AL-NL Division Series 2022

[shadow_operative 15932]

...in something other than baseball.

[Bregs 225]

16 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Maybe. But if they both win today they will be like +175 and +250 at that point in time I would guess. I like the extra +100 or +125 to win todays game I feel like I’m getting through the futures bet when both teams are favorites today. And I think the fangraphs odds are a little low. I’d bet 1 of 2 making it, then 2 of 2 making it before I’d bet 0 of 2 making it. But it’s baseball, it’s not like there is any such thing as a sure bet. 

this is why gambling sucks.

[Make em eat Taco Bell 1549]

100 win teams :  Mets, Dodgers, Braves, Astros. 

regular season means nothing. 

[tx 3 putt 78009]

the 5 day break didn't work out for the braves or dodgers. 

[TonyTexas 10587]

Just uncanny 

On 8/2/2022 at 10:52 AM, Helobious said:

Bell & Soto to the Padres. And they still won’t do better than the wild card round.

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by TonyTexas

[TonyTexas 10587]

On 8/28/2022 at 9:44 PM, Helobious said:

And people said I was dumb for saying “they’re still the padres, they will suck” at the trade deadline. No one brings up the predictions I absolutely nail.

 

[Pimphand 6090]

I wanted the MFY in the ALCS to have their souls reaved by Houston but now I want them in. The bitch ass brigade with the other teams.

[Underdog 28891]

Incredible.  And I tapped out at start of the 7th thinking LA had this…. I chose poorly. 

[Wulaw Horn 19331]

5 hours ago, Bregs said:

this is why gambling sucks.

Dude.  I hate the dodgers and Braves. If betting 25 each on those guys can eliminate them I would do that day after day after day. 

[WBT 20776]

I wonder if they revisit the playoff format if the yankees also go down

[Strat 151]

Blaming this on playoff format seems quite lame. They blew leads late in these games, maybe their pitching should grow some balls.  

[kevwun 15963]

Regardless, it's dumb for division winners to have to play teams from their own division that they beat over 162 games.

[TonyTexas 10587]

13 minutes ago, kevwun said:

Regardless, it's dumb for division winners to have to play teams from their own division that they beat over 162 games.

I think the seedlings and WC round results this year that led to 3 out of 4 of the ALDS series between division rivals were just an aberration. I like the format in that, with the byes and WC round home field advantages, it really rewards the regular season. 

[Wulaw Horn 19331]

8 minutes ago, TonyTexas said:

I think the seedlings and WC round results this year that led to 3 out of 4 of the ALDS series between division rivals were just an aberration. I like the format in that, with the byes and WC round home field advantages, it really rewards the regular season. 

If they really want to penalize the WC teams they should not have an off day between series. 

[kevwun 15963]

The off days they added that aren't travel days also needs to go.  It further helps the WC teams who usually don't have as deep of pitching staffs as the division winners.  It's like Manfred tried to come up with a playoff format that would cause upsets in the LDS.

[Guest]

I didn't like how the HOU-SEA Series went Game-off day-Game-off day-Game to start out.  Felt like it was deleveraging one of Houston's biggest strengths in pitching depth.  Turns out the baseball gods answered that shit.

That set-up is still dumb though.  Nothing during the regular season is set up that way either.

Edit-Kevwun beat me to it.

Edited October 16, 2022 by slorch

[htown85 159]

Agreed on scheduling, wonder if that’s a one off this year though based on the lockout late start.

[UTexasFight 9660]

Nsiap

 

[UTexasFight 9660]

2 hours ago, kevwun said:

The off days they added that aren't travel days also needs to go.  It further helps the WC teams who usually don't have as deep of pitching staffs as the division winners.  It's like Manfred tried to come up with a playoff format that would cause upsets in the LDS.

