Ok, the regular season is over, and it’s time for this to get real.
One game to move on or go home.
Cardinals at Atlanta in the early match-up.
Orioles at the Rangers in the later game.
I think the Braves and Orioles will move on.
Braves in 1, Rangers in 1.
Are all the playoff series in the 2-3 format with the first 2 games at the home of the team who does not have home field advantage? I know the Reds start out in SF tomorrow, which sucks for them.
I’m rooting for a Reds/O’s series. A week or so ago I predicted Reds/Rangers, but the Rangers finished weak.
I have a feeling the O’s will win a 1 run game in extra innings. It has been their MO this year. So O’s over Rangers in 1.
As to Braves and Cards, I have no feeling. I’ll bet on the Cards, they’re better at the post season historically then the Braves.
Barkis is Willin’, yes, Selig F’d all the better teams with this start away format. Especially shitty for the two Top seeds waiting to find out where to fly after tonight’s games.
The fact that the best teams don’t yet know who they will play is a disadvantage, but I presume the playoff teams have all been scouting each other for a while, so I am not sure how much it matters. And when you consider the effect the wildcard game will have on the teams’ pitching rotations I think it probably goes as an advantage to the #1 seeds.
Not so much, since the wildcard teams will have used up their ace in the wacky one-game-winner-takes-all matchup. Overall, I’d say that the playoff changes benefit the division winners.
That said, I think the new format gets people engaged from the start of the playoffs, instead of waiting to watch only the World Series. The single game playoffs are exciting and I’ll definitely be watching these today.
I don’t like the 2-3 format either. The higher-seeded team should get to play in their field first. Going 0-2 on the road is practically a death sentence.
I’m picking the Braves to win the NL game tonight.
In the AL, I’m going with the Rangers, since if it were up to me, I wouldn’t be starting Joe Saunders in a game like this. I hope the O’s run continues, but I’m not optimistic.
I keep hearing this, but as best as I can tell, this isn’t the case for most of the teams playing tonight.
The O’s are starting journeyman late-season acquisition Joe Saunders, which will allow them to pitch their best 3 starters in games 1-3 and 5 of the Yankees series if they get there.
The Rangers are starting Yu Darvish, which means he wouldn’t be available until Game 3 against the Yanks. But Matt Harrison, who at least from the stats looks like their staff ace, would be available to start games 1 and 5, and they can use Holland and Dempster whenever, other than game 1.
The Braves are starting Kris Medlen, which will allow them to start pretty much whoever they want against the Nats in whatever order they want, excepting that Medlen wouldn’t be available until Game 3. Medlen’s quite good, but he’s not the staff ace or anything.
The Cards…OK, the Cards are the exception. They’re starting their ace, Kyle Lhose. So if they win tonight, they’ll only have Lhose pitching once rather than twice in the next round. But other than that, they’d be able to arrange their rotation in any order against the Nats.
I can’t believe the Rangers have done this to themselves. Damnit, wake the hell up.
The 2-3 format is real dumb. Your reward as the higher seeded team is to travel from your home in the Eastern time zone to California for your first 2 playoff games. Was it 3-2 before or 2-2-1? 2-2-1 would probably be preferred, although it could require more travel.
It was 2-2-1 before. The 2-3 format was re-instituted because the 1-game wild-card playoffs added time to the schedule, so they had to take a day out somewhere.
Just another reason I dislike the 2nd wild card.
Agreed, and as far as I can tell they are going to tinker with it next year to try to make it less dumb. The thing I hate the most is that the lower seed gets 2 guaranteed home games, while the higher seed only gets one.
But in a five-game series I think the Rangers would have Darvish go twice, the Braves would use Medlen twice, and the Cardinals would use Lohse twice. The Orioles might not use Saunders twice, but that’s three out of four (and Showalter seems to be making a very unusual choice here since Saunders has a terrible record in Arlington). And as another minor bonus, the teams are making some very interesting roster choices since they probably don’t need a full complement of pitchers for this one. We might see a lot of NL-style substitutions even in the AL game.
So I ordered Game 5 tickets just now. Plenty left so far. That is Friday at the Stadium.
Pretty bad scene in the Atlanta-StL game. What I consider a blown infield fly call (too far afield and too late) then debris on the field, then an odd sketching of the letter P in the air by the umpire (may be in the rules, but I’ve never seen it before). The Braves are playing under protest.
Yes, the Braves are playing under protest. They just said they had the VP of MLB in attendance and expected a quick answer.
Bottom of 9th, 2 away, STL 6, ATL 3.
My Facebook feed just blew up. (It’s heavy on STL fans.) I’m listening to the broadcast - sounds insane! The Cards’ announcers are convinced that the call was correct. I’m looking forward to seeing some video later.
Also, I’m really tired of listening to the Braves fans’ chant.
Game over, STL won 6-3
Well, the call is supposed to be timely so that the base runners have the chance to potentially tag and advance at their own risk. This was not the case, and the runners were halfway instead.
And the defensive play is supposed to be normal effort (I don’t know the exact wording) and I would say that is not true because of how the play developed.
Note: I hate the Braves. But I also hate the Cards. So my opinion is pretty objective! 