The baseball playoffs thread 2018

[Gary A.]

 

[Gary A.]

 

[Gary A.]

 

[Gary A.]

 

[Gary A.]

 

[Gary A.]

I love this shot.

 

[SquarePeg]

Gary I appreciate your sharing the articles, excellent reads - thanks!

Some thoughts on last nights game...

The Mookie interference call. In the moment, I thought Mookie's glove was in the stands and it should have been a home run. After watching a bunch of replays from different angles this morning, I think a case can be made that the fans are leaning over the wall. "Breaking the plane" of the field of play I guess. One guy has his left hand resting on the edge of the wall and you can see his right hand is in front of that so he is definitely over. He's not the one that made contact with Mookie's glove but the other guy looks to be about even with him. Mookie hits the wall after the contact is made. Hard to tell how far behind his shoulder the glove actually is. Happy that it went the Sox way but could have easily seen it being called a hr and not being overturned. Great point today made on one of the talk shows about how they are reviewing the call on the field and should really be reviewing the play on the field. What does it matter what the call on the field was if it's now being decided by the replay? Maybe the umps in NY should not know what the original call was before making their determination??? Aren't they a bit biased in wanting their organization to have made the call correctly to begin with? It's certainly set up to favor the ump with the "enough evidence to overturn" criteria.

The Mookie throw to get Kemp out at 2nd. Unbelievable play. Derek Jeter flip to home level play. He says he practices that in spring training he says. Big mistake by Kemp to go for 2 but he's fast so I can see him getting a double off just about anyone else playing the outfield (except maybe JBJ who's arm is probably better than Mookie's).

That catch that Reddick made on Mookie's bases loaded hit in the 9th kept Houston in the game. Sox left a ton of men on base!

CK is leaking runs and needs to get his **** together. Can't have every game be an almost blew it.

Houston had their chances to win it and just couldn't get it done in the moment.

Price warming up in the 8th/9th was scary. Couldn't figure out why warm him up only to leave CK in there after he walked 2 or 3 in a row (was one a hit batter?). Maybe that's his regular day to throw? But because of Kimbrell's inability to cleanly close the deal, we now have Price pitching on 3 days rest today after throwing full out at 1am the night before. Ugh. Better than him having to come into last night's game I guess. That would really have set Price up to be the scapegoat of the season.

Benintendi catch - obviously that was the game. I think if he's missed it it would have been past him and the game would have been over. Even with JBJ's speed and arm, no way Kemp doesn't score from first with his speed if it gets behind Benny. Loved that it was Bregman that got robbed. Karma.

Defense is the name of the game!

Alex Cora is one cool customer. He put his plan on the line and stuck to it.

 

[JonA_CT]

I was reading some of the commentary this morning, and relating to defense, two different writers mentioned that that Benintendi and Betts would be center fielders on nearly all other MLB teams. It makes a difference this time of year.

My buddies and I have been discussing the Betts/Altuve play back and forth all morning. I think that it was over the wall, but Betts had such a clear play on it that it would seem unfair that the fans could intentionally interfere to change the outcome. Apples to orange comparison...but it’d be like a front row NBA fan going for the ball or pushing Lebron out of the way so he couldn’t get to it.

It’s hard to balance that though, with stadium design. Fans want to be close to the action, and the ideas we through out in our chat this morning would solve the problem, but not in fan-friendly ways. Make the walls higher...put a six foot space between the front row and the wall...whatever. There are ways to take the fan interference piece out. Baseball is the only sport where it’s even possible really, and it’s because it is the only sport where fans literally demarc the end of the “in play”. It seems crazy that the balance of a game can lie in random chance (since the ball was catchable, anyways).

 

[Gary A.]

We had a great day ... nothing better than an afternoon game ... well, maybe an afternoon doubleheader. Perfect weather, 80F, dry, slight breeze cooling of to 70F by the end of the game. The fans were really into the game, loud with no letup. Kershaw was awesome, he kept getting better as the game progressed. The Dodgers came out on fire putting men on base ... but the Brewers quickly smother that early fire. In the middle of the game, somewhat initiated by Puig, the Dodgers started going for hits instead of homeruns ... all those hits did in the Brewers. Jansen is starting to look like his old self.