They did this because of the fucked up regular season having a series tacked on at the end because of the lockout

it won’t be like this in the future

I’m betting next year they’ll start the wild card series a day apart for each league instead of everything being on the same day (which then kicked the can to get the LDS and LCS staggered so you didn’t have 4 games on one day and then 0 the next throughout the entire series)

they wanted as many games as they could get on the weekend for the WC round rather than have one league sitting around with no games on a fri, (or sat or sun).

next year the wild card round will be during the middle of a week and we’ll have an LDS round like we’re used to 

 

Edited October 16, 2022 by UTexasFight

[Pimphand 6090]

3 hours ago, kevwun said:

The off days they added that aren't travel days also needs to go.  It further helps the WC teams who usually don't have as deep of pitching staffs as the division winners.  It's like Manfred tried to come up with a playoff format that would cause upsets in the LDS.

And kudos to that stupid piece of shit he finally did something good cutting the Dodgers and Braves nuts with the added bonus of possibly cutting some Yankee nuts too. Fuck all of those franchises.

[Gourmand 7776]

Rosenthal: Too soon to cite new format as reason for MLB postseason upsets

Quote

The question is going to be asked, and I’m not sure there’s an answer, at least not in the first year of a new, expanded postseason format.

Do wild-card qualifiers still have it too easy?

The new format, with two best-of-three wild-card series replacing the single, one-game knockout that existed from 2012 to 2021, was supposed to be more onerous for the wild-card teams. Over time, it might turn out that way. But so far, nope.

Which means one thing: The format is going to come under scrutiny, even though everyone had seven months to prepare, even though the losers played too poorly to complain.

Three of the four wild-card series ended with the lower seeds triumphant, despite playing every game on the road. Now, in the Division Series, the top seeds are a combined 6-8. Both NL series ended in upsets, the 87-win Phillies knocking off the 101-win Braves and the 89-win Padres eliminating the 111-win Dodgers.

In the AL, the 106-win Astros swept the 90-win Mariners, but only after Yordan Alvarez twice bailed them out with go-ahead homers and Jeremy Peña hit an 18th-inning shot in Game 3. The only series between division champions also is upside down, with the 92-win Guardians leading the 99-win Yankees, two games to one.

All of this upheaval is rather dramatic, and depending upon your rooting interests, quite compelling. As opposed to the NFL and NBA playoffs, which generally result in predictable outcomes, the baseball postseason is giving off an anything-can-happen, NCAA-basketball tournament vibe.

Still, for a sport intent on honoring teams that best navigate the 162-game regular season, will a National League Championship Series between the fifth and sixth seeds be truly desirable? The upstart No. 6 Phillies would not even have qualified for the postseason under the old format. Yet they made the NLCS when three 100-win teams, the Mets, Braves and Dodgers, did not.

Only four 100-win clubs since 1999 have won the World Series: The Yankees in 2009, the Cubs in 2016, the Astros in 2017 and the Red Sox in 2018. Maybe A’s executive Billy Beane was right when he famously called the postseason a “crapshoot” in “Moneyball,” adding, “My s— doesn’t work in the playoffs. My job is getting us to the playoffs. What happens after that is f—— luck.” Then again, nearly 20 years after the book’s publication, isn’t it time for at least one of those smart guys running a team to figure out how to crack the October code?

The Padres’ victory over the Dodgers marked the biggest regular-season win differential for one club advancing over another in the postseason since the 1906 World Series, when the 93-win White Sox beat the 116-win Cubs. The Dodgers, for all their regular-season might, remain the poster boys for modern playoff disappointment. They have reached the playoffs 10 straight years, but their only World Series title came after the shortened 2020 regular season.

The new, expanded format is an easy target for criticism — include more teams and play back-to-back short series, and you invite the kind of chaos the sport is experiencing. But Braves manager Brian Snitker refused to buy into a reporter’s notion that the DS would be fairer if it was a best-of-seven.

“The Division Series has been five games for a long time as far as I know,” Snitker said. “You know what, I think the system’s fine.”

Again, it’s the first year of the new format, too soon to pass judgment. Snitker and his players acknowledged the Braves were outplayed. They refused to blame the team’s sluggish performance on the five-day layoff between the end of the regular season and the start of the Division Series. And lest anyone forget, the threat of an underdog getting hot has existed ever since the league introduced the wild card in 1995 and even the additional play-in game in 2012.

