2017 NLDS: Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals

arrieta and scherzer both planning to pitch game 3 btw

i can't get myself to feel very optimistic about the cubs' chances here, the pitching (rotation and bullpen) has just been too mediocre this season

the cubs are capable of sweeping or getting swept, so i don't know. though i feel like the world series win last year takes all the pressure off them, tbh. depends on who gets hot, as usual.

If pressed, I'd say Nats in 5, but you never know what Dusty's tactics will unleash. Also, Scherzer's health a bigger problem than Arietta's.

I stand to win money on Arizona because the odds were good when I placed the bet, but if I had to pick who I really think will win it all this year, I'd go with the Nationals right now (assuming Harper's playing and healthy).

I should be excited about the prospect of the Nationals franchise finally winning something, but I'm really not. Maybe because they've blown it so many times over the past six seasons?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Washington Nationals in 4

cubs are going with hendricks for game one, lester for game two, quintana for game three, and arrieta for game four

i trust Hendricks and Quintana far more than Lester and Arrieta.

probably goes without saying at this point

i honestly have no idea how this rotation will perform but it's the best they can do with what they've got, i'm just glad they aren't putting lackey in there because he has "proven postseason success" or something like that

I'm worried the Cubs went under the radar with their lack of dominance and theyre going to go HAM on everyone in the post season =|

But I also feel like the Nats have an awful trend of getting eliminated by the Dodgers in the playoffs so they might pass on to the next round just to fulfill their destiny.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Max Scherzer is walking back to the dugout without throwing a bullpen. This would not bode great for his chances to start Game 2

— Jamal Collier (@JamalCollier) October 5, 2017

Dusty Baker embraces sweet redemption tour, facing a team that fired him, and his old team that snubbed him. #Nats https://t.co/Tfn7OuaCeN

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) October 6, 2017

...and old nemesis Derek Lowe, a dozen retired pitchers with sling-bound arms, and a ladyfriend who once told him, "You ain't shit."

<3 baez <3

it's the low-scoring pitcher's duel that everyone has apparently been clamoring for

Kris Bryant just makes it look easy.

hi

lol

he's out

Nationals needed this game and they got shut out, wow.

great game from hendricks, still pretty shocked the cubs took one in dc

https://images.shazam.com/coverart/t61341584-b4408704_s400.jpg

that dude who caught the home run was so stereotypical chicago it was embarrassing

no one else is watching this? lester just got out of a big jam

I just got in

Oliver Perez can go to hell

congrats to the nationals on their fifth playoff hit

I love that Harper doesn't do that stupid pointing-to-the-sky gesture.

Harper!

Wolfboy is back

the Nationals cannot lose this game

Adam Lind is thinking of taking that new chick from logistics.

congrats to the nationals on their fifth playoff hit

― mookieproof, Saturday, October 7, 2017 8:16 PM

mook WOKE EM UP

garbage bullpen
that lind hbp was bullshit though

wtf, got distracted and missed the Nationals pulling out three more runs

nice

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLlm6tzXUAIptAW.jpg

The Cubs were 67-1 in the regular season when leading by multiple runs entering the 8th inning. The Nationals were 1-37 when trailing.

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 8, 2017

good pitching, eh

i'd say

through 6, quintana's given up 2 hits, scherzer 0.

and a two-error #schwarber

sorry, not quite through 6. i have a bad habit of doing that

All that Schwarber play needed was an Ibanez-style desperation heave.

xpost

Kyle Schwarber plays the outfield like I did back in the day. Terrible!!!!!!! #Nats #Cubs

— William Ladson (@washingnats) October 9, 2017

Whoa!!!!!!!!!

Somewhere, Tom Emanski just had a heart attack. pic.twitter.com/BVnbPrJKD0

— SI MLB (@si_mlb) October 9, 2017

I had no idea who that other Murray brother was.

Murray voiced Cheetos mascot Chester Cheetah from the character's inception in 1986 until 1997. He was replaced by Pete Stacker in 1997.

Heck of a play there in center by the Nats.

Could not get to the bloop that time.

Taylor or Werth might've gotten it with a dive but it seemed like no one called it. That was a tense game.

dusty

was Dusty being Dusty again? pulling your ace after he gives up one hit? smh

playing the .211 Schwarber for his bat instead of anyone who can actually play outfield seems worse than anything Dusty did

still; i enjoy seeing dusty lose.

otm

Dusty leaves him in and Max blows it at 110 pitches, he'd get blame for leaving a hurt pitcher out there when he should know he was done.

