2023 ALCS: Texas Rangers vs. Houston Astros

Could get anything from Scherzer. Like Verlander and Kershaw, he's had his postseason issues. Verlander: good in the playoffs (16-6, 2,92), terrible in the WS (1-6, 5.63). Kershaw: bad across the board (13-13, 4.49, little difference between the playoffs and WS). Scherzer: all over the place (good in divisional series, terrible in three wild-card starts, average in the WS), cumulatively so-so (7-7, 3.58). When you add up all three guys you get 37-32, 3.88, over 500 innings.

Greinke, same thing: 113 IP, 4-6, 4.14. All four: 661 IP, 41-38, 3.92.

(Madly killing time. I'm in a class I've been in before, a quiet 7/8 where the teacher leaves them six hours of independent work. 30 minutes so far that feels like four hours.)

Barry Zito has an ERA of 2.83 over 60 postseason innings

I guess it's the uniformity that makes those four unusual: the four "generational" pitchers of their era, problems across the board. I've been looking at others, and it's more of a mixed bag. With the '90s group, Clemens/Maddux/Johnson/Pedro/Schilling/Glavine/Smoltz, there's a wide spectrum. The '70s group, Seaver/Carlton/Palmer/Ryan/Sutton/Niekro, same thing (and, of course, much smaller sample sizes by then). Gibson/Koufax, a league of their own.

No conclusion. Killing time!

Yeah sorry I’m being cheeky, I’m waiting to go to the beach. But new immaculate grid should be out now!

I'm of course working on that too...You and the others are forcing me to focus even more on low rarity.

It's kind of charming to think of the Cubs as measured from their 2016 arc onwards. I was at Game 7 of the 2003 NLCS 20 years ago yesterday. By the time of James Loney's grand slam, I had no more tears to cry. Winning a World Series in 2016 cleansed all their sins. I've even forgiven Dusty Baker. Like the Kens, they are enough.

― felicity, Monday, October 16, 2023 2:38 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

all true. the Cubs in all honesty probably have performed to expectations extremely well, sometimes exceeding them, but weirdly never disappointing me except for the 2003 heartbreak. even with that, in retrospect, looking at that lineup one can see they were probably playing a bit above their heads and had some holes even their other truly great players couldn't quite compensate for. the world series team was the best regular season team and played like it, in other years they weren't and they did just fine. 2017 didn't matter since i'm pretty sure we were all still feeling the glorious hangover from 2016, i felt like Scrooge waking up on Xmas morning for half a decade after that.

Is it Scherzday yet?

Many people are saying this

If he pitches a gem and gets the W, I’ll be dancing in the streets. Three to O, let’s go!

"You have to score." -- Derek Jeter

steve cohen says - you're welcome

As always, baseball’s disappointment comes back to the Mets

Scherzer washed

Looks like we've got a series

4 innings is more than enough time for the rangers to score three runs. One can hope

perfect set up for a bases loaded bottom of the 9th two outs setup

Missed the first few innings for tennis, saw the hit that broke up the no-hitter. Was excited by Javier's low pitch count and the theoretical chance he might pitch one all by himself, but also rooting against another combined one. "I couldn't fake excitement in 2022--I'm a year older and even crankier now." Amazing catch off Alvarez...they found a way to stop him.

perfect set up for a bases loaded bottom of the 9th two outs setup

Saw some video of Scherzer and Bochy in the dugout--was he angry about being removed?

We'll see, but this does fit Posnanski's theory of ultimately fruitless pecking-away.

Just from the little I've seen, the Rangers are fortunate they're not down six runs.

yea Houston has 8 runs but there was also like what 5 warning track balls? one of which was surely going to be a home run if not for Taveras doing some Spider Man shit? they're smacking the cover off it

So he's not Willie Wilson to boot, what do you want?

Atta boy Garver

Let’s go Lowe

Well, it’s not what you want:

Reason #112 to hate the Astros: you have to watch a closeup of the inside of Dusty’s mouth as he graciously tongues a toothpick. Disgusting

Burt Young's Sopranos episode: "Another Toothpick."

It was nice of the Rangers to build a giant Tractor Supply that apparently favors Astros hitters' abilities in every way.

Wow

The angle on this catch >>> #ALCS pic.twitter.com/l2uOd3Urci

— MLB (@MLB) October 19, 2023

xp all I heard was that the Astros can’t hit at home, which iirc is supported by their W-L record there. This should in theory mean they get knocked out when the series goes back to Houston. 🤞🏻

from Sheehan’s newsletter:

Left-on-Left Violence (best LHB against LHP, since 1914, min 500 PA)

                 PA    AVG   OBP  SLG OPS
Babe Ruth      2787   .320  .453  .663 1116
Barry Bonds    4147   .289  .417  .569 986
Lou Gehrig     2274   .302  .401  .579 980
Yordan Alvarez  731   .301  .382  .565 947
Ted Williams   1984   .312  .431  .495 927

well i tried

Sheesh that was fast

Too fast

Love that group of hitters in the table above--best snapshot I've seen yet of how great Alvarez really is.

Hell yeah

Get that banana man out of there lol

Beautiful piece of ugly hitting. All arm, swinging at a ball at the shoulders, hits it well out

Don’t really like that home plate cam on hit batters

Bases loaded and no outs

I thought he had it

Damn, I wanted that to go out.

(Because it was Alvarez--Abreau's HR is just a HR, although he's underappreciated too.)

that was a bomb by abreu my lord

Bergman

Verlander is pitching, can't believe we are already five games into this.

I’m so sick of Justin Verlander

Jordan Montgomery… could get it????

Jeter is boring ffs

It's officially felt hat season in Texas 🤠😉@kevinburkhardt | @AROD | @davidortiz | @derekjeter pic.twitter.com/3FUY8ONrqq

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 20, 2023