[IST] ALCS: TOR v. KC

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Surprised this hasn't been started yet as they're already in the second game of the series.

KC won game 1 but in game 2 it appears that David Price is following Clayton Kershaw in shaking off his postseason demons.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Spoke too soon. Price has allowed 3 runs to tie the game in the 7th. KC still batting.

[Frayed Knot]

And now the Royals have the lead.
Price's string of bad post-season starts continues, although oddly he's pitched well in post-season relief appearances.

And as I'm typing it goes to FIVE-three KC

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Royals rallying again in the 8th. 6-3 to KC.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

The Royals take a 2-0 serries lead over the Blue Jays with a 6-3 come from behind win.

[Guest El Segundo Escupidor]

Man, the Blue Jays will be down for the count after that game.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Rockin' Doc wrote: The Royals take a 2-0 serries lead over the Blue Jays with a 6-3 come from behind win.

I could see a Mets-Royals World Series, and us winning that series.

[Guest El Segundo Escupidor]

And i can envisage a Mets-Royals WS with the good guys getting smacked 4-2.

Meanwhile.......I <3 Canadians

[Frayed Knot]

El Segundo Escupidor wrote: Man, the Blue Jays will be down for the count after that game.

Considering that they were down 0-2 just last week and managed to survive it's probably a bit premature to say that yet. And while you could argue that this is KC rather than TEX it's also a 7 game series instead of just 5.

[Guest El Segundo Escupidor]

Dickey going tonight for the Jays. I wonder if he'll be on the same ridiculous one baserunner-hook he was in Game 3 of the ALDS.

I honestly believed TC was the worst manager in the playoffs but Gibbo has proven me wrong in that regard.

[Frayed Knot]

Dickey is slated for Game 4 tomorrow (Tuesday) for Toronto. Stroman was tonight and just left in the 7th with a 10-4 lead.
Cueto, though he had a good outing last time vs Houston, continued his mostly bad outings since being dealt to KC and got bludgeoned by Blue Jay bats tonight.

10-4 end of 7

[Gwreck]

With 2 wins in the NLCS, I really don't think it's premature to start thinking about a hypothetical World Series matchup.

We want Kansas City, right?

[Zvon]

Gwreck wrote: With 2 wins in the NLCS, I really don't think it's premature to start thinking about a hypothetical World Series matchup. We want Kansas City, right?

I know I do.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Important News from Canada:

* Blue Jays romping in Game 3.

* Canadians elect Justin Trudeau new PM, son of longtime PM Pierre Trudeau. Out is alleged tea partier Stephen Harper, while left-most New Democrats also take a beating.

* No beer in cans to be sold in 500 lecel at Skydome

[Guest El Segundo Escupidor]

Gwreck wrote: With 2 wins in the NLCS, I really don't think it's premature to start thinking about a hypothetical World Series matchup. We want Kansas City, right?

I don't think Toronto's much vaunted line-up is that formidable against high quality starting pitching. The best pitcher they faced in the postseason so far was Cole Hamels and he'd struggle to make our PS rotation, itbt.

Otoh, KC are like the AL Cardinals (fight 'til the last out mentality yada, yada, yada) and they have a manager who will never be the reason they lose the ballgame.

[Frayed Knot]

Game 4 this afternoon in Canada (where Geddy Lee can often be found situated in a seat behind home plate) will feature two ex-Mets as R. A. Dickey goes up against long, tall Chris Young for KC.
Quite a contrast between them and the current NYM rotation as neither guy today is likely to get much above 80 on the radar gun.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Gwreck wrote: We want Kansas City, right?

I don't really have a preference. I just hope that the series goes seven games so that the AL Champ doesn't have a chance to rest up and align its rotation.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: Game 4 this afternoon in Canada (where Geddy Lee can often be found situated in a seat behind home plate) will feature two ex-Mets as R. A. Dickey goes up against long, tall Chris Young for KC. Quite a contrast between them and the current NYM rotation as neither guy today is likely to get much above 80 on the radar gun.

They can run the ball to home plate faster than they can throw it there.
Should be fun.