Not being a Captain save a Dusty, it's just Nats fans to learn the hard way.

He was coming off an injury and was supposed to be on a 100 pitch limit ... Dusty being Dusty (or Washington being Washington, because it happens every year with them even pre-Dusty) is giving up the tying and winning runs in the late innings without using your best relievers.

well Scherzer only had 74 pitches, i didn't see the game but seems early after just one hit. but it's Dusty.

good point NoTime, i just have some bad memories of Dusty under pressure.

Scherzer was at 98 pitches not 74, which is why I made that point. Dusty will never use his setup guy or closer except in the 8th or 9th. That's going against the vet clutch hustler law of physics.

Madden is opposite, sometimes he gets too clever for his own good and the Cubs have a couple times bailed him out in big playoff games. Dude got spared being added to the goat pile big time last year in Game 7.

98 pitches is a different ballgame, read the MLB app wrong.

would any manager pull their ace who's pitching a no hitter in a one run playoff game?

i think the problem is going to Sammy Solis in a tight situation, regardless of pitch counts or inning. there is 4 much much better relievers on the Nats squad.

i agree that it's 20/20 hindsight, the guy had a bad hammy a few days ago

Amazing to think: Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg have both taken no-hitters into the seventh in this series -- and the Nats lost both.

— Barry Svrluga (@barrysvrluga) October 10, 2017

it's supposed to rain all afternoon and evening here

Dusty being Dusty is giving up the tying and winning runs in the late innings without using your best relievers.

otm

otoh, i suppose farrell/hinch would have brought in strasburg

5:30 ET start time seems unprecedented when there is only one game

Forecasts for Chicago on Tuesday evening led MLB to establish the 4:38 p.m. local first pitch time at Wrigley Field.

OK thx

4-9pm forecast only a jot better than later on.

Matz, espn:

The Accuweather forecast for Wrigley Field calls for a 70% chance of rain throughout the late afternoon and evening. If Game 4 of Nats/Cubs, (slated to start at 4:38 central) gets rained out, it would be rescheduled for Wednesday. If that happens, Game 1 starter Stephen Strasburg would be available on regular four days rest. Ditto for Chicago's Kyle Hendricks.

Cameron exculpates Dusty

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/in-defense-of-dusty-baker/

if they play, Heyward sits. And Dusty bats Bryce third.

That defense of Dusty is embarrassing. "Pitcher X wins that battle most of time" makes no sense because even the worst pitchers win 65% of the battles. It's not a reason to not have a better pitcher in the game. The manager gets blamed for the decision making process, not the results -- "it was a lucky bloop that fell in" doesn't get the manager off the hook for making a bad decision. John Kruk must have hacked into fangraphs or something.

Margin of defeat for the Nationals' past 9 postseason losses, going back to 2012 NLDS Game 5.

Nine losses by 12 total runs ... oof. pic.twitter.com/bdZGwp6gdX

— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) October 10, 2017

even if they can play today it's going to be cold and damp, could be a messy game

looks awful dicey on the radar, they might play 4 innings til the skies open.

NLDS Game 4 is officially in delay. MLB officials will meet at 4:30 pm CT and have an update after that. #Cubs

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) October 10, 2017

Looks like there won't be a game today (which favours the Nats, I think, because they won't have to start Roark).

except...

Baker says Roark will start Wed for Nats vs #Cubs

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) October 10, 2017

sounds good, Dusty, you gotta save Strasburg for game 5

I mean we'll see I guess...

apparently strasburg has a cold or something?

Dusty said Strasburg did throw a bullpen today in anticipation of starting Thursday. So by time game was called, couldn't pitch tomorrow.

— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) October 10, 2017

They didn't anticipate...today's weather?

the tone of this article is so obnoxious:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2017/10/10/stephen-strasburg-declines-game-4-start-after-rainout/752350001/

i get it, he's getting paid $175 million, he's expected to tough it out, etc. but these same sportswriters (and fans) will absolutely tear apart a manager over relatively minor things like not bringing in a lefty to face a lefty, benching a player based off of short sample sizes and PvP matchups, etc. everything in baseball is about trying to slightly change the odds that something will happen in an inherently unpredictable game. but when you have a player who knows he's going to incur the wrath of National Nation and still knows that it's better that he doesn't pitch, isn't it possible that he's actually REALLY SICK, and if he's really sick, isn't it better to turn to someone who is healthy? when i'm really sick i can't even check my email without fucking everything up, i can't imagine trying to strike anthony rizzo out during a make or break playoff game.

