World Series Game 5: Dodgers (Flaherty) at Yankees (Cole)

From qwik:

As I may have mentioned once or twice in various threads, this afternoon I'm going to a retirement party for two colleagues of mine that I taught with for oh, at least 10 years each. It starts at 4:00 pm in Brooklyn, and it won't be over until 8:30. So I didn't have time to throw together the usual lengthy preview. But I prepared an abbreviated version, which I will post below. Chop it up anyway you like; the lineups might not be correct (they haven't been posted yet) so you might not want to lead the thread with it; post your usual Yankees lineup instead. The party will be over by eight and I might be able to sneak out earlier, (but maybe not, I'm carpooling with my old department chairman), so I'm almost certainly going to be able to join you all in the game thread, maybe sometime around 9:30-10:00 pm. Anyway, here's the preview:


The Dodgers will send Jack Flaherty to the mound to pitch game 5, trying for the second time to close out the Yanks and win a title. I did his baseball history for game 1, and if you want to read all that again, that thread is still on the current page of the General Discussion Board, as is his repertoire and his Name Game from that day. I’m going this afternoon and evening to a retirement party for two old colleagues of my from my teaching days, so I don’t have the time I’d like to leave new material in any of these areas. I will update the pitcher vs. batter data, though I don’t have the lineups for tonight when I do it. Flaherty pitched extremely well before giving up the big HR to Stanton. In game 1, he went 5 1/3 innings, giving up 5 hits, 2 earned runs on the HR, just 1 BB, with 6 K’s.

Repertoire: I gave his seasonal pitch mix, pitch break and run value information in the game 1 thread, and also his pitch mix and the results from his first three postseason starts. Against the Yanks in game 1, Flaherty threw 89 pitches, altering his pitch mix significantly from where it had been during the season: 35 curves, 34 4-seamers, 19 sliders and 1 sinker. He nearly doubled the normal use of his best pitch, the curve, and cut his normal FB usage by 1/3 and his normal slider usage by 25-30%. The velo on the slider and curve was up by about 1 ½ mph, but on the FB only minimally. The spin on the FB and slider were just about normal, but the spin rate on his curve was down slightly, as he traded some horizontal break on it to get much better drop (about 4 inches more drop than his season average). The FB had slightly better run in on righties, and the slider got less drop and a bit less break. The Yanks didn’t hit Flaherty a lot, but they did hit what they hit harder than normal for him. In the regular season, Flaherty had an exit velo of 88.4; in Game 1, it was 91.4. His stuff was powerful; he go 19 swings and misses, and 20 called strikes. His swinging strike rate was 21.3% and the CSW was 38.2%, considerably higher than his regular season numbers: 13.3% and 31.3%. Still, of the 15 balls the Yanks put in play, 8 were 90+, 6 were 95+ and 3 were 100+, including the Stanton 2 run HR in the 6th, which was 116.6, the hardest ball the Yanks hit, and the only one over 110 mph. The average XBA on the balls the Yanks did hit was .347. Flaherty comes into this start 1-2 in 4 starts in the post-season with an ERA of 6.10.

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Sorry about today’s Name Game; simply don’t have the time to do one. If the Yanks make it to Game 6 in LA, I’ll try to make up for that. You can find the old one in the Game 1 game thread, again on the first page of the General Discussion Board.

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The Yanks at least have their ace, Gerrit Cole, starting in this elimination game to try and extend the season to Saturday. Cole pitched an excellent 6 innings last Friday in LA. The Dodger hit him hard in the 1st and again in the 6th, but in between, he was terrific. Cole gave up just a short sac fly by Will Smith in the 5th, coming after Soto took a bad route on Kike Hernadez drive to the corner in right, turning what probably should have been a double into a triple. In 6 innings, Cole allowed just 4 hits, 1 run, no walks, and struck out 4. It hasn’t always looked great, but Cole has now pitched 4 times this post-season, and he’s 1-0 with an ERA of 2.82 in 22 1/3 innings, 23 hits, 8 runs, 7 earned, 1 HR, 4 BB and 16 K’s.

