Correction: Melacon pitched a scoreless inning in the 7-1 win.
I don’t know what i was thinking. Clearly, i was typing out of my ass.
Actually, the Cards bullpen has been pretty damn good since the first two months of the season (most of whom are now gone - Rzep, Boggs, etc). The problem today was that somehow Matheny managed to use the worst pitchers available (Maness, Axford and Martinez) and got some bad luck from the good ones (seriously, check out Siegrist’s numbers this year). If only anybody besides Beltran could hit…
Now the Cards just need to win one and then hand the ball to Wainwright. Easier said than done, I guess, but I’ve seen this team in worse situations over that last couple of years and they seem to pull it out more often than not.
And if not, hat tip to the Pirates and time to prepare for defending the division title.
Dodger Stadium, right field. “2014 Silverado”.
Da fuck?
Is this an ad, or are they running a “Hit the truck, win the truck” deal?
They planted that there about a month ago, as far as we’ve noticed. There has never been any in-game mention of it (either on TV or in the stadium in person). There’s one in left field, too. I was assuming it was a giveaway for Fan Appreciation Day, but since it’s still there during the postseason, I haven’t got a clue.
In other news, what a great night to be at the stadium! Glad to see the Dodger fans come out in force, and with energy (although imitating the idiotic tomahawk chop was incredibly lame). Great times!
I’m jealous, but unified in our happiness. Now, which Nolasco will we get tomorrow?
It’s interesting. I’m not overly concerned about it since we’d have Kershaw going in Game 5 back in Atlanta if necessary. I think our odds of winning this series now are really high. But it would be really nice to see Good Nolasco pitch today and make us a little more comfortable with a four-man rotation in the NLCS, if we get there.
Clinching today would be nice because the team wouldn’t have to travel until Thursday at the earliest, and maybe not at all if the Pirates end up winning their series (go, Bucks!). If the Pirates and Dodgers win, the NLCS starts at Dodger Stadium on Friday. But it would also mean that Kershaw and Greinke wouldn’t have pitched in a game in eight days. Hard to tell if that’s too much rest for them, but at this point in the season, I’d hope that a couple of extra days would be all positive, and not so much rest that it’s not like missing an entire turn in the rotation for either of them.
But that’s all far in the future, and not the worst problem to have if we get there. Let’s focus on winning Game 4 tonight!
And after a perfect start to fall with weeks of the greatest baseball weather seen here in Detroit in October, the flip got switched and it will be windy, grey, and wet just in time for the actual game.
Just announced - Kershaw gets the start today on three days rest. Hope that works out.
It usually doesn’t, unfortunately.
I don’t get why they’re moving Kershaw up. They still have Game 5 when he can go on not-short-rest. Why do this?
I don’t get it either. Of course, they’d like to win tonight. I get that part. But I don’t think they are improving their odds of winning the series through this move.
Shhhhhhh everyone. We’re trying to keep this on the DL for the time being, but the A’s just took a 2-1 lead in the ALDS. Now nobody more than me is more aware of the Athletics long and infamous history of blowing leads in series but… let me you all in on a secret. They’re pretty good. Maybe not as good as the Rangers or the Angels, but still pretty good.
As a Braves fan, I agree. Kershaw looked unbeatable before–maybe, just maybe, he won’t be now.
Phew. Cardinals just won Game 4. I was nervous there for a while, when Trevor Rosenthal, acting closer, threw his seventh ball in a row with Andrew McCutcheon at the plate.
That was an exciting game. I wish it would have gone to extra innings, but oh well. Wacha was amazing today. I am really impressed with him. The Cards seem to be able to find rookie pitchers every year that have great arms.
He had the Pirates on their heels all day. Charlie Morton pitched a great game, too. I was pleased with his performance. Both pitchers made one mistake, Wacha’s came with no one on, that’s the difference in the game.
4 hits between the two teams, Wacha throwing 7.1 one-hit ball.
OK, AJ Burnett. Time to step up and have the game of your life.
Stupid, stupid move. Wasteful and unnecessary. If it works it makes the team weaker for the NLCS, if it doesn’t then they burned their best pitcher and exposed him to exponential injury risk for no reason.
I don’t hate the Kershaw thing quite as much as I usually would, because of the way the schedule works out: the ‘backup’ plan for game 5 is Greinke on full rest. If the goal is to have the best chance to win this series, there’s an argument that Kershaw-short plus Greinke-full is a better chance of winning one game than Nolasco and Kershaw both on full. It’s not ironclad, but at least it’s an argument, especially with how Nolasco has pitched lately. Then, on top of that, if you win tonight with Kershaw on short rest, you get Greinke and Kershaw both on full rest for games 1 and 2 of the NLCS because of how the scheduling works out, which is pretty much best case for that series at this point.
That said, I still hate it a decent bit, because the possible increased injury risk (especially with 124 pitches in his last start!) probably outweighs any small gain in expected advance %.
Agreed. Damn, Cutch was tuned in on that 3-0 pitch to win the game and the series. He just missed it. It’s been a hell of a series, and a hell of a season for the Bucs. I want it to keep going, but I can’t see any Pirates fan bitching about much of anything if it doesn’t work out tomorrow.
My dumbass friends are wanting to start Cole on 2 fucking days of rest. No way. A.J. is the veteran. Let’s give him the shot.
It won’t be AJ - it will be Cole, on normal rest (two off days).
The amazing thing about Wacha/Martinez/Rosenthal (all three pitchers for the Cards today were under 23 I think) is that Shelby Miller is probably better than all three and hasn’t pitched at all this postseason.
ETA: I should maybe add that as Cards fan I would love another shot at Burnett. Using the better pitcher (Cole) is the obvious choice, I think, veteran moxie be damned.
My softball team’s better than the Angels.
I think the A’s are definitely the second best team in the AL, after the Red Sox, which probably makes them the second best team in the major leagues. I see no reason they can’t win it all. What a team they’ve built out of seemingly thin air.