Last October, a lot of people wondered whether the Texas Rangers had an advantage over the San Francisco Giants because their catcher, Bengie Molina, had caught the Giants' pitchers earlier in the season, and was therefore familiar with their pitches and patterns. After hitting well through the first two rounds, the Series saw Molina go 2-11, and the Rangers lost in five games.
(Be you warned, for here there be .gif[s])
0-6, one fly out, two weak grounders, and three swinging strikeouts. From Shannon:
[Johnson] was impressed with what he saw from Erik Bedard last night. Before the game Bedard was giving him a hard time saying that he would give him one fastball down the middle and that would be it. What did Johnson see last night? Four straight curveballs. He got a good laugh out of that.
Hernandez struck Johnson out twice in an 0-for-3 afternoon. After Johnson told Hernandez to give him a fastball to hit in his first at-bat, the Padres' catcher went back to the dugout staring at the mound and shaking his head.
"He told me to throw him a fastball," Hernandez said with a chuckle. "I said, 'That was a fastball' and he said, 'No, that was a sinker.' My bad."