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Yankees' lineup vs. Flaherty, including Game 1 stats after the ; for each batter. I can’t be sure of the lineups because I’m leaving for the party before they're posted, but I don’t think there’ll be many changes, even after the Dodgers’ loss last night:

1. Torres (2B) is 1-3; 1-3
2. Soto (RF) is 1-8 with 1 double, 1 RBI, 5 BB (1 intentional) and 2 K; 1-1 with 1 BB and 1 GIDP
3. Judge (CF) has never faced Flaherty; 0-3 with 3 K’s
4. Stanton (DH) hasn’t faced him, either; 1-3 with the 2-run HR
5. Chisholm (3B) is 0-1 with 1 BB and 1 K; 0-2, 2 groundouts
6. Rizzo (1B) is 9-21 with 1 double, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 5 BB, 2 K and 2 HBP; 1-2 with a lineout
7. Volpe (SS) is 0-2 with 1 K; 0-2 with 2 K’s
8. Wells (C) has never faced Flaherty; 0-2 with 1 K
9. Verdugo (LF) is 1-4 with an RBI (sac fly); 1-2 with a groundout.

On the bench: Cabrera is 1-2.

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Dodgers’ lineup vs. Cole:

1. Ohtani (DH) is 4-20 with 1 double 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB and 7 K; 0-3 with 1 K
2. Betts (RF) is 6-14 with 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K; 0-3
3. Freeman (1B) is 7-20 with 3 doubles, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB (intentional), 7 K, and 1 HBP; 1-3 with a triple and a deep fly to right.
4. T. Hernandez (LF) is 5-26 with 1 double, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 7 K and 2 BB (1 intentional); 0-2 with a lineout to short
5. Muncy (3B) is 0-3 with 2 BB and 2 K; 0-2 with a strikeout
6. E. Hernandez (CF) is 7-19 with 3 doubles, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 4 BB, 3 K and 2 GIDP; 1-2 with a triple, a run scored and a K
7. Smith (C) is 1-3 with 1 K and 1 GIDP; 0-1, with 1 RBI (sac fly) and 1 K
8. Lux (2B) has never faced Cole; 0-2 with 2 fairly deep flyouts
9. Edman (SS) is 0-5 with 2 K’s and 1 GIDP; 1-2 with a double

On the Bench: Rojas is 2-4 with 1 BB (intentional), 1 K, and 1 sac bunt; Taylor is 0-6 with 3 K; Outman is 0-2 with 2 K; pitcher Buehler is 0-2 with 1 K

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In Game 4 yesterday: the Yanks came off the mat in fairly dramatic fashion. After getting throttled the first three games of the Series, the Yankee lineup busted out with 4 doubles, 3 home runs, 5 steals and six walks, and pounded the Dodgers 11-4. Freeman opened things with yet another HR, his 4th in 4 games, to give LA a first inning lead, this one for 2 runs. The Yanks got one back in the 2nd on a RBI grounder by Verdugo, but things were still on edge until the Yanks finally broke through in the 4th for four runs on the enormous Volpe grand slam off of Hudson. After that at bat, it seemed like the Yanks had much more energy. The Dodgers got a run back in the 5th on Smith’s solo HR, and another in the 6th when the hobbled Freeman beat out a DP grounder by a hair for his 10th RBI of the series. Wells gave the Yanks some breathing room in the 6th with a solo HR to right, and after some excellent relief pitching by Leiter and Weaver, the Yanks blew it open with 5 in the 8th, when Volpe beat Lux’ throw home on Verdugo’s 2nd RBI groundout, this one with the infield in. Torres followed with the crusher, a 3-run HR to right off of Honeywell (have I ever mentioned to you guys….nahhh), and even Judge got on the board, singling to left to drive in Soto from 2nd after he’d doubled for the 11th and final run and his first RBI of the Series. Even Tim Mayza got a World Series moment in the spotlight, pitching a 1-2-3 9th to close out the win. Holmes got the win in relief of Gil, he's 3-1 on the post-season; Hudson took the loss to drop to 0-1. The Yanks are still way down in the Series, 3-1, but alive and breathing for at least one more game tonight.

And, at 8:08, uhhhh…8:14, maybe 8:16; heck, I don’t know for sure, nobody does...pm at the Stadium, it’s Cole vs. Flaherty. See you guys when I get home from the party. I hope the Yanks are still in the game when I get home, and I think there's a good chance they will be.