to NYC.
Kevin remarks that Californians can ask each other where we're from and answer the actual city. Depending on you talk to, our answers can go the actual city to a scounty to a large adjacent city or we just broadly say "Los Angeles", depending on who we're talking to. My habit is always to say "Orange County. City of Orange" so not to confuse non-Californians.
Top of the 6th
Starts with Soto. He's so fucking annoying to deal with and he draws his usual annoying walk. Judge is up--he's the sleeping monster that can unlock the Yankees lineup from good to unbeatable. After getting ahead of the count early, he strikes out for the third time on 93 mph fastball. Not Flaherty's best pitch but Judge is just way in his own head and beating himself. I'm betting that Twitter is absolutely killing this man for his performance. It sucks when a beloved hometown legend gets bodied repeatedly in the postseason... we would know.
Now it's Stanton with 1 on, 1 out. He chases 2 early out of the zone. 1-2 count and I make a guess on what the pitch will be.
"Maybe backfoot breaking ball here."
I'm just a fan who's watched a lot of baseball and I'm actually right--it's a backfoot breaking ball.
The only problem is it's not low enough to miss Giancarlo's enormous bat coverage. We're all watching from a 15 degree angle outside the bar and there's too much bar noise to hear the TV audio. We just see Giancarlo peering at the stands triumphantly and there's immediately a huge collective groan. Ohhhhhhhhhhh...........
It's 2-1 Yankees.
7th inning Top: A reliever with long hair comes in. Honeywell??? In a 2-1 game??? No way. Our view of the TV is just that bad. It's Brusdar Graterol, who hasn't pitched in over a month. I'm a bit worried but he goes 1-2-3, including a slick out where he bare hands a ground ball and practically poses with it.
Bottom: Teo and Muncy reach base and it's 2 on, no out. Crowd getting excitged again. Our own Mr. October, Kiké Hernandez, is up. He surprises everyone by laying down a sacrifice bunt. It's a surprise because A) why not let a hot hitter get a chance to slug for a big inning and B) why sac bunt in front of a cold hitter like Will Smith and then another cold #9 hitter behind him in Lux? It would make sense only if guaranteed Shohei a chance.
It doesn't payoff. Will Smith goes first pitching swinging even though Clay Holmes had just hit Muncy 2 at-bat's ago. It's not even a middle pitch, it's an edge pitch and he pops it up... whole crowd groans.
Kevin: I don't get it man. Swinging on the first pitch???
Agreed. Lux doesn't fare better and the promising start fizzles out.
8th inning
Top: Vesia goes 1-2-3 against the junk half of the Yankees lineup.
Bottom: Shohei rips one but it just misses home run distance. He gets a one-base error from a poor Gleyber fielding effort and advances to third. Now it's up to Mookie who gets the sac fly and we're tied again at 2-2. Crowd feels hope again. Freddie flies out to end the inning.
9th inning
Top: Big Mikey Kopech... going from on the worst team of all time to getting the top of the ninth inning in a tied game in the World Series. He gets 2 out and he's facing Gleyber Torres.
He rips one and it's going deep. GONE.
Or so we thought. We see the umpire make the interference gesture--apparently a fan caught it below the fence. Holy shit, we were that close to being 3-2 Yankees. Soto gets a walk (smart) and it's up to Aaron Judge--indisputably the best hitter of his generation... in the regular season. Our pen ace, Blake Treinen, comes on to face him.
Gets the popup. Phew.
Bottom:
Me "Just walk them off right here. Don't stress us other any further."
Their pen ace, Luke Weaver, goes 1-2-3 clean. Welp. So much for that. Here comes the first extra innings game of the Dodgers post-season.
10th inning
Top: Blake's back and he's up against Stanton--who's absolutely terrifying. Blake gets him swinging on 3 pitches for the first out. I feel relieved because I know the rest of the Yankees lineup isn't a threat... or are they?
Jazz Chisholm singles to right. He steals a base because Blake doesn't give a shit about protecting the base paths. He usually just strikes everyone out so I guess it's his prerogative. Dave Roberts calls for a walk to Rizzo to get the righty on righty matchup against Volpe. Unfortunately Jazz steals third and we're going need a good out... pop up, lineup, strikeout, anything that doesn't allow Jazz to score.
Ground ball up the middle... that could be 2 !!! BUT TOMMY EDMAN FUMBLES IT! FUCK!
There's that collective "Oh No" feeling.
They manage to get the 2nd out at second but they can't even try for a double play. Jazz scores. 3-2 Yankees. Blake retires Austin Wells for the third out but now the pressure is on.
