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.

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.