Nationals manager Dusty Baker tried to cover for Strasburg at their press conference, saying that Strasburg threw a bullpen session Tuesday and was simply unavailable.

Only Strasburg actually threw his bullpen session Monday.

He didn’t throw a pitch Tuesday.

And decided, apparently, that he couldn’t go in Game 4.

Unbelievable.

...“We have full confidence in Tanner,’’ Baker said.

Yet he is not Stephen Strasburg.

He is not a $175 million pitcher.

He is not one of the faces of the franchise.

There’s a reason why he was the Nationals’ fourth choice to start a playoff game.

hey Bob Nightengale on Twitter: FUCK OFF

Also you suck at writing

it's so dumb that I suspect gamesmanship

Also.

You suck.

At writing.

maybe he gets a little dorito every time he hits enter twice in a row.

yum

i love it

there's cheese all over my keyboard

i can't stop

He is not a $175 million pitcher.

He is not one of the faces of the franchise.

There’s a reason why he was the Nationals’ fourth choice to start a playoff game.

That reason is this:

He's trash.

Human filth.

His change up is a change down.

He misses bats so much he wants to see them more, so what does he do?

He gives up more hits. Intentionally.

He's in the pocket of big bat. And he's a pitcher.

looool

I miss Plaschke variations.

hmm the cubs are apparently sticking with arrieta too instead of jumping to hendricks. i know bullpenning is getting criticized these days but i'd be ok with hendricks being ready to come out of the bullpen if arrieta starts to struggle. he hasn't pitched a good game in a while.

Dusty goin' Moldy with these Strasburg excuses

Baker: "Alot of my team is under the weather with the change of weather, A/C, hotel...this is the time of year for mold around Chicago". pic.twitter.com/3dalgrTwLW

— Erin Hawksworth (@ABC7Erin) October 10, 2017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/stephen-strasburg-and-nationals-commit-biggest-error-of-the-season/2017/10/11/fdcab2de-ae81-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?utm_term=.5ee0fb43a5ac

hmmmm

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/try-to-tell-the-difference-between-jake-arrieta-and-tanner-roark/

lol

BREAKING: Stephen Strasburg now likely to start for #Nats today in Game 4, source says. @MLB @MLBNetwork

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) October 11, 2017

jake arrieta just caught a cold

dusty playing the long con

too weak to be a con (even apart from making his star pitcher look like a wimp). it's not like the cubs have to prepare for a different quarterback or something -- they just saw strasburg five days ago, they'll be ready for whomever

if dusty wanted to be vague he could have said 'strasburg has the flu; if he can go tomorrow he will, if not, then roark will.' this was just half-assedness

It's of course a cliche that there's a Trump tweet for every occasion, but this is stretching the genre.... https://t.co/8NELAe0Hiu

— Marc Fisher (@mffisher) October 11, 2017

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/if-hes-under-the-weather-stephen-strasburg-shouldnt-pitch/

Nats BA in NLDS: .121 (11-for-91)

Nats expected BA, based on Statcast exit velo/launch angle: .218 (~20-for-91)

9 hits over 3 games

— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) October 11, 2017

Somebody sent Strasburg a sexy-nurse singing-telegram message like in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

def not looking that sick

batting Werth 2nd is dumb tho

strikes out the side for a SHUTDOWN INNING

nice bunt

batting Werth is dumb

Weather looks nasty

strasburg a True National after all

wowwwww

RIP

Awesome - stoked for Taylor

Threw him two fastballs right down the middle

i like this nats team.

yeah

i like turner, rendon, doolittle and scherzer -- that's pretty much it. and i hate all dc-area teams and their fans

already so tired of the cubs that i guess i'm still rooting for them tho

during climactic Rizzo-Madson faceoff bar was playing Modest Mouse's "3rd Planet"

i like Taylor bcz he looks like Willie McGee/E.T.

and i hate all dc-area teams and their fans

same. nats fans deserve nothing

i live here and if the nats even go to the WS i'm moving away forever

<3 the Expos, you guys are balls.

but qualx, the Homestead Grays don't play there anymore

first off they do second off i don't get the joke

i used to live there but the nats fans were so shitty i had to move away

my mistake!

