2012 NLDS - Nats v Cards

Days are off but go nats

huh yea sry screwed up the dates lemme ask a mod

don't bother, the only thing that can be changed in a poll thread is the title

o rly
ok

please Nats, no more Cardinal Cinderellas

Woo go Nats

i want the Nationals to win.

I hate both of these teams...hoping for a Reds-A's World Series.

voted cards cause they're never gonna lose now

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My two favorite teams facing off. Obviously I want the cardinals to win, but the nats are a much better team and I'll happily cheer them thoughout the rest of the playoffs. Can't lose!

everytime i saw the nats this season they looked really good. granted, this was mostly vs the mets
i still sortof think the cards will win this

clippard has been struggling a bit lately i think

Not the most thought-provoking prediction, probably, but the cardinals will only win this if they can manage to win both of their games at home to lead off the series. I'm actually confident about waino stepping it up tonight (even against Gio), but once they get to Jaime Garcia and Lynn, we're fucked. Chris carpenter is a total wildcard (no pun intended)

woo go Gio

is Alfred around to tell us if this TBS guy pronounced "Hialeah" correctly?

Gio's flipping out :(

yeesh

warm up strausberg

not good for the Nat's

this is a practice game right

suzuki is on skates back there

Bryce 2-0 vs sun monster today at least

god i hate the cards

There goes the no-hitter.

Gio's pitching line: : 5 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 7 BB, 5 K, 1 WP, 110 pitches, 59 strikes.

nats get out of bases loaded 0-out

and win. good job, Nats.

happy that the Nats's were able to come back and win that one/

Hadn't known that Storen was a bat boy for the Expos:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/baseball/Former+Nats+pitcher/7352994/story.html

Sam Miller ‏@SamMillerBP
Ryan Mattheus is the first pitcher in postseason history (21st overall) to pitch one inning and throw two pitches.

the cardinals sure do know how to work a count

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

omg Bryce Harper's eyeblack

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/nationals-journal/files/2012/10/brycesunmonster1012b.jpg

ah his old high school look

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2009/writers/tom_verducci/06/16/bryce.harper/bryce-harper-verducci.jpg

Garcia closeups unexpected homo heaven

how do you feel about underrated Nationals hottie Michael Morse, Morbs?

meh, he's ok

I'd assume that Jayson Werth is the opposite of whatever Jaime Garcia is.

ugh

Peace, Jaime.

there's been a mostly bullshit meme among STL journalists this year that jaime is really fragile and if everything doesn't go just perfect (e.g., an error, or a bad call an umpire) he'll have a freakout and give up 10 runs while he's busy having a childish breakdown in public.

that stuff has been debunked for the most part using sabermetrics, but i still can't help to buy into at least a little. he's about the last guy i'd want to send into a big game (i.e. this one)

Nats' non-Strasburg starters looking very non-Strasburgian

strasburg and jaime should meet up after this game and cry it out

god i hate the damn cards

they hit like .396 against zimm regular season iirc

wwwooooooohooooo!

I can tell this postseason is going to consist of me repeatedly going out for 20 minutes to pick up a prescription and coming back to a blowout.

seen the Nats come back from worse this season

what was an INCREDIBLE block by suzuki there.

that was, i mean. wow.

Lance Lynn now pitching like Lynn Anderson

or Lance Loud

John Jay for chief justice

Bryce Harper, teenage mistake-maker

Werth, $126 M juggler

beltran = senor october

please learn how to type an ñ, it hurts me

python offense in feast mode

someone on teevee just said "nationals still with a shot in this game" but I suspect the odds are quite slim

rosenthal can throw some smoke

Joe Strauss ‏@JoeStrauss
Garcia to be removed from postseason roster, replaced before Wednesday's Game 3. Several teammates furious over situation.

from what angle?

I've also heard something about a MRI?

basically he said he's been hurt since friday and never said anything. also the medical staff has had trouble verifying his shoulder injury this year.

MLBN guys couldn't stop talking about how amazing beltran is in the postseason which is funny cause he's only been in two before this and basically all those homers were hit in 2004 with the astros. who even remembers beltran the astro? worst thing abt the postseason is anyone talking about postseason stats like they mean anything

who even remembers beltran the astro?

Uh, everyone? He put up insane numbers with the Astros, set the record for HR's in a single postseason and pretty much cinched his eight figure contract on the basis of what he did during that half season. The 2004 NLCS was one of the more memorable ones too.

You can talk about SSS and how "postseason" has been watered down by having a million playoff rounds, but his postseason stats *are* insanely good.

lAUrEl ANNE dOWNS (GoDdAMN GOrGEOUS) remembers Beltran the Astro.

