Wild Card Games Live Thread

[Ceetar]

Minimal interest so why bother with separate threads? PLAYOFF GAMES

I'm watching the statcast broadcast on ESPN2. Much better experience.

[ashie62]

Jeff McNeil reminds me of Danny Murphy

[Frayed Knot]

The Cubs have been held to one or fewer runs 39 times* this season (Mets = 36) or just under 1/4 of the time.
They don't just want Lester to continue to deal, they very well might NEED him to.





* 11 times shutout plus 28 games with only one run scored including the play-in game loss on Monday which put them into this do-or-die situation

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Muffy batting at Wrigley with the chance to impact a playoff game. wonder how this goes

[Ceetar]

apparently I'm rooting for the Rockies.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm strong for the Rocks.
Cubs owners are gay for Trump, they can go fuck themselves.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Same. For the reasons JCL mentioned, plus a whole raft of underrated, exciting talent (Arenado, Story, Dahl, etc.).

Who knew?

Anyways... Been squeaky bum time for about an hour, now.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

More bum squeak: two on, one out with an apparently creaky Contreras to bat. Final Boss (who I didn't realize is Rox folk) just missed his spots to Baez, and put Murphy on intentionally.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Final Boss gets a potential DP grounder, only Baez hugs Arenado after the tag. No interference?

Ever since hitting extras, this game has been slowly turning into something of a weird-baseball pu pu platter.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Something wearing blue called Caratini grounds out meekly to end the threat and the eleventh.

Moodwise, Alex Rodriguez sounds like he's taking hits of nitrous between batters.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Veteran lefthander/late Cajun chef Justin Wilson, just brought in to replace Whole Camels (middle-relief edition), post-PH, is out after retiring Carlos Gonzalez, in favor of Kyle Hendricks, the eighth Cub hurler.

So many relievers. This may as well be a college-town White Castle, I've seen so many sliders offered.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

13th. Two-out rally thanks to Hendricks leaving two-strike fastballs up and over the plate to Story and Parra.

TONY WOLTERS smacks a hanging change into center, and at long last, we've got a development! 2-1, Purples.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Just go back to bat, Gore. its 1 am

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

OK THX BYE CHI

[A Boy Named Seo]

Fun baseball game. Loved the bat flips on walks, great atmosphere tonight! I still have a bias against the Rockies I can't quite shake. I still think of them as that expansion team with shitty vest uniforms, where the elevation at the home park could turn Dante Bichette or Vinny Castilla into goddamn stars. But I will root for the AAAA Albuquerque Isotopes guys over the Brewers in the DS round.

[smg58]

Frayed Knot wrote: The Cubs have been held to one or fewer runs 39 times* this season (Mets = 36) or just under 1/4 of the time. They don't just want Lester to continue to deal, they very well might NEED him to. * 11 times shutout plus 28 games with only one run scored including the play-in game loss on Monday which put them into this do-or-die situation

You look at the performance of their lineup as a whole, and you wonder how that is even possible. Just flukey, or is their more to it than that?

[bmfc1]

That would hurt.
[tweet:2vqdwl7y]

[/tweet:2vqdwl7y]

[Frayed Knot]

Smell ya later, Cubbies!!
4.5 games up on September 6th. Not quite 7.5 w/17 to go, but still not good. And then two losses *At Home* in two days when a win in either/or sends you on.

The Cubs have been held to one or fewer runs 39 times* this season (Mets = 36) or just under 1/4 of the time. They don't just want Lester to continue to deal, they very well might NEED him to. You look at the performance of their lineup as a whole, and you wonder how that is even possible. Just flukey, or is their more to it than that?

Kind of weird in that I heard that the 39 times 'one or none' RS is the second most in all the majors (and now it's 40), yet they're 4th in the NL in runs scored* so that implies some sort of 'feast or famine' tendency.
And even a sub-par/injured year from Kris Bryant can't explain it all.



* How 'bout a game where both Charlie Blackmon and Anthony Rizzo are switched out even before regulation innings were up and the final crucial innings are played with those two reduced to cheerleading roles?!?



* Three wins, three days, three timezones for the Rox.
The good news now is that they get to stay in town for a day before hitchhiking their way up the turnpike to Milwaukee for Thursday's kickoff.


* And finally, while you of course expect a 13 hour game to run a long time (4:55 was the official time) the problem was that it took them over three hours just to get thru the first 8 innings,
and that from a game that was only 1-1 with about 10 hits and 2 walks combined at the time.
So just for kicks I'll bring up Game 7 of the 1960 World Series: 19 runs, 23 hits, 5 walks, 0 combined strikeouts!!, 9 pitchers; 2 hours 36 minutes
Yeah, I know, shutup grandpa




* yet somehow only 6th in RS/G Avg., lots of extra inning games maybe?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I see that the Oakland starting pitcher for tonight's game only pitched 24 innings in 2018! He's started 8 games, usually going about 1 or 2 innings.

I guess this is a "bullpen game". If I was an Oakland fan (and I guess I am for one night) that would make me pretty uneasy.

[Lefty Specialist]

* Three wins, three days, three timezones for the Rox.

Actually two wins and a loss, which is why they were in Chicago in the first place.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I see that the Oakland starting pitcher for tonight's game only pitched 24 innings in 2018! He's started 8 games, usually going about 1 or 2 innings. I guess this is a "bullpen game". If I was an Oakland fan (and I guess I am for one night) that would make me pretty uneasy.

gotta feel less uneasy than planning to let Cahill or Jackson throw a ton of the innings though.

HR/FB rates can be a little fluky and random, but their two best starters, Cahill and Jackson both are at 10%+ and they're playing in Yankee Stadium.

Shawn Kelley hasn't given up a home run as an A in 16.2 IP. So I'm sure he'll get in there. Familia too, is pretty good on that front.

[MFS62]

I'll be rooting for the (I hat myself) Braves.
And Rockies.
Later

[Centerfield]

Any thoughts I had of watching are out the window with that Judge HR. The A’s, Twins and Rangers are contractually bound to lay down for the MFYs.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Hey, they're hanging in there, and keep putting runners on/taking VERY good ABs against Severino. RiSPy in almost every inning so far, including this 5th.

Only problem is, Severino just got pulled. For Betances. (Who's essentially, like, the same guy, right? There's something to be said for a different look.)

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Well, a more effective version of Severino, apparently, as two-on-no-out-heart-of-lineup-coming-up becomes three-out-none-in. 5 LOB in the last two innings alone for your road dogs.

[Centerfield]

Not even worth watching. No way Oakland wins.

[Fman99]

I really hope Oakland wins. These fans on TV are insufferable.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Jam-shot-and-weird-spin double for Judge, followed by bobbled-in-center double. 3-0, man on third, no out.

Thanks, Rodney!

[Frayed Knot]

Maybe, Fernando, if you straightened your hat then your pitches would be more accurate.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Does he still shoot an "arrow" after an outing like this? Does he do it by himself, like, in the clubhouse bathroom? Sad ground-aimed bathroom arrow?

Anyway, Treinen. Who probably should have been in instead of Imaginary Legolas.