Under the previous format, and excluding the unusual 2020 season, winners of play-in games went 9-9 against top seeds in the Division Series. The 2014 World Series was a showdown between two wild-card teams, with the 88-win Giants defeating the 89-win Royals.

Padres manager Bob Melvin, when asked if wild-card teams gain an edge by entering the postseason in “playoff mode,” said, “It’s always been that way where the teams that get in through the wild card are not only playing with intensity up to the end, but they’re also playing well to get in. And there’s probably something to be said that when you’re playing well and you have a lot of confidence, you get into the postseason, then there isn’t as much expectation on you, then maybe that’s a pretty good way to go about it. Yet you do have to play another round. Obviously, everybody aspires to win the division, get a little time off. But there might be a little something to that (wild-card advantage).”

Ah, the layoff. Its effect on the top seeds is certain to generate discussion, but as Melvin indicated, the downtime is intended to benefit those clubs, giving their pitching staffs a chance to rest and some of their injured players a chance to get healthy. The break in the new format is longer than it was in the old one, but not by much; the league previously staggered the starts of the AL and NL Division Series, giving the division champions in one league three days off and the other four.

So, big deal or not?

“I mean, if you want to use it for an excuse, then you can,” the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts said. “But it’s definitely an excuse … Nobody cares. Nobody really cares at the end of the day.”

The Braves, too, wanted no part of such talk.

I asked two of their stars, Dansby Swanson and Matt Olson, the impact not just of the layoff, but also the Braves’ season-long pursuit of the Mets for the NL East title. A year ago, the Dodgers wore down in the postseason after falling short in their epic race with the Giants for the NL West title. The Dodgers had to take the wild-card route while the Braves did not, but the regular-season toll was perhaps similar.

Snitker said before the series that his position players took batting practice off live pitching several times during their layoff, ran the bases and performed defensive drills. He compared the workouts to a spring-training atmosphere, saying, “It’s been good. Been really good.”

But was it?

“I’m sure you could probably point some fingers at stuff,” Olson said. “I feel like we all felt rested and ready for the series. It’s not like we were underestimating this team at all. We all know the kind of talent they have. They just got hot and stayed hot during the series. And we kind of struggled to get stuff going.”

Matt Olson strikes out in the first inning against the Phillies. (Eric Hartline / USA Today Sports)

Added Swanson, “I truly think they completely outplayed us. I don’t know the reason. I don’t know if it’s because of the things you said. It could be that. I think it’s kind of a learning experience for everybody, the situation of how to handle the off-time a little better … I don’t know. I don’t want to come up with anything. It would all sound like an excuse. At the end of the day, they outplayed us.”

Heck, even if one accepts the excuses as valid, the four lowest seeds in each league face a greater handicap — the need to play an extra round. Three of the four wild-card series required only two games, so the toll on pitching staffs was perhaps not as significant as expected. Still, the Phillies, Guardians and Mariners opened the DS with their No. 3 starters. The Padres opened with their No. 4.

And yet, the Phillies’ rotation still was in better shape than the Braves’, who started a flu-weakened Max Fried in Game 1; Spencer Strider in his first appearance in 26 days in Game 3; and a fading, nearly 39-year-old Charlie Morton in Game 4. Likewise, a Padres rotation featuring Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove was perhaps better set up for a five-game series than the Dodgers, who chose to start a not-fully-stretched-out Tony Gonsolin in Game 3.

The Dodgers entered the postseason believing their 13-man staff was the strongest they’ve put together in Andrew Friedman’s eight years as president of baseball operations. But depth provides a greater advantage in a best-of-seven than a best-of-five. The Padres possess high-end talent not only in their rotation, but also in their bullpen with Josh Hader, Robert Suarez and Co.

The Phillies, meanwhile, had Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola start Games 2 and 3, and a bullpen strong enough for manager Rob Thomson to maneuver with confidence. They also got healthy at the right time. Wheeler was out with right forearm tightness from Aug. 25 to Sept. 21, reliever Seranthony Dominguez with right triceps soreness from Aug. 21 to Sept. 11.

