In 1785, a Scottish poet named Robert Burns penned what has become a very famous passage:<\/p>\n
The best-laid schemes o\u2019 Mice an\u2019 Men<\/p>\n
Gang aft agley<\/p>\n
Every baseball manager should have that particular couplet framed and displayed in a prominent spot in his office, even if he\u2019s puzzled about the meaning of gang aft agley.<\/p>\n
It comes from an 18th Century Scottish dialect. In 21st Century American it means things won\u2019t always go the way you planned for them to go.<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t that right, Kevin Cash?<\/p>\n
Cash manages the Tampa Bay Rays and just before the World Series he developed a brilliant scheme. He knew that his rival, the Milwaukee Brewers, possessed a very deep and talented bullpen. He also knew the Brewers had an amazing starting pitcher named Jacob Misiorowski, who could throw a baseball harder than 100 miles per hour and still control where it went. He knew his team couldn\u2019t match either of those assets.<\/p>\n
But his team did have some pluses of its own. It had an ace pitcher named Drew Rasmussen, who had already cranked up three gems in the postseason. And it had Tropicana Field, a domed monstrosity that inspires hatred and frustration from visiting teams, as its home. The Rays were 55-26 at The Trop during the regular season and 4-1, so far, in the postseason.<\/p>\n
The first two games of the Series were scheduled to be played in Milwaukee, so Cash evidently calculated that, realistically, his team needed to win just one of those two games. If the Series stood 1-1 with the next three events slated for Tropicana Field, the Rays would probably have the upper hand. He knew the Brewers would pitch Misiorowski in the opener, so he figured that his best chance of winning a game in Milwaukee would be to save Rasmussen for Game Two.<\/p>\n
Nothing wrong with that thinking. But \u2026<\/p>\n
Sure enough, Misiorowski and three relievers throttled the Rays in Game One. Then, in Game Two the Rays scored four runs in the top of the first inning \u2014 before Rasmussen even took the mound. The pitcher who had allowed only three runs in 21 postseason innings now had a 4-0 lead to work with. If Cash wasn\u2019t a little bit proud of himself at that moment he isn\u2019t human.<\/p>\n
Did someone just whisper gang aft agley?<\/p>\n
Rasmussen didn\u2019t pitch like an ace. The man who had been positively brilliant once against the Yankees and twice against the Guardians couldn\u2019t hold that lead. He was driven to the showers before the fourth inning was over.<\/p>\n
What in the world happened? I only have a theory.<\/p>\n
I watched all four of Rasmussen\u2019s postseason outings and the only difference I noticed in his fourth start was the results. The Brewers didn\u2019t get lucky hits. They swung the bats aggressively and scalded the ball. It appeared to me that they knew what pitch was coming. I can\u2019t help but suspect that some eagle-eyed observer in the Brewers dugout noticed something about his delivery. Rasmussen might have been unwittingly tipping one or more of his pitches.<\/p>\n
Things only got worse for the Rays. Much worse.<\/p>\n
In the fifth inning of Gane Three they trailed, 2-0, when Milwaukee loaded the bases with two out. Cash was compelled to dip into his bullpen, but he had to dig deep. It was too early to call on a late-inning reliever. He had to take a middle man and hope for the best. He chose Cam Booser, who, up to that point, had pitched well in the postseason.<\/p>\n
Not this time. Especially not this time. Booser was lit up like he was made of phosphorous. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen anything quite like it. I was keeping a scorebook, and things began happening so quickly I could barely keep up with them.<\/p>\n
Booser threw only 12 pitches \u2014 seven for strikes. Two of those strikes were hit for singles and two for doubles. The Rays\u2019 two-run deficit became a seven-run deficit in only a few seconds. Booser was followed by Ian Seymour, who was also ineffective. When the inning ended the Brewers had a 10-run lead and could coast the rest of the way. They didn\u2019t have to use any of their better relievers \u2014 which meant all of them were available for Game Four.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, all of them were used in Game Four.<\/p>\n
The Brewers made a valiant bid to complete a sweep while the Rays scrambled to match their bullpen. Nick Martinez, who had been projected to start Game Five, pitched two innings in relief. Closer, Bryan Baker, who typically works only one inning at a time, pitched both the eighth and ninth innings.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until the twelfth inning that Brewers manager Pat Murphy found that gang aft agley can cut both ways.<\/p>\n
Murphy was probably feeling smug when his shortstop, Cooper Pratt put the Brewers in the lead with a home run. But then he ran out of seasoned pitchers and was forced to call on rookie Shane Drohan to get the final three outs. Instead, he gave up four straight singles and the Rays denied the Brewers their bid for a sweep. The Rays had actually outlasted the Brewers and exposed a hole in Milwaukee\u2019s bullpen.<\/p>\n
The World Series would go on.<\/p>\n
By the time you read this you\u2019ll probably know the result of Game Five, which is scheduled for Wednesday night. Unfortunately, my deadline for this article is Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
All I can say at this point is gang aft agley.<\/p>\n
WORLD SERIES STATISTICS (Through Game Four):\u00a0 Pratt achieved three-quarters of a cycle when he produced a home run, a double and two singles in Game Four. No one has ever had a complete cycle in a World Series game \u2026 The Rays are 5-for-9 on stolen base attempts after going 11-for-11 in their first two playoff series \u2026 Jake Bauers of the Brewers is 2-for-17 and both hits were singles \u2026 Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers pitched the final inning of Game Three. It was his first appearance on a major league mound since July 4 \u2026 Aaron Ashby of the Brewers has given up only one hit in 5 2\/3 innings. He hasn\u2019t issued any walks at all \u2026 Jackson Chourio of the Brewers is 10-for-20. In the first two rounds of the playoff he was 6-for-35 \u2026 Brewers catcher William Contreras was 4-for-4 in ABS challenges in Game Three and 3-for-3 in Game Four \u2026 The Rays have struck out 34 times in four games and drawn only six walks.<\/p>\n
Former Hall of Fame voter Jay Dunn has written baseball for The Trentonian for 58 years. Contact him at jaydunn8@aol.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1785, a Scottish poet named Robert Burns penned what has become a very famous passage: The best-laid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3817,110,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-441056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}