loved the expos. these are not the expos

i went to a game at nats stadium this year and every single nats fan is an angry rich uncle wearing a fleece LL Bean jacket, and they all looked miserable

i don't want to toot the "my team's fans are better" horn but it was an o's game (the infamous rain makeup) and i had to listen to the people behind me complaining about o's fans acting like actual sports fans and it was the most DC thing ever

it's ok morbs i'm sure it would've been a great burn if was smarter

and homestead is in pittsburgh

the average age difference btwn nats and o's fans must've been about 30 years, and the "young" nats fans were all wearing ties anyway

i never promised u a rose garden, Cal Ripken III

definitively more expos enthusiasts outside of montreal than in (if we count the west island out of the municipality).

i mean at least the nats draw some fans.

I won't defend specific Nat-fan assholes, but Washington, D.C. (considered as a city with actual people in it) has been a favorite punching bag of some of the worst people in the universe. So has its largest employer. Morale is low here.

A little bit of success in a sporting realm would be a helpful tonic for my townspeople.

karl and i have both lived in dc, which is probably why we hate its teams/fans

i don't have anything against the wizards, tho. or southeast jerome

My wife and I are friends with a retired couple who used to live/work in DC and are the biggest Nats fans we know -- biggest fans of a sports team I've ever known. We get together with them for dinner once a month, and tonight's the night for that. If we don't wind up turning the game on tonight I'll be amazed. At the very least, they'll shoo us back home early so they can watch the last half.

FWIW, I wouldn't call myself a Nats fan. I have actively negative feelings about the Football Entity That Shall Not Be Named. All the city's other sports teams, combined, have probably accounted for less than two minutes of my attention over the last 41 years.

That said, one hears so much negative stuff said about this city and her people. Can they not just maybe have this one little thing? A pretty good baseball team succeeding?

I guess it's either Gio or Roarke starting tonight; both may pitch

I'd like to see Kershaw in a World Series, but right now, I'm rooting for an Astros/Nationals match-up--neither's ever won, best hitting vs. best front-three starters, Altuve/Harper.

Gio starts

That said, one hears so much negative stuff said about this city and her people. Can they not just maybe have this one little thing? A pretty good baseball team succeeding?

― looser than lucinda (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, October 12, 2017 11:39 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

have you considered that DC is actually the entirety of hell and it doesn't deserve redemption

just because people who don't live here hate it for the wrong reasons doesn't mean there aren't right reasons

i sympathize with what you're saying, Y.M. Puffin. believe me, i feel bad for the feds. honestly i think i just got tired of going to nats games with 14,000 people in the stands and watching everyone boo whenever there was a pickoff attempt. that is one of my biggest baseball pet peeves! i can't forgive it.

Should have gone with Roark.

D.C. is a good place actually

SCRAM

why is werth batting 2nd again? (as i type that, ron darling says that werth is the best person to bat 2nd with Turner on base, because he averaged 4.5 pitches per PA. but...i still don't think it makes sense)

i think you know the answer

dusty baker is a genius? i don't even know which team i'm rooting for in this game, tbh. i guess i'm rooting for an interesting game.

i'm amazed how Darling gets a lobotomy every fall before the playoffs, but has it undone in time for the next Mets' season.

Wow again!

MT Soopahstah

it's Dusty's game to blow

...as in, leaving Gio in so he can WP in the tying run too, just averted

well this is going til at least 12 ET

(Any district that has dozens of Ethiopian restaurants is all right.)

(I've never warmed to that spongy bread.)

It's panda-shaped relief hero Matt Albers.

you never have to set foot in DC for ethiopian, silver spring is right there

A starting pitcher who has given up four runs in three innings -- and is behind in an elimination game -- was allowed to hit in the fourth inning.

have Maddon and Dusty switched bodies?