I just found out that my Canadian buddy, the Jays fan, will be departing for a trip on the Trans Siberian Railroad tomorrow and will be on the train for the rest of the series. It is his dream trip, and he didn't even think there would be a conflict with the baseball season when he scheduled it.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Important News from Canada: * Canadians elect Justin Trudeau new PM, son of longtime PM Pierre Trudeau. Out is alleged tea partier Stephen Harper, while left-most New Democrats also take a beating.

What I remember most about the elder Trudeau -- born as Joseph Phillip Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau -- was his 30 years younger wife Margaret.
A bit of a flower child, she was just 22 y/o when she married the 52 y/o "swinging bachelor" in 1971 -- Pierre had previously dated Barbra Streisand (like who didn't in those days?) -- three years into his first term as Prime Minister. The marriage produced 3 sons in the first five years but by 1977 they had separated. The marriage was officially over by 1984 but, during the interim, 'Maggie', as she was known in the tabloids, was regularly getting her sometimes scantily clad self photographed while partying at 'Studio 54' with the likes of Mick & Keith and claims in a later book to have had an affair with Ted Kennedy (like who didn't in those days?).

Still very much alive at age 67 (Pierre died in 2000 at the age of 80) though out of the public eye most of the time. Justin is the eldest of their three sons (one of whom was killed 15 years ago in a mountain climbing accident). She later had two more children via a second marriage.

[TransMonk]

Frayed Knot wrote: Game 4 this afternoon in Canada (where Geddy Lee can often be found situated in a seat behind home plate) will feature two ex-Mets as R. A. Dickey goes up against long, tall Chris Young for KC. Quite a contrast between them and the current NYM rotation as neither guy today is likely to get much above 80 on the radar gun.

Not only ex-Mets, but members of the same 2012 rotation.

[Frayed Knot]

TransMonk wrote: Not only ex-Mets, but members of the same 2012 rotation.

It's 'Back to the Future'!!

And speaking of Dickey, Joel Sherman looks back at the trade which, not quite three years after it happened, is currently playing a big role for two of the remaining four teams.

Then, like now, [the Jays] did not want to waste prime years of Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion when both were on team-friendly contracts, and generally believed they had a window with a win-now core. By the time d�Arnaud and Syndergaard would emerge, we would be beyond that window,� Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos recalled. �So we had to decide do we trade guys like Bautista and Encarnacion and take a step back with kids or do we try to capitalize in the here and now?�
Toronto talked to the Rays about Shields, but felt Tampa Bay was not going to trade him within the division. The Jays only liked one high-end free-agent starter, Anibal Sanchez, but their organizational policy not to go beyond five years with a free agent and Sanchez�s desire to stay in Detroit doomed those chances.
Thus, for the Blue Jays, it was Dickey or no one. That was one advantage the Mets had in making this deal.

[Edgy MD]

And yet, and yet, now that the Jays have arrived at the brink, they still got less fWAR out of Dickey than the Mets got out of Syndergaard alone.

Not that it won't certainly be bittersweet to see Mets bats flailing at wind if they face Dickey in the World Series.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: And yet, and yet, now that the Jays have arrived at the brink, they still got less fWAR out of Dickey than the Mets got out of Syndergaard alone.

Of course they were hoping to arrive on that brink two years ago on account of the trade. As the article points out, it took a second round of 'Win Now!!!!' trades (for Price & Tulo) to get there although Encaracion and Bautista are still 'just' 32 & 34 and who knows how long past 40 R.A. will still be able to sling knuckleballs. Oddly, the one guy who 'aged out' of their plans in the interim was the 32 y/o Jose Reyes. Buehrle too (36) although he's still on the roster but hasn't been active in the post-season.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Dickey getting whacked early on, may not last much longer.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Dickey was a good guy. Sorry to hear about him getting whacked.

[dinosaur jesus]

Dickey-getting-whacked face.

[Guest El Segundo Escupidor]

Bye bye Dickey. Hendricks in.

I want somebody to explain to me the logic of having the roof closed when he pitches in Toronto. I understand doing it in October because they need to keep all the Fat Canucks warm. But they did it throughout the season.

[Edgy MD]

In theory, it increases air pressure, and allows his pitches to float on eddies of air conditioning.

I dunno, myself.

[Guest El Segundo Escupidor]

Ron Darling!
Ron Darling!
Ron Darling!

(Trivia question answer)

Name the 3 postseason Ivy League pitchers.

[soupcan]

Kid pitching against Mets tonight is a Dartmouth grad.