2014 NLDS: St. Louis Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

a nice long winter break

Has anyone read the Alan Licht book? I leafed through it a couple times (and enjoyed it!), but never pulled the trigger on it.

Lol wrong thread.

wrong "ILB"!

@robneyer
oh, and by the way, Shelby Miller throws a ton of fastballs and Puig is one of the Dodgers' best fastball hitters (Ethier isn't)

10 pitches, 10 fastballs in the 1st

That last one was...wobbly.

cardinals basically taking two strikes in each at-bat, kershaw at 30 pitches in two innings

The strikeouts are nice, but yeah, the meter's running.

Still, so far this is giving me the impression its working.

How could the Cardinals let that one pass? Obviously a foul ball. (I don't think the Dodgers would have won an appeal on the pick-off, though.)

94 pitches--"low-stress," they'd probably argue in the booth, but I'd be stressed. Maybe Mattingly will leave him out for the 7th and 8th if nobody reaches base.

Ethier w/ 2 walks, that aint hay

Pull him out, Mattingly.

here we go

welp

oof, Clayton's walk back to the dugout.

outmathenaged

I'll resist the second-guess. I'm watching, and even though every conceivable indication says to pull him, I'm thinking, "He can get this guy."

considering the bullpen and considering the lefty hitter, yeah

but still

That was awesome. Ps Harold Reynolds is just terrible

do not like neshek on b2b days p. Where is CarMart

Scully: "the dreaded 7th inning"

matt adams is a tub of goo btw

you should celebrate him as a 'bad body' success (also he is a surprisingly capable fielder)

maybe not in the same way as anthony recker tho

what lost opportunities did i miss, besides Ethier getting nailed off third?

Where are all the neshek haters now!?! Time for rosenthal heart attack

Bottom of the order coming up. Hmmm, any good pinch-hitters available?

I've gotten home just in time to enjoy the Rosenthal heart attack

That was funny. Generally pitchers take a few steps before they underhand-toss to first.

lol Mattingly

smdh

welp

if the cards win the world series i swear i'm selling all my belongings and moving into the woods and you'll never hear from me again i swear

Good luck with the post-game conference, Don Mattingly.

go AL

just as everyone thought, we'd beat Kershaw twice :D

Lol pinch running with one of best hitters in game. You made matheny look like Mensa material

yeah but did you see how he made it to second from first on that single? #clutch

@BenLindbergh
Mattingly pulled up his roster page, set PA minimum to 300, and sorted by descending wRC+ before deciding to PH with Turner instead of Puig

http://i.imgur.com/9CkeLb7.jpg

I think the Dodgers really missed an opportunity this year. That lineup is only going to be a year older next season.

It's kind of the same with the Angels, that club could also get old quick.

at least they have those bullpens!

I'm happy for KM and you other nice Card fans, miserable for the rest of us.

The reporters were stepping very lightly during Mattingly's press conference. He only seemed to bristle once, when the subject of Puig pinch-running came up. Easy call, he said.

I'm not sure what else the Dodgers could have done -- who could have predicted TWO complete implosions from Kershaw? That pitch to Adams was frigging awful, the league is literally hitting something like .100 off his curveball with like one HR off it in the past two years, and he throws just about the worst hanging curveball in the middle of the plate to a LHB that you'll ever see. Neither of the Cards' comebacks were lucky.

Four straight NLCS appearances is amazing regardless.

LATEST NEWS
Cardinals mold NLCS berth out of Clayton

great job mlb.com

It's over and done with, but Mattingly said one thing during the press conference that might be worth a second-guess (dammit, I want my one second-guess): he was going to give Kershaw three batters in the 7th and then hand it over to someone else. Shouldn't you take it a batter at a time? You're essentially saying you've committed yourself to giving him a chance to lose the lead.

Okay, no more. Go KC. (Who Gregg Zahn has gone on record as saying have close to zero chance of winning--which will remain in place for as long as he doesn't have to explain how it was clear all along KC was going to win.)

clayton kershaw is pretty awesome so i can almost kind of see letting him face a lefty after putting the first two guys on and throwing 100 pitches on short rest

nevertheless -- and yeah, the odds of it mattering were perishingly small, but still -- using puig as a pinch runner was indefensible. it was like here, i'm gonna pinch run him so you can't second-guess me for not letting him hit