I disagree.
Don’t let it get out of hand, of course, but if Fiers can go 5 innings, 3 runs, or something like that I’ll be happy.
There are just way too many things that can go wrong trying to do a full bullpen game, especially with Hendriks struggling and barely available.
It’s just so hard to know exactly when to make the move. If Fiers stops commanding the fastball, as it has looked intermittently today, he can get hurt bad fast. But he can also settle down and limit damage. Very tricky decision to make.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
I think he’s an iffy choice to begin with to start the game, and he hasn’t shown much if anything on the batted balls that became outs. The pitchers in the bullpen are simply better and we need all hands on deck.
I’d say this is the right time. As much as I wanted Fiers as the starter he just is looking like bad Fiers today and we can’t afford to get too far behind.
Yes, that was the first thing I went to on B-R when Flemming said the thing about the 9 hits. Maybe I misheard Dave but Hatcher did have 9 hits in the first 3 games (3, 4, 2).
Renteria is going to be down to where he has his last two pitchers in the game, one LH and one RH, and they’re switching back and forth between the mound and the outfield.
My amateur take is that he’s so concerned about the fastballs that he’s been missing that he’s lost his previous acumen at seeing, adjusting and crushing off speed stuff.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
What I was starting to type before was that, even if you’re a believer in Allen/Davidson/Puason and don’t want to commit to Semien long-term, we’re going to need someone for the next year or two, and I had been thinking about Simmons also.
I think Renteria took lenscrafters’ comment at the top of the thread about managing aggressively a little too much to heart, and painted himself into a corner.
A big part of my concern with a bullpen game was that if you use enough pitchers, there’s too good a chance one of them will be wild or just not have it that day. That seems to have bit Chicago in a big way, first with Rondon, then bringing in the new pitcher with the bases loaded.
I’m still worried about it on our side as well, but I’m glad we’re the team on our 3rd pitcher in the 5th inning, not our 6th.
They also don’t have the pitching depth that the A’s have. They were inevitably going to get to a guy like Rodon who clearly isn’t all the way back yet.
Nobody complained about that extension at the time they did it (unlike say the Butler signing). Welcome back, and I hope we see some other old FKers if the A’s can keep going deep into October.
They are making a frustrating amount of contact. Mazara should have struck out on that high fastball he fouled off, and Montas should have thrown it again.
Man, I guess I applaud Trivino for not being afraid to throw his best pitches. I definitely boo Melvin for not being afraid to put Trivino’s best pitches into that situation.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
I’m not sure I realized just how painful this was going to be. Even after all, you know. Now I’m remembering being at some White Sox games and their really obnoxious fans. And the air is just painful to breathe.
Diekman still only has one pitch, and it might catch the bottom of the strike zone for a strike, or it might be two and a half feet low and outside, and even he never knows which one it’s going to be on any given pitch.
Do we go back to 14 pitchers for the next round? Didn’t use a lot of the bench this round, but also don’t want to be short-handed in case of an early injury.
We could probably survive without one of Machin, Orf, or Kemp. I guess the question is whether that is worth carrying Weems. This series was tough because their righthandedness took McFarland and Minor out of play.
I dunno, it’s true we don’t know who had what available today. But we did know that Hendriks would get in, we did know that he was awful yesterday, and that you’d want at least some other option if he ran into trouble again with everything on the line.
So maybe burning Lou and JBW so quick after Frankie was worth that no Plan B risk. It did work out. Felt horribly risky to me.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
I just don’t understand why you don’t leave montas in for an extra innings. He was throwing well and your chances of a guy just being off are higher if you use more guys and you increase your chances of running out of right handed guys if it goes to extras
In play, run(s)! Talk dirty to me gamecast, talk dirty. - Nevermoor
Holy Toledo! That was one helluva beautiful painful mess of a win. I was looking at some series preview (ESPN?) that pretty much gave the advantages across the board to the Sox, except for depth. That may end up being our best strength to go further.
I found some type of creature (I think it was a griffin or maybe a manticore) in the backyard, and I cut out it’s heart and fed it to the crows. Pretty sure that’s what got us this victory.
There are going to be at least two days next week with four games happening, and ours could be the only one without the Yankees, Dodgers, or Cubs. I shudder to think what times we’re going to get stuck with.
There is absolutely no way Fiers pitches in this series. (Although if the A’s are up 10 in Game 3 with a 2-0 series lead, I am absolutely having him finish them off).
Ken made a good point in the post game show that the * benefited a lot in the Minnesota games by being able to bring in Valdez and Javier for relief against the Twins which is a huge reason why their relief pitching shut them down.
They can’t do that in a 5 games in 5 days series so we will have our chances against their actual bullpen. And there won’t be any 7 inning games either.
I watched the game at The Athletic Club Oakland – they have closed off the adjacent block of Webster and made a parklet that holds maybe 40 people – and there was a guy wearing the very rare heathery green alt of the Bill King Holy Toledo AN shirt. I could not ask him anything about it, though, because the bar staff were swooping down on anyone who dared to fraternize with people at another table. But a nice viewing option, regardless. Community Foods in West Oakland is also looking into showing the next round of games in their parking lot, and I think a couple of places in Alameda are contemplating it if they’re not noon starts.
Just switched to the Dodgers game and it took a full minute before they mentioned DJ Le Mahieu. To be fair, that minute was filled discussing how great Aaron Judge is and how many runs and home runs the Yankees scored against the Indians
I noticed when the White sox were up 3-0, there was a go to or come back from commercial video package of anderson abreu and robert doing cool things both from this series and from the past.
I did not see a similar one for the A’s, but I did see some that mixed in various A’s players with those same sox.
