VS.
Cone was trying to atone for his short outing (4.1 IP) in game two where he gave up four runs (3 earned).
Candy Maldonado was in left, Dave Winfield was in right, with Joe Carter one first for John Olerud. Sans Avery, there is no lineup changes for the Braves.
Devon White led off the first with a single, stole, second and made it to third on Alomar grounder.
Joe Carter then did what he did best. He got ahead in the count, 3-1, then hit a fly to Justice that White tagged on.
Justice only got a piece of the ball and then dropped it, which by the way is still an RBI. Better still Winfield walked on four straight pitches. The Braves big three were being exposed, here. 4 BBs in game 4, 4 in game 5, and already one here in game 6.
Anyway, Avery beared down and got Candy Maldonado to hit to Jeff Blauser to force Winfield. Then Kelly Gruber makes it 1 for 31 (.033) since game 2 of the 1992 ALCS by grounding to Blauser as well, to force Candy out at second.
Cone took the hill and quickly got Nixon on a grounder to Manuel Lee. Deion Sanders grounded out to Carter at first, making the play unassisted.
Terry Pendleton continued his hot hitting by getting his third hit in six at bats to prolong the agony. Cone then got Dave Justice to pop up to Lee.
Pat Borders was officially out of his slump (0 for his last 2) with a single to start the second for the Jays. Borders was now at .471 batting average (8-17).
But Lee flew out to Justice in right. Cone, batting 1.000 (2-2) saw his average drop all the way to .667 by hitting the ball to Lemke for a 4-5-3 double play. And I was just beginning to think Cone could hit in the American League!
Sid Bream greeted Cones return to the mound in the bottom of the second by walking after falling behind 0-2, taking three balls, fouling off two more, then looking at ball four. Blauser, still dangerous despite just hitting just .158 (3-19), singles to left. Damon Berryhill flies to White in center, but Bream tagged and made it to third. Mark Lemke also flew out to White, but this time, no one advanced. When Avery fanned, the inning was over.
Avery then took the hill in the third and absolutly owned White, fanning him on three pitches. But Alomar singled, and then showed Avery what would have happened anyway had he remained on the hill in the 9th inning of game 3: he stole second. Carter's groundout moved Alomar to third. But Winfield flied out to Justice. Oh yeah, he caught this one.
After Nixon grounded to Lee, Sanders continued his Cone ownage with a double (8-14 lifetime, now). Sanders was now hitting .571 lifetime against Cone.
Sanders wasn't through against Cone, as he stole third. Then he scored on Pendleton sacrifice to White. Justice made it to a full count, and looked at a third strike!
Maldonado, just 1-14 so far in this Series led off the 4th with a blast that sailed out to left and out of here for homerun. I remember pumping my fist and saying, "Way to go Maldonado!"
The Jays weren't finished, Gruber made it 1-32 (Can it keep going on?) with a grounder to Blauser, but Pat Borders doubled to left, upping his average in the Series to .500 again (9-18). After Lee fanned, Cone walked. White then lashed a single to left, upping his average to .261 (6-23). But Borders tried to score and Sanders nailed him at the plate. Jays are sure leaving a lotta men on base, eh?
Cone, though needed just 7 pitches to get rid of Bream, Blauser and Berryhill in the bottom of the frame. But Blauser hit the ball deep in the hole at second, were Alomar made an unbelivable dive, stopped it, and threw Jeff out at first on a one hopper! Berryhill (1-16 since his game 1 homerun) then fanned for the third K of the game by Cone.
Pete Smith took over on the hill in the top of the 5th for Atlanta. This was his first appearance in World Series ever, having gone 3.2 inning in his only appearance in the NLCS (2.45 ERA in that outing, but an impressive 7-0 with a 2.05 ERA in the regular season).
Quickly, he got Alomar to ground out, but then Carter hit a over Pendleton's head.
Smith settled down and got Winfield to line to Nixon in left center. Maldonado ended the inning by grounding out the Blauser.
For those keeping track, the Jays have left 6 men on base, 4 of them in scoring position. This game could have been a blowout by now!
In the bottom of the 5th, Mark Lemke drew Cone's second walk, and Bobby Cox let Pete Smith hit for himself. With the count 1-1, he tried a bunt but it went foul. Cone then tried once, twice to pick off Lemke. Smith bunted four for Cone's 4th strikeout. Nixon pops up behind Gruber but Lee snags it for the second out, but Sanders singles Lemke to third.
Sanders now has an average of .600 against Cone (9-15). The two will never face each other again on the diamond. I'm sure Cone doesn't mind that one bit!
Sanders then steals second, with Cone never bothering to try and pick him off. Pendleton goes 3-1, before Cone gets him to foul the next pitch off. Then he goes with the devastating slider that just drops and Terry gets a piece off.
