Plaschke's Myth

On Around the Horn today, Bill Plaschke continued his claim that the Dodgers did nothing to defend Manny Ramirez after Brett Myers threw a pitch high and to the backstop in Game 2 of last year's NLCS, and that the lack of retaliation last year showed a lack of mental toughness, especially on the part of Chad Billingsley. Plaschke always conveniently forgets Game 3,




when Hiroki Kuroda followed in Myer's path in an at-bat against Phillies' CF Shane Victorino, leading to this bench-clearing stare-down between the teams.

I'm of the opinion that in a playoff game, retaliation pitches should be completely ignored unless the game is out of hand, because with the importance of a playoff game, why give the other team a free baserunner? Make them earn it, especially considering how potent the Phillies lineup is year after year.