“So, we’ve been doing the putting thing this year,” Hendriks said of the team’s postgame hijinks in 2020. “So I had my second putt this year, second time I’ve also done the putt completely in the nude.
Absolutely love this response from London about staying in Cleveland every star athlete should use it.
when asked if the Indians would be able to afford him, he said: “Of course. It’s a billion-dollar team. Of course. Of course. Of course. Yeah. That’s all I can say.”
In play, run(s)! Talk dirty to me gamecast, talk dirty. - Nevermoor
Do you watch the Great British Baking Show (as it is called on this side of the pond)?
In the first episode this season the last challenge was to bake “a 3-D cake bust depicting their personal celebrity hero.” Some twit chose Marie Antoinette.
I’m sure mlb wants to drop the LDS schedule all at once, and wants to know if it is the Cubs or the Marlins before doing so, but if they could just give the Monday times at some point that would be great.
I suspect the time slots are correct, the games are reversed on Monday (why put the East Coast teams that late and against MNF?), but the rest is correct. If Rays-Yankees ended in a sweep an A’s-Astros Game 4 would move to 4:30.
If we make it to November 7 (both virus issues and CIVAL WAR), the Pac-12 is going with some 9 a.m. local time kickoffs, starting with Arizona State-USC that morning at the LA Coliseum.
Marlins got screwed A’s-style on a play at second.
Initially called safe, I don’t know how you could possibly say exactly when the tag was made, but reversed to out for some reason.
I feel a little better about our RISP failures seeing so many other teams with the same issue (including the White Sox in our series – we were 3/14, they were 4/28).
Yeah this is hella sketchy, people don’t usually show symptoms until at least 2-3 days after infection and usually longer. Actually likely explanations are 1) he was not actually being tested daily; 2) false negatives from lame tests; or 3) he tested positive and still kept campaigning.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Meanwhile Mike Lee is quarantining, and McConnell won’t even say if he’s been tested recently. He would totally go into the Senate with COVID rather than risk not having a quorum to push Barrett through.
Pence Oval Office Address: With his last breath, President Trump exhorted the Senate to advance Judge Barrett’s nomination. He took my hand and said, “Mike, I am dying so that the unborn may live.”
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but I like Dodgers stadium better. It kinda looks like the batters are susceptible to dugout interference on their backswing at petco
what is going to be awesome is the flood of tax returns and russia meddling are gonna come to light after he dies and all the kids are going to be sooooo fucked.
But I would still rather he live and get prosecuted and go to jail, but knowing what I know about criminal justice he will not survive for the at least 3 years for that to happen
And another senator down … it would be some karmic FKing justice if the senate was unable to force Barrett through because so many of them got sick from her nomination party.
Counting on any GOP senator to do the right thing is delusional, obviously. But I do hope maybe one or two might see the reckoning looming and turn as pure desperate tactical move. Cause a debilitated Trump won’t recover his stature, and his MAGA troops ain’t rallying behind Pence or Ivanka.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
A downside of the internet age is thinking of something that seems moderately clever and then doing a twitter search and finding 3 other randos who have already said exactly the same thing.
Today on a podcast, I heard a new song from a guy who was in the stiffs in the 80s and it wasn’t either of the Stiffs I remember from the 90s.
So in that sense, its nice, Although when I try to get SLF’s Seattle band “the cripples” in my spotify/youtube other streaming service mix I get two other different bands in there for no good reason
My other one today was wondering if Trump was going to spend a year dead for tax reasons like Hotblack Desiato, but not surprisingly that one isn’t original either.
Ambulance chasers who went nationwide (ads were everywhere on tv and radio, maybe including during A’s games), then had some public breakup in the last couple of years. Barnes just died in a private plane crash.
My favorite part of this sweet article about the A’s player’s families at the Coliseum last week is this quote from Krista Hendriks: “We’re pacing, we’re sweating, we’re cussing, we’re stressed, too. Whatever Liam is saying on the mound, I guarantee I’m saying the same thing in the suite.”
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
There is just no way a full football team and staff can keep assembling every day and not have COVID positives. Multiplied times travel, games, families and protocol breaks. This was inevitable. It also makes me think that colleges, who’ve been going for longer, have lots more participants, and presumably much lamer compliance rates, must be hiding their positives or not actually testing.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
i was heartbroken and furious to see that the curt flood field teeny tiny football players started practicing this weekend. zero masks or distancing (among them, of course — but also their parents).
also, this never happened. although this summer it looked like a mound being built in the diamond.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Assuming the VP debate happens, I hope Kamala’s prep team understands that her assignment has changed. She needs to treat Pence like he’s the presidential candidate now. Luckily, Trump gave her the gift of putting him nominally in charge of the virus.
Results good. Nerves less good.
My digestive system is going to have a rough afternoon.
Phew
Phew. First inning danger skirted. Many crooked numbers in the home line score would be reassuring.
jake lamb third.
huh
Just trying to get him an AB against this kid?
Huge zone
Sure is. Assuming it’s consistent this could help Petit and Soria in particular.
Not so much in this inning
To my eye it’s been erratic on the edges especially in last 4-5 innings.
Well, if nothing else we are going to get deep into the guts of their bullpen.
on pace for 18 pitchers
Now pitching: Johnny Wholestaff.
I’m hoping the kid is wild
The White Sox have an awful lot of pitchers whose last names are English words.
dunning, cease, crochet, bummer, foster, marhsall (alt sp.)…
Knit one, purl two, strike three.
Bob, take note. We should be similarly aggressive.
I disagree.
Don’t let it get out of hand, of course, but if Fiers can go 5 innings, 3 runs, or something like that I’ll be happy.
