2017 NLDS: Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals

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

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.