I'd definitely make an exception for Schilling and Smoltz, who both accumulated almost a full season of postseason stats and were excellent. Koufax, Gibson, Brock, and some other people were dominant in smaller (but not meaningless, I'd say) sample sizes.

basically he said he's been hurt since friday and never said anything.

ok, now i'm going to commit a terrible sin and begin to side with al hrabosky (cardinals broadcaster; one of the dumbest people who has ever been paid to be on television). that's just some immature bullshit on jaime's side. did he think he was going to come in and pull a curt schilling and miraculously pitch a great game with a bad injury?

who even remembers beltran the astro?

zackly: all Mets fans. (Not that I'm a hater, he was almost worth the contract.)

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6ww8zirg01qm9rypo1_1280.jpg

that is a crazee sexy outfield (Damon in his pre-gross days). Jermaine Dye is RF?

ok maybe i wasn't paying much attention to baseball at that point, but still it was 9 seasons ago

shelby miller is taking garcias spot fyi

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20121009&content_id=39635542&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

joe west behind the plate

ok what did that RBI double to "shallow left" look like?

hard-hit grounder just inside third base

had no idea Allen Craig was NL top-6 in both slugging & BA.

kozmanaut :D

Nats' non-Strasburg starters looking very non-Strasburgian

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Monday, October 8, 2012 2:49 PM (2 days ago)

still relevant.

bad call from the 'perfect game' ump there

went to get some food, came back and was told that jim joyce blew seven calls

Umpire in Nighttown

carp just hit one off the top of the wall

ball was hit *hard*

apparently Carp's hit Jackson well over the years!

Strasburg wdn't be much help if ya can't score.

(except w/ his bat maybe)

@Kurkjian_ESPN

If Carpenter wins, he'll be 10-2 in post-season. Only Curt Schilling (11-2) has a higher winning % among P's with 10 post season decisions

freese postseason stats gotta be sick at this point. .500 this year.

had no idea Allen Craig was NL top-6 in both slugging & BA.

He was injured a lot this year so he didn't qualify until late in the year.

He's been rock solid all year. No real cold streaks, Just consistently good.

wow fastest half-inning of the series so far maybe, go Ross

Morse actually running today

nice LaPoke

hope they got Walter Johnson's daughter out there for this

Zimmerman in relief!

watching a game that's 1-1 in the 7th is kind of unpleasant

less unpleasant than watching an NBA game tho

for instance

JZimm lighting this shit up though!

I don't know how to talk about sports, I'm not practiced at it

also can someone explain the "this train" song to me, what are the words even

ok nice pitching nats now score a run plz

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2012/10/10/michael-morse-and-a-ha-strike-up-twitter-friendship

I smell Destiny, or maybe Teddy Roosevelt is having a bratwurst

lotta ks by nats relievers

one of these scruffy weirdos better hit a baseball

an activity Werth seems to have lost interest in since last week

took 11 pitches to bring it to the full count!

YESSSSSSSSS

BOOOOM

(noooo)

what an at-bat, holy shit

YEAHHHHHHHHHH

yay nats

MLB is having some kind of Post Season

ugh namechecked ibanez go cards ugh

Amazing at-bat. Every game in every series has had a crazy finish over the last two days!

that's be the other side of the cards python attack. Zzzzzzzz

wooooo

i want to feel happy about this but with LaRussa and Pujols gone, why bother

bcz Nats winning NL w/out Strasburg wd stick it to the dinosaurs?

pretty sure the statheads wanted them to play strasburg too though

speaking of which what is this wig this guy is wearing

oh it's a Werth wig

its amazing to me how quickly ESPN's punning headlines come out. I bet they have them all queued up.

FOR WHAT IT'S WERTH
THE BRYCE IS RIGHT
ZIMMER'S THE MAN
NICE APPLAROACHE
ONE MORSE TIME
DESMOND IN THE ROUGH
SUZUKI YOU TOMORROW

CARDS FOLD UNDER PRESSURE

that's all i got, just thought i'd throw it in there

ST. BLOOEY

i'm fired aren't i

Detwiler pitching 6 innings with no earned runs makes the "bencing Strasburg ruined the Nats playoff chances" stories even harder to take seriously

benching, that is

they won two playoff games...not convinced that's gonna silence the issue.

harper now 1-for-18, 6k, 0bb, batting second

bring back the eyeblack

they'd have probably won this series already w/ Stras

Winning the WS is the only thing which will silence people.

imagine the extra hits out of the nine-hole strasburg could have given them

do ppl think Davey/Rizzo benched Stras because they are stupid crazy idiots, or can they just not shut up about how this one pitcher being sidelined spells doom?