There are just way too many things that can go wrong trying to do a full bullpen game, especially with Hendriks struggling and barely available.
This
It’s just so hard to know exactly when to make the move. If Fiers stops commanding the fastball, as it has looked intermittently today, he can get hurt bad fast. But he can also settle down and limit damage. Very tricky decision to make.
Shit, sure not liking this second inning now.
I think he’s an iffy choice to begin with to start the game, and he hasn’t shown much if anything on the batted balls that became outs. The pitchers in the bullpen are simply better and we need all hands on deck.
I’d say this is the right time. As much as I wanted Fiers as the starter he just is looking like bad Fiers today and we can’t afford to get too far behind.
Yeah, gave him just enough rope, but couldn’t let him face Abreu there.
Olson could have had 10 strikes against that guy, he wasn’t going to do anything in that AB.
I liked that first pitcher better.
that breaking ball was a great pitch. tip your hat
Wonder aobut renteria using that kid against olson. thinking lastella-semien lamb trio would be more fruitful
There is an alarming number of truly disgusting looking hamburgers being advertised during these games.
We need to get someone up asap. Other than the pop up everything has been absolutely crushed.
That was a fantastic bat slam/flip
He hit that pretty well.
Damn that was a sweet curve from Fiers to fan Engle.
Ball 1 to Anderson seemed like a strike to Marcus last inning.
I like anderson. He is hard to like right now
I wish we could have a hitter like him at some point.
His effortless power to the opposite field is really impressive.
It can’t be sustainable, yet here we are
Peak Cespedes was about as close as the A’s came to that.
I was thinking maybe Carney Lansford?
(I wasn’t actually reading what I was replying to; Abreu was at the plate when I wrote that comment and that was my Cespedes comp.)
Maybe Donaldson for Abreu.
He is Billy Hatchering us in this series.
Yes, that was the first thing I went to on B-R when Flemming said the thing about the 9 hits. Maybe I misheard Dave but Hatcher did have 9 hits in the first 3 games (3, 4, 2).
Wonder what it feels like to have a starting pitcher come up big in one of these games. Will never know I guess.
Sonny! Sonny!
Good call. FKing Verlander.
Could have been much worse, I guess
Yusmeiro!
It could’ve been a lot worse, but I’ll take our chances with our bullpen + Montas vs theirs.
not dead yet
When Crochet is gone the rest of their pen is going to look like they are throwing 75.
Bummer, White Socks.
To be clear when this is looked at in a year or 2 I made my comment before the bottom of the 2nd began.
fosse is really into the promo
wait, renteria wasted crochet on Olson, davis and grossman
THis is bullshit
he best be on the IL
I guess he is really hurt. Wouldn’t really make sense to replace him with another lefty otherwise.
Yeah, I guess
Feels like Robbie used to swing at fewer ball 4s
we really needed to see murphy that inning
I don’t think they’ve realized how good he’s been since he keeps hitting 9th.
HA HA HA Ramon
they cannot time this. that defector article really was on point
A miked up Ramon promptly drops an F bomb, heh heh.
I thought that halftime “interviews” at college basketball were the stupidest form of sports interviews
Hold the FKing phone. I was listening to the game yesterday, not TV. They are INTERVIEWING PLAYERS ON THE FIELD IN THE GAME? What the actual hell??
Yeah I hate this.
I’m flabbergasted. During spring training, fine, have a ball. But this is the playoffs for heavens sake. Shameful
I see that Slusser is PO’d about it too. And Brett Anderson.
It’s 2020, which means that the White Sox will eliminate the A’s and then face the Asterisks with 6 healthy players
Sounds right.
I think they bleeped Ramon after that last one.
yup
Fuck
Going to the alcohol at 1:19 p.m.
I like how ramon pronounced robert correctly
I thought the explanation of AQI was excellent.
he was really aware of the audience.
except during the plays
That was cute, smile on Marcus’s face as he clearly heard his family cheering his basehit.
Lot of managing going on.
I thought Bob was on tilt yesterday, but it all seems pretty reasonable so far today.
this seems like a reasonable trade off.
PH Pinder early not only paid off in the expected way (forced an early pitching change) but also seems to have paid off big time later.
Renteria is going to be down to where he has his last two pitchers in the game, one LH and one RH, and they’re switching back and forth between the mound and the outfield.
So many years of winner take all games where we couldn’t get that one big hit. Please, Pinder or Canha.
sigh
FK, Olson blew it on the 1-1 pitch.
I don’t know wtf is going on with Olson this year but it’s really scary when a power hitter can’t catch up to fastballs in the zone.
This one was a hanging change-up down the middle. It’s exactly the pitch that he used to put 4 rows into the bleachers in that situation.
That was strike 2 no? He eventually swung and missed at a 97 in the zone to strike out.
My amateur take is that he’s so concerned about the fastballs that he’s been missing that he’s lost his previous acumen at seeing, adjusting and crushing off speed stuff.
A’s baseball
“We live in uncertain times. However there is one thing you can count on. A’s hitters shitting the bed with men on base in the playoffs.”
0-8 5 K’s for Olson this series. He has 1 hit in his playoff career, though he does have 4 walks.
When do we start talking aobut marcus’ extention.
Simmons is FA, Lindor next year
Murph!
I would love Simmons. I just want to see him and Chapman next to each other.
What I was starting to type before was that, even if you’re a believer in Allen/Davidson/Puason and don’t want to commit to Semien long-term, we’re going to need someone for the next year or two, and I had been thinking about Simmons also.
More inclined to re-sign Marcus after today though.
2021 MVP. Well maybe second behind Trout.
!!!!!!!!!
Hope! Thank you, strapping young lad!
3rd lefty from the pen by the 4th?
