Brewers @ Cubs 10 am Monday
Rockies @ Dodgers 1 pm Monday
Game 2 loser @ Game 1 loser 5 pm Tuesday
All games on ESPN
NL Tiebreaker/Wild Card Game Thread 158
158 thoughts on “NL Tiebreaker/Wild Card Game Thread”
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Is Jesse Chavez kinda sorta the Cubs closer right now?
Kind of funny that Hendriks and Chavez (five teams later) both have prominent roles now.
We’ve reached the time of the year where I reflexively root for the underdogs. Go Brewers, Go Rockies!
The Brewers and Rockies are pretty fun.
I’m not there yet, but I think I could start to resent the Cubs and their fans a little bit if they make a deep run this year.
I’ve had a soft spot for the Brew Crew going back to Harvey’s Wallbangers. Though I still think they should be in the AL.
I strongly believe they should be in the AL and their hats should have a glove on them not a stupid wheat stalk.
Barley.
Knew her.
Still funny!
Thanks, and go As.
Their current uniforms are very boring and just bad. Third worst after the Giants and Padres.
Jhoulys Chacin?
No, I bought.
Yay Brewers! Go Rockies!
That looked like a pretty clear overturn missed by New York.
Also, ESPN needs to figure out a way to not blow my eardrums out when this PBP guy yells “OUT.”
Maximum Muncy leading the majors in AB/HR just like we all expected.
There was a bizarre note on that graphic. The Brewers only won 20% of their manager challenges? I assumed they took a use it or lose it approach and challenged everything in the late innings…but no, they only challenged 34 times which was tied for 5th fewest. They won 7 of the 34. The next fewest successful challenges was 13. Melvin was 21 for 42.
Chaos
Yeah, this does not inspire confidence.
Or it could be a fiendishly clever plan to reveal absolutely nothing to NYY until roster is set.
Should we replace the current pitcher?
[Melvin shakes his Magic 8 Ball]
Yes. Should it be Leverino?
[Melvin shakes his Magic 8 Ball]
Try again later.
[Melvin shakes his Magic 8 Ball]
Should it be Fiers?
[Melvin shakes his Magic 8 Ball]
If we assume he’s our extra inning guy. Is that really what we want? Especially given how prone he is to give up a home run?
WTFK godawful kit is City wearing?
I would be fine with those if City were Fiorentina.
Somebody went to Denver and got an idea for a Rockies-Broncos mashup.
Is there any team in that league that isn’t sponsored by either Etihad or Emirates?
Burnley’s shirts say “VISIT MALAYSIA”
The rest are gambling sites.
… including Liverpool’s “Standard Chartered”.
Some heavy A’s bias tomorrow with Ron Darling and Eck both in the booth. Oakland’s own Jimmy Rollins in the studio with Pedro and Sheffield.
Umps announced
I don’t recall having ever noticed the existence of home plate ump Jim Wolf. That seems like a good thing.
Angel Hernandez looms in the next round.
Wolf had the plate for Braden’s perfecto!
Mourinho about to get fired just in time to swoop in for the USA job.
On the back of losing to Derby County and West Ham, that was a result!
The Friday schedule shows a couple of windows where one game is exclusive for only ~2 hours.
Using that as a boilerplate, if Monday is a four-game day and the Cubs win tonight, I’d say Red Sox-A’s would go in the 6:37 slot. The alternative would be having the Cubs start at 8:37 local time which wouldn’t be unprecedented but is something that’s more likely avoided. The Cubs aren’t ratings poison like a Rockies-Brewers series would be.
If the Rockies win tonight, the late game is in Denver at 7:37 local time and Red Sox-A’s gets the 4:32.
The Brewers and/or Dodgers series ending in a sweep would slot a game in Oakland as the East Coast prime time game, around 5 or 5:30.
I aspire to be in the Coliseum parking lot by 10am regardless.
Wait, if the Rockies win tonight, they’re the road team against the Brewers. So the game wouldn’t be in Denver. Or am I misreading that?
Games 1-2 in Milwaukee, 3-4 in Denver (or Chicago), 5 in Milwaukee
So doesn’t that put them in Milwaukee on Friday?
He was speculating about Monday’s schedule.
Friday’s schedule is already set.
And if the Cubs win tonight and the Yankees win tomorrow, all Monday games would be in the Eastern or Central time zones, but IDGAF how they work that out and I don’t think anybody else here does either.