Camus Tao Maddon

I love how anytime I leave the TBS app to like answer a text or whatever and then go back in, I'm required to watch the exact same cell phone ad with Bryce Harper every single time, and then the same ad shows up in every ad break too.

better than having to watch bayless and cowherd on the fox app, at least

OTM

Cy-quality aces not doing real well this month

hahahaahah playoff baseball folks

RIP

holy fuck

damn

Wow it is almost as if pitching on short rest in the playoffs is extremely difficult I was told anybody who gave up a run was a choke arti

— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) October 13, 2017

ROBOT CATCHERS NOW

ROBOT PITCHERS NOW

lol wow

2 run game and it's still early but I can't recall a team making a boner like that in an elimination game and winning

I mean, 3 run game

ROBOT MANAGERS NOW

yeah, someone asked Dave Cameron yesterday if Scherzer would relieve and he said "He won't throw much on 2 days' rest." (He got an extra day but the point stands.)

xxxxp

wietersed

Strange inning. Only one ball was hit hard (Russell's double). And somehow it all started by Scherzer mowing down Bryant and Rizzo.

this could end 12-11

i love that my upstairs neighbor is watching the game on a feed that's like a minute ahead of mine, so i hear him yell YES and i know something good is going to happen soon

this time i'm not being sarcastic, i really do love that

werthless

ouch.

what a mess of a game for the nats

I'm not sure why they're assuming Werth lost the ball in the lights. Maybe he just messed up.

i feel bad for werth. not only did that happen, but this could be his last game. he's 38, at the end of a 7-year contract, and he's been worth just a hair over replacement value over the last 3 years.

RIP. you were very hairy

:-O

how the fuck are there still 3+ innings of this left

this could end 12-11

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius)

hmmm ...

All pitchers are terrible

pretty epic, you guys

i don't think there is enough evidence...

well good job Maddon, nice challenge.

terrible

Will Lackey have to save the game in the 9th?

oh god

maddon is dustying

It has been 11 hours

Blergh.

Astros to rip all of these reamining big club teams apart.

good christ, it's never easy

During this game I had children and now one of them is interviewing me on my deathbed

44 pitches for Davis tonight

go Dodgers!

Cubs need to improve on a lot of things fast if they want to repeat against the Dodgers.

I am now older than Dusty

I didn't think Davis could finish the game, but he earned it. Hell of a pitch on the K to Harper to end the game.

During this game I had children and now one of them is interviewing me on my deathbed they consider baseball a more exhausting investment than other products competing for their interest

The Nationals will never ever win a world series. Goodnight everyone.

that challenge was still ridiculously called.

370 pitches were thrown in this game.

Lol, my feed was lagging so badly that I just finished watching the 8th inning. Didn’t realize it was over!

None of the 2.73m half innings in our db have even had all 4 of these events. 22 w/ 3. Only 5 games had all 4.https://t.co/ntifpJIb6n

— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) October 13, 2017

that is: intentional walk, passed ball K where the batter reaches, catcher's interference, hit by pitch

wow

http://sabr.org/research/was-there-seven-way-game-seven-ways-reaching-first-base

This game had every one!!

I reached first base with all of your moms during this game.

and it had lots more common things, like me napping from the 6th til bottom 9th

guess what, longest 9-inning PS game ever

Dusty Baker’s Sweet Redemption Tour 2017, brought to you by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale:

Chicago

that challenge was still ridiculously called.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, October 13, 2017 12:57 AM

bullshit btw

don't get caught

nah, the way the rule is applied in the replay era is ridiculous. there is an easy solution: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/dear-mlb-please-fix-the-slide-replay/

This play isn’t baseball. It’s giant human beings trying to play stupid some form of Twister. Sliding into a base and maintaining perfect contact isn’t some kind of skill players get selected for, and deciding games based on the outcome of these replays takes away from the elite skills competition that these players are actually competing in.

So, here’s the same suggestion I made last year when Baez was called out after nearly getting concussed by Joe Panik. On slides or dives into a base, a player who makes contact with the bag before the tag is applied should be granted a vertical safe zone above the base so that he is still safe even if he is tagged while not physically touching the base so long as it is clear that he is still directly above the bag. If you slide in, your foot hits the base, and the laws of physics force your foot to bounce up an inch off the ground, but your foot is still over the base, then you’re still safe.

that isn't the rule rn though

right, the rule needs to be changed

just saying the challenge was not "ridiculously called"

i don't think it's too much to ask that baseball players be touching a base to be safe

we can now simply look at the position of the players body in relation to the space above the base, a much easier thing to judge

yes, it is so much easier to determine whether a toe is vertically above another object than whether it is actually touching that object APPLAUSE DOT JJJJJJJIF

if the player touches the base before the tag is applied and loses contact momentarily, without sliding past the base or making an attempt to advance, i think that runner should be safe

what defines "momentarily"

what defines "sliding past"

let's not go monkeying with the fundamentals. you get tagged and you're not touching the base, you're out. maybe people will have to alter their slides? practice in a different way? that's fine!