The Braves caught some bad luck with Fried at less than full strength, but they did not exactly perform at peak efficiency. Snitker failed to pull Strider quickly enough in Game 3. Ronald Acuña Jr. was a mess in right field in Game 4. Swanson finished the series 2-for-16, Austin Riley 1-for-15, Michael Harris II 1-for-14.

“I think all the credit goes to the Phillies,” Snitker said. “They came in here, they got hot at the right time and played a heck of a series.”

It’s baseball. Postseason baseball. And if the new format is making October even less predictable, then let’s see the smart guys, with all their models and algorithms, finally figure out solutions.

The answer is the same as it ever was: Play better.

[Guadaloopy 11077]

Hook it directly to my veins.  
 

Plaschke:  Dodgers go from biggest winners to biggest losers with worst upset in their history

https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2022-10-15/dodgers-lose-padres-season-ends-nlds-biggest-losers?fbclid=IwAR0qxB-AvzgpUXwWhxYqS5JnOk-GMwE3VVDvkxTdcPhXc1Bs-9CzTSg_2Cg

[Huckleberry 33674]

If they actually cared about competitive fairness and replicating the regular season there would only be one off day per series. And the division series possibly without an off day at all. Travel would be a bitch but these teams spend 6 months traveling from city to city and frequently playing games on consecutive days in different cities.

But they don't actually care that much so they won't change anything.

[Make em eat Taco Bell 1549]

baseball is much different from football/basketball which are more about raw physical talent, not the randomness associated with baseball where any team can beat anyone any day or even take a 3 game series when not hot , or even take a 5 game series if hot at that 2 week stretch of the season. 

Having the 5 & 6 seeds remain in a LCS is the result of playoff expansion, not the days off or anything else.  Suppose MLB expands to 8 teams per league in the playoffs, we might have Brewers or Orioles in the world series and few would see the damage to the 162 game regular season which continue to become more and more meaningless every decade.  

[Briuis 61]

Cody Bellinger hit .143, which is exactly what you expect from him. 

Mookie hit .143 for the series. 

Trea Turner was horrendous defensively. 

Kershaw crying in the dugout.  

I couldn't have hoped for a better ending to their season. 

[tx 3 putt 78009]

51 minutes ago, Briuis said:

Cody Bellinger hit .143, which is exactly what you expect from him. 

Mookie hit .143 for the series. 

Trea Turner was horrendous defensively. 

Kershaw crying in the dugout.  

I couldn't have hoped for a better ending to their season. 

[tx 3 putt 78009]

[Fudge Nuggets 19293]

2 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

If they actually cared about competitive fairness and replicating the regular season there would only be one off day per series. And the division series possibly without an off day at all. Travel would be a bitch but these teams spend 6 months traveling from city to city and frequently playing games on consecutive days in different cities.

But they don't actually care that much so they won't change anything.

MLB should go full asshole mode and make games 4 and 5 of the LCS a day/night double-header.

[Pimphand 6090]

What a fucking postseason so far.....

We had Helo cry about Astros fans bitching about rust from the stupid extended layoff.

We then had the Astros sweep the bitchass Mariners in epic soul reaving fashion despite playing 4 games.

We then had the 2 World Series favorites go down like $2 crack whores as the rust from the stupid layoffs fucked their mojo.

Tonight we get to watch the Cleveland Indians perform the Deathstroke on his bitchass MFY due to rust from the extended bitchass layoff.

We havent even gotten to the fucking LCS yet and this is some crazy levels of crack straight into the veins.

[WBT 20776]

Brisbee on Saturday's games

Spoiler

MLB Playoffs rewind: Phillies, Padres, Astros and Guardians win on thrilling day for baseball

By Grant Brisbee

Oct 16, 2022

109

---

There’s an argument that Saturday provided the greatest single day in MLB postseason history. Not in terms of one single moment or game, but in terms of quantity of quality. Four games, each one offering something fun or weird or weird and fun. There was an 18-inning game that was scoreless for 17 innings. There was a come-from-behind walk-off in the ninth inning. There was one of the greatest teams in baseball history wondering that eternal baseball question: What just happened?

