Yeah. It’s been coming and going all day, but right now is as bad as it’s been since early this morning. You’re missing one of those rare 24 hour rains in Denver.
I wish the idiots who schedule these things wouldn’t plan so many off days. If they’re going to schedule games in Boston, Cleveland and Denver, let alone play them at night, they ought to play every day, because with the weather they should have off days imposed on them by rainouts anyway.
I’m sorry to have to say this Frank, but if I see you on my TV one more damn time I’m going to have to kick your ass.
I can assure you that I’m not going to watch it.
Nice catch.
And I realize you don’t really want to go up against football either day, but they could at least schedule a day game on Saturday. Heck, there wasn’t much to watch today either. They could have played this game by now too.
I was just ranting to a friend of mine about how stupid it is to have tomorrow’s NL game start at 10 Eastern time. Who the hell’s going to watch it? Western teams have enough trouble getting exposure out east without starting the game at 10.
Hats off to the Colorado fans though. Them’s some hearty fans. (wonder when the last time a World Series game was called due to snow?)
That’s an 8 PM start in Denver (and here.) But yeah, these start times are kinda crazy, even for out here in the normally game-time friendly Mountain zone. (Most of the time games start no later than about 7, meaning most can be over by 10 or 11 at the very latest.)
I just looked and realized that you’re in Denver. So you know what I’m talking about.
By the way, are they bothering to use the humidor with these under-40 night games?
Yep, in Denver but from Cleveland. It’s handy having most of the Indians games start at 5:05, especially since I work mids and have to be to work by 10.
Nice to see the Rockies doing good though. I just wish they’d lose 1 or 2 before the World Series. Facing a red-hot Rockies team is a little worrisome. At least if the Tribe make it there, they’ll be more “battle tested”.
Now a statistic I’d like to see is whether or not there’s ever been a ALCS involving the regular apearance of pitchers as bad as Gagne and Borowski. Their combined ERA is sitting at about 10 right now.
Rockies Win!.. Again!
3-0
Incidentally, what were the listed odds of Colorado going to the Series at the beginning of the season?
Even with Mariano Rivera out of the picture, with Corpas there may be a Panamanian closer in the Series anyway. I wonder how long it will be before I see someone with a Rockies cap here? (I don’t even know where you would get one. Because of Rivera, almost all Panamanians are Yankees fans.)
Haven’t been in here in a while, but I wanted to point something out. Back in '02 I saw most of the A’s 20 game win streak at close range; watched most of the games on TV, was actually there for the 19th win in person. The A’s won #18 in the bottom of the ninth, on a Miguel Tejada walk-off HR. They won the next day on a walk-off single (Tejada again), then finally got the 20th win in extra innings on a Scott Hatteberg HR (after blowing a huge lead). The point of all this being, at the end of their streak, you could see the wheels coming off. The A’s were just barely winning at the end, with the 20th win being the lucky capper.
Why is this relevant now? Because what the Rockies are doing right now is very similar. They’re almost at the same place where the A’s were back then; 20 out of 21, with 8 in a row, is pretty near 20 straight. But the wheels aren’t coming off the Rockies yet. They’re still winning relatively comfortable games. Game 2 against Arizona was a close call, but Colorado came right back and was pretty much on cruise control tonight. Again.
With them up 3-0 now, winning the series seems inevitable (especially because Arizona is just plain impotent), but unless the layoff between clinching and the start of the WS really hurts them, this thing could keep going for a while yet. The CW all year has been that the AL teams were far superior to the NL teams, but right now I can’t imagine giving either Cleveland or Boston an edge over Colorado. And frankly, I’m stunned by that.
We’re seeing something amazing. I know it’s late for everyone in the Eastern time zone, but just roll with it and watch the games if at all possible. I think folks are going to be talking about this for years to come.
The scary thing about the Rockies is that despite Matt Holliday’s homer tonight, they are being carried by the 8 (Torrealba), 1 (Taveras), and 2 (Matsui) hitters so far. The Rockies big hitters are not having a particularly good postseason so far. They are doing it with pitching and defense.
Assuming Helton, Holliday, Hawpe, Tulowitski, and Atkins play up to their regular season pace, they will be scary good.
The really scary thing about the Rockies is that I keep imagining the guys in the locker room putting on the same socks and the same t-shirts…maybe even a garter belt or two…that they’ve been wearing since the streak started…
Sorry, I’m a little behind here, because my inconsiderate friends refuse to schedule their christenings around my televised sports schedule, but anyway: duh. I’m a Phillies fan, so I could have told you J.D. Drew is a bum. 
