Terry, Personally, I'd sit him. It's the big leagues and there's a lot of money on the line, so they won't. But from a personnel standpoint, as JOCO pointed out, his teammates are furious. I think it's the right message to send. I think the ATL manager missed an opportunity to send the right message yesterday. That non-effort was a major swing in the games outcome. If he's standing on 2nd with the Braves holding a lead, they could have moved him to 3rd and forced the Cards into playing up when one more run would have greatly impacted their strategy for the rest of the game. Instead, he let the Cards within striking distance and the rest is self-evident. As for the Dodgers, they looked great last night against Corbin who was suppose to shut down the Dodger left-handed bats. Now, IMHO, the Nats are in a must-win situation against Kershaw at Dodger Stadium. Stras has an impressive postseason record to date, but he's going to have to continue it for the Nats to have a hope in this series. This is just a fantastic day for baseball. FOUR playoff games on TV starting at 1 with the Stros-Rays and ending with the evening nightcap between the Dodgers and Nats. Fabulous pitching lineups all day long. This should be fun.
Verlander is just a 1st ballot HOF. That kid throwing for the Rays, Glasnow, throws some serious gas but he really needs another pitch.
Cole finally runs out of gas....15K's though. But leaves with runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 out. Osuna coming in, I don't trust him. I hope I'm wrong.
If the Dodgers do not win today, they are going to have to beat both Scherzer and Strasburg in back to back games.
All 4 Division Series could be over today. Yankee's and Astros are both up 2-0 and wins today and it's over in the ALDS. Dodgers and Braves are both up 2-1 and both have game 4's today and it could be over in the NLDS. NLCS will start on Friday and ALCS will start on Saturday.
Well no sweep for the Astros. Rays jumped all over us today. 10-3 in the top of the 9th, knocked Grienke out in 3 innings.
The Dodgers are finding out that things that worked to win 100+ regular season games don't always help you in the playoffs because playoff baseball is different. Bellinger killed them early in this series. He's doing better, but he still isn't looking like an MVP. He's trying to pull everything and go yard. That's not what got him the season he had. Freese is one of the great post-season hitters in the game but he's on the pine while Muncy is at first and Lux is getting his young ass handed to him by experienced pitchers. Still, Walker Buehler is a bad mofo and I think the Dodgers take this series once it gets back to LA. In one game, anything can happen, but I think Buehler is just too much.
Well Astros, Dodgers and Braves all lost rather than close out the Division Series. Only the Yankees move on to the Championship. Astros are going to start Verlander today on short rest. I'm betting Hinch is going to have him go 5 innings then bring on Jose Urquidy.
I envy the Astros. Our savior is a rookie; their savior is Verlander. This one is going to be tight...
We're going back to Houston in the AL. If you didn't have a dog in the fight, this game was an absolute treat to watch. Verlander hammered in the first inning. Maybe the most beautiful 8-6-2 put out at home I've ever seen to take away all momentum that the Stros were about to gain. Man, that was just fun. It's one of those games that comes along every so often that reminds me why this game is so beautiful. Absolutely everything earned. No one given anything. You don't always see what's under the jersey.
It's all on Gerrit Cole now to get us to the ALCS. The Rays really did play it very well in Tampa Bay which for some reason is a place we struggle to win. They held the season series over us, 4-3. We opened the season with them at Tampa Bay. Verlander won the 1st game and then they beat us 3 straight. So they have been a tough out for us. I like our chances at home with Cole on the mound. But it would have been nice to close them out in 3 games and set the pitching up for the series with the Yankee's. So now instead of opening with Verlander we'll have to open with Greinke if we make it to the ALCS. Everything went right for the Rays though, they had several plays like getting Altuve at the plate with a perfect throw and also doubling Springer off of 1st later with a tremendous snag by Choi. Right now they are a confident team, but we were a confident team going to Tampa Bay. 3 of the 4 Division series going to 5 games.