But Borders gets all of it. K number 5 for Cone.
To be fair, the Braves have left 5 men on base so far. 3 in scoring position.
Smith starts the 6th by getting Gruber to fly out and then Borders to pop up.
Lee, the last out of the 5th game and mired in an .067 (1-15) slump, hits a single. Pete then forces him at second. 8 men left on base.
Justice is out on a liner to Winfield, but Bream coaxes Cone's 3rd walk on the night. Blauser goes to 2-2, fouls off two pitches, and then goes down swinging for Cone's 6th K. Berryhill flied out to White in short center.
After White flied out to start the 7th inning, Alomar got his second hit of the game, making his average a little better. He was 2-18 entering this game, but now 4-21 with that hit.
Alomar was forced at second by Carter however, and then Winfield popped out to Nixon. Winfield is starting to slump as his average is now just .200 (4-20) in this 1992 World Series.
And he still does not have an extra base hit in this Series. He had none in 1981.
And 8 men left on base for the Jays in 7 innings. Something needs to be done.
And despite the hit by Alomar, Smith needed just 8 pitches to get rid of the Jays.
Cone's night is over. It's a big improvement over his game 2 outing:
6IP, 1 (Earned)R, 4H, 3BB, 6K, 2SBA Pitching
0-2, 1BB, Batting
Here's his game 2 outing
4 1/3, 4R (3 Earned), 5H, 5BB, 2K, 4SBA Pitching
2-2, 1RBI, 0BB Batting
Lemke leads of the bottom half of the 7th against Todd Stottlemyre, who I am surprised is pitching after that near disaster in the 9th inning the previous game.
Todd fans him, however. And that's no easy task, as Lemke, despite what his stats say .222 (4-18) at this point, has been hitting the ball well this Series.
For you World Series buffs, here's something interesting about Mark: In the 1991 World Series, game 4, he tripled and scored the winning run to tie the Series at 2. Then in the next game, he hit two more triples to put Atlanta up 3-2 with a 14-5 win. Lemke, I believe, is the only player ever to hit 3 total triples in 2 games of a World Series. Two back to back games, I should say. But don't read that wrong, he hit 3 triples, not 6. Overall, Lemke .417 in that 1991 Series.
So here's a guy who knows how to get it done.
But so it Todd Stottlemyre, who fans him. Borders drops the ball, however, and has to throw him out at first. Boy, even when you strike them out they cause problems!
Jeff Treadway, who hit just .222 in the regular season, but .667 (2-3) in the NLCS, bats for Smith and grounds out to Alomar, a play not as hard as the play he made of Blauser in the 4th, but a little trouble.
Nixon ends the euphoria by lashing a single to left.
Now the Jays had to A) Deal with Nixon on the bases and B) Deal with Sanders at bat.
One solution: David Wells
Cox sends up Ron Gant to pinch hit. Lefty vs righty.
Boomer holds Nixon close, then with the count 1-2, Nixon takes off and Borders guns him out!
Another step towards MVP honours, Pat! I stand Pat with Borders behind the plate or at the plate in the postseason.
And I would say the same thing, relative to on the mound, with Mike Stanton, who takes over in the top of the 8th.
Here are his number, NLCS and World Series combined to this point:
8GP, 7.2IP, 1(Unearned)R 3H, 3BB, 6K, 0.00 ERA.
Guess John Olerud won't be coming in the game anytime soon.
Coming off a great performance in game 5, the odds of the Jays scoring just went down. Thank god, no DH. The Braves will have to pinch hit for him, eventually.
Maldonado, despite his homerun, is only 2-16 (That's a buck twenty-five) greets Stanton with a single, however, and the Jays are on the move again.
But is it to even third or past it?
Gruber, I guess deciding a hit is out of the question, does the next best thing, SH (Sac Bunt, the H is for hit). Gruber is still 1-33 in the Series.
But Maldonado is 90 feet from...third.
But Borders is up.
Stanton does the hands-down smartest play in the Series.
Intentional walk.
Hey, after three hitters, the Jays are batting 1.00 against Stanton this game!
But Lee does what he did last time against Stanton. The old popup to first in foul territory.
In what will be his last at bat as a Jay, Derek Bell hits for Wells and grounds out.
LOB by the Jays: 10, including 6 in scoring position. I would have gladly offered my service to the Jays as a pinch hitter at this point!
Gant now faces the other "W" pitcher for the Jays, Duan Ward. Appearance number 4 for Ward. 2-0 in 2.1 inning over those three appearances. A pitcher who throws strikes. 5 K's and 0 walks.
But Gant launches one to right, where a 41 year old Dave Winfield is stationed.
