 |
| Wandy Rodriguez |
|
Berkman with his right-handed jack and four RBI or Scott with his bellyflop of a catch and his homer to right are certainly deserving, and I hope I won't be stealing megaera's thunder when I say that they were both Honorable Mention.
But Wandy wasn't the unsung hero like ESPN says, 'cause I'm singing, man, I'm singing.
Obviously the Rockies pitchers were a little unprepared for day baseball Sunday, but these games only turn into fiestas if your hurlers are getting it done.
If it's 6 - 5 in the fifth, they're not exactly giving out party favors in The Crawfish Boxes. Wandy's performance was the engine which powered this celebration.
As you may know, in making the very serious and very grave decision as to who to honor with the Game Hero award, I pay a great deal of attention to Fangraphs's WPA breakdowns, and they had Wandy as the clear star today with a total win probability added of .286. They had Pence in second at .140, in large part for his ground rule double that broke the scoreless tie I'm sure. I'm not rock solid in agreement with Pence as runner up, but clearly, Wandy's the man today.
He's been very good at home all year, but he outdid himself vs. the Rox: Sunday was only the third time this year an Astro starter has gone 7 or more without yielding an ernie. Previously only Oswalt (once) and, Albers (in that great game he pitched vs. St. Louis) had done it.
So, Berkman fans, Scott fans, Astro fans, give it up for Rodriguez. He was Wandyful.