Running Diaries: New York vs. Seattle, Game One

by Mike Brouillette

Javier Flores (NEW) vs Kent Rose (SEA)
Attendance: 49,876

The game stated off with Kent Rose and Javier Flores doing what they do best: retiring the first set of batters each of them faced through the first two innings, which sent us into the third frame with the two teams tied at 0-0.

Then the game got interesting ... for one team.

Joe Herman

Rose gave up a double to Bill Cahill, a single to Marvin Bowman, a double to Bob Fry, a single to Jorge Mora, a two-run bomb by New York's star Joe Herman, who took Rose 426 feet deep. The inning ended with a five-run frame, and while Flores gave up a leadoff double to start the bottom of the third, he quickly pitched his way out of the inning and sent his team back to the plate. Dave Olson doubled in a pair of New York runners (Bowman and Will Dook) and a 7-0 lead was built, and the rout was on.

Seattle's lone run came off Flores, who gave up a single to George Sanders (scoring León Oditón) and that was about it for Seattle. New York added another in the top of the sixth, and followed that with a four-run top of the eighth where Olson, Herman, Ashton Finley, Herman Campbell, and Bowman all hit safely putting the 12-1 score on the board that would eventually be the end of the game.

This game seemingly was over as soon as it got started, as Rose the guy Seattle (I'm guessing) would have preferred to start game one got crushed in Game 1. If you believe in playoff performers (which I do) you'll find this start odd from Rose, who was 1-1 with Georgia last year, posting a 1.84 ERA in the post-season.

Seattle posted 11 hits, leaving 11 on base which is huge, but New York had 20 hits and left 20 on Base themselves. Seattle scored the second most runs during the regular season, and I expect the same during the playoff run and will chalk up the low runs based on a lot of luck (though, Oditón getting thrown out at home in the bottom of the sixth with just one out doesn't help much either—nor does Frend leaving four!! on base). Allen Robbins got exposed in Game 1 as well, and it'll be interesting to see if manager Marc Johnson goes back to him in the series.

Now for New York. OH ME! OH MY! The team had a burst of runs and Fry and Dave Hutchinson ended up being the only hitters without more than one hit in the game. 2+ hits for your entire team is an order for success no doubt. Highly impressed with New York's massive output! If Herman keeps playing like Carlos Beltran, New York is winning the World Series, and I known it's early and crazy to say that but I really believe that. I was talked into New York last night (sorta) and I believe in them going forward. Not much to break down for New York other than his entire team was awesome.

All in all, I'm very interested to see if Seattle will rebound after the tough Game 1 at home.