IST 2019: NLDS — DC Asdrubals vs LA Turners

[G-Fafif]

Fuck this matchup, too.

[LWFS]

Fun game: root, root, root 'gainst the home team. That way, you get uncomfortable quiet at worst, with a greater-than-zero chance for eat-their-own-booing!

[bmfc1]

Ex-Mets on current playoff teams:

https://github.com/devinbrady/mlb-former-teams/blob/master/non_playoff_teams/NYM.txthttps://github.com/devinbrady/mlb-former-teams/blob/master/non_playoff_teams/NYM.txt

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Washington doesn't look like they can hang with these Dodgers

[MFS62]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Washington doesn't look like they can hang with these Dodgers

Then how about the guillotine for both teams?

Later

[bmfc1]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Washington doesn't look like they can hang with these Dodgers

Hanging's too good for 'em.



I don't get the Mets fans who are rooting for WSH. Go Dodgers! Let Larry King and Mary Hart rejoice. WSH needs to go away fast.

[G-Fafif]

Bryce Harper has an excellent chance to be watching this game.

[Fman99]

Hate all four remaining NL teams, maybe my four most hated NL opponents, with all apologies to Cubs and Phillies fans.

[Gwreck]

Washington using Scherzer to close the game with a 2 run lead in the eighth.



He's supposed to start Game 3 on Sunday.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Reminiscent of the Dbaggs leaning on Schilling and Johnson.



Dodgers have them loaded, down 4-2, 2 out in the 9th

[bmfc1]

That was good managing (I wonder if Mickey would have done that--we'll never know). Scherzer hasn't been as good as usual of late and he's facing soon-to-be Cy Young Award runner-up Ryu in Game 3 so last night was a must-win game. Kershaw came out flat and WSH took advantage which means at least 3 more days of my seeing the Walgreen's symbol at Giant (supermarket) and elsewhere.

[Frayed Knot]

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Reminiscent of the Dbaggs leaning on Schilling and Johnson.

Yeah, but even Arizona didn't rely this heavily on their duo until they could smell the WS. In this case, it's just three games into what could be as many as 20 in total and already they've called on

Scherzenburg twice each in a four day span. Now I suppose one could argue that simply getting into the second round IS the equivalent of their World Series given their rough October history

so it makes some sense from their POV.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Yeah I don't think they stood a chance going down 2-0 so as long as it worked you may as well applaud them for trying it. At some point they may regret it but that point might never come otherwise.

[Frayed Knot]

With their pen they don't have great other choices. So far, in the WC game plus the first two w/the Dodgers, their non-Scherzer/Strasburg pen has given up 5 runs on 7 hits plus 4 walks in 5 innings, and

that includes the two scoreless they got from Daniel Hudson although it's not like he's be totally clean either (2 IP, 2 H, 2 BB).

Rainey/Rodney/Strickland/Doolittle, otoh, have combined to allow 5 runs and 7 baserunners in 3 innings.

Scherzer/Strasburg out of the pen = 4 IP, 0 Runs, 2 Hits, 7 K



They might burn them out by next week, but they'll likely be thrilled just to see next week.

[G-Fafif]

Dodgers' irritating Dodgerness coming in handy for a change.

[kcmets]

The TBS on-screen-fake 'strike zone' is the the best. You can hardly see it.



Let's go Dodgers!

[Frayed Knot]

Howie Kendrick is a professional hitter. But as an all-around ballplayer he's ... a professional hitter.

In Game 3 he added a bone-headed base-running blunder to take them out of a potentially big inning, which goes along nicely with his big error earlier in the series.







After Russell Martin hit that 2R HR to make it 10-4 you knew this one was all over.

No way the Nats were coming back from a six-run deficit in the 9th.

[bmfc1]

"No way the Nats were coming back from a six-run deficit in the 9th." True, because Sewald and Diaz were not available.

[Frayed Knot]

Dave Roberts do like switching pitchers, don't he?



Still a ways to go in this one [5-1 Nats in the 5th] but the HEAVILY favored Dodgers are possibly looking at having to get through a very hot Steven Strasburg in order not to get bounced in the 1st round during

a season where nothing else but WINNING the World Series is considered acceptable.

[Gwreck]

And because of that, even as much as we hate the Nationals, bouncing the Dodgers early is really not a bad thing at all.



With nothing but bad NL options, having the Cardinals (?) lose in the World Series (to Tampa, Houston, or Minnesota) is, I guess, the best possible outcome.

[bmfc1]

The Dodgers look tight and Roberts is managing scared. For this Mets fan in DC, this could be a nightmare.

[HahnSolo]

If three of the final four teams left turn out to be the Yanks, Braves, and Nats, I might just shut off baseball until next year.

[Frayed Knot]

Roberts seems to be managing, at least on the pitching side, the same way he did last year: very quick hook with the starters and one inning (if that) at a time for the

relievers regardless of how well they did or are doing.

On the hitting side he's not sitting his supposedly best hitters in platoon match-ups the way he did last year, but he hasn't been doing that all year anyway.

Doesn't help that the Dodgers bats couldn't even dent Scherzer enough -- after threatening to in both the 1st & 2nd innings - to get into the pen.





Strasburg vs Buehler; in LA; 8:37 (5:37 local time) Wednesday night.







One thought from Game 4: Ryan Zimmerman may be about 1/3 the player he once was and this is quite possibly his last year as a Nat and maybe even as a ML'er.

But he's always been good at turning around high fastballs and he can apparently still do it. That 3R bomb he hit, which essentially blew open the game, was 97 mph

and right about nose high. That's a tough pitch to "get on top of" (as the hitters say) but he did.

[bmfc1]

That was the same fat pitch that he hit off Diaz in "that" game.

[Frayed Knot]

Strasburg is not as off as Verlander was yesterday, but this whole 'short rest' thing isn't going well so far - although he just turned a 1-2-3 4th







Could you imagine if this game had had the 10-run 1st inning like they had in Atlanta? 2/3 of the crowd would have missed it.

[Fman99]

My TV is too big for me to have to look at slo-mo close ups of a 107 year old Tommy LaSorda.

[Frayed Knot]

Well THAT (Kershaw) didn't work out too well.

[bmfc1]

But you knew it would happen. Kershaw isn't great anymore but Roberts used him like he was still the Cy Young Winner. Roberts is Mickey without a mustache.

[Frayed Knot]

Except that with two of the first three hitters he was due to face being LHBs -- Eaton as the last out of the 7th and then Soto with Rendon in between -- it wasn't completely without logic.

Not sure if he's got a better lefty in the pen. The other problem is that it's not like Kenley Jansen is automatic these days either.

Now he probably would have hung with Clayton past just those guys so maybe something was inevitable the longer he pitched, but you don't expect two shots like that on back to back pitches.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Guest

[bmfc1]

Counter: Kershaw sucks and he isn't a reliever. Rendon and Soto clobber both lefties and righties so it was overthinking but hey, Kershaw won the Cy Young a few years ago.