 

The first game of the day was the worst, at least as far as win probabilities and other such things, but it was exciting when it was happening. The game was a perfect opening act, good enough to make you stop by the merch stand, but not so good that it overshadowed the headliners, who were weird, shocking, thrilling, scary and amazing. It was everything you could have wanted from a day of baseball.

Unless you actually care about one of these teams. In which case, my goodness, get some rest. Here’s a mug of chamomile tea. You’ll catch your death out there in the postseason. I’m sorry this is happening to you. It’ll be over soon.

Here’s what happened on the eighth day of the 2022 MLB postseason.

---

Philadelphia vs. Atlanta: Phillies reach the NLCS, toppling the 100-win Braves

The Phillies defeated the Braves, 8-3, in Game 4 and moved on to the NLCS. The National League East had two 100-win teams for the first time in the history of the division, but it’s the Phillies who still have a chance to win the World Series.

All day, our own Ken Rosenthal — a prince of a man, and a heckuva reporter — has been flogging himself for an article from months ago. He wrote a mea culpa weeks ago, which is already above and beyond for misguided takes. I still haven’t apologized for telling people that Todd Dunwoody was going to be better than Mark Kotsay, and Ken is out here apologizing for saying the Phillies were hopeless.

The Phillies were hopeless. They were 21-29 when he wrote that column. He wasn’t wrong! A new manager wasn’t going to fix the lineup. A new manager wasn’t going to turn three designated hitters into three defensive-minded outfielders. A new manager wasn’t going to …

The Phillies are in the NLCS. The Phillies are in the NLCS. Say it in March, and you’re only mildly surprised. Say it in June, and your family holds an intervention for you. The Phillies weren’t even guaranteed to be one of the three wild cards going into the final week of the regular season. Mention that Noah Syndergaard is involved, and you might get put on trial, Salem-style.

 

Say that the Phillies are in the NLCS right now, though, and it kind of makes sense. Because you watched it. You saw how it happened. The Phillies brought the Braves into Citizens Bank Park and gave them an atomic wedgie as the baseball world watched.

The Phillies and their fans have been conditioned to expect the worst for over a decade now, but the Braves made them sweat for only two innings in Game 3 before the dam broke. They allowed Phillies fans to get comfortable, which is against the natural order of things. Comfortability leads to cockiness, which leads to boisterousness, which leads to loud Philly fans, which leads to doubt.

Here’s the moment when you knew it was over:

The book “The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.” is a masterpiece that deals with a fictional account of dice and baseball. There will be no spoilers here because you should read it, but a major plot point has to do with rolling triple snake eyes three times in a row. The odds of this happening are roughly 1-in-10,000,000. And when it happens in the reality of J. Henry Waugh, something very unexpected occurs.

I’m bringing this up now because it’s my firm belief that any time a catcher hits an inside-the-park home run in the National League Division Series, his team should automatically advance to the NLCS. If it happens in the NLCS, his team should automatically advance to the World Series. And if it happens in the World Series, well, that’s a Joe Carter-style walk-off. It’s the triple-triple-ones of baseball.

J.T. Realmuto hit an inside-the-park home run, and it was a walk-off. Not technically. But close enough. When he beat out an infield single later in the game, it wasn’t a walk-off; it was just rubbing it in.

 

As for the Braves, look, it’s hard enough to win a World Series. Winning two of them, back-to-back, is nonsense. You have to keep pitchers healthy, which is the one thing pitchers simply refuse to do. You have to find an Eddie Rosario, which is impossible to do without luck or a crystal ball.

(This year’s Rosario might be Brandon Marsh, apparently.)

You do have to wonder why Ronald Acuña, Jr. wasn’t within 75 feet of Realmuto’s home run, though. Not that it would have made a difference for a Braves team that scored just seven runs in the last three games, but still.

