The dumb thing is that throughout the season, everything with Ortiz was relatively more restrained, both in the local and national media. There were articles and features, of course, but it seemed like they had learned from the over saturation of the last few times we’ve done this.
… but now they get to introduce the “story” to all the new eyes who ignore baseball until the playoffs, so it will absolutely be 24/7 as long as the Sox are in it. I’m a fan and I’m already sick of it. Though the Martinez-Ortiz conversation in Spanish was kind of cool.
Toronto’s offense may not have been impressive statistically throughout the year but they can easily put 5-8 runs up in a game with their power. Texas’ pitching is not necessarily that fearsome, either, so the Rangers will have to match Toronto’s firepower, or they’ll be watching the ALCS. I suspect Texas will bounce back and put up some runs of their own but we’ll just have to see I reckon.
I feel like Bauer has been throwing a lot of pitches these first few innings. I also feel like that’s a piece of data that a modern network broadcast would have on the screen somewhere.
So… every Sox/Indians game this year was finishing up by about now, and we’re through all of 5 innings? Now I remember what I don’t like about playoff baseball. Also about being in my 30s and a responsible adult.
This is one time of year when there is a certain benefit to living on the West Coast. These postseason games drag on, and I’m glad that I don’t have to stay up until ungodly hours just to see the end.
For the Dodgers-Nationals game tomorrow, let’s see if Kershaw turns into the fallible flawed pitcher he’s been in previous postseasons, or if he instead will transfer his regular season dominance to this year’s postseason.
I hope not. I want the Giants and Dodgers to meet in the NLCS. I want this so much that I am…kind of…rooting for them to beat the Nats. If the Cubs get a leg-up on the Giants then I will melt down, but until that happens I am going to…hope that the Nats don’t perform well.
I miss being on the West Coast for this very reason – NFL starts at 10 a.m. and finishes at 9 p.m. Most baseball games are over by 9 p.m. And I could actually watch an evening PAC-12 football game, which is impossible here in the east unless you really want to stay up until 1:30 a.m.
I think Kershaw’s flaws have been overstated. Being a Cardinals fan I’ve taken delight in the fact that our lineup has managed to make him look mortal, but in almost every game I can recall, with the notable exception of game 6 in the 2013 NLCS, Kershaw pitched pretty well in innings 1 through 6 and perhaps Mattingly could have gone to the pen a batter or two earlier than he did. In a couple of games Kershaw lost (2013 NLCS game 2, for instance), he pitched extremely well but just got out-pitched. The one difference that makes Madbum a better post-season pitcher than Kershaw is that Madbum is more efficient, which we on Wed. night. Bumgarner (and Posey by the way) work batters to get outs, not necessarily strikeouts.
The Giants are going to be an extremely difficult team to put away because every single player on that team knows the formula for winning, and they all buy into that formula, even when they’re losing. The batters work pitch counts. The use the first at-bat to figure out what the opposing pitcher’s got. They use the second at-bat to make the adjustments, and the third at-bat is used to start piling up clutch hits. And that process starts on the first at-bat if they’ve already seen a pitcher once in a series. They rely on the pitchers to keep the opposing lineup from scoring more than 5 runs (better if it’s lower obviously). Giants rarely lose low-scoring tight games in the playoffs. Usually the other teams begin to feel the pressure and start to crack. They start chasing bad pitches. Their pitchers start making mistakes. The Giants beat other teams mentally.
Ditto. For the first time ever, now that I’m on the east coast, I’m glad the Dodgers have the “early” games today and tomorrow. I was barely conscious by the time the Indians game ended last night.
In today’s Washington Post Express, listed among the reasons for the Nats to have a chance at beating Kershaw today was the lack of his “comfort” catcher, A.J. Ellis. Uh, guys? I don’t know if you’ve been watching any baseball since the trade deadline, but I’m not sure that has had the impact on Kershaw’s pitching that you think it has. Desperate much?
Well, it would certainly be a first in postseason history if they lost every game by nine runs.
Teams have good days and bad days. Oh well. Teams have been beaten worse than that in Game 1 of a series and come back to win. Take nothing for granted.
I hope you are right and that it’s the first half of the season team that shows up, and not the second half. The second half of the season was one long slump. In the first half, the Giants were juggernauts.
After last night’s 49ers game I dashed to the Giants Dugout store and bought the very last BELI****EVEN t-shirt remaining. It was an M, so it goes to my wife. Even if they get eliminated, it’s a celebration of 2010, 2012 and 2014. I think it is a cool design. And - get this, it was only $20. When has there been an officially-licensed MLB t-shirt for $20 that isn’t a clearance sale item? I can’t remember. Today I’m calling the other stores to see if they have one in my size.
You’ve basically described how MLB games work. Starters are hit harder the third time through the order,
This obviously does not describe how the Giants won the Wild Card game, and
The reason the Giants won the World Series three times in five years is the same reason a team always win the World Series; they had more guys who got hot than the other team did. That just happens, and there is no real reason to think it’s likelier to happen this year.
I went through the linescores of all the Giants playoff games in 2010, 2012, and 2014, and honestly, I just don’t see that pattern. They were just as likely to jump out to an early lead and hold on to it as they were to beat up the starter on their third turn, and just as likely to win the game against a relief pitcher.
The recurring theme in San Francisco’s playoff glories has been fantastic pitching.
I mean, these are all professional ballplayers; I have difficulty believing the Giants are consistently intimidating people into losing, as opposed to just playing better baseball. Makes you wonder why the 2011 club couldn’t do this in the stretch drive to make the playoffs. They beat the Mets because Madison Bumgarner went out and pitched flawlessly.
Not me. I will admit that beating the Dodgers to win the pennant would be more satisfying than any other scenario, I still want the Dodgers to get swept, preferably in back-to-back-to-back perfect games. For two reasons:
If the Dodgers fail to make it to the NLCS, then there is no possibility that the Giants could lose to them in a series that propels the Dodgers to the World Series. That would be bad.
They are the Dodgers, and it pains me to ever have anything good happen to them, regardless of the situation.
Suburban Planktonet al., it will probably please you to know that as I walked around DC during lunch today with my Dodgers jersey on (hoping to strike up conversations with Nats fans, who were conspicuously absent from city streets), I did encounter a guy who held up his Giants sweatshirt at me. We chatted and both tentatively agreed that it would be kind of fun and nerve-wracking to have our teams meet up in the NLCS. But we also agreed we’d both be just fine if the other’s team didn’t make it that far.
Is it contradictory to wish someone “Good luck!” while simultaneously hoping their dreams are horribly, mercilessly dashed?