Senior Circuit Play-In Game thread: Giants-Pirates
- Thread starter bankshot1
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I didn't think it would be possible that Jim Leyland would look significantly older after leaving the game.
LOL. and, Pirates fans have shut up faster than any crowd since Curt Schilling shut up 50,000 NYY fans in 2004.SemperFidelisSox said:
First shortstop what ever hat a grand slam in the postseason.Lowrielicious said:
Was listening to the game on the radio until just now. The Bucs guy called Panda's long foul ball "Sophia Lauren." Asked to explain: "looked good for a long time." [To keep it gender nuetral, you could go with Paul Newman half the time or something.]
fantastic. I assume she is asking the cop for directions to her seat?soxhop411 said:
how the hell did she get into the dugout?
Particularly fitting given the thread title too.
I dunno. The Nationals have been underrated all year -- hell, I feel like I heard a lot more about the Dodgers than the Nats, despite them winning 96 games (Pythag of 97) and only allowing 555 runs, the 4th lowest total in the last decade I believe.VORP Speed said:
But Giants/Dodgers would be pretty fun, obviously.
dynomite said:
I think that remains to be seen. No other team in the NL East cracked .500, so the strength of schedule left a lot to be desired.
nvalvo said:
The Nats record in the NL East was 45-31, consistent with overall record of 96-66. And I know it is SSS, but they won the season series against all other NL playoff teams other than their nemesis the Cardinals.
Rudy Pemberton said:
This can't be repeated enough. It might have been defensible if a Pittsburgh win on Sunday would have clinched the division, but the Pirates were dependent on not only having to win in their own game but also on having a woeful Diamondbacks team beat the Cardinals. Hurdle should be getting roasted for idiotically wasting Cole's start in this manner. I'm sure this would be a much bigger story if it happened in New York, Boston or LA instead of Pittsburgh.
I think you mean the 64 Phillies. They choked the pennant to the Cards. Mauch over pitched Short, and Bunning down the stretch. 1969 was the year the Cubs choked against the "Miracle" Mets.DanoooME said:
Debating whether Cole should have pitched on Sunday or in the play in game just drives home the point that the 4th place team was at a significant disadvantage to the 5th place team because of the sheer stupidity of this playoff format. The Giants got to take last weekend off because they had clinched 5th place but been eliminated from the Division, while the Pirates would have been cheating themselves and their fans if they'd taken their foot off the accelerator with a chance to win the Division. So the Giants went into the game with rested regulars and a rested ace, while the Pirates, despite being clearly the better team over 162 games, did not get that luxury. It's dumb. The gimmick game is a farce, no matter how many times the games are great theater like Wednesday instead of snooze fests like Thursday.JimD said:
The Pirates and the Giants had the same record, better my ass. The Bucs' most significant injury all year was McCutchen missing a week with bruised ribs; if they'd lost their equivalents of Pagan, Belt and Cain they wouldn't have even come close to making the playoffs.
Also, I don't blame Hurdle at all for gunning for the division. He nearly got there, and last night just proved why he should do it instead of why he shouldn't. 28 other teams in MLB were losing last night's game with MadBum dealing, so if Hurdle could do anything to make sure it wasn't the Bucs then go for it.
I'd say his biggest mistake was not getting Volquez the fuck out of there at the first sign of trouble. He had to come into the game knowing there was a very good chance the Bucs needed to win via a battle of the bullpens and he managed the game like it was a regular season game.
I'd say his biggest mistake was not getting Volquez the fuck out of there at the first sign of trouble. He had to come into the game knowing there was a very good chance the Bucs needed to win via a battle of the bullpens and he managed the game like it was a regular season game.
I think that Cole would have to have allowed minus 1 run, or more minus runs, for the Pirates to have won.Rudy Pemberton said:
OK, stupid comment out of the way, an off topic question: Peavy said after the game that he knew the Giants would be underdogs against the Nats, but so was the team he went into the postseason with last year. Were the Red Sox underdogs in any series? It sure looked like it was on the way to over against the Tigers until Papi's slam, but with home field throughout, were they dogs in any series?
Al Zarilla said:
Maybe, but the same hindsight shows us that Cole was likely to have pitched much better last night than Volquez did. I'm not saying that the Pirates chances would have been massively improved but maybe the game plays out a little differently if SF is only leading 1-0 or 2-0 after seven - for example, maybe Bochy has someone up in the pen for the eighth and decides to pull Bumgarner when it's first and third with one out if the Giants only have a slim lead.
Al Zarilla said:
I found this which says that before the CS the Red Sox were favored against the Tigers and favorites of the remaining 4 to win the WS according to bet365, and this which says they were favored slightly against the Cardinals in the WS, AND had been favorites among all playoff teams. So I think the answer is no. Of course it seemed like every national pundit picked the Tigers and the Cardinals to win those series, so I don't blame Jake for remembering it this way.
Plympton91 said:
Why should anybody care whether the fourth or fifth place team has an advantage? The World Series should be a competition between the best team in the American League and the best team in the National League. The new format makes that more likely.