2016 AL Wild Card: Baltimore Orioles vs.Toronto Blue Jays

Never realized how big Matt Sisters is playing catcher. He is huge.

Spellcheck from Wieters...

Bautista's a free agent at the end of the year! Gotta show up in the playoffs.

kinda rooting for a 17-inning, 14-13 game won by a position player pitching

― mookieproof, Monday, October 3, 2016 4:21 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh don't even with the "kinda" you're rooting for this with every fiber of yr being

(it would be kinda amusing tbh)

stroman looks p solid thus far

holy crap i hate this ump

I was just going to say: he's been consistent, but he sure is giving both pitchers a couple of inches on the low outside corner.

oh i'm not talking about his zone, just the sounds he makes

i swear i never hear Ron Darling bring up this 'shutdown inning' crap on Mets games

and Ripken, what it means is Torre shoulda used Rivera the same way in big regular season games too

tfw you step away and come back to see manny hitting a HR but it's just goddamn midseason footage and he's not even at-bat

really isn't enough talk about the chances of the benches clearing tonight

oof laser

great catch by Pillar.

TBS convinced we need to see homers replayed from the worst seat in the house

should have voted orange and black :-)

so you agree with Seinfeld that it's just "rooting for laundry"

this ump does sound like an ump from a video game announcing balls and strikes

Still not used to those rec league-looking O's hats.

four innings in just 70 minutes WTF?

Stroman is working quickly, and Jays are swinging at everything tonight.

Dangerous inning coming up. This is where Gibbons tries to squeeze too much out of Stroman and the game gets out of hand.

Trading him certainly made sense at the time, but if the Mariners could have gotten more for Trumbo than a racist dipshit...

next inning, Cal will list managers who like making outs on the bases.

is this on goddamn ESPN Radio?

he should of had that one.

lol at not scoring too

yep yep

Tillman finally pitching the way i expected him to when i picked him for the negative fantasy team

Good omen. Jays have done nothing but leave those runners on second and third the past month.

tie game, turning into a good game.

that double play, jesus.

For about the fourth time on this thread, I must now tell myself to shut the fuck up.

wasn't really expecting tillman to get pulled there

that too-hard-hit tying single might've been the omen

disappointed buck left tillman in that long, pleasantly surprised he pulled him that soon

Fuck that DP. Worst possible time. Now it's a battle of bullpens in a tie game, and every Jay will try to be a hero and hit a home run rather than try to get on base. Big advantage to Baltimore.

STROMAN going through the order for a third time WTF????

doing fine so far

@jonahkeri
Orioles pitching givens, Orioles pitching takens away

tried to make a similar play on words but not as good as my compatriot.

I'm still in shock that they left Stroman in to face Trumbo with a man on.

If anyone can fill me in on one reason to feel good about this situation, please speak up.

Glad to know tbs will play some march madness games.

that was the fastest wieters has ever run

‏@JeffPassan

Jonathan Schoop career:

vs. RHP: .247/.274/.455
vs. LHP: .216/.260/.294

Jays just took out a LHP for RHP to face Schoop with LHH on deck.

i mean those numbers still suck

gj martin

That's way down on the list of questionable Jays decisions tonight.

How in the world does a converted shortstop look like peak Dennis Eckersley out there?

the issue was that he was drafted as a shortstop and shouldn't have been, i remember that being a real shock at the time

he is also garbage against lefties. i have no idea how he was able to get 6 straight righties

Ah, Blue Jays fans.

This might be instructive:

http://www.si.com/vault/1955/08/08/604885/the-question-who-is-or-was-the-hardest-pitcher-for-you-to-hit

I'm going to go through that tonight and see what these guys actually did against the pitchers they cite.

gotcha qualx, not a pattern. mlb.com:

"On a certain level, it shouldn't be all that surprising that Showalter didn't use Britton. Like many managers, he has typically refused to put his closers into tie games on the road. Britton entered in a tie game away from home just once all season, which was against the Blue Jays on July 31, when he pitched the ninth and 10th innings of a 2-2 tie (Baltimore went on to win, 6-2, in 12 innings). And that was somewhat of an outlier as he hadn't pitched for five consecutive days before that."

And he looks like such a pleasant guy.

http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/newsreleases/36107

He actually looks like a younger Tim Kaine...

http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/10/05/alleged-blue-jays-beer-thrower-identified-ken-pagan.html

gotcha qualx, not a pattern. mlb.com:

"On a certain level, it shouldn't be all that surprising that Showalter didn't use Britton. Like many managers, he has typically refused to put his closers into tie games on the road. Britton entered in a tie game away from home just once all season, which was against the Blue Jays on July 31, when he pitched the ninth and 10th innings of a 2-2 tie (Baltimore went on to win, 6-2, in 12 innings). And that was somewhat of an outlier as he hadn't pitched for five consecutive days before that."

― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, October 5, 2016 11:43 AM (nine hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow, whopping sample size of 4 whole games

lol let's see how Buck handles him for the next 20 years, i guess

But while Showalter stated in the postgame press conference that his decision wasn’t based on some philosophical issue, the 11th inning suggests differently. Because the only way you rationalize letting Jimenez face Edwin Encarnacion is if you’re dead set against using your closer in a tie game on the road.

Now, here’s the crazy part: no team in baseball history has ever had a better option for this specific situation than the 2016 Orioles....

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-craziest-part-of-showalters-crazy-decision/

https://twitter.com/CespedesBBQ/status/786987856740974592