And that was the part I was missing. Thanks :)
In that scenario, as long as the Yankees v Red Sox is at 9am EST, I’m okay. Ironically, it would still find it’s audience.
Torn between wanting the Cubs to win for scheduling purposes and wanting to see Jon Lester give up eleventy billion runs.
We have a good friend who’s a massive Cubs fan, but she know that even if we’re together I can’t help her root for the Cubs if he’s pitching.
You could have both.
Plus twelvety billion stolen bases.
Too soon?
I want him to lose looking as lazy and sloppy as he did in 2014.
Also FK Matt Holliday
As long as you dont have to throw your dick to first after…
he already had that happen, but then again he seemed like he was matt holidaying it here
Hot take: a brick wall covered by ivy is not an appropriate baseball boundary.
the stat cast espn2 show is OK. preferable, but not overwhelmingly so
I’ll check it out, the mothership telecast is surprisingly ragged, like the producer hasn’t watched much baseball before tonight.
Insane to force managers to give mid-inning interviews in a game of this magnitude.
Did A-Rod just say that Lester “is starting to feel very sexy out there”??
i take it back, its 1000% better
say the lester trade never happens, the A’s are starting pinder at short and are probably in a better spot than the cubs
And Cespedes is the fucking Mayor of Oakland.
him and donaldson 14.5 fWAR in 2015
Explain please
i mixed up the lester/samadija trades
Do we still trade for Zobrist?
jaso? yes
Robertson
this is the inning lester coughs it up, yeah?
its not fair to bring in jesse chavez. I want him to do well. but it would be madden’s fault for using him for 2 yesterday
Looks like this is his first postseason appearance. Ninth franchise, including the A’s 2012-2014 and the Dodgers 2016.
Also inexplicably the Chicago pinstripes make Chavez look fat.
too much deep dish (which is any more than ~2 slices per year)
That was some dumb ass baserunning.
so dumb. did you listen the the effectively wild were they were hoping the rockies had to play a non throwing story at first? they hyppothesis was it was preferable to desmond
Huh. Even the Wrigley Field organist was playing “You May Be Right”.
Gahhh Terrance Gore
i don’t like that roster spot
I wanted us to call up Jorge Mateo for that.
Yeah the picture’s less rosy when he has to actually hit.
Including postseason, he has one career hit, one career walk, and 32 career stolen bases.
That’s amazing. I bet there’s never been a player with ratios remotely like that. The 7:44 ratio of the Panamanian Express pales in comparison
I can’t help wondering which A’s relief pitcher is going to play the role of Ottavino tomorrow night. Familia would be a good bet.
Rodney if we are stupid enough to use Rodney in a close game.
If the A’s have a lead I won’t be the least bit surprised to see Treinen warming up in the 7th.
rodney is the LOOGY, yeah?
How the hell do you pull Blackmon in a tie game?
I guess DirecTV can insert local ads into an ESPN telecast. The spending in this Heller vs. Rosen battle is going to be spectacular.
Tied in the 9th and the Cubs bring in a pitcher who hasn’t thrown in two weeks with arm trouble?
desmond might turn into about 91 games below replacement today
My nightmare for tomorrow is that the game goes to extra innings and Bob has already blown through everybody except Wendelken and Pagan.
Pat Valaika pinch-hitting with his .460 OPS, but obviously I remember his homer against the A’s.
I think my attitude going into tomorrow is that no matter what happens, it can’t be as bad as the 2014 game.
I mean, it would be pretty hard to beat. An ace on the mount with a big early lead that makes you feel all warm and compfy. Versus so many pitchers you have to rely on to be on it for 9 innings.
Wait, Hamels doesn’t suck now?
I am hoping its hamels v pinder in the 10th inning of game 7
Yeah he apparently thrives on deep dish.
This is a pretty good case for the A’s keeping a second starter on the roster, Jackson or Brett or whomever, somebody who could settle in and throw 80 pitches in extra innings if that’s needed.
According to Slusser, Jackson will be the only starter on the roster, presumably for just this reason. I think I’d like to have Bassitt available too.
They do need to think about who would pitch the 15th inning.
A-Rod is talking some serious nonsense. Arenado having “zero intention of swinging” at a 2-0 pitch painted on the corner “tells you a lot about his confidence”?
I wonder what time Marlins Man’s flight to New York leaves.
Rockies don’t get enough scoring chances to miss many more.
I can’t decide if I like Vasgersian as an announcer. His thing where he’s monotone 95% time and screaming the other 5% because of some high impact play is interesting. His call of Theth’s home run in Game 3 ’13 was quite memorable.