I think they benched him cuz they are very weird and kinda dumb yeah.

they would have won the WS already if they had Stras

i think they benched him because right or wrong in their actions he is worth a billionty WAR and a future Steve Carlton is worth more to their long term gate receipts than one flag. still dont like it in the least.

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1539081/werth.gif

"Straight ball I hit it very much."

i think they benched him because right or wrong in their actions he is worth a billionty WAR and a future Steve Carlton is worth more to their long term gate receipts than one flag. still dont like it in the least.
--sanskrit

There are no guarantees he doesn't get hurt either way and they don't get to keep him forever (without signing a new contract.). Flags fly forever.

the thing is we don't have all the info the team has, so our opinions are even more uninformed than usual.

I'd bet that winning the World Series is worth a lot more to their long term gate receipts than any one player, no matter how good he is. Making the ALCS in '95 might have saved baseball in Seattle, not getting the chance to go to the playoffs in '94 might have killed baseball in Montreal. Winning defines the franchise long after the players have moved on.

The thing is that it's totally possible to put a 160 inning cap on a player and still have him start 2 or 3 postseason games. You just have to shuffle your rotation around a bit. The net result is you lose like 1 WAR over the course of the season. They jumped out in their division early on and should have thought about it then. Then again, maybe the Nats had inside information that his arm was going to fall off in September no matter what. Who knows.

And as I've mentioned before "we're going to be a playoff team for a long time" is not really a good argument, not when half your team is having career years. I mean when the Phillies assembled that insane rotation in 2011, did anyone think they'd be 17 games out of 1st place the very next year despite getting 86 starts out of Halladay, Lee, and Hamels?

I did, I just didn't want to say anything.

i also knew

predictions on tonight? will wainwright turn in another great performance? will the cardinals score 9 runs, or 2 (there are no other options afaik)? will gio be gio, or will gio stinko?

i've got nothing

And as I've mentioned before "we're going to be a playoff team for a long time" is not really a good argument

Exactly. There probably aren't any Rangers fans were thinking after last year, "we lost two World Series but it's fine because we're still really good!" And if there were, I'm sure they're not thinking it anymore after this year. I wonder if there are Cards fans who didn't want Carpenter to come back this year because they think the team is good enough to win without him. After all, they won without Wainwright last year!

I think Nats have a typical 55/45 edge -- they could pull an A's from last night, but the matchup is obv way more equitable than facing a Verlander.

It's not like WAS thinks it's a sure thing they'll play in the next 5 Octobers; shutting him down just came out ahead in their cost-benefit analysis.

well baseball and football are both like that. as a Packer fan I was really excited with the Super Bowl victory since it seemed all but certain that Rodgers and co. would notch several of them. they were a super young team, built for the future, with the best QB in the league, and he was only 26. and look what happens. you play a bad game in the playoffs. guys get hurt. you lose a bunch of 'hard luck' games and maybe miss the playoffs. guys walk in free agency and you don't have the same coherance. this kinda gets a long way away from Stras but I just didn't think it was a good excuse and sort of confirms what we already know about baseball owners.

That confuses me. In the old underpaid days, "baseball owners" would just throw the guy out there til his arm fell off.

nats look good for next year at the least, esp if they can add a corner bat

very curious if they're in on hamilton or continue to make the low-key savvy moves that created this current team. i know they tried to get BJ Upton a year or 2 ago so that's a possibility too i guess

i think they benched him because right or wrong in their actions he is worth a billionty WAR and a future Steve Carlton is worth more to their long term gate receipts than one flag. still dont like it in the least.
--sanskrit

There are no guarantees he doesn't get hurt either way and they don't get to keep him forever (without signing a new contract.). Flags fly forever.

― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Friday, October 12, 2012 8:59 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh im not saying they're right, its moronic and long-term selfish in a very narrow-minded worldview assuming no other calamities.

I don't think it's inside info, just Rizzo's idiotic obstinacy.

The comment of his in question apparently was one he gave while explaining why they could afford to shut down Strasburg: "We'll be back, and doing this a couple more times,'' he had said.

I'm not assuming that what's said for public consumption is the actual key.

Nats have the pitching edge for sure. Cards have the silly pressure-based experience edge. No shadows and no Joyce behind the plate bodes well for the Cards bats. Wainwright's increasing innings load a negative.

