MLB general postseason 2020 thread

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?

Omg shut up about the free tacos.

pretty sure they embellish the sound. rays sticking with glasnow longer than i expected, although i guess turner will be his last batter

morbs is going to be furious about missing this game because no one started a world series thread

left him in way too long

Let’s see if they do the same with Kershaw.

Roberts can't possibly be insane enough to send Kershaw out, can he? You couldn't have a better situation to help him put this thing to rest. (Even if you end up losing the game, you'd still get something important in return...anyway, beginning to look moot.)

Yeah it’s safe to run him out there at this point

Don't get this at all. The difference between Kershaw leaving with a five-run lead after 5 or after 6 is nothing--either way, he pitched great. To give the Rays a chance to score a couple of runs next inning and bring to mind that again is pointless. I know you don't want to burn through the bullpen needlessly, but still.

Worked out ok!

It did, it did (6 pitches?). If Turner hadn't made that great play... (announcers pointed out Kershaw gave a rare smile).

he looks great, his pitch count was still very low and the dodgers pen only had one day off. i'd be tempted to let him start the 7th

I wouldn't--I'm going on the record!

Omg mookie

Mookie Betts.

What a game

Yeah no reason to bring Kershaw back.

Can't believe he took out Kershaw.

Jesus h Christ he almost threw it away

Is Globe Life the ugliest (exterior, at least) park in baseball now? It looks like a giant farm supply warehouse.

Indeed, it’s horrendous.

Love that the baseball world is united in mocking the Red Sox.

John Henry should have used the Mookie savings to sign another CB for Liverpool

Owners shouldn’t be allowed to own multiple teams.