Nice win. I think Nova should replace Mitre or Gaudin in the bullpen for the postseason. He is effective for a couple of innings. Just not a starter this year.

For me, the most fearful, breathtaking moment yesterday was Longoria’s drive to center in the tenth, that could have been a 2 run walk off HR. I thought it was gone, and he just missed it off the bat. THAT, would have been crushing.

Outfielders don’t have that much to do. Watching (ALL of) them in games past, I would say that 90% of the time, they do NOT set up correctly for a throw in. It makes a BIG difference… maybe a second or so, as well as usually being able to get off a more powerful throw. Having your momentum moving forward as you catch the ball makes a big difference.

There is probably tape of it somewhere, but many years ago, I saw (on TV) Yaz make the prototypical run-catch-and-throw play. Yaz was a real balls-to-the-wall player, and made this play as exaggerated as it could be.

I would say normally, an OFer would setup 3 or 4 steps behind where they catch the ball… maybe 8′-ish. On this fly ball to Yaz, the winning run was on 3rd, and it was a deepish fly ball.

Yaz must have set up 15′ deeper then where the ball was coming down. He waited… waited… waited… and then took off. He came in so hard, you could see he looked a bit off catching the ball. He made the catch, and still on the dead run, uncorked a dead overhand throw with such force, that he literally ended up flipping over forwards, and landing on his back.

The guy was safe, but Carl’s play was really cool to watch.

[4] Thanks. It was fun to write. It was even more fun to follow the writers on Twitter when everything was going down.

[6] Cliff, in as a baseball sense, I agree. However, while I respect your preference for the pitchers’ duel — and I do, too — the events of the last two innings made it a great game, in my opinion. It had a little bit of everything from an entertainment standpoint. That was my POV for the statement. Lot of different angles to be taken.

[5] [7] … Golson got himself square to make a throw. The reason he threw the ball from a flat-footed position, and I credit Marc Carig of the Ledger for this, was that he didn’t think Crawford was going. He actually squared himself for a return throw to SECOND, not third. When he got the trigger from Granderson, he crow-hopped and fired off that seed. Pure adrenaline. He doesn’t make that throw if he’s not in a good body position, and he was. Again, that was my interpretation. I respect your observation.

I will say this on watching the last inning again (btw, the audio and action on mlb.tv is completely off for the whole game – the service is so incomprehensibly and regularly awful; only a monopoly…) – I don’t think it even crossed Crawford’s mind that he could be thrown out. The ball was not that deep, and I’m pretty sure that most runners would not have chanced it, but with Crawford’s speed and explosive start I don’t think he even considered that taking third was anything but a layup. And it is true that it took an unlikely throw to get him.

Nice to finally see Golson’s arm after writing about it back in February.

if you watched closely, you could see the play developing as Golson sped to circle the ball in order to catch it in optimal position for the throw to third base.

Well, NO.

If you watch the play, Golson actual catches the ball FLAT FOOTED and has to crow hop to get momentum on the throw to 3rd.

GREAT throw, LOUSY technique; the actual “optimal position” is to be slightly deeper than the ball, so that you can be moving towards the infield at the moment of the catch.

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And I’m crazy enough that I’m not a fan of planning for the playoffs until the Red Sox are dead and buried.