It has been a World Series of pitching so far, with the inevitable umpiring controversy sprinkled in. Some leftovers from Game 2:
Mariano Rivera is a legend because of the weapon that is his cut fastball, the pitch that veers in on the hands of left-handed hitters. Almost without exception, no matter the opposing hitter, he has looked to bury his cutter inside against lefties at some point.
But for the first time I can remember, Rivera carefully worked around a left-handed hitter in a big spot, doing everything except throw his cutter inside. Chase Utley had homered twice in Game 1 with his frighteningly quick swing, driving fastballs into the right-field stands, and in Game 2, he came to bat against Rivera with the potential tying run on base.
So you figured Rivera would throw cutters inside, right? Pitches that threatened Utley's thumbs, right?
Wrong. Rivera pitched to the outside corner the entire at-bat, throwing his four-seam fastball and his cutter, and from pitch to pitch, Utley probably kept waiting for that cutter inside -- instead, he wound up reaching for a pitch over the outside corner and grounding into what was called a double play.
For lots more from Game 2, and a number of notes from around the league, you must be an Insider.
Buster Olney
Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.
He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).
Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."
For lots more from Game 2, and a number of notes from around the league, you must be an Insider.
Buster Olney
