Lackey outpitched Verlander - who’d’ve thunk it?
Is that any different from the NLCS, where Kelly outpitched Greinke, Wacha outpitched Kershaw, and Ryu outpitched Wainwright?
They do switch off each year. I suppose the idea is that one pre-World Series series on national broadcast is all the baseball the masses want.
I hadn’t realized. I watch both series, but I don’t remember from year to year what was on what.
WHy is Withrow still pitching for LAD? He’s freaking lucky. Whew!
Not me. I thought the Sox would have to rough up Verlander to stay in this game. Never trusted Lackey. But he tossed a gem.
I love the win, but I’m still piping hot that they didn’t bunt Drew to 3rd in the 8th with no outs. That was the most obvious no brainer and it could have cost them huge.
Dang! It just doesn’t look like the Dodgers can hit at all. First four batters are 1-11 ?? The pitching on both sides of NLCS is great, especially the Dodger starters! But if the Dodgers can pull this around, they have to stop swinging at anything that looks like a baseball. Make the pitchers pitch to YOU!
For the Cards to close this, get a few hits more than the blue guys. Like, eight? Ugh. I’m rooting for the local Blue out west here anyway.
Either way, very excited for Jake Peavy throwing for the Sox tomorrow. (Love his amplifiers! :D) Let’s make this 3-1.
GO SOX!!!
Can anyone explain how Jay got on base in the middle of the Cards/Dodgers game? Something about catcher’s interference? I’m not familiar with the rule, and didn’t follow the explanation on the radio.
P.S. Thanks to whoever pointed out that Fox switches off which LCS it broadcasts.
It looked like his bat hit Ellis’ glove as Ellis reached forward to catch the pitch. That’s interference by the catcher, so he was awarded first base.
Well, on the plus side, we’ve got Greinke and hopefully Kershaw going for the Dodgers the next couple of games. On the other hand, we’re on the brink.
The Dodgers are on the verge of establishing a really unfortunate pattern. In their last playoff appearances, back in 2008 and 2009, they found themselves down two games to one in the NLCS (both times against the Phillies). Both times, they played very, very competitively in Game 4, but came out on the losing end (thank you, Jonathan Broxton). And both times, down three games to one, they came out lifeless in Game 5, losing 5-1 and 10-4, respectively.
I don’t really expect them to roll over today. They are a very different team then they were back then, and they weren’t sporting Cy Young winners pitching in consecutive games. But if they continue to average under two runs of offense per game, they are in danger of exiting the playoffs at what is becoming a familiar point.
Oh, and the salt in the wound was having it take 65 minutes to get out of the parking lot last night despite being on the earlier side of getting to the car after the game.
A frightening statistic flashed up on ESPN this morning: the Cardinals have been up 3-1 in the LCS twice. Not only have they lost both times, but in those six games they have been outscored 52-2.
I don’t think such statistics have any meaning, but that’s pretty sad.
I feel comfortable saying that either the Cardinals’ pattern or the Dodgers’ pattern will be broken today. 
It’s a totally different team now than it was then. Also, not to be all doom and gloom about this series but; Ethier, Ramirez, and Kemp are all so hurt that they either can’t play at all or are playing at very diminished capacity. Ramirez was out there swinging with cracked ribs (and looked like it). Next year, they should be healthier, and Puig is only going to get better, Gonzales will continue to be steady and maybe we get a real 2B (I hear that they are in, for the third time, on Guerrero in Cuba…but he’s a Boras client now so who knows.)
Then look at their pitching. Jansen is nails. Ryu is fantastic. Kershaw and Greinke are two of the best in the game, Kershaw may be one of the best ever. They are stocking up the farm system after McCourt destroyed it.
This is a team that should be good for a while. Even if, right now, they are all bums.
“Wait till next year.” Right?
I acknowledged that very thing in my post!
Although I agree with all of your points, I’m not quite ready for that, yet. The thought of pulling my hair out for another six months makes me a little ill right now. And yet, in a matter of hours, I may not have a choice.
I hope Puig will be better; I hope someone teaches him how to run the bases. In the game before last he failed to slide into second to break up the double play. Last night he failed to dodge the tag between second & third until Ethier could get on first. Hasn’t anyone shown him these techniques?
Might have been a different game last night if any one of the three had been healthy; I think if Ramirez could have swung the bat it might have been a different game.
And as a former Cubs and Dodgers fan and current Rangers fan, I am all too familiar with Wait Until Next Year. Ugh.
Well, the first night the shortstop was already over six feet away from the bag, which means Puig would have to do an illegal slide to take him out.
And last night? Ethier was on base when Puig hit.
I think the answer is genuinely no, they haven’t. It’s a different game in Cuba, you aren’t allowed to watch non Cuban baseball, and he hadn’t played for a couple of years when he came to the states. I really think he doesn’t know and is having to learn in the bigs. This is why I think he is going to keep getting better, this is clearly not his talent ceiling.
Sorry, there are too many other anecdotes about Puig being a prick to blame it on Cuban culture. ‘Sokay, it ain’t braggin’ if’n y’all can do it.
He hasn’t exactly been a Profile In Courage in his previous Boston years, has he? Still isn’t stand-up enough even to admit he let himself get out of shape before last winter and contributed to his own injury history, no matter what everyone could see. But he’s certainly made himself ready mentally as well as physically for *this *October, so the past no longer matters. Lester snapped back from the fried chicken situation, too. A bit of clubhouse leadership and a takes-no-shit manager did the trick.
With Greinke going today, the money line is LAD -177. That seems huge for a playoff game.
Regarding the Sox/Tigers, if I may pull a McCarver here…both teams’ pitchers’ scouting report is as good as their hitters’ scouting report is bad.
Those are different. Him bat flipping and pimping out a triple, that is all him. Him not hitting the cut off man or breaking up a double play, that’s Cuba. He’s getting better about fundamentals but there is still a bunch he didn’t learn. I dont think the other stuff is going away, but I dont really care.