Doesn’t matter. Phillies up, Braves down. It’s an all-underdog NLCS. Are you not entertained?

GO DEEPER

Weird and Wild: How are the 2022 Phillies headed to NLCS? How are the 2022 Braves done?

GO DEEPER

The NLCS-bound Phillies are confident, dangerous and riding a high they can't explain

GO DEEPER

Schultz: All eyes on Dansby Swanson for Braves after October disaster

GO DEEPER

Noah Syndergaard takes unexpected road back to postseason as Phillies reach NLCS

---

Seattle vs. Houston: Astros outlast the Mariners, return to the ALCS

The Astros defeated the Mariners, 1-0, in a Game 3 that’s probably still going on. It took 18 innings, 17 of which were scoreless. It was trench warfare — dull, eventful and lethal, all at the same time. Nobody wants to rewatch the game, yet it was a masterpiece of the dark baseball arts.

The Mariners played 36 innings in the ALDS. They played just three games and lost all of them. That’s like a dumb riddle that a fourth-grader comes home with, and it’s a lot of postseason to pack into three games, especially for a fan base that doesn’t have its postseason callouses built up. There was so much heartbreak and disappointment, all of it at once. Maybe they should have just let the Orioles squeak into the postseason instead and save the heartbreak.

No. Reject that idea, Mariners fans. Even though it was super weird that there were four postseason games for the Mariners before the first one in Seattle, there was one in Seattle. And before this game, Felix Hernández threw out the first pitch. It was a celebration, and it was an apology. Sorry we couldn’t help you get here, but look around, isn’t this amazing? And, indeed, it was.

In 1997, I rode a bus for 13 hours to watch the only postseason game the Giants played at home that season. My Walkman ran out of batteries before Chico. That’s a lot of staring. And I was rewarded with a supremely disappointing game. The next day, I rode a bus for 13 hours again. I had batteries this time, but the music didn’t help.

That 1997 Giants team might be the reason I’m a baseball writer. They made me hope and believe, and I got to flip off pundits and prognosticators in the process.

Hell yeah, Mariners. You got to the postseason. Even if it was a Charlie Brown valentine of a postseason, it existed. It was great. It was horrible. It was the postseason. No regrets, no shame. Julio Rodríguez is yours, and nobody else can have him.

As for the Astros, yeah, they’re pretty good. They had the audacity to reach into their coat pockets and pull out a 15-game winner to use in long relief. Luis Garcia is going to be a cult hero if the Astros win the World Series, which seems more likely than not at this point. But imagine what would have happened if the game would have went 20 innings. The Astros would have reached into their other coat pocket and pulled out José Urquidy, a 13-game winner, who could have pitched until sunrise.

The Astros won because they shrugged off the departure of their former first-overall pick and franchise legend. “Eh, we can replace him with this dude from the minors. He’s pretty good.” And they were right. The Astros don’t need any validation, but if they’re in the market, Jeremy Peña’s home run goes a long way. Turns out that he’s quite a talent. Look at how many players are still with the Astros from their championship team. It’s not a lot. Yet they keep finding a way.

I know the Astros aren’t exactly the sport’s most popular team, but they might be its most amazing. They’re almost certainly the favorites to win it all from here. They’re the only 100-win team left standing, after all.

GO DEEPER

Mariners' storybook season ends in heartbreak: 'You don't think it's going to end'

GO DEEPER

Astros' Jeremy Peña ends long game with a long ball: 18 innings and worth the wait

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Cleveland vs. New York: Yankees on the brink as Guardians complete a jaw-dropping comeback

The Guardians defeated the Yankees, 6-5, to take a 2-1 series lead. But that’s the boring version. What actually happened could be felt from blocks away.

 

It was a walk-off win for the Guardians, who entered the ninth inning down by two runs and left it up in a series that has WFAN absolutely humming. Do you like bullpen controversies? Oh, boy, if you do, you’re in for a treat.