Put sensors in the base and the players’ shoes. Eliminate human judgement everywhere possible.

I find it hilarious that the same people who scream for robot umps whenever a strike is called on a pitch one-half inch off the plate (i.e. Cameron and his minions at Fangraphs) are now saying that we need to make a judgement call when a guy is tagged with his foot one-half inch off a base.

my favorite thing about the nationals losing is how it makes the political writers i follow on twitter very sad

Sliding into a base and maintaining perfect contact isn’t some kind of skill players get selected for

noah syndergaard didn't get selected for his pickoff move, but it still matters. players aren't selected for their bunting skills, but every once in a while it comes into play.

sliding correctly *is* a skill, and some players do it better than others. (for some reason i recall that anthony rizzo does it well.) if you can't get to the base and stay on it, then maybe you shouldn't be running/straying too far from it.

i mean if you want to change the rule to encourage running because running is fun, or because you're tired of seeing stars fuck up their hands sliding head-first, that *might* be reasonable. meanwhile, the base is there and you should remain in contact with it

otm

i don't know why nats fans are complaining about this instead of the play not being called dead when baez hit weiters on the backswing during the downfall of scherzer inning

i'd complain about it too -- i'd just blame lobaton instead of the umps/rule

With advancement, I believe we get a chance to pick up a player. Wondering if it's our opportunity to offload Schwarbs, have a pitcher complain about a sore arm and get an honest to goodness decent starter for the LA series. We'll need it. I was at Monday's game and it was a nail-biter. Just found out this AM that my buddy got us in the door for Wednesday - hoping there's reason to celebrate that day, or at least live another post-season game.

i was wondering why happ got so little playing time this series

cubs starters were generally pretty good this series. it's still the bullpen that makes me scared.

Nats fans at least have a lineup/defense w/out Jayson Werth to look fwd to

I was at the game last night and Werth’s error was just. Wow. But he hit p well!

when werth struck out in the ninth i could see him thinking 'was that my last major league at bat'

small sample size

JW's OPS+ the last 3 seasons: 85, 97, 84

xp

Yeah I felt kind of bad for him there. He came so close to a game tying HR earlier in the at bat too.

Can confirm the #Cubs are still on the plane in Albuquerque and have been on the ground for 3+ hours.

— Danny Parkins (@DannyParkins) October 13, 2017

it felt like werth, weiters, and to a lesser extent turner really killed the nats

This one by Werth was not a small sample size.

Signed thru 2017, Earliest Free Agent: 2018
Career to date (may be incomplete) $136,416,428

i still think the best decision Jayson Werth ever made was to not shave, that gamer beard got him an extra 40 million i bet.

in light of all the controversies of the game, the backswing interference that wasn't called, the debate over the slide into first and the vertical tag zone, i vote that we play game 5 again.

- jayson werth

Millie: I can’t seem to find a reliable interpretation of what should have been called in the 5th. Do you have one?

Jeff Sullivan: I 60-70% believe that, by the letter of the law, Baez should’ve been out on a dead ball. But I 99% believe I would’ve found that annoying because Wieters was in no way inhibited by the contact

I also 100% believe the uncaught-third-strike rule is stupid in the first place

So I’m fairly sure the wrong decision was made regarding a stupid rule that occurred during a stupid rule

But I 99% believe I would’ve found that annoying because Wieters was in no way inhibited by the contact

this was my first impression as well, but there's a video near the bottom of this - https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-nationals-protest-case/ - that makes it seem much more substantial

the video, unembeddable, and with a bizarre URL, is here: https://gfycat.com/DelayedDeepCreature

Getting an out involves catching a ball. This is as basic as baseball gets. The uncaught third strike rule makes perfect sense.

lol ppl in my office are getting FIRED UP arguing about the slide/replay/lobaton thing

did they kick the desk but miss by two inches?

i feel like a batter should get to run on a passed ball third strike, but not a wild pitch third strike. (why reward someone for swinging at a terrible pitch?) there's obviously no way to do it that way, so whatever, this is fine

Yeah, technically there's a loophole in the current rule that batters could exploit. But if it were that simple then it would happen all the time, and it doesn't. So the rule is fine the way it is.

running on PB strikeouts is exciting therefore good

I wish I would have seen this one, it looks like it was a totally insane game.