The likelihood of a 3-0 comeback is bad anyway, and the Diamondbacks being the worst team to ever play in an LCS doesn’t enhance their odds.
But that said, I’d ascribe no meaning at all to how hot the Rockies seem to be; assuming they finish off the Diamondbacks, even if they win Game 4 15-0, the series against Cleveland or Boston is a new start. Either opponent is better than any NL team, but even if they weren’t, momentum in baseball is only as good as tomorrow’s starting pitcher. It’s been shown again and again that momentum and streaks in baseball are largely random fluctuations in performance, and the Rockies could just as easily get the shit kicked out of them starting with Game 1 of the Series as they could continue the streak.
Now, personally, I think it would be awesome if they were to win five straight from here and finish the year 25-1, especially if it were to mean humilating the Red Sox. But today is a new day and in baseball, streaks are only what you did yesterday.
Historically, the evidence suggests that:
- Long layoffs between series have no impact on performance, and
- How hot a team is entering a series is of little or no importance.
I always used to think the hot hand was the better bet going into the playoffs, but it’s demonstrably not true.
Ok, while I’m watching the games because I’m a semi-Cleveland fan, I’m not familiar with all the ins and outs of major league play. So a couple of questions come up.
Is there a set time that you have to leave a pitcher out once he’s played a game? Or started a game? There seem to be a hell of a lot more pitchers than I remember from before. Each team seems to have like 8 to 10 or something. So how long before they can use that #1 guy again? Is it a rule, or just common sense to give them time off between games?
And do teams now have more pitchers, but of less talent or endurance? I remember one comment the other night about how one of the Cleveland pitchers had gone two whole innings. Like that was unusual.
Is there any limit to foul balls after the 2nd strike. I’m pretty sure there isn’t, but after watching some of the hitters have 7 or 8 in the game the other night, I had to wonder if at some point the Ump can just call it the 3rd strike.
What the hell is the strike zone on that graphic they show? Sometimes the ball will be between that inner solid line, and the otter dashed line and it’s been called as a strike, and a ball. So which is it? Is the Ump just making a few bad calls? Or is there some other obscure detail I’m missing?
How much of the “big picture” strategy do the managers/coaches have? I mean the Red Sock’s pitcher from that first game was just phenominal. So knowing how good he was, would a manager in that situation ever say…“Well, I’m going to start my 3rd best pitcher in this game, since we’ll probably loose anyway, and save my best pitcher for game 3 when the other team will be scraping the bottom of their bull-pen barrel”?
Thanks.
Oh, and Go Tribe!
…
Atrael, I’m hoping other people smarter than I am will give you better and more thorough answers (and on preview it looks like Lamar Mundane did), but until then, here are some quickies (everybody else, please feel free to correct me where I am wrong):
This is often debated, but generally speaking, managers like to give starting pitchers as much rest as possible before they start another game. Most teams have a 4- or 5-man rotation, so that starters can get at least 4-5 days rest in between starts. Usually, younger and uninjured pitchers can get away with less rest. Sometimes you’ll hear about “short rest,” which means a pitcher has only 3-4 days between starts instead of the usual 5-7 that is preferred.
Yes, and no. Probably they were talking about a relief pitcher, instead of a starter. Most starters outside of Philadelphia can make it into the 5th-6th inning or so before set-up men or closers are required. (In Philly, they don’t often make it out of the 4th, either because they stink out loud, or because they’re 800 years old, or because our manager is an idiot on wheels.) Some relievers are deliberately brought in for only one batter. Closers usually pitch only one inning.
That graphic is a “guesstimate” of the strike zone as defined by the rules, I think. But called balls and strikes are somewhat subjective. Sometimes the umps get it right, and sometimes they don’t, and sometimes we all think they got it wrong when they didn’t, etc. One of the quirks of the sport, but one of the nice ones, I think.
The conventional wisdom is that good pitching beats good hitting, so most managers try to put their best available pitcher on the mound for every game. But you don’t want to put in the same pitcher every day, no matter how good they are, because nobody can throw 100 95-mph fastballs every day without their arms falling off. Generally managers try to “balance” the pitching by putting their best guy against the other team’s best guy, then your next best guy against their next best guy, and so on through the rotation. Also, you don’t really want to lose if you don’t have to, so it’s not generally a good idea to just “intentionally” drop a game by putting in a dog of a pitcher. (Although sometimes starting your ace doesn’t help, either.)
(BTW, that pitcher you were talking about is Josh Beckett – he’s fantastic, especially at this time of year. He has 3 career post-season shutouts and was the MVP of the 2003 World Series, when he was with the Marlins. I think he’s the sexiest man in baseball, but that isn’t really germane to your questions.)