NLCS: Barves v Dodgers

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No problem--I've got my buttons like everyone else, and I'm just grappling with the whole then-vs.-now issue (my clunky translation of the dreaded cliche in circulation). Ridiculing something can be a first step in taking something down and getting rid of it, but yeah, Alomar and Gruber are just happy wiseguys who won a baseball game. Still find it it very refreshing.

I hear there's a baseball game going on.

<3

Oof.

walk them off

Did the Dodgers really have no choice in having a bullpen day to start the series?

idk, but feel like if they can win one of the first two they go home for 3, so they weren't putting all their cards on winning game one? keeping in mind, Walker, Max, and Julio each sort of needed another day to be fairly rested

and they came close to pulling it off!

Did the Dodgers really have no choice in having a bullpen day to start the series?

There wasn't much choice. Kershaw's injury leaves them with only three real starters. Urias and Scherzer pitched in G5 of the NLDS and Buehler in G4. Their only choices were starting Gonsolin and praying, Buehler on short rest again, or a bullpen game.

I have a dumb, do-you-even-pay-attention-anymore? question: is David Price not an option? I'm not even sure if he's on the roster--he was for the Giants series. He pitched sort of okay this year and could conceivably throw four or five good innings.

I suppose he'd essentially amount to a bullpen day anyway.

Not on the roster--that answers that.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/10/dodgers-remove-david-price-billy-mckinney-for-nlcs.html

He was ok this year but only started 1/3 of the games he was in. Maybe someone who follows the team closer could speak to how effective he was - but I feel like if they knew they were going to have a bullpen day for their first game they’d want someone who could throw more innings on the roster.
Tho I guess there was Gonsolin who did better over the season and threw 1.2 yesterday.

Looking at his splits, he was more effective as a starter--ERA under 4.00, WHIP and K/BB much better--but he still averaged under 4 inning per start, so I guess he wasn't a great option.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=priceda01&year=2021&t=p#sprel_extra

there’s a guy whose career has really petered out

it’s kind of too bad — he’s still league-average. on a different team he’d probably still get the opportunity to play, but then getting paid $32m to pitch 75 innings is also a nice spot to be in

I'd either forgotten or never knew he was part of the Mookie Betts trade...If only he'd built on his 2018--good year, great WS (I would have given him MVP)--he would have been back on track for the HOF, but he took a step back in 2019, sat out 2020, and now he's in the wilderness, likely never to return.

(The Red Sox got Verdugo in that trade: between Verdugo, Kiké Hernández, and Joc Pederson, it feels like the Dodgers vs. the ex-Dodgers right now.)

Now that's a home run.

can't watch a game at gentrification park without having the stupid racist chant in my head all night, wretched franchise

Barves

Barves?

Barves

Barves!

Barves

I chose to watch Dune instead - but that looked like a hell of an ending.

this is kinda the opposite of the regular season where the barves were losing it in the late innings.

538 still has the Braves (32%) and Dodgers (27%) pretty close to win the WS, though the Braves much higher to make the WS.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2021-mlb-predictions/?ex_cid=rrpromo

it is weird that the dodgers, who are 2 games away from elimination are at 27%, while the Sox, who are tied in their series are at 18%. i get that on paper they look like a better team, but this is baseball where anything can happen over 7-10 games and the dodgers are a full game closer to being eliminated... they're not *that* much better imho.

sportsbook odds are similar, so its necessarily a quirk in 538's algorithm. its weird to me b/c the Sox were in a really tough division

Maybe it’s a betting thirst trap.

Credit to Snitker for not pulling Morton too quickly after that 1st inning.

start Bauer in game 4 imo

We got a ballgame

MOOKIE

whoa apparently it's possible to win a game without using one of your 3 starters in relief

This series has been fantastic and I should probably watch one of these games!

I don't know what kind of magic potion Bellinger took to become awesome again in time for the playoffs. I think that was the third game this postseason where he almost singlehandedly bailed out his team.

Atlanta going up 2-0 and getting people exited is when it all starts to go wrong. I kept thinking last night of that World Series against Torre's Yanks when they crushed them in the first two games and then it went wrong.

Kind of a waste of some really good at bats early in the game building up that lead.

Today I learned Jesse Chavez is still pitching.

I believe urias to be broken

After yesterday, I thought the Dodgers had righted themselves and the Red Sox would come back.