Bellinger made one helluva catch in center, which originally was called a trap/bounce. The replay showed the glove under the ball and the call overturned. The home plate ump was all over the place with his calls and JC's point to automate balls and strikes is well taken. But the replays really slow down the game, combined with Tv commercials and Brewer's changing pitchers every two batters ... it was a field day for the concession stands. Either the umps, right or wrong, are part of the game or they're not. This New York determination when a coach is offended ... is ... is ... unAmerican. Let the game umpires review and determine all reviews.

 

[SquarePeg]

I was reading some of the commentary this morning, and relating to defense, two different writers mentioned that that Benintendi and Betts would be center fielders on nearly all other MLB teams. It makes a difference this time of year.

My buddies and I have been discussing the Betts/Altuve play back and forth all morning. I think that it was over the wall, but Betts had such a clear play on it that it would seem unfair that the fans could intentionally interfere to change the outcome. Apples to orange comparison...but it’d be like a front row NBA fan going for the ball or pushing Lebron out of the way so he couldn’t get to it.

It’s hard to balance that though, with stadium design. Fans want to be close to the action, and the ideas we through out in our chat this morning would solve the problem, but not in fan-friendly ways. Make the walls higher...put a six foot space between the front row and the wall...whatever. There are ways to take the fan interference piece out. Baseball is the only sport where it’s even possible really, and it’s because it is the only sport where fans literally demarc the end of the “in play”. It seems crazy that the balance of a game can lie in random chance (since the ball was catchable, anyways).

Higher walls would do it but they would need to lose a few rows of paying customers so it won't happen. Fenway is probably the worst for this in RF. The "wall" is about waist high in some areas. Maybe put up some plexi-glass like at a hockey game? Or some type of fencing? Just to the height that a very athletic person could conceivably jump to.

The Killer B's have been amazing in the outfield all year but never more so than last night's game. Meant to add to the above that the Sox plate discipline has been unreal.

We had a great day ... nothing better than an afternoon game ... well, maybe an afternoon doubleheader. Perfect weather, 80F, dry, slight breeze cooling of to 70F by the end of the game. The fans were really into the game, loud with no letup. Kershaw was awesome, he kept getting better as the game progressed. The Dodgers came out on fire putting men on base ... but the Brewers quickly smother that early fire. In the middle of the game, somewhat initiated by Puig, the Dodgers started going for hits instead of homeruns ... all those hits did in the Brewers. Jansen is starting to look like his old self.

Bellinger made one helluva catch in center, which originally was called a trap/bounce. The replay showed the glove under the ball and the call overturned. The home plate ump was all over the place with his calls and JC's point to automate balls and strikes is well taken. But the replays really slow down the game, combined with Tv commercials and Brewer's changing pitchers every two batters ... it was a field day for the concession stands. Either the umps, right or wrong, are part of the game or they're not. This New York determination when a coach is offended ... is ... is ... unAmerican. Let the game umpires review and determine all reviews.

I like that someone else does the review so they are presumably less biased than the ump who made the original call. I like instant replay as a whole but there are challenges and it needs to be a work in progress as technology and issues/rules evolve.

I thought the past couple of Sox games the plate umpires have been spot on (based on the very hard to see brackets that TBS uses to illustrate the strike zone), whereas some of the Yankees series and that first game of this series, there were some really terrible ball/strike calls. I didn't get to watch much of the LAD game but seems like offense on both teams was minimal throughout most of the game. Pitching must have been awesome.

 

[SquarePeg]

Would love to see the Sox put this to bed tonight but with Verlander pitching against Price it is unlikely. I think the Sox are going to let Price sink or swim out there tonight. If they’ve miraculously got a lead late then I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sale come out of the pen.

 

[SquarePeg]

Here we go. 2 outs and CK trying again to close it out.

 

[SquarePeg]

2018 ALCS Champion Boston Red Sox!

 

[SquarePeg]

It’s on Gary.

 

[jcdeboever]

I had the games right but wrong team. Congrats to the BoSox. Happy for Price, he finally pitched like he is capable of. It had to be wearing on the poor guy.