It’s going to get to them needing 2 innings from Colome, and if Colome has a Game 2 Hendriks sort of day, kablooey.
I bet Renteria’s backup plan involves Giolito
That makes sense. Heck, if there was a perfect situation I would look at Jesus for a batter. (such a situation does not exist)
We are still 1 run behind, but we are ahead in the bullpen war of attrition.
Imagine if this gets to the 11th or 12th inning.
Can we win the war of attrition with the position players?
Now would be a cromulent time for a Semien.
Gah, it’s too bad LaStella is one of the slowest guys on the team.
Yeah, I thought we was going to score there.
In retrospect, avoiding the TOOTBLAN there feels like a good omen.
I wish I were up there hanging out with the Semiens.
They walked Pinder to get to Canha?
OK.
Maybe they think his shoulder is crocked.
Oh, it was for the 3-batter rule. Interesting.
Very! Canha is one of the worst people to face when you are nervous and have nowhere to put him.
What, I wonder, would the punishment have been had Renteria gone out and told the oft-injured Rodon that he felt a twinge there.
Canha’s shoulder is definitely hurting though.
His eye is OK, though
Here we go!!
I feel like the A’s have been on that other side of a lot of these games.
Have Oly lean into a ptich.
olson has had a good eye
Take, take, take.
Fucking Lawyerball, yay!
Now that’s A’s baseball!
God, I’ve forgotten that Montas is in for the A’s. Looooong inning.
I think Renteria took lenscrafters’ comment at the top of the thread about managing aggressively a little too much to heart, and painted himself into a corner.
Yeah, this is a little too much even for me. I don’t think pulling every pitcher after the 3 batter min is reached is sound even for this game.
A big part of my concern with a bullpen game was that if you use enough pitchers, there’s too good a chance one of them will be wild or just not have it that day. That seems to have bit Chicago in a big way, first with Rondon, then bringing in the new pitcher with the bases loaded.
I’m still worried about it on our side as well, but I’m glad we’re the team on our 3rd pitcher in the 5th inning, not our 6th.
They also don’t have the pitching depth that the A’s have. They were inevitably going to get to a guy like Rodon who clearly isn’t all the way back yet.
Hi also why the fk is Davis swinging at anything?
Blast from the past. KD of 2018? Sure. This KD? He hasn’t earned enough trust to swing there. Ugh.
Hi!
I’ve been saying this for 2 months
Why does billy always waste our money on bad dhs
it was a good extension. it was a week before he broke
“Our” money? Bernie hasn’t nationalized the A’s quite yet. Also hi!
Because Fisher gives Billy the same amount of money I do :)
Nobody complained about that extension at the time they did it (unlike say the Butler signing). Welcome back, and I hope we see some other old FKers if the A’s can keep going deep into October.
good news, after that long inning, Montas is back to regular rest
Well done!
I don’t know it matters, but
Aw, hell.
4 wasn’t going to do it. it’s fine
They are making a frustrating amount of contact. Mazara should have struck out on that high fastball he fouled off, and Montas should have thrown it again.
Uh, wow.
This game is a test of my cardiovascular health.
fortunately I have the radio 4 seconds ahead
I haven’t had a chance to get used to it with the low stakes regular season.
Ugh, baseball is the worst/best.
Can the ESPN announcers kindly stop talking about all of our postseason pain? WE GET IT.
(Also, hi! I wasn’t sure I would remember my password, but I guess my mind holds on to important information like that.)
hey!
Howdy stranger!
Wunder kin up in the pen already? Would love another good inning of Frankie Magic.
Frankie to start
I would too. who knows who else you will need later
Seems like Ramon should hit a HR some time.
That was a horrible sequence, he watched the fat grooved pitches down the middle then swung at garbage.
Who’s left in the Sox’ bullpen?
I think I see Eddie Cicotte getting loose.
There was the list.
Cease
Cordero
Fry
Colome
Giolito
Keuchel
Got it
got really lucky on that check swing
#CIalarm
Catcher’s intereference, presumably highlight of the game for Fosse so far.
fleet of foot is what you are looking for ray
PIIIIIIIIINDER!!!!
PINDER WITH THE DAD STRENGTH!
After yesterday I’m not using caps lock until the final out is in the books.
that’s fair
Stupid fosse made it sound like it could have gone to replay. I think I blacked out for a second.
I thought he got the tag on live.
Couldn’t see if the tag was on him until they showed the 3rd angle.
Canha is clearly in pain.
Due to all the pitching changes, we are on a Yankee pace.
I have always thought Pinder looks like he could be related to batgirl.
I could see it!
And right after they showed he was 2/35 with the bases loaded in his career.
1. wow
2. Pinder’s grand slam against Tor was very memorable.
Supplanting Alberto Callaspo in the annals of Oakland history.
Couldn’t have got another inning out of Montas?
had he not thrown 120 pitches sunday
So uh, I hope we actually get a chance to find out, but what’s your pitching plan for a save situation? Hendriks? Soria? Diekman?
I think he’ll use Hendriks, and it will take Soria and Diekman to get there.
Agree. Soria and Diekman both seem like risky matchups though…………. And also Hendriks…..
burch smith
I’d be shocked if it wasn’t Hendriks.
6 more A’s runs please.
I’ll be even more optimistic and say I hope we don’t have a chance to find out
Wendelken has looked fantastic. He’s a weapon now.
And he’d better start the 7th with a couple RH batters due up and him feeling it a little after that inning.
Agreed.
Sweet Lou? Did we go back to 2018 while I wasnt looking?
I can feel my blood pressure going back up already.
I already told my kids right after they have to call 911 they need to turn the game on my phone.
Is Krush back?