Bottom: The "Let's Go Dodgers" chant this time around has a nervous energy to it. It's gonna be Jake Cousins for the Yanks--did you know he's cousins with Falcons QB Kirk Cousins? Learned that a few days ago.
We begin with Will Smith, who's had only terrible at-bats this game. He needs to pretend he's facing the other Will Smith and emulate his most iconic postseason moment when he hit a 3 run home run off his namesake in the 2020 NLCS.
He weakly flies out to right. 1 out.
Gavin Lux next, who's been equally bad. Cousins doesn't really challenge Lux but instead tries to get him to chase the breaking stuff. Seems like a mistake of an approach to a cold hitter without much power. Lux lays off and draws the walk. Ok. Let's go???
Tommy Edman up. He immediately gets two of the worst strike calls I've ever seen. One "strike" wide on the outer half and one "strike" off on the inner half. I mean what the fuck, that's a zone for someone with gorilla arms. He's in the hole 0-2. The count is the key to understanding baseball and how it's a game of probabilities. 0-2 counts led to easy outs. Those two calls fuck up everything for us and for poor Tommy.
0-2 pitch. He just barely lays off a slider on the edge that gets called ball 1.
1-2 pitch. He slaps a slider and it just BARELY gets through the 2nd baseman! Two on, one out. What a fighter Tommy is, we all love him already. Sign this man for life.
(Vin Scully voice) "and look who's coming up..."
Shohei!
The big thing about Shohei has been how he's been an absolute monster in 'runners on' situations. We have absolute trust that SOMETHING GOOD will happen here. It has to. Nothing is more Hollywood than the $700 million dollar soon-to-be NL MVP getting a huge hit with runners on in the biggest game of his life.
The Yankees decide to bring in a lefty to counter him. It's... Nestor Cortes? Who isn't a relief pitcher, has been a mediocre starter, and hasn't pitched in several weeks?
"This is a radical move" I tell my new amigos. I'm a little stunned. I didn't expect Yankees manager Aaron Boone to go this route. I want to say it's not a good move but I don't want to jinx it. Nonetheless, I feel great. Shohei's gonna deliver.
FIRST PITCH MIDDLE MIDDLE FASTBALL AND SHOHEI SWINGS BIGLY AT IT
aaaaaaaaand it's foul weakly to the 3rd base side and might be in play...?
"GO GO GO" I chant at the ball while flailing my arms. Get the fuck out into the stands where you belong. Then Alex Verdugo, a former Dodger and now Yankees left fielder, LUNGES into the stands to grab it and falls over the railing and I have no idea what happened and then he's throwing the ball back in, happy and confident, and I see the score bug flip to 2 outs.
FUCK!
The collective NOOOOO feeling to the extreme at TSM. How did Shohei not crush that cookie into the pacific ocean? Foul pop-up, are you kidding me? Typical Dodgers in October.
It's 2 outs. They don't want lefty against righty matchup with Mookie up so they walk him. Freddie Freeman up at the plate. Did I ever mention we went to El Modena High School together, class of 2011? I tell that to everyone I know, like we're old buddies or some shit. I never spoke to the guy. But because I was actual a huge prospect junkie (Baseball America Prospect Guide buyer from 2003 to 2006, still got dem copies at home), I actually knew he was an elite prospect. So I've followed his pro career from day 1. Love the guy.
My comments before the at-bat because I erroneously thought they walked Mookie without a base open to load the bases: "Freddie's one of the best contact hitters of his generation and they're giving him a chance to win the game with a single? Ya man, I like it for us."
We all agree that he should take some pitches at first because our most disappointing outs have been from first pitch swings. So naturally, he swings first pitch.
BOOM
Uh yeah. Words don't even do it. This is the greatest game I've ever seen. All of TSM goes wild and I'm hugging my new friends, I'm high fiving strangers, I'm screaming until I'm hoarse.
As I bask in the glorious victory, I realize that Freddie just hit almost all of Kirk Gibson's notes in 1988.
- Injured leg? Check.
- Game 1 of the World Series? Check.
- Down a run and on their final out? Check.
- Hit it to the right field pavillion? Check.
I didn't even properly hear the audio and had to play a twitter clip to hear Joe Davis pay homage to Vin's 1988 call--"SHE IS GONE!!!!" Amazing.
It's Kirk 2.0. I'm going to be 80 years old and watching baseball with my grandkids and we're going to see the broadcast show this moment every single time when they play all the best hits in MLB World Series history to create the vibes. And I get to say I saw it live with a hundred other NYC Dodger fans and we all blew the roof off the venue.
Kevin from Chino, Alex from Newport, James from Torrance, see y'all at Game 2! LGD.