NLDS IST - Cubs vs Nationals

[Frayed Knot]

The start of this one pretty much got ignored with the lengthy Yanqui game on Friday night (this one almost ended first despite starting 2-1/2 hours later).
Strasburg carried a no-hitter into the 6th but got done in by 2 unearned runs while the Nats bats got no-nit from the 3rd thru 9th innings making the Cubs the first and so far only road team to win a game
in this year's playoffs.
Cubs 3 - Nats 0


Game 2 (5:30) will see a couple of lefties on the mound. Gio Gonzalez for the Nats as they continue to be cagey about the condition of Scherzer's hamstring (or ankle, or knee, or whatever).
Jon Lester, not exactly pitching his best ball down the stretch, for the Cubs

[Chad ochoseis]

Looks like the Superfans are in attendance and one of them caught Rizzo's home run.

[Fman99]

Bummer of an ending today.

[Chad ochoseis]

Yeah. But on the bright side, the Cubs lost.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Only good outcome in this series for me is they both don't advance.

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

I'm rooting for the Nats. I really only dislike teams if they're wildly successful and win lots of championships or if they interfere with the Mets success, and the Nats haven't really done either considering that the Mets have basically shot themselves in the foot every season since the Nats got good in 2012 (excepting of course, the one season when the Mets easily defeated the Nats for the NL East title).

[Frayed Knot]

GAME 3

The Cubs first hit of the day, a one-out double in the 7th by Ben Zobrist, is Scherzer's last pitch of the game. He had also walked three and hit one
Nats lead 1-0 thanks to a double error by LF Kyle Schwarber -- first he dropped Murph's fly ball, then he kicked it. Murph wound up on 3rd and Zimmerman followed with a two-out double.

[Frayed Knot]

And the bullpen move fails as the Cubs tie the game!!

[Edgy MD]

Scherzer should still be out there.

[Frayed Knot]

Dusty went out there and chatted for a while before making the switch, which at least made it look like he went out there without his mind made up and just didn't like what he heard.

And now the Cubs have gone ahead on a blooper into no-man's land.
Heading to the 9t, 2-1 Chicago

[Edgy MD]

Man, Nats.

[bmfc1]

One more and the Nationals are gone! Go Cubs Go and you can fly that stupid flag and let your yuppie, front running fans go nuts! Just one more win and all the idiot Nationals fans (redundant) can go under a rock until April. Do it Maddon!!!

[Fman99]

I always base this kind of thing on how many obnoxious fans of a team I know, online and in real life. And I know enough boisterous Nats fans to make me hope they lose. I don't know any Cubs fans personally and the few friends I have online that are Cubs fans (I used to travel to Iowa for work) are decent enough.

[Frayed Knot]

Nat bats are hitting .121/.200/.231 across the three games so far and have scored 7 runs in total - 5 of them in one inning.
Cubs are barely hitting better but they even survived making four errors in yesterday's game.

And tonight (5:40) they put their season in the hands of Tanner Roark [13-11; 4.67]

[bmfc1]

Lots of rain in the forecast. A rainout would allow WSH to skip Roark and then go Scherzer, Gonzalez.

[G-Fafif]

The winner of this series will face the Dodgers, which isn't a scoop, but we didn't have a Dodgers-D'Backs thread, so it seemed worth acknowledging L.A. swept Arizona in their series.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yay for Granderson, boo for Utley.

[HahnSolo]

bmfc1 wrote: Lots of rain in the forecast. A rainout would allow WSH to skip Roark and then go Scherzer, Gonzalez.

Strasburg would potentially start game 4 on three days rest. Rainout or not, if this series goes five he's getting another start.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, I think bmfc meant [u:3tpx6v23]Strasburg[/u:3tpx6v23] & Gio rather than Scherzer who went just yesterday.
And now the game HAS been postponed until Wednesday so we'll find out soon enough how they, or the Cubs for that matter, will adjust their rotations.

[G-Fafif]

Mr. Baker says he's sticking with Roark, as Strasburg is under the crappy weather.

[Frayed Knot]

Meaning they'll have the Strasburg / Scherzer tag team combo if they get to Game Five, but of course first they'll have to survive Game Four and considering this team is Oh-for-forever in do or die
games it would be pretty tough to go out in Round One for the fourth time in six years with your fourth starter on the mound.

[bmfc1]

Frayed Knot wrote: Yeah, I think bmfc meant Strasburg & Gio rather than Scherzer who went just yesterday. And now the game HAS been postponed until Wednesday so we'll find out soon enough how they, or the Cubs for that matter, will adjust their rotations.

Yes, that's what I meant. I despise all of them so much that I get their names confused.

[bmfc1]

Nationals dysfunction. So sad:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/stephen-strasburg-and-nationals-commit-biggest-error-of-the-season/2017/10/11/fdcab2de-ae81-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?utm_term=.58582c256f9a

[Ceetar]

Man, only the disfunctional Mets could screw up a game 4 starter situation this badly.


Strasburg apparently IS starting now.

Were the Nats shamed into starting him? Is he going to literally pass out on the mound? only time will tell.

[G-Fafif]

Unlike most of the rest of the Washington, the Nationals are capable of changing their minds: Strasburg now reportedly will start Game Four.

[G-Fafif]

Chicago Tribune update, including lots of David Ross bashing Strasburg.

Former Cubs catcher David Ross, said Tuesday night on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight," the original decision by Strasburg not to start makes “the whole organization look bad.” Ross called Strasburg’s ailment “the sniffles" in downplaying his sickness. “For me, as a teammate and the guy that I rely on, your guy, your No. 1 starter, says ‘I’ve got the sniffles and I can’t go?’” Ross said. “I’m like ‘What? They asked you to go. We gave you $175 million dollars, if I’m the manager of that team and I ask you to take the ball… “There’s not one dude that doesn’t want the ball in the playoffs. You want to know why the Washington Nationals can’t get over the hump? That tells tells me a lot about him. I don’t know about that clubhouse, but that tells me a lot about him if these reports are true.” Ross suggested Strasburg is a bad teammate. "If I’m his teammate and I walk in the clubhouse the next day, I can’t make eye contact with this dude,” Ross said. “This is as bad as it gets for me as a teammate.”

[Frayed Knot]

So yesterday it wasn't raining at start time but they held off anyway.
Today is IS raining in Chicago but they started right on time.

[Ceetar]

Stras 1-2-3 on 16 pitches. let's see how long he can go before the drugs wear off.

[bmfc1]

Lester gives up a hit so alleged genius Maddon takes out Lester for POS Carl Edwards who can't throw a strike. Maddon fucked up this inning by taking out Lester. What an idiot.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Guest

[Guest d'Kong76]

Sir Werthnotsomuch needs to start swinging at inning-ending third strikes if
these assclowns have a prayer. Second time was with bases juiced.