I think olson tore his hip
Has Khris gotten even slower?
been a while since he ran
Khrushed too hard. Didn’t see that happening this year.
Lou????
Is this for real? Are you people FKing with me, because it isn’t funny!
radio speculating on hendriks availability
I’m surprised Wendelken couldn’t go another couple of batters.
Marshall’s high pitch count this season was 25. 41 today as Ramon comes up.
I am OK with murphy and the top in a tie game in the 7th
I want to believe Lou, I really really do.
2018 WC Sweet Lou vibes pls.
Don’t worry guys, Diekman is also warming up.
Wait, I didn’t know about Lou’s beard status. I’m OK now.
It’s got more of a Furry Freak Brothers vibe, liking it.
you are fucking kidding me
Marcus. Come on man.
No 2015 Marcus pls.
I am sharpening the blade of the Green and Gold Guillotine right now. There could be a number of heads in the basket.
lost the the series in the game they won
I just cannot understand why we couldn’t at least start with Wendelken.
Come on man.
Turn three please.
Hate this matchup!!!
not likely a double play vince
I will never say another bad word about Diekman if he gets us out of this.
I can not make that promise.
Same here. Jake’s OK by me.
DON”T WALK THE LEFTY!!!!!
crazy how he did it
(puts sticky note on computer desk)
can grossman set up behind the plate?
Man, I guess I applaud Trivino for not being afraid to throw his best pitches. I definitely boo Melvin for not being afraid to put Trivino’s best pitches into that situation.
I’m not sure I realized just how painful this was going to be. Even after all, you know. Now I’m remembering being at some White Sox games and their really obnoxious fans. And the air is just painful to breathe.
wheeewwwwww
They are trying to give me a heart attack.
AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!! OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
Never in doubt
I’m sending Bob and Murphy my medical bills.
Diekman still only has one pitch, and it might catch the bottom of the strike zone for a strike, or it might be two and a half feet low and outside, and even he never knows which one it’s going to be on any given pitch.
I’m so nervous I want to ask Cordero for one of the smokes he has rolled up in his sleeve.
lol
I chose the wrong decade to quit.
Fuck, school is out. I should send my kids back in their rooms
Nice biceps
ring central has been erased and flemming refers to it as the coliseum
cancel culture
8th inning with the lead, this should be fine, right?
Survived the Lou inning, can survive anything
Umm, we need 3 outs from Hendriks in the 9th.
Hound may have a hitter at this point.
Is ESPN contractually obligated to mention DJ LeMahieu in every post-season broadcast?
Tim Anderson apparently can’t be retired
How much do you think the air quality is affecting the use of the pitchers? If this goes to extras it’s going to get silly fast.
Might be a good time to call the game on account of air quality.
Its not getting better any time soon though.
These announcers of course have no idea about any of that.
We’ve played 5 was his point, I believe…
As I recall, Soria said he really struggled with the air in Seattle….
yup
If Hendriks is not available, the plan for the ninth is…
Darold Knowles.
T-Long to rest the ball on his shoulder.
Too soon?
As long as it’s not Billy Koch.
Arthur Rhodes? Jim Johnson?
Yes! Yes!
Never in doubt.
Whew. (still no caps lock)
Holy shit. Abreu swinging at the 2-1 ball changed everything.
Yeah that was an unexpected, but very welcome gift.
A huge gift.
He also swung at ball 4 against Trivino (when he ended up reaching on the error anyway).
Both times I had the sense Abreu decided he was going to make something happen before the pitch had been thrown.
Is it safe yet for me to make fun of how many chains Abreu is wearing? I’m still worried about angering his bat.
Soria didn’t remember that type of bouncing ball has been a 6-4-3 DP for the past 100 years
Wow.
Am I feeling… hopeful? This is so unfamiliar…
somewhere in orange county Matt chapman is in a darkened chamber willing his hip to heal
I know I have to be sure in Hendricks, but Im not sure about him.
Well…if the A’s lose this it goes back to Bob trying to get 6 outs from Hendriks yesterday with a 5-run lead.
After yesterday’s gaffe, Bob made pretty much* all the right moves today, while Renteria showed how easy it is to stupidly over-manage.
*Trivino was puzzling, but we don’t really know how much any of the relievers have in the tank on a given day, so I’m giving him a pass on that one
I don’t think you give diekman abreu, mccann and mocada? Engel? His control and swing and miss stuff isn’t really there but its not 2019
Maybe he was hoping for a miricle inning and therefore saving soria for the 9th if it were tied.
Ideally you get a little more out of either Montas or Wendelken so you can skip Lou, but we don’t know whether that was realistic or not.
Do we go back to 14 pitchers for the next round? Didn’t use a lot of the bench this round, but also don’t want to be short-handed in case of an early injury.
We could probably survive without one of Machin, Orf, or Kemp. I guess the question is whether that is worth carrying Weems. This series was tough because their righthandedness took McFarland and Minor out of play.
Yeah, I would be shocked if we didnt get more than 2 innings or so out of Minor, McFarland, Luzardo, and Manaea in the next round.
I dunno, it’s true we don’t know who had what available today. But we did know that Hendriks would get in, we did know that he was awful yesterday, and that you’d want at least some other option if he ran into trouble again with everything on the line.
So maybe burning Lou and JBW so quick after Frankie was worth that no Plan B risk. It did work out. Felt horribly risky to me.
My only complaint was pulling Frankie and JB and not at least having them start their innings. But BoMel won so he was right and I am stupid.
I just don’t understand why you don’t leave montas in for an extra innings. He was throwing well and your chances of a guy just being off are higher if you use more guys and you increase your chances of running out of right handed guys if it goes to extras
Short rest, coming off a long outing, too much risk to his arm would be my guess.
why check on him? they don’t have any pitchers left
And they lost the DH. That is amazing.
