MLB general postseason 2020 thread

thank you for your effort

I can never root for the Braves.

I'm rooting for the Braves tonight. Lots of players I like on the Dodgers--Kershaw, Jansen, Betts (who doesn't really feel like a Dodger yet)--but either I'm tired of them, or the teenage Reds fan from the '70s is still there.

That crazy season's-end I was trying to remember was 2011; it involved the Rays, but it wasn't the year they went to the Series (2008).

Rooting for Ronald, Ozzie, Freddie, Dansby, et al.

That was the year there was like 2 teams that were down to their last out and managed to rally back, correct?

Amazing finish.

https://www.mlb.com/news/remembering-dramatic-final-day-of-2011-season

Lot of guys to root for in Atlanta, Acuna is one of my favorite players, but the logo, the name, the chop, I have to draw a line.

Plus, I really don’t want Kershaw to join the list of greats who never won a World Series.

2011, the night of Robert Andino!

at least, despite the silly playoffs, we're going to get world series teams that belong there

Dustin May can't throw a strike. Pretty scary.

Absolute fastest I've ever seen a pitcher called to the bullpen. 6 pitches into the game.

wow, i didn't even get a chance to turn the game on yet and he's already out?!

oh, i see he's not removed yet.

He's still pitching but yeah poor phrasing on my part: 6 straight balls from May and Roberts got a guy up and throwing in the pen.

8 straight balls to lead off the game (allowing a steal in the process) and then gives up an RBI single was all you missed.

Weird how the Dodgers have a pitching staff that always ~~feel thin this season.

sitting on a park bench

What are your guys' thoughts of Travis d'Arnaud batting cleanup for the Barves?

Will definitively work very well vs the Rays staff.

interesting double play.

Riley trying to innovate the sliding skill.

Mookie Betts.

lotta walks dawg

Cody Bellinger - mistakes were made

Rays vs Dodgers

barves gonna barves

at least, despite the silly playoffs, we're going to get world series teams that belong there

otm

go TBR

battle of the #1 seeds was my rhetorical nightmare but good for them, rooting for kershaw to get his smile back

acuna and albies will have many opportunities going forward i hope

Glad for Mookie, but it sucks that the Giants aren't going to be competitive in the West for a long long time.

ah well -- go Rays.

atlanta got pretty dang close to knocking out the dodgers. they're a fun team to watch.

i fucking love Urias.

Not just the #1 seeds, but, in a playoff designed for anything but, the two best records in baseball. How many times has that happened in the WC era? Not many, I'm guessing.

if you're trying to trick me into doing the math on that...

for only the fourth time in the wild-card era (since 1995), the teams with the best record in each league will meet in the World Series.

expect Manfred to bury the chances of it happening more frequently

(xpost) Close to what I meant, but it's possible that the two best records came out of the same league in one of those years (probably not, but possible); the Dodgers and Rays had the two best records this year.

Seeing as I asked the question...The two best records across both leagues has only happened twice post-WC: 1995 (Atlanta/Cleveland) and 2013 (Boston/St. Louis).

I assume Kershaw gets the G1 start on normal rest? My usual rooting interest with the Dodgers in there: two great starts from Kershaw (even if five innings), Tampa for the series.

i’m still thinking about willy adames’ pick in the first inning of game 7

https://www.mlb.com/video/willy-adames-slick-sliding-stop

it wasn't even that close!

forever unfathomable to me how hard they can throw

I want kiermeier to get a ring

I just want the dumb Kershaw narrative to end. 'Clutchness' as a concept is the plague.

For as long as he mixes in the occasional great game with lots of games where he seems to lose it in the middle innings, I don't think it will. Lots of back and forth on this in the Kershaw thread. As I said there: I don't think it's clutch or character or anything as ephemeral as that, but I do think there's good reason to believe that he presses in certain situations, and that--a totally human thing--that ends up feeding upon itself.

And, as is often pointed, his manager could have circumvented some of that by removing him a little earlier.

"pointed out"

saw somewhere that in kershaw's playoff career, the bullpen has allowed 70% of runners inherited from him to score (average seems to be about 41%)

Didn't know that was that high--obviously part of it. A lot of home runs, though.

Three ways I could see a pitcher pressing: over-thinking, second-guessing himself (related to the first), over-throwing. Same with a batter (substitute over-swinging), although I would think the mind games might affect a pitcher more.

With 11,000 people there, are the sounds I'm hearing actual (and only) crowd noise, or do they embellish?