10/1 MLB Playoffs -- Red Wedding Day

E5 Yaz

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Five games, five possible eliminations

Game 1 (Noon)

Reds
1. Shogo Akiyama (L) LF
2. Nick Castellanos (R) RF
3.
Joey Votto (L) 1B
4. Eugenio Suarez (R) 3B
5. Mike Moustakas (L) 2B
6. Jesse Winker (L) DH
7. Nick Senzel (R) CF
8. Freddy Galvis (S) SS
9. Tucker Barnhart (L) C

Braves
1. Ronald Acuna Jr. (R) CF
2.
Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
3.
Marcell Ozuna (R) DH
4. Travis d'Arnaud (R) C
5.
Ozzie Albies (S) 2B
6. Adam Duvall (R) LF
7. Dansby Swanson (R) SS
8. Nick Markakis (L) RF
9. Austin Riley (R) 3B

Game 2 (2 p.m.)

Marlins
1. Corey Dickerson (L) LF
2.
Jon Berti (R) 2B
3. Jesus Aguilar (R) DH
4. Brian Anderson (R) 3B
5. Garrett Cooper (R) 1B
6. Matt Joyce (L) RF
7. Miguel Rojas (R) SS
8. Magneuris Sierra (L) CF
9.
Chad Wallach (R) C

Cubs
1. Ian Happ (S) CF
2. Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B
3. Willson Contreras (R) DH
4.
Kyle Schwarber (L) LF
5. Kris Bryant (R) 3B
6. Jason Heyward (L) RF
7. Javier Baez (R) SS
8. David Bote (R) 2B
9. Victor Caratini (S) C
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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ESPN+ is once again doing a "Squeeze Play" broadcast watching all games at once with its own announce crew (Jason Benetti, Kyle Peterson, Mike Petriello). Looks like it starts at 1:00 despite the first game starting at noon. Suppose a whiparound show isn't really necessary until there are multiple games to watch.
 

canderson

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Times/TV info:

Reds vs. Braves
12 p.m., ESPN

Marlins vs. Cubs
2 p.m., ABC

White Sox vs. A's
3 p.m., ESPN

Cardinals vs. Padres
7 p.m., ESPN2

Brewers vs. Dodgers
10 p.m., ESPN
 

E5 Yaz

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ESPN+ is once again doing a "Squeeze Play" broadcast watching all games at once with its own announce crew (Jason Benetti, Kyle Peterson, Mike Petriello). Looks like it starts at 1:00 despite the first game starting at noon. Suppose a whiparound show isn't really necessary until there are multiple games to watch.
Was this a good watch yesterday? I had to work and didn't see an inning of any game, but was curious whether this format added anything to watching.
 

Catcher Block

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Was this a good watch yesterday? I had to work and didn't see an inning of any game, but was curious whether this format added anything to watching.
I thought it was pretty good. The production was on top of showing consequential moments in the games and skipping inning breaks and commercials. I was half-listening, but I think the main PBP guy mentioned they do this for college baseball and they were enjoying doing the same thing for MLB. It wasn't RedZone quality, but definitely more polished than I had been expecting.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Was this a good watch yesterday? I had to work and didn't see an inning of any game, but was curious whether this format added anything to watching.
I thought it was great. The announcers were a bit loose and clearly having some fun (they were on the air for nearly 8 straight hours without any breaks, so levity was necessary). And it was nice being able to watch all the action without turning channels or missing anything.

The only negative, and it's a small one, is that when they had multiple games active, they'd do a split screen but put it over a fancy background. So instead of two games taking up 50% of the screen each, each of the game boxes were more like 40% of the screen (with a bunch of useless space around the outside). And when they went to three and four games at a time, that just shrank the game boxes more.

It worked fine for me watching on a 22 inch monitor at my desk most of the day, but might be a tougher watch on a TV where you're not 2-3 feet away.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Looks like with Marlins-Cubs being postponed due to rain, Squeeze Play won't be happening. At least not until after 3pm.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Looks like with Marlins-Cubs being postponed due to rain, Squeeze Play won't be happening. At least not until after 3pm.
Thank you for the color on this. I am kind of looking forward to checking it out.

This Reds/Braves series is pretty good if you like pitching battles. Also, more kudos on the thread title.
 

InsideTheParker

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This Reds/Braves series is pretty horrible if you're a fan of either of the two teams. I mean, great pitching...but the sense of helplessness I'm feeling, watching a Braves offense which is normally so good, is overwhelming. And my team won yesterday and is leading today!
I love it. Pitching rules!
(Also, since the Braves played the Sox so much, you see how awful our pitching really was. But, I spoke too soon, because there goes Ozuna!)
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Not a good 24 hours for baseball fans in Ohio. Looks like I'll be trying to figure out what Plan C is for my rooting interest.
 

S. H. Frog

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Yikes. I go to make a cup of coffee expecting to come back for a close ninth, and it's 5-0 with one out and ATL still batting. What happened?
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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For those who might go looking for Squeeze Play on ESPN+, it's listed as StatCast for the White Sox-A's game. Which given that it will be the only game on for a while, it essentially is.
 

jon abbey

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Melancon has incredible career splits as an AL and NL pitcher, 2.50 ERA in the NL (540 innings), 5.79 ERA in the AL (65 innings).
 

E5 Yaz

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Red(s)HawksFan

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Melancon has incredible career splits as an AL and NL pitcher, 2.50 ERA in the NL (540 innings), 5.79 ERA in the AL (65 innings).
Bit of a sample size issue, no? His AL work was as a rookie for the Yankees and the disappointing year (primarily his disastrous first month) with the Red Sox, right. His NL stats are far more representative.
 

jon abbey

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Bit of a sample size issue, no? His AL work was as a rookie for the Yankees and the disappointing year (primarily his disastrous first month) with the Red Sox, right. His NL stats are far more representative.
Sure, but it's still funny. As you well know, he was dominant in the NL both before and after going to BOS.
 

jon abbey

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Tim Anderson has 7 hits in this series already, two games and leading off today.
 

jon abbey

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The two Central divisions got 7 teams into the playoffs and are currently 2-9 collectively (0-2 CLE, 0-2 CIN, 0-2 MIN, 1-1 CWS, 1-0 STL, 0-1 CHC, 0-1 MIL).
 

mauidano

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Sorry but ESPN has the worst broadcast teams...ever. Please tell me they are doing the World Series.
 

mauidano

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The left fielder looked up just to see where it was going to land. No one else on the A's even bothered to turn around.
 

dynomite

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The two Central divisions got 7 teams into the playoffs and are currently 2-9 collectively (0-2 CLE, 0-2 CIN, 0-2 MIN, 1-1 CWS, 1-0 STL, 0-1 CHC, 0-1 MIL).
Really interesting. Do you think that if we'd had a normal 2020 season where they played the East/West they would have ended up measurably worse against the rest of the league?

Obviously with samples this small it's just so hard to draw conclusions. For example, a lot of people (including me) thought the Reds were a dark horse NLCS contender because of their rotation, and indeed, in Game 1 Bauer was electric, but their hitters blew so many opportunities to put a run across.

In 2019, for example, the Twins played roughly the same against the AL Central (.657), East (.625), and West (.676).