Wait, why did they pinch run a catcher for Eloy? And why carry three catchers if you can’t use one of them? Renteria seems like an idiot.
If Hendriks sucks just enough to send it to extra innings the White Sox are in a pretty deep hole.
Abreu’s got a couple of innings in him
And Laureano is now in his 5th inning…
I feel certain that Canha has a knuckle ball.
I feel sick.
I feel OK that Hendriks won’t be as bad as yesterday. He’s been amazing this year. Hopefully that’s good enough today.
I’d say adrenaline is worth maybe 15 pitches at most.
Pitch 14 at 100.
He’s Australian. He’s just glad there aren’t 8 poisonous snakes in the grass.
of course
none of these guys are going to bounce into a double play
LOL at Tim Anderson eating chips in the dugout, ice water in his veins.
that was a dangerous miss
I just want to tell you all, good luck. We’re counting on you.
Why did I have the fish?!
If the site goes down now…
Never a fking doubt.
NEVER. IN. DOUBT.
ALL WINTER FOR ANDERSON TO DO HIS FUCKING HOMEWORK!!!!!
Yeah baby!
HOLY TOLEDO!
Fuckin A’s man.
I’m holding lenscrafters to the Diekman comment.
LOL with still more playoffs to go, maybe I should’ve saved that card for later.
But still, finally we get more playoffs. How sweet is it to say that?
I will hold my version of the card for us..
i made no such promise
YESSSSSS!!!!
1-9 never sounded so fucking good
11 more of these?
Hendriks is ridiculous, man. What an arm and a mentality.
I was hopeful he could get through it, but did not expect him to be that great.
Even the one hit was 99 on the hands.
Holy Toledo! That was one helluva beautiful painful mess of a win. I was looking at some series preview (ESPN?) that pretty much gave the advantages across the board to the Sox, except for depth. That may end up being our best strength to go further.
Woohoo!!!
the central was really the best division, 3 playoff teams
Seven playoff teams from the flyover divisions total. Cardinals might be the only one who advance.
I am excited to see sixto. I assume that game will be blacked out
He is good tv.
2-13 in games, 0-6 in series, and the Cardinals are an underdog now.
What a fucking satisfying win!
That was a fun win and great to see many old names pop around here. Here’s to more of both. Good night
Just dont even know what to say other than this wouldnt be half as good without all of you FKers.
This.
Yes.
for sure
Fact
I’ll admit to being both (a) waaaaaaaaaaay happier than I expected; and (b) sad I couldn’t keep up live so I missed this.
Yes, and for that matter, y’all are an excellent group to post through the pre-apocalypse with. I’ll be here as long as the power grid holds out.
This morning I turned on car to drive to work (half day), and out of maybe 2,000 songs to choose from the random autoplay picked Celebration.
I have resisted mentioning this to anyone all day to preserve the good juju.
I hope the Dodger Stadium organist knows that one.
I found some type of creature (I think it was a griffin or maybe a manticore) in the backyard, and I cut out it’s heart and fed it to the crows. Pretty sure that’s what got us this victory.
Are there 11 more?
I waded into a shit lagoon to get rid of the tallgrass. That’s real, I really did that during the fourth through eighth innings.
The failure of my oven yesterday morning worked pretty well. Maybe dishwasher, washing machine and refrigerator gets us a World Championship.
We get *’s! LFG!!!
There are going to be at least two days next week with four games happening, and ours could be the only one without the Yankees, Dodgers, or Cubs. I shudder to think what times we’re going to get stuck with.
So a 7am start time at Dodger stadium today…
Liam told trienen that liam is taking his locker
OK I’m ready to rotationbate already. Bassitt, Luzardo, Manaea, Montas, Fiers with a lot of Bassitt?
There is absolutely no way Fiers pitches in this series. (Although if the A’s are up 10 in Game 3 with a 2-0 series lead, I am absolutely having him finish them off).
Five games in five days. Bassitt on short rest if necessary?
I would have Montas ahead of Maneaa and maybe ahead of Luzardo, but also don’t think order matters a whole lot.
minor and fiers ready to piggyback
Ken made a good point in the post game show that the * benefited a lot in the Minnesota games by being able to bring in Valdez and Javier for relief against the Twins which is a huge reason why their relief pitching shut them down.
They can’t do that in a 5 games in 5 days series so we will have our chances against their actual bullpen. And there won’t be any 7 inning games either.
Yes, they need a lot of innings to win. I like the A’s chances if they split the first two games.
I read this differently now.
I would let Laureano pitch a playoff game before I’d let Fiers pitch one.
I feel… good?!?! WTF is this?
Can someone dig up the photo of all the coliseum cutouts? can’t find it anywhere.
Does anyone know if Verlander had his surgery or maybe he could be added to the roster late?
According to one of the many truly awful people who comment at Crawfish Boxes, he had his surgery today.
what in the 1985 is happening on my TV, Wainright does not have it and you continue to let him pitch?
When the ALDS series start will they remove the cutouts from Petco and Dodger Stadium, or will Mary Hart be staring at us on every pitch?
Maga hart
Are you keeping a list?
And he’s checking it twice.
MLB emails me to say for $75 (to their cancer charity) they can put my cutout in PetCo for the ALCS. I’d like Garry Templeton’s seat please.
Kurt Bevacqua has a pretty good seat. I’m always glad to see him.
Couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a fking boat.
Kurt fuckin bevacqua
Without checking I remember a 70’s baseball card with an action card of the bubble gum bubble blowing champ, was that Bevacqua?
