The 2020 World Series

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Wow

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

The double Buckner

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

What a finish!

[G-Fafif]

That's a World Series game.

[Frayed Knot]

That 9th inning was great ... when I watched it this morning because I couldn't stay up while it was actually happening.

4:10 was the official tally



The 'Carlton Fisk' game -- 45 years ago this week and which for years stood as the standard for long and wild WS games (13 combined runs, 24 hits, 12 pitchers used) -- ran 4:01 and that was 12 innings,

meaning that at the end of regulation they were likely right around 3:00



And at the risk of dredging up ancient history, the 'Bill Mazeroski' game -- 19 runs, 23 hits, 9 different hurlers -- which ended on the 2nd pitch in the bottom of the 9th, clocked in at 2:36

Edited October 25, 2020 by Guest

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: Start off by not paying any attention to any record that contains the words: Post Season. It's not a constant marker and therefore is almost completely meaningless.

Of course, but a day without insulting Derek Jeter is a day without sunshine.

Justin Turner is in the process of breaking all of Duke Snider's Dodger post season records, mainly because that choke-artist Duke didn't have a single hit in an NLDS or NLCS for his whole career.

Them's fightin' woids.

Step outside.



Later

[Frayed Knot]

The last WS game in which the team losing won on the game's final hit also involved the Dodgers ... that would be the Kirk Gibson game.

[Frayed Knot]

Game 5 -- Glasnow v Kershaw



52 pitches (not to mention 3 runs) in 2 innings for Glasnow isn't going to get it done.

[Frayed Knot]

Nice job by the replay umps in rejecting both challenges so far tonight.

Both calls might have been wrong but neither was clear and the more these 'Coin-Flip' type of calls get rejected the less often managers will be willing to risk their challenge(s).

[Frayed Knot]

Kershaw, with a reasonable pitch count and a two run lead, gets two outs on two pitches in the bottom of the 6th ... and gets pulled from the game.

[Frayed Knot]

Dave Roberts is now the mgr who seems determined to find the pitcher who is NOT on his game tonight.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, it's been two batters since we had a mound visit ... so let's have another one.

[Frayed Knot]

The Dodgers are depending on an ex-Nat reliver to close out a victory (Blake Treinen) ... maybe not the best idea.





Leadoff single

[Frayed Knot]

But Treinen comes back to get the next three hitters and the Dodgers lead three games to two.

[Frayed Knot]

A few thoughts on this "travel" day.



- if the Rays should pull this out it will mark the third first-ever championship in the last four seasons joining the Nats in 2019 and Astros in 2017

Go back a year further if you want since, although 2016 wasn't the Cubs first championship, it was their first in over a century so that one pretty much qualifies

as a "first ever" for just about every living Cubs fan



- either winner here will make it 14 different WS winners in the last 20 seasons: Red Sox = 4, Giants = 3, Cardinals = 2, and then one each for the DBacks, Angels,

Marlins, White Sox, Phillies, Yankees, Royals, Cubs, Astros, Nationals, and LAD/TBR

20 franchises have been a WS finalist in those same 20 seasons, a number that didn't change this year as all of LAD, TBR, ATL, & HOU had at least reached the WS

between 2001 and 2019



- only the Reds, Pirates, and Padres have not at least reached an LCS since 2001, although the Mariners and DBacks both mark their last LCS appearance to 2001

so are in danger of joining this list at the conclusion of the 2021 season.



- as a comparison, the NFL, during this same time frame, has had a very similar 13 different SB winners and 20 different SB participants. But they've also had eight

different teams who have failed to reach a conference final: [CROSSOUT]Redskins[/CROSSOUT] Washington, Cowboys, Lions, Dolphins, Bills, Bengals, Browns, Texans

Good thing they've got a salary cap that ensures parity, eh?

[ashie62]

Cmon Rays!!!

[Frayed Knot]

This is, of course, the debut year for Globe Life Park in Arlington, TX. So you'd assume that the home-team Rangers are the winningest team at that park, which they ... although just barely.

Thanks to it being the site for some of NL playoffs and now the WS the Dodgers now own a 12-6 record at GLP: 2-1 vs the Rangers in the regular season; 3-0 vs the Padres in Round 2 of the playoffs; 4-3 vs the Braves in the NLCS, and now 3-2 in the WS. Obviously they'll end the year with either 12 or 13 wins.



The Rangers meanwhile wound up 16-14 in their inaugural season which better than I thought considering they finished 2020 at 22-38 (yes, that's a stunningly bad 6-24 on the road)

[Frayed Knot]

So a new reliever comes in, gets 2 outs on 4 pitches ... and the Dodgers decide they need a mound conference.

3 pitches later he gives up a single ... and now they want a pitching change.

4 pitches later and they're out of the inning.



So that's a three minute break,

followed by 4 pitches (2 outs)

a 1 minute break,

3 pitches (single)

a 2 minute break

4 pitches (K) 3rd out

3 minute break



So that's 11 pitches interspersed around 9 minutes of commercials

This can't be allowed to continue

[metsmarathon]

Ya know, maybe the rays shoulda left snell in the game.

[Frayed Knot]

Dave Roberts becomes the first Dodger manager not named Alston or Lasorda to win a WS



But of course it's a tainted title this year

(that's my story and I'm sticking to it)

[G-Fafif]

Justin Turner's reward was a positive Covid test.

[MFS62]

FUCK!

Evil has triumphed.

And now, Trump will probably win.

I'm bummed. (no pun intended)

Later

Edited October 28, 2020 by Guest

[stevejrogers]

There is already “WHY WAS THIS GAME EVEN PLAYED” outrage due to them knowing about this yesterday with probably a first test, and scorn at Turner for not only getting sick in the bubble and being a Super Spreader, but for being out for the celebration.



Not to mention outrage for the celebration being held, including family members, happening after knowing of Turner's condition.



Who knows when Game 7 would have been played knowing that a player had tested positive. I can't imagine MLB would have wanted the optics of playing tonight.

[Edgy MD]

Turner has never struck me as the sharpest chunk of cheddar cheese.

[86dreamer]

By now, we have all heard about starting pitchers losing their effectiveness the third time through a lineup. I don't doubt that massive amounts of regular season data show that.



I wonder though if there is any analysis of the fresh reliever advantage that persists during the regular season, degrading over the course of a longer series as a reliever faces the same team 3 or more times. Of course the Dodgers go to the pen early as well, but it has seemed to me over the last few years that the teams that do that as a planned strategy (especially the MFYs) have fared less well than the teams that do it out of necessity.

[Edgy MD]

I'm gonna come out and say I'm kind of delighted that the team that yanked their starter early ended up screwing themselves.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Holy mackeral--that's why Turner departed? I barely stayed awake till the end, grateful (I guess) the 9th went quickly, and the dumbest baseball season ever is over. I'll miss it too.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I wish I was more confident that 2021 will be a normal season.

[smg58]

Edgy MD wrote: I'm gonna come out and say I'm kind of delighted that the team that yanked their starter early ended up screwing themselves.

Snell had struggled in the fifth inning all season (after posting a 1.25 ERA over the first four inning of his outings) and only made it to the sixth once, so I see the logic. That being said, he'd been stellar up to that point in the game, and it would take more than a single to make me think the roof was about to cave in. Of course, I felt the same way about Aaron Heilman 14 years ago.

[ashie62]

Kevin Cash should be shot. Snell was fine. Mookie Betts was "happy" they pulled him