2018 NLCS - Los Angeles Dodgers vs Milwaukee Brewers

Yes that catch was huge. I didn't think he was going to get there.

wow at machado kicking aguilar. fuck that guy

tbqh all the remaining teams are hard to root for

can't get with Milwaukee cuz I hate Moustakas, and they are clearly the weakest of the four

why do you hate moustakas? i don't think he even has a personality

left over from 2015 WS

lol it doesn't take much, Morbs

Machado’s heel turn might be his way of showing how well he can fit in with the Yankees next year

already a True Yankee

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25004441/milwaukee-brewers-outfielder-christian-yelich-calls-los-angeles-dodgers-star-manny-machado-dirty-player

also, Zach Davies has replaced Gio on the Brewers roster

I guess that's one way to get a fresh arm. Amusingly I think the Brewers are actually in a better spot, pen-wise - they got Woodruff and Cedeno, and of course Jeffress is gonna come out for at least one. Meanwhile the Dodgers used everyone last night. Difference of course being Kershaw. If Milwaukee can jump on him early again....

Last night's game ran so long that when Uecker tried to read the final sponsorship, he said "Ah, Christ, I can't find it" and signed off.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) October 17, 2018

max muncy at 2B today

one last point about last night's game - I see a lot of people saying the 'obvious' move was to walk Bellinger and Grandal to load the bases and face Urias with 2 outs, given the Dodgers bench was empty. but wouldn't whatever win probability added there be cancelled out by having to face the top three in the bottom of the 14th, which you'd have to pitch anyway? if you're up a run, or even if you're the home team and can walk it off, it makes some sense, but in the particular situation the Brewers were in, isn't it better to just take your chances with the ice cold Bellinger?

i think the major consideration was that counsell didn't want to move the winning run to third, where a walk or a wild pitch loses the game. i doubt that he was worrying at all about facing the top of the order with the bases empty next inning -- after all, they might have a five-run lead by then

not with the bottom of their lineup coming up. you're more likely to score 1 than every other (nonzero) total combined.

but yeah I do agree that it's no guarantee that Guerra gets out of that bases loaded situation, even when facing the pitcher. imagine if he gets 2-0 trying to get him to chase...even Urias could probably get a good swing on one down the middle.

i probably would have pitched to Bellinger.

also machado is a punk. i hope he signs for slightly less than the ridiculous amount of money he's probably going to sign for.

frogbs, "ice cold" has not been proven to exist. 0-for-whatever is not predictive, as Bellinger proceeded to demonstrate.

Nor has it been proven to not exist

It’s counterintuitive to suggest that players are never struggling with their timing with their mechanics or with their mental approach to hitting

That isn't suggested... just that we don't know / can't predict when that will end!

I feel its more akin to a poker player going on tilt, where bad results lead to bad play and therefore an increased likelihood of more bad results. Bellinger obviously isn't a .100 hitter or whatever but if he's frustrated and sad he's gonna be off his career numbers

not that it affects the calculation much, I think it's close either way but I'd be interested to see a Fangraph person take the question on

this doesn't exactly take it on, but there's some other stuff

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/cody-bellinger-wasnt-clutch-until-he-was

Machado was fined an undisclosed amount

now *that* is a quick hook

Holy shit Miley is already out lmao Counsell

Miley out after 5 pitches.

I hear an embolism in Toronto...

saving him for game six on full rest, get the dodgers lineup all wacky for a lefty? nice

Yeah I honestly wonder if that was the plan

Did Craig Counsell just take a page from Bucky Harris in the 1924 World Series?

Harris started righty Curly Ogden for one out in Game 7 to mess up John McGraw's lineup, then went to George Modridge: https://t.co/H7TixmpzFF

— Matt Kelly (@mattkellyMLB) October 17, 2018

i think it was definitely the plan; who knows if it will actually work

i had to lol at this quote:

Brewers manager Craig Counsell was asked after Game 4 whether Machado was going beyond the limits of playing hard and responded by saying: "I don't think he's playing all that hard."

Yeah on the radio it sounded like he might be hurt but he’s clearly not

Lol this is amazing

wanted to get Woodruff's bat in vs Kershaw

In Game 7 of the 1924 World Series, Washington's righty starter Curly Ogden was pulled for a lefty after two batters, to mess with New York's line-up. Here's how it played in the press.

whipping via psychology!!! pic.twitter.com/B29XYEUe3V

— Emma Baccellieri (@emmabaccellieri) October 17, 2018

Maaan did the Crew miss a big opportunity there

"whipping via psychology" would be a good politics thread title

That.....feels like game over

Was that Muncy’s first slide?

Hey Grandy finally got the big hit

I started this series more or less neutral, with maybe a slight preference for the Brewers. I've been rooting for L.A. since it got underway, though, because of Counsell's nonsense. Successful strategies are imitated, and I want this one to die an immediate death. (If someone wants to unearth it in another 94 years, have at it.)

saw the pivotal 6th and 7th (over an hour) in a bar. Corbin Burnes? Wasn't he on "L.A. Law"?

I hope no starters go more than 2 next year. FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE AAAAAAA-

xp wait you find counsell's strategies worse than machado deliberately kicking a first baseman's ankle?

I'd agree if the Brewers had the payroll of the Dodgers/Astros/Red Sox.

dirty play has a rich history; not letting a pitcher earn a "win" under 19th-century accounting schemes is meddling with the primal forces of nature!

speaking of dirty play having a rich history, feels like the machado incident would have been answered with a beanball in pretty much any game from the invention of baseball up to around 199X or so

even past that, a manager like larussa would've ordered a beaning, no doubt

Right in the beans

the machado incident *will* be answered with a beanball at some point when the stakes are lower, even if he's on a different team and even if it takes a couple years

Don't care about the pitcher-win (you would need that spelled out, of course). The Machado play is on Machado--I don't expect that will be imitated as a strategy. I just have this weird idea that the starters are, by and large, the best pitchers out there, and I like seeing them pitch deeper into the game than an endless procession of the guys who aren't, by and large, the best pitchers out there.

This strategy (Miley) isn't new at all, Jim Leyland famously pulled the same trick in the 1990 NLCS and I'm fairly sure it wasn't too uncommon during the era of Stengel's Yankees.