Rays/MLB

Busch turns down the heat on rookie

By Marc Topkin
Published October 26, 2006

ST. LOUIS - The Tigers were at least curious if the Cardinals were using the Busch Stadium radar gun readings to play mind games with rookie reliever Joel Zumaya on Tuesday.

Zumaya is known for routinely throwing pitches in excess of 100 mph and being proud of it, regularly looking back between pitches at the stadium readings.

But when he came into Game 3 on Tuesday, the stadium board was blank for a few pitches, then had him throwing 95-96 mph while the Fox TV readings had him in his usual 100-101 mph range. For most of the night, the Fox and stadium readings were usually very close.

Coincidence?

"I would consider it the greatest compliment ever if an organization thought enough of you to turn their radar guns down," veteran closer Todd Jones said. "If they turned it down for Zoomy, he's bigger than we even thought. The legend of Sidd Finch lives."

Zumaya hadn't pitched much recently because of a slight wrist injury and may have been a bit rusty, but the Tigers didn't think there was much difference in his stuff - certainly not as much as the stadium board showed.

Detroit starter Justin Verlander, who was curious enough to go to the clubhouse to see the TV readings, told Booth Newspapers: "I don't want to speculate, but everybody knows that Joel looks at the gun readings. If they think they can get in his mind ... I don't want to say they are."

By any measure, Zumaya remains impressive.

"It's a great day when you can lose 8 miles an hour and still be 95," Jones said. "Maybe it was 95 Canadian. Or metric. ... It's 102 and if you don't believe it, grab a helmet and a bat and step in the box."

DIFFERENT STRIPES: With leadoff man Curtis Granderson, No. 3 hitter (and ALCS MVP) Placido Polanco and No. 6 hitter Ivan Rodriguez a combined 0-for-34, Detroit manager Jim Leyland had to do something with his lineup.

It turned out he didn't do much different, slightly changing the order before the Game 4 rainout but keeping the same hitters, dropping Polanco to seventh while moving Carlos Guillen up to third and Sean Casey to fifth.

"You want to be careful how you say this, because you don't want to criticize anybody, and I'm not criticizing anybody, but right now in the lineup we have three guys that are 0-for-34 in combination," Leyland said. "They're hitting in every third spot; there's only nine spots. So basically the key is to get them going. And I think every once in a while you post the lineup and it looks different and everybody kind of looks back and takes it in, and once in a while you hope just something like that maybe shakes things up."

He admitted there wasn't much he could do.

"It's not like you reach into your back pocket and you pull Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale out," he said. "This is the team that's taken us to the World Series, and these are the players that are either going to win the World Series or are not going to win it. But there's no magic formula now."

Leyland also acknowledged that Rodriguez - hitless in his past 23 at-bats, a career-worst slump - was playing with hip and back problems and could be replaced at some point by Vance Wilson for those reasons.

"It's just little nagging things that happen to a lot of players this time of year. I think if you're 7-for-12 they're easier to live through. If you're 0-for-12, they hurt a little more. I don't mean that sarcastically, that's just the way it is. He's fighting and trying to do too much. He's down on himself."

MISCELLANY: Tuesday's win was the Cardinals' 50th in Series play. ... Chris Carpenter was the third Series pitcher in the past 20 years to pitch at least eight innings and give up three or fewer hits and no walks, joining Greg Maddux (for the Braves in 1995 against the Indians) and Roger Clemens (for the Yankees in 2000 against the Mets). ... Rodriguez's 23 straight hitless at-bats match the second-longest skid for a single postseason: Baltimore's Bobby Bonilla was 0-for-24 in 1996 and Toronto's Kelly Gruber 0-for-23 in 1992. ... Tigers pitchers made three errors in the first three games, tying the record for a Series of any length. Most recently it was done by the 1997 Marlins, who were also managed by Leyland.

[Last modified October 26, 2006, 02:54:16]