Max and I frequently play MVP Baseball 2005 on his Nintendo GameCube. If you don’t think this is the greatest baseball video game ever made (yes, I prefer it on PS2 but that is 
besides the point) then you should really find another blog to read but, come back every now and again to Off The Bench because we like our readers. To get to the point, last year we played the mock World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants on the MVP 2005 meaning we had the 2005 rosters but it was a best of 7 series. The result? I (playing as the Texas Rangers) won in 6 games. Well, it’s time for the 2011 version of the MVP Series and Game 1 was one for the ages. 16 innings, a walk off, two unbelievable 9th inning homers and a major injury to one team’s closer.
The game 1 starters for both teams pitched extremely well. Kenny Rodgers had a fantastic 71 mph curveball working that really kept the Cardinals off balance for his 7+ innings of shutout work while Mark Mulder pitched 6.2 shutout 2 hit innings. The Texas defense was fantastic throughout with the Gary Matthews Jr. picture above coming in the 7th against 
Albert Pujols in what would be very deep center. Here we see Michael Young’s diving stop in the 8th from his shortstop position (this is what makes playing the 2005 series great: Michael Young at short and Alfonso Soriano at second). Each manager sees that this is going to come down to a battle of the bullpens and feels confident with the guys out there.
Laynce Nix is the pinch hitter leading off the 9th (batting for Frank Francisco). A little back story reveals that Laynce hit two 9th inning homers in last years series at AT&T park out in San Francisco. Sure enough, first pitch inside slider goes 360 feet down the left field line to break the 0-0 tie off of closer Jason Isringhausen. With a Chris Berman like “BOOM” the Cardinals fell silent. After another single and two pop outs, Texiera grounds a ball off of Isringhausen to shortstop Eckstein who makes the play to end the 9th. After x-rays, it’s revealed that Isringhausen has fractured his toe and is unavailable for the rest of the series. A big loss.
Bottom of the 9th comes with Francisco Cordero and his nasty slider. A looping line drive is hit into center that Gary Matthews Jr attempts to channel his inner Andruw Jones and make the dive on a ball coming in. The ball gets by him all the way to the wall, and by the time it’s retrieved by Left Fielder Laynce Nix, Eckstein had rounded third and scored. An inside the park homer to tie the game.
After gutsy performances from both bullpens including 3 innings by Jeff Suppan (the 
starter who’s not going for the Cardinals this game) and 4 by Neale Genereux,(representing Ron Mahay in John Dowd/Barry Bonds style) and a play at the plate to throw out Gerald Laird in the 14th, the bottom of the 16th came around. Genereux, back out for his 5th inning, was clearly tired but with only one other bullpen arm available and him due up the next inning, I decided to send him back out. A leadoff single got the bullpen guy going but, two quick outs brought Albert Pujols to the plate with a runner on first (another managerial decision). I elect to pitch to Pujols who has 1 for 6 on the day. Up 1-2, Genereux throws a changeup low, out of the zone that Pujols flicks off the Left Center Fence for the game winning double. Max jumps in an expression of his exuberance, and Pujols was later quoted: “I was surprised that ball went that far.”
Final Score 2-1 Cardinals, 16 Innings
The game was one for the ages and sets the stage well for the Cardinals who have a far more talented pitching staff (Chan Ho Park is the Rangers Game 2 starter) and home field advantage. I’m excited for the games going forward: Both lineups are quite formidable and today’s score really shouldn’t be an indication of things to come. The Cardinals feature a lineup of Albert Pujols, Larry Walker, Jim Edmonds and the always pesky David Eckstein while the Rangers sport a lineup of Mark Texiera, a young Alfonso Soriano, Hank Blalock, and Michael Young. Both managers plan to do some tinkering with the lineups and we’ll be back at it tomorrow (gotta catch up on the games we missed last week while we were away).
Stat of the Day: The St. Louis Cardinals won their 100th game in 2005 on the last game of the season beating the Reds 7-5 at home to bring their home/road splits to identical 50-31 marks.
-Sean Morash
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