Yeah I think that’s right. From the CF camera Kurt is furthest left in Row 2, with the big mustache, just over Dick Williams’ right shoulder.
Yeah this is how I remembered him.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Kurt_Bevacqua
That’s hilarious. BLANK Tommy Lasorda.
Fernando Tatis Jr, wow.
BTW, we’ve only watched the first episode, but I’m liking the new season of Fargo so far.
Same here. I love how every season includes a different random psychotic killer with an oddly endearing affect.
That series has been consistently great.
I was not prepared to like serious Chris Rock. But I do.
I watched the game at The Athletic Club Oakland – they have closed off the adjacent block of Webster and made a parklet that holds maybe 40 people – and there was a guy wearing the very rare heathery green alt of the Bill King Holy Toledo AN shirt. I could not ask him anything about it, though, because the bar staff were swooping down on anyone who dared to fraternize with people at another table. But a nice viewing option, regardless. Community Foods in West Oakland is also looking into showing the next round of games in their parking lot, and I think a couple of places in Alameda are contemplating it if they’re not noon starts.
Excellent. and HI!
Hiya EM! Nurse Upgrade has that green Bill King shirt. Wasn’t her tho.
Good morning.
Just switched to the Dodgers game and it took a full minute before they mentioned DJ Le Mahieu. To be fair, that minute was filled discussing how great Aaron Judge is and how many runs and home runs the Yankees scored against the Indians
I noticed when the White sox were up 3-0, there was a go to or come back from commercial video package of anderson abreu and robert doing cool things both from this series and from the past.
I did not see a similar one for the A’s, but I did see some that mixed in various A’s players with those same sox.
Ryon Healy was batting cleanup for the Brewers tonight?!
He’s no Jake Smolinski.
Sounds like the clubhouse is getting pretty wild without reporters around.
So Trump has the virus now, as the inexorable stupidity of 2020 reaches peak stupid.
This day got so much better after that third inning.
One way or another, I guess!
I didn’t know that Shooty Babbit is a Berkeley High Hall of Famer, according to this relative now running for school board.
Hey guys, did anything fucking amazing happen today? Maybe two fucking amazing things?
Absolutely love this response from London about staying in Cleveland every star athlete should use it.
awesome
Yup.
Let them eat cake
Do you watch the Great British Baking Show (as it is called on this side of the pond)?
In the first episode this season the last challenge was to bake “a 3-D cake bust depicting their personal celebrity hero.” Some twit chose Marie Antoinette.
twitter trend from 3000 years ago (july 2020) aside, what’s a cake that’s *not* 3D?
Ep 1 did not impress me with the quality of this season’s contestants, hopefully they’ll show me more in Ep 2. Probably tonight!
Related, can someone remind me what spoiler tag works, I keep getting it wrong.
spoiler tag?
is that the one where if whoever’s “it” touches you, you have to stand still and rot until another player saves you?
Lily and I watched it for a while, but left with Mel and Sue.
Some of those cakes were so bonkers.
I’m sure mlb wants to drop the LDS schedule all at once, and wants to know if it is the Cubs or the Marlins before doing so, but if they could just give the Monday times at some point that would be great.
FWIW (Pacific times). I would not say these are etched in stone but it sounds reasonable.
Monday:
2:00 Astros-A’s
6:00 Yankees-Rays
Tuesday:
12:30 Astros-A’s
4:30 Yankees-Rays
Wednesday:
12:30 A’s-Astros
4:30 Rays-Yankees
Thursday:
12:30 A’s-Astros
4:30 Rays-Yankees
Friday:
Game 5’s not listed there
that seems backwards
I suspect the time slots are correct, the games are reversed on Monday (why put the East Coast teams that late and against MNF?), but the rest is correct. If Rays-Yankees ended in a sweep an A’s-Astros Game 4 would move to 4:30.
Lame
Funny that they are bowing to the reality of these games by building in a four-hour window.
2? what a homer wishcast
If we make it to November 7 (both virus issues and CIVAL WAR), the Pac-12 is going with some 9 a.m. local time kickoffs, starting with Arizona State-USC that morning at the LA Coliseum.
Marlins got screwed A’s-style on a play at second.
Initially called safe, I don’t know how you could possibly say exactly when the tag was made, but reversed to out for some reason.
My conclusion from half-watching this game and one-twentieth watching Braves v Reds yesterday is that the National League is bad at hitting.
Great Matt Joyce game though.
I feel a little better about our RISP failures seeing so many other teams with the same issue (including the White Sox in our series – we were 3/14, they were 4/28).
Gonna need a little more info than “fatigued but in good spirits,” folks.
BSOHL
Day to day
Precautionary visit to Dr. Andrews
Second opinion fro Dr Neil El Attrache?
Spending the next few days working out of the Vail office, expects to join the team in Denver.
Not going to talk about when he first felt something in his elbow.
Yeah this is hella sketchy, people don’t usually show symptoms until at least 2-3 days after infection and usually longer. Actually likely explanations are 1) he was not actually being tested daily; 2) false negatives from lame tests; or 3) he tested positive and still kept campaigning.
d) all of the above
my german is rusty.
i can’t remember if it’s der president, das president, or die already.
Herman Cain went from fatigued to ventilator in five days.
Also they never did provide an even remotely plausible explanation for Trump’s sudden Walter Reed visit last year.
Meanwhile Mike Lee is quarantining, and McConnell won’t even say if he’s been tested recently. He would totally go into the Senate with COVID rather than risk not having a quorum to push Barrett through.
Pence Oval Office Address: With his last breath, President Trump exhorted the Senate to advance Judge Barrett’s nomination. He took my hand and said, “Mike, I am dying so that the unborn may live.”
