Matt Holliday

Matt Holliday

Matt Holliday in the Cardinals vs. Dodgers NLDS game 2 yesterday? If not, take a look at the video below. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the St. Louis Cardinals up 2 – 1 a routine line drive was hit to left field. Game over right? The Cardinals have stolen one in L.A. and now head back home with a chance to take the series with two wins at home. Not so fast. Holliday seemed to be stuck between a regular catch and basket catch as the line drive was coming in around waist level. So what did he do? Basket catch? Nope, he decided to completely miss it and try to catch it with his man parts. It didn’t work out so well as the baseball ricocheted off his cup and fell to the Dodger Stadium turf. James Loney stood at second and the Dodgers had hope. From there it looked like Cardinals pitcher Ryan Franklin was rattled by the error and he walked the next batter to put men on first and second. He then gave up a solid single up the middle to Ronnie Belliard which brought in the tying run. But the Dodgers weren’t done as they moved runners to second and third on a pass ball and loaded the bases on a walk. Then Dodgers manager Joe Torre made the call to send up 38 year old Mark Loretta to pinch hit. Watching this game I had to do a double take to check the name.

Mark Loretta? He’s still in the league? I thought he was done after his stint with the Red Sox years ago. I didn’t get a chance to see many Dodgers games and didn’t realize L.A. had picked him up.
Anyway, good thing they did pick him up as Loretta delivered big time with a quick swing cleaning out an inside pitch. The hit dropped into left center field and bought in the winning run as the Dodgers won in walk off style 3 – 2. Loretta got mobbed by his teammates while Holliday and the rest of the Cardinals walked off the field looking dazed and confused. I don’t know if you ever read ESPN columnist Bill Simmons but in a classic Page 2 post he breaks down bad losses into different levels of pain. Check it out here. I would categorize this loss by the Cardinals as a combination of Level III: The Stomach Punch and Level XI: Dead Man Walking. It's going to be hard for the Cardinals to come back to win three straight games after such a devastating loss. They will have the day off on Friday to regroup and try to take the first step in the comeback on Saturday at 6:07 p.m. EST on TBS.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Cardinals leading 2-1, Matt Holliday lost a sinking line drive in the lights, couldn’t track the ball, and instead of catching it, appeared to take it square in the nuts. Most reports are saying the ball hit Holliday in the stomach, but I think they are trying to avoid adding insult to injury, because if you watch the above video replay (with bonus Couples Retreat preview! You haven’t seen that before!), it’s pretty clear that the ball drilled him square in the junk. The Dodgers capitalized on the error, scoring two runs, including the game-winning single by Mark Loretta that scored Casey Blake to beat the Cardinals 3-2 and take a 2-0 series lead. The Cardinals are perhaps now drowning their sorrows while Matt Holliday is icing his balls.The Rockies evened up their matchup with the Phillies at one game apiece as the series heads to chilly Colorado. Speaking of nuts, after pitching five innings and surrendering four earned runs, starter Cole Hamels departed the game and then had to rush to the hospital after his wife went into labor. I hope the Hamels saved some of the placenta to share with the whole team. If you have never sampled placenta, you must. It tastes delightful on a Chicken in a Biskit.