TWi(NL-WC)B Notes: This Week in (NL-WC) Baseball

[Zvon]

Oy. I actually stayed up. SF wins in extras.
Well, nothing easy. It wasn't a total waste of time.

[Frayed Knot]

Z really going hard-core last night.
The Giants used 9 pitchers in that game, the DBacks [u:2jhnvz71]used 12[/u:2jhnvz71]!!, 11 of them for 2 innings or less.




So the bottom line is that the 'Big 3' WC contenders stayed status quo last night with the Marlins (4.5, 5.0, and 5.5 back) keeping pace.
They also all gained a game on the Dodgers (for whatever that's worth) while dropping the Pirates another notch further down.

[TransMonk]

I was watching the Gints/Snakes in bed last night and I dozed off with the sacks full of Gints in the 10th.

Quite the game...I just lost my stamina.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: Z really going hard-core last night. The Giants used 9 pitchers in that game, the DBacks used 12!!, 11 of them for 2 innings or less. .

Fie on you, Tony LaRussa. Look at what thee hath wrought.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

A homer in the top of the ninth by Ryan Braun breaks a 1-1 tie and gives the Brewers a 2-1 win over the Cardinals.

To show my appreciation, I'm going to send Braun an AM Crunchwrap!

[Benjamin Grimm]

I just turned on the Giants-Diamondbacks game, and on the very first pitch I saw, Arizona took a 2-1 lead.

[Chad ochoseis]

Hunter Pence just drove in two runs to make it 5-2 Gigantes. But he feels kind of guilty about it.

[Frayed Knot]

So the bottom line in this whole weekend is that we lost a game to the Giants, broke even with the Cards, and lost a game in the East to the Nationals.
But, as CF said before the weekend started, the match-ups this weekend made it more of a 'hold your serve' type of situation where the object was to not lose any ground. And considering that the main competition were winning 5 of 6, we did OK for ourselves.
Also on the plus side, the Marlins & Pirates dropped further off the pace making this more certain to become of a three-into-two deal.

But the road starts to get tougher for the competition soon. Can't play MIL or ARZ forever.
The Giants have half of their remaining 20 games against either StL (4) or LAD (6), while the Cards are slated to face either the Cubs (6) or Giants (4) in half of theirs.




The slate for early part of the week coming up:

- Cards hosting the Cubs for three. Cubs' magic number for the Central was six coming into tonight (and they're winning big right now) so they should still be looking to put the hammer down on StL as each win will count double and they could clinch as early as Wednesday.

- Giants head home to host Sandy Eggo for a three-game set as, at least for now, their tour of the dregs of the NL West continues.

Marlins head to Braves, Pirates to Philles
Meanwhile ... the Dodgers play host to the Yanquis!!

[Edgy MD]

Still and all, I expect if the Mets finish just out of the money, that second game with Atlanta will be the first lost opportunity to come to mind.

[Frayed Knot]

Cards lose, Marlins losing 12-7 in the 8th, Pirates lose, Giants just getting going

Cubs magic number for clinching the Central is down to 3.
But maybe more importantly, the Cubs magic number for NOT matching the '86 NYM is 4. They would need to go 16-3 or better over their final 19 games to match or surpass the 108-54 record.

[bmfc1]

Andy McCullough ‏@McCulloughTimes The Dodgers are setting up their rotation so Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda will face San Francisco next week.

Good!

[TransMonk]

3-0 Cubs over Cards top 5.

[Lefty Specialist]

Anthony Rizzo Kabooms! to make it 4-0.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Cardinals still trail the Cubs, 4-0 in the bottom of the 8th.

Padres jump to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first in San Francisco.




I'm a Padres fan for the remainder of today!

[Zvon]

Cards score on a close play at first that will be reversed. Should be. The guy was clearly out.

It is!

Still 0-0 Mets.

[Zvon]

3-0 Giants. This Cards pitcher Weaver is fuckin' up. Yay!

5-0 Giants.

[Zvon]

Belt thrown out at the plate. He was safe. This should be reversed.


OE: it is. 6-0 Giants.

[Zvon]

BTW, all Giant runs unearned due to a throwing error by FatAss. Ha! You suck Molina.

[Zvon]

Molina drives in a run. Gah! I think we're good though. 6-1 SF.

Cards can't field an infield pop up and Posey follows w/a KaBOOM!

8-1 Giants. Yea, I think we're good.

[Frayed Knot]

Pitt won in extras, but the Marlins also went extras w/Philly and they lost.
It's getting to be a bit of a long shot (now 5.0 games back of us, 3 or 4 behind StL depending on the late scores) but that's not enough to totally dismiss the Fish quite yet, particularly because we have three late games with them.
I'd prefer that they be mathematically out of things prior to that series.

[Centerfield]

Frayed Knot wrote: Pitt won in extras, but the Marlins also went extras w/Philly and they lost. It's getting to be a bit of a long shot (now 5.0 games back of us, 3 or 4 behind StL depending on the late scores) but that's not enough to totally dismiss the Fish quite yet, particularly because we have three late games with them. I'd prefer that they be mathematically out of things prior to that series.

Agreed. Plus they got Stanton back.

[Edgy MD]

More importantly, I'd prefer that the Mets be mathematically locked into things.

[Frayed Knot]

And yet another 9th inning loss by the Giants.
Bumgarner left after 7 with a 1-0 lead (Kershaw went six) on 1 hit, 10 Ks
Giants got through the 8th inning unscathed but then Bochy, trying to avoid both his former but currently ineffectual closers (Romo & Casilla), used three different pitchers in an attempt to get through the 9th but the result was four straight hits and two runs before anyone could ever record a single out.

Of SF's last five losses they've had the lead going into the 9th in three of them and their blown-leads stats are just as bad going back a few months now.
They've also now lost 11 of the last 18 games that Bumgarner has started even though he has a sub-3.00 ERA over that time.

In all it was a good day for the Cardinals as they pick up a game on both WC teams. Miami also creeps a bit closer as they wait for someone to stumble.

[Zvon]

Johnny Cueto just left the Giants game with a groin injury.

Vin Scully ‏@VinScullyTweet
"The Giants are forced to the go to the bullpen, which is about the only way they want go there these days."

1-0 Giants in the 6th


Ha, I gotta play that back. Vin did a whole thing about thumb sucking.

[Zvon]

It must have been an old poem about thumb sucking. Damn, I'm gonna miss him.

I wonder in retirement, if he's sitting around the house watching a ball game, if he'll, just out of habit, call the play by play.

[Frayed Knot]

Cards @ Rox is a day game today (3:10) so we're going to be chasing their result for a change.
SF/LA at their usual late night time slot.

[Benjamin Grimm]

[Centerfield]

Go Rockies. 6-1 now.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Rockies are just spanking the Cards, 11-1 two outs, bottom of 7th.

[Benjamin Grimm]

It's over in Denver and the Cardinals have lost. At least we can be assured that today won't be the total disaster that yesterday was.