Oh, no, White can't exactly come over and help can he? It looks like a triple, and a sure tied game.
Winfield stretches out, tumbles, AND MAKES THE CATCH!
Wow.
The Jays didn't exactly get Winfield for his glove. The Jays didn't exactly get Morris for his regular season pitching.
It was hitting and postseason for Winfield, while Morris it was his postseason pitching.
Neither has turned out this World Series. But Morris gave the Jays 21 wins in the regular season (the first Jay to ever win 20 games in a season) and Winfield might have just saved the Series for the Jays, right there.
Where was I again?
Ward fanned Pendleton after Terry fouled off 2 pitches, but Justice walked. Bream flew out to Maldonado.
And now their was one thought as the Jays entered the ninth inning.
THREE MORE OUTS!
But first the Jays had to bat.
White lined out to Lemke and Alomar lined out to Nixon.
But Carter doubled for his third hit on the day.
Enter Mark Wohlers from the Braves pen.
Come on Dave.
Nope, he grounds on on a chopper to Blauser. 11 LOB, 7 in scoring position
Who better to nail it down then Tom Henke?
Hey, Jays don't have Calvin Schiraldi, now do they?
Oh, no, don't think that.
But Blauser (see I told you he was a tough out) singled. Berryhill got the bunt down right, this time.
Lonnie Smith, whose grand slam ended the hopes of the Jays in game 5 come to back to hit for Lemke.
And then Henke walked him.
What is happening?
Francisco Cabrera come to bat for Wohlers.
Henke gets the count to 2-2, then Cabrera fouls off three pitches.
Then he sends a liner that is over Maldonado's head. Game over.
Wait a minute, Maldonado leaps and SPEARS IT!
Cabrera misses by inches from being the hero of the NLCS and The World Series.
Otis Nixon is all that seperates Toronto from immortality.
He swung and misses at the first pitch.
He took a called strike 2.
One pitch away.
Just like the Red Sox 6 years ago.
Come on Henke, bear down.
At this point everyone remembers the song The Ballard Of Tom Henke, that I still have on tape.
Long after they've turned on the lights in Wrigley Field
Long after The Jays have moved into their dome
They'll be talking about the guy by the name of Henke
Brought the World Series to our home
Perfect prophecy!
Henke fires one...
...and Nixon hits it between Lee and Gruber, Maldonado's throw home is way high.
Blauser has scored, Smith has made it to third, and Nixon to second.
What a disaster!
But wait, Henke gets behind Gant 3-1, then induces the left fielder to fly out to White.
Well, at least the Jays are still alive.
But so are the Braves.
But in the 10th, an unwelcoming sight: Charlie Leibrandt enters the game.
That's the guy who was the winning pitcher in game 7 of the Jays 1985 ALCS loss.
Rafael Belliard also is in the game, at short.
Kelly Gruber, who was actually with the Jays in '85 (for all of 5 games), singles after Maldonado flies out. I knew it, just when we all had given up on him, like in the bottom of the eighth inning of game 3.
Better still, we got The Guy Who Does Hit, Borders up. 2-3 with a walk tonight, 9-19 in the Series so far!
But Borders goes out to left, dropping his average to only .450. Then Pat Tabler comes to the plate for the last time in his career, to hit for Lee.
While he hit just .252 in the regular season, I had actually been quite impressed with him that year. He had batted .320 in his last 9 games in the regular season. And he had helped the with some clutch hits. He got 3 RBIs May 2nd against Milwaukee and 3 more in an 15-11 win over the Tigers. He was 3-4 on May 8th vs The Angels and also 3-5 on the last day of the season vs The Tigers.
He was just 0-1 in th World Series, not having played since game 1, and not playing at all in the ALCS.
He took a good cut, but all he could do is line it back to Leibrandt on a 1-1 count for the third out. 12 men left on base
Alfredo Griffin came in to play shortstop in the bottom of the 10th.
Henke got Pendleton to ground out to Carter, who made the play himself.
But that was the last pitch Henke would ever throw in a Blue Jay uniform.
Jimmy Key, who would also be gone from the Jays after this season, entered the game and enduced a groundout by Justice to Griffin. Then Jimmy covered first as Sid Justice hit a grounder to Carter.
In the top of the 11th, it was Key who was forced to bat for himself.
Quickly he got behind 0-2, as one 1985 ALCS pitcher faced another. Then he worked the count to 2-2, before popping up to Sid Bream in foul territory.
But then White, who became a Jay in 1991, got hit with a pitch with the count 1-2. White rarely walked, so there was no way he was going to get on base, unless Charlie hit him.
Then Roberto Alomar, who also joined the Jays in 1991, and whose motto should be, "I WON'T LET THE JAYS LOSE!", singled White to second.