I'm not sure the nats have such a pitching edge (at least in terms of starting pitchers)! Wainwright had a great season (peripherally - his ERA/wins/losses didn't reflect that), and plus he always seems awesome in big games. Gio is great, obviously, but there's no one i'd rather have face him than wainwright.

expecting Gio will do better on 5 days rest than he did on 9

http://jwerthridingthings.tumblr.com/

http://jwerthridingthings.tumblr.com/image/33442284349

stellar

you might say that tumblr is "werth" it's weight in gold.

man, i should write newspaper headlines, i'm so good at it.

NICE THROW PETE KOZMA

hahaha nice relay

at this rate next batter will hit a quintuple

sweeeet

I love a ringing XHB after a Productive Out suggestion

http://jwerthridingthings.tumblr.com/

― johnathan lee riche$ (mayor jingleberries), Friday, October 12, 2012 4:19 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thank you.

well, fuck.

anyway, i'm reaaaaally not looking forward to watching pete kozma be the cardinals SS until July of next year due to his crazy overperforming at the plate since his call up. dude suuuuuucks

@AdamKilgoreWP
Ryan Zimmerman hits a home run to right-center. It's 3-0 and Wainwright has thrown SEVEN PITCHES.

I love a ringing XHB after a Productive Out suggestion

hahaha, YES. fools!

nicely nicely

k3vin w/ the time-delayed spoiler there

well, i was kinda bummed that i was going to have to miss the rest of this game, but maybe it's a blessing.

either way, going to drown my first inning sorrows by going to see

SWANS

Time Is Loney (Bastard)

Jayson Stark ‏@jaysonst
Adam Wainwright had appeared in 11 postseason games before tonight & never allowed more than 1 run in any inning. Uh, not anymore.

"There's Lance Lynn." -- Dick Stockton

welp, can't win every year. And the reds lost. I am at peace.

Bryce really snapping the slump tonight

Bryce, the ball went over the -- nevermind.

Is there anyone up in the bullpen yet?

Oh, OK, someone is up now.

Quickest Trot (non-Inside-the-Park)

Bryce Harper - August 30, 16.2 secs.
Bryce Harper - May 26, 16.35

#1 and #2

wunderkind

Maybe Wainwright will settle in at some point.

noooo leave Wainwright in

good thing anythg can happen in baseball or i'd go to bed

"Third out, dude."

this fucking espn headline

Nats The Way D.C. Likes It

Gio's getting jumpy again

ah jesus christ Gio

need help

WaPo liveblog comments are dire

my friend tells me the train song is by Bruce Springsteen

i have no idea which team i would rather face in these playoffs

Taaaaake ooooon meeeeeeee

I wouldn't want to face either team in these playoffs since I am completely out of shape.

Nice base hit and safety-orange nails, Suzuki

Productive out for Matt Holliday.

having the pitch track up for every damn pitch is super distracting and pointless

one out away from some serious insanity

what is this walk bullshit

hold my hand Morbs

jesusfuckingwhydoiwatchsports

lol gonna have to earn it

FUUUUUUUU

unbelievable

!! Cards are vampires

fsl;dfasfja

Fucking fuuuuuuuuuuu

dfadsfadfdfadsf

jesusfuck

NATS ENTERTAINMENT

jaysis

killer koz

well it wouldn't be Washington if postseasons weren't stillborn right

unbelievable

how did this happen?

FU Loria

unbelievable

And Rizzo

xpost

Can't explain this team

dead cat and nationals knocked out in 24 hours would be a huge drag

I didn't even know we were doing well until a few months ago!

down 2 their last strike twice

Jason Motte is in the batter's box.

first AB for Motte this year

where was that K four batters ago

Well...LOL'ing at you, Pujols (I guess).

sort of feel like leaving motte in to finish this off is borderline suicidal

(btw andy what does loria have to do with this)

ZS owes kozma an apology

i feel bad for storen

definitely scared of motte

That was stunning, but I wouldn't throw in the towel yet. This whole postseason has been bizarre.

This is going to be the last time I care about a sports for the rest of my life, I'm going back to reading books.

whenever something like this happens in baseball i can only think of the player's mom. storen's mom is probably in the hospital right now.

I would trade every base I saw Ozzie Smith steal while living in St Louis for a couple Nats runs right now

Like strike throwing motte

looks like worst night in DC since 1812

Other than that, Dr. Morbius, how was the play?

all four games went to the fifth game.

MLB is having an incredible post season.

;pATHETIC

It's OK Nats fans, I'm sure you'll be one out away from making the NLCS every year (/believe in the long term plan)

like i said, no choice but to let motte bat

The Nationals will never make the playoffs again.

I can wait another 80 years, this is really way too nervewracking

Heartbreaker

http://blu.stb.s-msn.com/i/CA/DB56822DF22552709FDD961F097.jpg

should've let strasburg come in for the close

Motte showing Storen how it's done.

