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

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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.

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