Empyreal Environs

Game 57: June 6, 2005
Red Sox (31-26), 1
Cardinals (37-20), 7
L: Tim Wakefield (4-6)
W: Matt Morris (7-0)

“Matty Mo”? Is that how the Midwest co-opts urban nickname conventions? Yeah, that’s about all I can do to make fun of him, because he schooled the Red Sox. The good guys should have all just brought shiny red apples to Busch Stadium and presented them to Mr. Matty Mo, who went all 9 innings with only 4 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, and 1 strikeout.

Wakefield lost his 5th straight game, but trends and knuckleball pitchers are neither easily or heavily researched because of their paucity. They also aren’t easily coached, not because of personality but because of rarity, so it’s usually up to the pitcher himself to reanimate the butterfly. Wakefield was only able to go 5.2 innings, 7 hits, 5 runs (4 earned), 4 walks, and 3 strikeouts. Jason Vartitek’s unfamiliarity with Wakefield continued to plague the battery with the backstop getting 3 of his 4 passed balls in this game.

The offense was lackadaisical, earning only 4 hits and grounding into 2 double plays, Edgar Renteria responsible for both. We like seeing you turn them, not flounder into them. As classy as Cardinal fans purport to be, they did take particular pleasure in seeing their former shortstop fail. I believe it finally caught up to them that they were swept in the World Series. Before, they were happy for Red Sox fans, until a winter of bitterness thawed into a summer for scorn. They are, after all, the National League team with the most championships at 9. Only the Yankees surpass them. Writhing under those amber waves of nice is a maelstrom of contempt for those profligate people from either coast. They see themselves as the fulcrum of the nation. The fulcrum is strong, but unmoving and stagnant.