Insanity.

i regret leaving my friend's after the 8th.

at least I still have a girlfriend

ouch

Giants must save postseason

Bob Nightengale ‏@BNightengale
That was unbelievable. The #stlcards will never quit. Stumming

I'M STUMMED!

Michael Rosenberg ‏@Rosenberg_Mike
I just asked the Cardinals to do my tax return. My refund is $4.3 billion.

Bob Nightengale ‏@BNightengale
Largest comeback ever in #MLB postseason

Umbelievable.

^^ should be largest comeback ever in a winner take all game

I don't think anyone who organizes the WBC is thinking about the damn WBC right now but

Jon Morosi ‏@jonmorosi
Team Italy may have its second baseman for the WBC. #Descalso

Who was it that was doubting beltrans postseason beastness ^_^

fuuuuuuck

Oh man that was brutal for the Nats. One strike away twice! What was up with not bothering to hold runners on in the 9th like those runs didn't matter? Is that normal strategy?

morosi works for al-qaida

As long as it's not the tying run, ehh, just let it score.

You want your catcher's throwing arm fresh for November.

When I stopped watching this game, it was 6-0. I guess I missed a good one!

why don't they just ban the cardinals from the playoffs

am i actually rooting for the tigers now

How much money did the Nationals just lose not making the NCLS?

No $ but here is the breakdown. Basically they just lost a ton of money.

League Championship Series (Best of 7)

Players’ pool gets 60 percent of revenue for games 1-4.
Umpires get 7.5 percent (all games)
Remainder is divided 50/50 between the participating teams

http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/1991/good-news-for-mlb-division-series#comment

Probably close to enough to sign a high quality free agent pitcher if Strasburg had gotten hurt next year, for example.

COTDAMN FUCKING LORIA

their playoffs cut wouldn't have been much compared to the increased revenue of more new fans

but that'd prob take a world series

Yeah increased season ticket sales could have paid to replace Werth.

This season has to be at least a little sticky for the team from a tix perspective though right? Or are we due for another jillion articles about how DC doesn't care about baseball?

Of course they care. People care about winners (cept in Atlanta).

At least Davey has a worse managerial lowlight now than Mike Scioscia '88. Did he have much explanation for w'happen?

dc is temporarily trying really hard to care about baseball for now xp

Park attendance next year will be way up over this year, barring a horrible season. Nats and Orioles are also in the middle of renegotiating their shared TV rights, and if either team had gone farther in the playoffs it could have given more leverage.

yes, team attendance usu gets the big bump year after initial success. Playoff losses happen, albeit not always as frustratingly as is the norm this week.

I went to bed early last night so didn't see the result until just now, lol Nats. I did go to bed thinking about their blown 9-run lead earlier in the season.

Schoenfield on espn.com:

Washington manager Davey Johnson could have walked Kozma once Descalso stole second base. Cardinals closer Jason Motte, who had pitched the eighth inning, was due up next, although Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had sent backup catcher Tony Cruz, the last player left on the bench, to the on-deck circle as a decoy. He’d be entering the game anyway for Molina, who had been run for. Kozma has been pretty hot, hitting .333 for the Cardinals during his September call-up and homering earlier in this season.

Johnson could have put Kozma on and pitched to Cruz, which would have served two purposes: Force Matheny to bat Cruz, a guy who hit .254/.267/.365 in 126 at-bats, but also a guy without an at-bat in nine days. More importantly, it would have likely forced Matheny to pull Motte. Matheny already used Joe Kelly, Trevor Rosenthal, Edward Mujica and Mitchell Boggs, so that would have meant the Cardinals would be using, at best, their fifth-best reliever in the ninth.

Huge mistake by Johnson and I can only guess he was in such a state of shock he didn’t have time to think the situation through properly.

I went to bed early last night so didn't see the result until just now, lol Nats.

haha me too

man, if only Desmond knocks down that descalso grounder.

He probably wouldn't have had a play, but a run would have scored and the bases would have been loaded for Kozma. If Kozma still hits a single to right then the Nats still lose 8-7 but who knows how it would have played out.

that piece about walking kozma is stupid. for one, he's pete kozma. secondly, storen had already walked two guys in the inning -- you don't want to purposefully load the bases. third, when descalso stole, the count was 1-2. kozma had 7 hits in 31 at-bats either on 1-2 or after 1-2 this year.

that piece about walking kozma is stupid. for one, he's pete kozma.

OTM, and seriously, that's the only reason you need. it's pete fucking kozma. i would have done the same thing.

he's been p good this month tho, eh