It's blowing my mind that Urias is still out there.

refuse to use the term 'deep dive' but playoff pitcher usage has become completely insane and i want to see a

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MOOKIE P: IS MOOKIE B'S ETERNAL LEGACY ON THE LINE IN GAME 5?

MAX K: Are you literally condemning him to Hell if the Dodgers lose?

MOOKIE P: NOT NECESSARILY. BUT!

Good win, very good innings from Smyly. I hope Ynoa's shoulder injury isn't from another bad sparring partner choice.

Why does Joe Kelly look out of whack?

Don't really care who moves on to the WS, but I was really rooting for that fourth HR.

Quite the score they ran up. reminds me of the Jays tho… underperform for several games, then an explosion of runs for one or two games max, and then back choking.

didn't the Braves go up 3-1 vs. the Dodgers last year and blow it? this must be torture for them

The 3-HR list for postseason games:

1. HOF'ers: Ruth (twice), Reggie
2. Will be in the HOF: Pujols, Beltre
3. Probably would have been in the HOF...: Altuve
4. More or less good players: Taylor, Kiké Hernandez, Sandoval, Adam Kennedy
5. Two really good seasons, not much career-wise: Bob Robertson

Nothing to do with Joe Kelly, but I'm glad David Price has been reactivated. (I always root for Price because of his stint in Toronto--textbook for rent-a-players on how to comport yourself, even if he did vacate, as everyone knew he would. Probably helped that Tulowitzki arrived simultaneously, providing the textbook-from-hell for contrast.)

I feel like he got some pretty shabby treatment in Boston aswell.

i recall him being a dick in boston vis-a-vis eckersley

eckersley is hardly ego-free and maybe price was trying to protect his team but it didn't come across all that well (in the media, which would of course be anti-price, so . . . who knows)

https://www.mlb.com/news/max-scherzer-not-starting-nlcs-game-6

This is murky, but I don't see Price as having done anything especially terrible--he was defending a teammate.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/details-emerge-david-price-dennis-eckersley-feud/

Mind you, I've been anti-Eckersley for so long--probably the best player I've ever disliked--you'd pretty much have to harm his family dog for me to take his side on anything.

i remember that. i got it, but eck has a job to do just like price. he’s supposed to call it like he sees it. and nesn soft-pedals the shit out of everything. they’re the red sox pravda. maybe that’s why price felt betrayed? “hey the same person signs our checks!”

price should hear what they say on weei

Will have to see the replay; that looked way outside.

despite having the lead, feels like Luke Jackson just coughed up their WS chances.

lol the Barves brought out Travis Tritt to do the anthem fuck 'em Dodgers all the way baby

god everyone looks so fucking uncomfortable right now. I love this moment

wow, hell of a job by Matzek. might've helped the Dodgers to swing at one of those pitches

OH MY GOD matzek murdered betts

Awesome strikeout of Betts (Pujols, on the other hand, just looked terrible).

ya did not think he was gonna go right after him like that

Pitching plan for the rest of the game:

5th - Minter
6th - Matzek
7th - Matzek
8th - Matzek
9th - Martin if up by at least 15 runs, otherwise Matzek

— Troll (@CapitolAvenue) October 24, 2021

am I wrong or is the home plate ump’s strike zone absolute garbage all around?

hat tip for using “atliens” to return from the commercial break

garbage franchise and i hope they lose in 4 but happy for matzek and his comeback story

happy happy joy joy

legit appalled they’re wearing the tomahawk jersey at this point

"No World Series team in the history of baseball had ever gone as many games into a season without ever having a winning record as this team went. And it’s not even close."

https://theathletic.com/2909386/2021/10/24/theres-never-been-a-world-series-team-quite-like-these-braves-jayson-starks-weird-and-wild/

It wasn't till their 111th game that the Braves went above .500. (I immediately checked the '73 Mets--they started out 4-0.)

Rosario ended up hitting .560/.607/1.040 for the series. Don’t think anyone saw that coming.

this fuckin guy

Sweet revenge: MLB took the All-Star Game out of Georgia but the World Series is still coming South with Atlanta celebrating its first trip to the Fall Classic since 1999. https://t.co/h12BJi3PZZ

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 24, 2021

Travis Tritt was also posturing about it all too I saw. F'n lame.

538/Nate Silver has the Series 50-50. I'd say that's about right, although I'd give a slight edge to the Astros because of home field--52/48, say.

go braves

No World Series thread???