He’s a lifelong A’s fan so he gets extra leeway. I feel like he could be solid, kinda of a Dan Schulman understated type.
Ok, this is the second or 3rd time he has made a point of saying the Cubs are set up for a walk off win. Can someone tell him that is always how extra innings work for the home team?
Yeah that’s getting annoying.
5%er right there.
Did he seriously argue inference over a play that had zero chance of being made?
Only in baseball does “What the World Needs Now” run through my mind. You don’t see the opponents hugging in football or hockey.
Last boxing match I watched was at least 50% hugging.
In the Tour de France they hug each other’s wheels.
I thought they stroked each other’s spokes.
*pumped.
To be fair you cant assume anything on an interference call.
Let’s go Carlos I still love you!
Excellent!
Is anyone else’s feed persistently juddery?
mine froze and I gave up
Cubs fans are gonna talk about this for the next century.
Very cool. Colorado to LA to Chicago to Milwaukee in 4 days.
There’s the answer to the schedule question. Red Sox-A’s on Monday is at 4:30, maybe 4, if neither NLDS is a sweep, with MIL @ COL being the later start. If there’s a sweep Red Sox-A’s will be the latest game, probably 5 or 5:30.
They’ve announced this, or you’re still guessing?
Since it’s not A’s – Red Sox yet, I’m guessing guessing.
I’m guessing, but come on, it’s the Red Sox.
Your well-educated guesses seem solid to me, I’m planning accordingly. And they won’t actually announce the start times until at least after one or both NLDS series are confirmed non-sweeps.
Any FKing plans for watching today’s game at a downtown bar?
I don’t know, but I’ll stop by for at least part of the game if you guys are meeting somewhere.
same.
downtown oakland right?
I thought we were talking about “downtown” Berkeley.
Yeah I know that a couple people from the old Lounge (now FB group Lounge) are going to something called Docs Refresher in Berkeley.
I will… not be driving that far.
Thanks, and go As.
Me neither. That’s like halfway across Berkeley.
Also frighteningly close to this place.
Heh
ah.
Cornerstone it is.
I have a must win softball game in Oakland. We’re hoping other team doesn’t show.
Still thinking about the umpire’s moan upon getting plunked last night.
Don’t squeeze the kraut
1. Hendricks. 2-6: Familia, Trivino, Kelley each get one; Petit, Buchter, Wendelken share the other two based on matchups. 7-9: Treinan. 10-14: Jackson. 15: Rodney. 16-20: Pagan. 21-22: Chapman.
friend of mine sent group email that may be of interest to you too:
At last night’s neighborhood association meeting we learned about a new ballpark community meeting that will be held with representatives from the A’s this Sunday from 1 – 3, at 7th West. They’re planning on talking about the Howard Terminal site, so if you wanna support it, boo it, or get more info about it, then come on down. They’re providing “complementary food and refreshments”, so they ask that you RSVP so they can get a handle on how much food and drink to get. [redacted] and I are gonna be there to try and counteract all the goddam NIMBY’s in our neighborhood!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-ball-park-community-meeting-tickets-50830663884
I am having a hard time concentrating on my work today.
I woke up at 5 am running through pitching scenarios in my mind.
Spent last night rehashing about 20 yrs of heartbreak. Hopefully I got it out of my system.
if messi’s grounder to the far post had rolled left instead of right…
SIGH.
I’m trying to be optimistic, but A’s postseason baseball makes my Cal football mode kick in. Expect the worst and occasionally be pleasantly surprised.
Let’s go FK Red Star Belgrade!
Oh well. They’ll always have their name-check in one of the very best songs of the 90s.
6 years ago today (really???). This has to be a good omen, right?
That game was FKing insane.
Liverpool’s frenetic attacking prowess last season always seemed (to my eye) to benefit more than most from the bounce of the ball, which they don’t seem to be getting as much this season.
is there a way to capture that in some sort of data?
No idea.
Some good photos in this. I especially like the one of Rick Langford (?) trying to escape a band of marauding fans.
The one with the black jerseys makes me a little ill.
Hey Look: a picture of someone NOT GETTING TAGGED!
Pedro, Sheff, and JRoll love the bullpen thing.
Godspeed, beautiful people! May we end this night in triumph!
Why are these dipshits talking over the lineup announcements?
I’m on the CSNBA pregame for the partisanship.
I have a lot of questions about that commercial for the “Ark Experience.”
George Washington!