Let’s all be honest. When this season started — long
before the Outs somehow managed to flip an inconsistent, overblown superstar in
Bryce Harper for a sure-fire Hall of Famer Mike Trout — we all knew the World
Series was going to come down to the Outs.
Little did we know, it was going to come down to the outs,
lowercase.
Jon Lester needed one more out. Just one.
At this point in the seventh, he had give up just two hits
in 6 2/3 innings of work. That already was enough to put the Crox Sox in front
11-10-1.
With that lead, all he needed was a “not-single or SAC” by
Kris Bryant in the eighth to win the World Series. (For the record, Bryant
struck out in the eighth.)
Then, after getting the second out in the sixth, Joe Maddon
came out to the mound.
The text messages between Crox, Choo, Jim Vaughn and I were
filled with “holy **censored**, he’s taking Lester out.”
It was unbelievable because earlier in the day, Crox was trailing
12-8-2 and a comeback seemed highly unlikely, and all of a sudden, Lester was
about to walk off the mound with Crox in the lead.
But then, it wasn’t Lester leaving; it was catcher David
Ross, the catcher who had followed Lester around his Major League tour. Ross was
his personal catcher. He was comfortable with him.
And like that, the wheels came off. A single put the Outs
back up 11-10-1.
Crox could still walk away with a win, but in true movie
fashion, the count was 3-2, bottom of the … well, the fantasy ninth … and the
pitch floats in high and outside. Ball four, walk, it’s over.
The Outs — to his surprise at this point in the evening — won his first World Series when
he had truly thought he lost it.
And there’s a few ways he won this one, outside of course the major reason I just drew out for you above.
First, the one category in his favor that he won by one was
triples. His lone triple came from Mike Trout. In its own way, that trade made
the difference for Outs.
Second, he won runs by 13 thanks to back-to-back 10-run days
on Friday and Saturday. A 10-run day is a matchup changer, but two back-to-back can flat out lock up the category, and it did.
He also, despite losing ERA — something that rarely happened
to him this year — posted a 6-3 record to outduel Crox Sox in record.
Lastly, he caught a break in that the Crox finally cooled
down after his torrid stretch of hot hitting. With just a .256 batting average,
Outs got the win with his .280 mark. The .256 mark was his lowest since the
week of June 6.
All in all, the Outs were the favorite at the start of the year. On paper, his team was impressive. In real life they got better with the rise of Kyle Hendricks and the explosion of Mookie Betts and Rougned Odor.
In fact, Outs had subpar years — by their 2015 standards — from Josh Donaldson and Carlos Correa.
It's worth noting, 11 other owners would gladly take those subpar years.
And the scary thing is, they can easily return to MVP form next year as he goes for title No. 2, because on paper he's the favorite to win it for the foreseeable future.
But as we saw tonight, that paper can go right out the window with a great Sunday night pitching effort.
Congrats to the Outs, who continues the National League's dominance in the JLB.
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