The Yankees used Clarke Schmidt as their de facto closer because they didn’t want to use Clay Holmes, their best reliever and actual closer. They didn’t want to use him because he threw 16 pitches on Friday night. Too risky. Didn’t want to get him hurt.

Except Holmes was ready to go. His teammates were expecting him. The party line is that he was going to be available in extraordinary circumstances, but protecting a two-run lead to avoid an elimination game on the road seems fairly extraordinary. The Yankees are in trouble.

Let’s pause to promote a podcast that predicted this exact situation, even going so far as to name-drop Clarke Schmidt. What a podcast this must be! Everyone should listen to this podcast, in my opinion.

Anywho, all of this Yankees’ pain goes away if Gerrit Cole is a dude, which he is fully capable of being. But it was very clear from the start of the postseason that the Yankees had a bullpen problem. Their one-time closer is not on the postseason roster, and the words “veritable moat of pus” can help explain why. There’s nothing worse in baseball than losing a postseason game in the late innings because of bullpen weirdness. Those are the ones that put you into a fugue state 20 years from now.

Look at this East Coast bias, though. We’re treating the Guardians as supporting characters in the Yankees Cinematic Universe. The Guardians, well, they done good. Triston McKenzie wasn’t as superb as he’d been in the past, but for all of their offensive foibles in this postseason, they still have Steven Kwan (3-for-5), Amed Rosario (scored a run, drove in a run) and José Ramírez (is José Ramírez). They also have Oscar Gonzalez, who played for the Akron RubberDucks at one point this year, and is now a certifiable Cleveland legend. They have Cal Quantrill going for them in Game 4, and he’s never lost a decision at home.

Look at all of those names. Look at all of those good baseball players. I know the Guardians were underdogs, but let’s not make this all about what the Yankees did wrong. Sometimes it’s about what the other team does right.

Surely this was the biggest upset of the night, though. There couldn’t possibly be a bigger …

GO DEEPER

Oscar Gonzalez's legend grows as sky-high Guardians supply yet another adrenaline rush

GO DEEPER

Aaron Judge woke up, but it still wasn't enough — the Yankees are in trouble

GO DEEPER

Yankees' bullpen issues leave them one game away from ALDS elimination

GO DEEPER

Cal Quantrill has never lost a decision at home, a bad omen for the Yankees in Game 4

GO DEEPER

With the Yankees' season on the line, Gerrit Cole can erase all doubt that he's their ace

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San Diego vs. Los Angeles: Padres slay the dragon, send the Dodgers home for the cruelest winter

It is my firmest belief that the Dodgers are a dynasty. This is a heretical take and very bad for my personal brand, but part of my job is to think about the Dodgers every day, and I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re one of the most impressive operations in the history of professional sports. They lost two aces, and they’re still winning 111 games? Man, even 101 wins wouldn’t have changed my mind.

But baseball don’t care. Baseball is free jazz, with alto saxophones skronking and screeching over a 7/4 beat, and we’re all dorks in powdered wigs, trying to make sense of it like it’s Mozart. Maybe we should just let those cats play.

Baseball looks at 111 wins and spits. With a 3-0 lead, Dodgers reliever Tommy Kahnle walked the leadoff hitter in the seventh inning, Jurickson Profar. The old baseball gods, the ones deep underneath the sea, stirred. Do not walk the leadoff hitter in the seventh inning with a three-run lead! All four balls were non-competitive pitches. Walks like that lead to infield hits, which is exactly what happened next. Walks like that lead to the Unexpected Postseason Hero of the Year, which is what Trent Grisham is, apparently. And after that guy singles, it leads to a double over third base from Ha-Seong Kim and past a shift, which was probably in place for logical reasons.

I honestly wondered if we were in a post-baseball-chaos world. If the abacus twiddlers and eggheads had gotten so good at analyzing players and planning methods of attack, that we were going to see teams like the Dodgers do exactly what they’re supposed to do.

Instead, ha ha, Jake Cronenworth go brrr, and it’s a perfectly executed at-bat that sends the Padres to the NLCS. The postseason is simply cruel.