The man who came over in the Alomar trade from San Diego trade (for Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff), Joe Carter, flied out to Nixon for out number 2.
But Dave Winfield (4-21 so far) on the payoff pitch, doubled to left to score both White and Alomar. 4-2 Jays!
Winfield's first extra base hit in a World Series. Couldn't have come at a better time.
Maybe earlier in the game, perhaps?
Like in the 3rd, 5th, 7th or 9th inning?
Oh, that was then, just like Winfield's 1-22 performance in the 1981 World Series.
It was all behind us.
Surely there was nothing to stand in the Jays way, now!
Maldonado, like Key, fell behind 0-2, worked it to 2-2, then popped uo to Belliard. This was the last Jays batter this game.
And Maldonado's last at bat in a Jays uniform until 1995.
I really missed him. He could have wined and sulked when he was put on the back burner as the season opened. It was supposed to be Derek Bell's turn in left field.
Bell got a hit in four trips to the plate in the opener of '92, then got a hit in his first at bat 2 days later.
And then he cracked his hand, missed 29 games, and lost his spot to The Candy Man.
And did Maldonado come through: 20 homeruns, 66 RBI, 64 Runs Scored in all of 137 games
And in 114 of those games, he batted in the 6th spot or lower.
His fielding might not have been great, but it was no George Bell, either.
And that doesn't include his 2 homeruns and 6 RBIs in the ALCS.
Almost forgot, LOB by Toronto, 13, including 8 in scoring position.
Anyways, it took 2 pitches to feel bad in the bottom of the 11th.
Blauser makes it 3-5 with a clean single to left to start another Brave uprising. Confidence level has got to be at an alltime high when you swing on the first pitch.
And that ups Jeff's average to .250 (6-24) in the Series. But .385 (5-13) in the last three games. These guys just help you win.
Damon Berryhill, who has certainly had his troubles at the plate, hits a double play ball to Griffin on the next pitch!
But the ball takes a bad hop and goes to center field. Blauser makes it all the way to third.
John Smoltz comes into the game. No, not to pitch, but rather to pinch-run for Berryhill.
Belliard gets the tying run into scoring position with a bunt that Key fields.
Brian Hunter, who hit .239 in the regular season, but also 14 homeruns in only 102 games, is sent up to hit for Leibrandt. He hit only .200 in the NLCS and is 1-4 in this Series with an RBI in game 2.
He grounds to Carter, who makes the putout himself as Blauser scores. 4-3 Toronto
The tying run is at this.
Two outs.
Otis Nixon at bat.
Deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say.
Did I mention all this drama in this half inning has taken 6 pitches. Really!
But Jimmy Key, who has thrown all six pitches this inning and only 14 in the game, is done for the night.
Now why, this doesn't make since with Nixon a switch hitter, and Mike Timlin, the new Jays pitcher, a righty.
Timlin, as mentioned, has had a bit of a rough season. 0-2 with a 4.12 ERA. He had started the year on the DL, and didn't throw his first pitch until June 13th. After 13 appearances, his ERA was pretty good, 2.57.
But it rose to 3.91 at the end of July when he was rocked for 4 runs in only 2 innings of work against KC.
Then it rose to 5.06 after giving up 5 earned runs in 3.2 innings his next outing.
Yet, over the course of his last 11 games (17 innings) he posted a tidy 2.65 ERA, and got the save (his only on the season) on the very last day of the regular season.
He was back to his surprsing rookie form of 1991 when he was 11-6 with a 3.16 ERA.
Mike had struggled against Oakland (6.75 ERA in only 1.1 innings), but that last outing against Atlanta was good, wasn't it? a perfect 1-2-3 inning and only 9 pitches.
But Nixon is 2-5 today and 8-26 in the Series for a .308 batting average.
The Jays have a huddle on the mound.
Just as it's ending, Joe Carter, reminds everyone that Nixon might try and bunt.
Timlin goes to work. Nixon fouls off a pitch.
Then, just as Carter had warned, Nixon BUNTS!
Timlin gets it, fires to Carter!
IT IS OVER.
The Toronto Blue Jays win the real World Series of 1992.
So much for Blow Jays, post season pantsies, and all that other nonesence. Toronto has brought it home!
References
Gamester, George, and Gerald Hall. On Top Of The World: The Toronto Stars Tribute To The '92 Blue Jays. Doubleday Canada, 1992. Print.
Kostel, Mike and Rich Domich, directors. 1992 World Series. Performance by Lou Carlou, Major League Baseball Productions, 1992. World Series Film. DVD.
Retrosheet. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. <www.retrosheet.org>
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 24 Oct 2012.
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