Houston Astros manager Phil Garner had some choice words early this morning about his team's losing performance in World Series Game 3.
"I'm really ticked off — that was some pretty poor hitting," Garner said of failing to have more than a single run to show against the Chicago White Sox for a succession of runners over the final 10 innings."We didn't hit the ball good except for Jason (Lane). I'm really ticked off. They had some pretty good at-bats. They're hammering our mistakes and fouling off our good pitches. On the flip side, we're doing just the opposite."
Except, of course, for the hammering part.
"It's embarrassing," Garner continued, "to play like this (in) our hometown. We're not hitting the ball at all. We're not putting the ball in play, except for Jason. We couldn't push anybody across when we had the top of our lineup up.
"We had some momentum, some chances, but we didn't even hit the ball hard. I don't know how we stayed in the ball game as long as we did."
All of the long-suffering Houston fans that I talked to today said pretty much the same thing. Those soft little pop-ups and caught-looking strikeouts were particularly hard to watch.
It's been an enduring mystery with this franchise: lack of clutch hitting in the post-season.
Posted by Alan at October 26, 2005 12:26 PM