That’s Rod Carew-worthy, a simple flat-planed bat path on a well-executed pitch. Abacus twiddlers and eggheads can tell Alex Vesia that’s the right pitch to throw, and more times than not, they’re right.

Every so often, though, a good hitter beats a good idea and screws everything up. Chaotic baseball is never going away.

I’m not sure if it’s going to be the Padres or the Phillies in the World Series — just a goofy sequence of words to type — but take a moment to stop and appreciate what the Padres have done. What they’ve built. They retired Steve Garvey’s number because he got them to a World Series, and the Dodgers didn’t retire his number, even though he helped them win a World Series, and that’s the dynamic that’s existed between these two franchises.

From the very beginning of A.J. Preller’s tenure, the Padres have had a “Why not us?” attitude, starting with the decision to sign Eric Hosmer. That … didn’t work out so well, but it was a declaration of intent, and every subsequent move has backed that up. Signing Manny Machado. Giving an extension to Joe Musgrove. Trading for Juan Soto.

It’s all built and built and built a general vibe surrounding San Diego baseball, the only professional team in the city out of the four major North American sports leagues, the one that happens to play in a perfectly located ballpark in a city with perfect weather (except for Saturday night).

Here you go. Here’s a reward. I’m not sure if this is the greatest achievement in Padres history, or if it’s only in the top five. But it’s been 53 years since this franchise started, so either way, they were overdue for a moment like this.

And, look, it’s not always bad when one of your best players gets pinched for performance-enhancing drugs. Trust me. Sometimes that just makes the rest of the story sweeter.

 

[Gourmand 7776]

8 hours ago, Pimphand said:

What a fucking postseason so far.....

We had Helo cry about Astros fans bitching about rust from the stupid extended layoff.

We then had the Astros sweep the bitchass Mariners in epic soul reaving fashion despite playing 4 games.

We then had the 2 World Series favorites go down like $2 crack whores as the rust from the stupid layoffs fucked their mojo.

Tonight we get to watch the Cleveland Indians perform the Deathstroke on his bitchass MFY due to rust from the extended bitchass layoff.

We havent even gotten to the fucking LCS yet and this is some crazy levels of crack straight into the veins.

Aren't you a Yankees fan I'm so confused.

 

 

[tx 3 putt 78009]

[Guadaloopy 11077]

Getting really tired of the "5 games is too short" for division series narrative that is popping up now that the Dodgers and Braves got bounced by wild cards.  Five games is enough to get through a team's full starting rotation.  Seven games actually benefits the team with the shittier rotation.  If a team has a strong 1-2 punch but then a parade of crap, they can still get 4 great starts from their big guns in a 7 game series.  The team with the better pitching rotation should be ideally suited to win a 5-game series.  A 7-game series gives a crappier rotation a puncher's chance.  

Do any of us think that the Dodgers or Braves were primed to win games 5-7?  GTFO with that 7-game NLDS shit.

[Valmy77 13456]

The Baseball playoffs is currently going to November 5th. We cannot have it go farther than that. Nobody wants to play baseball in mid November in New York or Boston or Colorado or some other cold weather place. Really not into making them 7 game series.

Edited October 18, 2022 by Valmy77

[Dutchrudder 11162]

The regular season needs to be shortened to about 120 games. That's plenty to decide seeding, then have the playoffs at a reasonable time of the year.  162 games a year is so unnecessary. 

[Gourmand 7776]

8 hours ago, Valmy77 said:

The Baseball playoffs is currently going to November 5th. We cannot have it go farther than that. Nobody wants to play baseball in mid November in New York or Boston or Colorado or some other cold weather place. Really not into making them 7 game series.

The season started late due to the lockout and that affected the playoff schedule as well.

[Helobious 9516]

6 hours ago, Dutchrudder said:

The regular season needs to be shortened to about 120 games. That's plenty to decide seeding, then have the playoffs at a reasonable time of the year.  162 games a year is so unnecessary. 

Teams will love losing 25% of their annual revenue for sure. 
 

I’m trying to think of a sports league that has ever shortened their season. Will never happen.