“I’m a super-spreader – many people are saying the superest”
Not the time to do that, Marlins pitcher!
Well there’s another way this isn’t 2016.
3/7 lower seeds win so far with the Cardinals pending. All the 1’s and 2’s survived so it’s not a total joke.
We are all rooting for the central to get clean sheeted, yeah?
Yes
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but I like Dodgers stadium better. It kinda looks like the batters are susceptible to dugout interference on their backswing at petco
Profar is 7/12 career in the post-season, somehow.
Jessica Mendoza is now on this broadcast too, for some reason.
Why pay three broadcasters per series when you can just pay three broadcasters for the entire postseason?
I saw that and fled. Ted Leitner is to baseball what Joe Starkey is to college football, but since I have the accompanying video I’m OK with him.
Leitner loudly asking “what happened” kind of perfectly demonstrates his unfitness for this job.
Maybe its the point, but that “tatis” shirt on the female mannequin is poorly draped.
“Pierce Johnson”?
Fillmore’s VP?
Forced to resign after his porn appearances came to light.
The American Prince Albert.
what is going to be awesome is the flood of tax returns and russia meddling are gonna come to light after he dies and all the kids are going to be sooooo fucked.
But I would still rather he live and get prosecuted and go to jail, but knowing what I know about criminal justice he will not survive for the at least 3 years for that to happen
And another senator down … it would be some karmic FKing justice if the senate was unable to force Barrett through because so many of them got sick from her nomination party.
Is lee enough or do we need one more?
We now have Tillis too
just saw!
Such a tragedy
And Chris Christie. And Chris Christie’s bridge shutdown fall guy who is currently in the cursed Trump campaign manager job.
Counting on any GOP senator to do the right thing is delusional, obviously. But I do hope maybe one or two might see the reckoning looming and turn as pure desperate tactical move. Cause a debilitated Trump won’t recover his stature, and his MAGA troops ain’t rallying behind Pence or Ivanka.
Harrison Bader looks like a bully in a 1980s teen movie.
I dont remember what tommy herr looked like, but that is all I can think of when I see him
A downside of the internet age is thinking of something that seems moderately clever and then doing a twitter search and finding 3 other randos who have already said exactly the same thing.
That’s just my bot army stealing your material.
All your material are still belong to me.
Today on a podcast, I heard a new song from a guy who was in the stiffs in the 80s and it wasn’t either of the Stiffs I remember from the 90s.
So in that sense, its nice, Although when I try to get SLF’s Seattle band “the cripples” in my spotify/youtube other streaming service mix I get two other different bands in there for no good reason
That hit me about 2 nanoseconds after I posted Charlie Brown and Lucy and the football re the A’s the other day.
My other one today was wondering if Trump was going to spend a year dead for tax reasons like Hotblack Desiato, but not surprisingly that one isn’t original either.
there’s a buffalo thing going on on twitter that i don’t understand.
cellino and barnes something something?
Ambulance chasers who went nationwide (ads were everywhere on tv and radio, maybe including during A’s games), then had some public breakup in the last couple of years. Barnes just died in a private plane crash.
ok. i think it’s the breakup part they’re raking up.
“Celino and Barnes, injury attorneys, call one eight eight eight eight eight eight eight.”
Delightful jingle during Yankees games for years. That’s all I’ve got.
They are always on down here and now the Barnes group is “at one 800 eiiiight million”. I never thought I would miss all the 8’s.
Speaking of which. Cobra Kai is fun.
Didn’t hosmer break his pinkie trying to bunt last week?
I still can’t believe all the high leverage situations emilio pagan has been in in the last couple of years
Sutcliffe always sounds so drunk.
Yeah I trust him not to drink while working from home even less than I trust myself.
The whole Cardinals infield came down with a case of the Profars this inning.
this poor reyes kid
that was an embarrassing bad call by that 2nd base ump, or left field
So not only is the Central extinct, but all of the ALDS series will be intra-division.
NL too
Yeah … I thought DS and wrote “ALDS series”. Ugh.
In my defence, Conway FKing too! If this is what the wild card round brings, imagine what the A’s World Series portends.
well, this is a bummer
I imagine his last words were “Back the fuck off my plate”
My favorite part of this sweet article about the A’s player’s families at the Coliseum last week is this quote from Krista Hendriks: “We’re pacing, we’re sweating, we’re cussing, we’re stressed, too. Whatever Liam is saying on the mound, I guarantee I’m saying the same thing in the suite.”
I loved that article.
Yesterday Donald Trump et al, today the New England Patriots. I wonder who completes the trifecta tomorrow.
There is just no way a full football team and staff can keep assembling every day and not have COVID positives. Multiplied times travel, games, families and protocol breaks. This was inevitable. It also makes me think that colleges, who’ve been going for longer, have lots more participants, and presumably much lamer compliance rates, must be hiding their positives or not actually testing.
Yeah, compared to baseball much bigger teams (and entourages) and much closer contact within teams during practice and between teams during games.
I will nevertheless root for the Raiders to beat the Bills tomorrow.
I’m starting to like Buffalo’s chances of finishing the season with a perfect record.
Fun game. Both good offenses and soft defenses.
The two Raider fumbles were the difference.
I only watched the last 10 minutes, seemed quite Raiderish.
i was heartbroken and furious to see that the curt flood field teeny tiny football players started practicing this weekend. zero masks or distancing (among them, of course — but also their parents).
also, this never happened. although this summer it looked like a mound being built in the diamond.
Assuming the VP debate happens, I hope Kamala’s prep team understands that her assignment has changed. She needs to treat Pence like he’s the presidential candidate now. Luckily, Trump gave her the gift of putting him nominally in charge of the virus.