Scouts: We are back! Yes, we took the Wild Card games off, since they were just one game a day, and Gator did such a great job with the live game threads. It was great having the slight break, and now that the real playoffs have begun, I’m super excited to get back at it. Prof is feeling really under the weather, so she’s gets the day off. So that means you get me for both games today. I know, it’s a lot of extra work, so make sure to guilt trip her over it. Just kidding of course. Get well soon Prof! I know we usually do girl power Friday, but I’m really feeling the Spider-Man soundtrack today, so I hope you’ll excuse the break in routine.
Cardinals 7, Braves 6 – Scouts: Devil Magic was in full effect last night as the Cards stormed the Braves for 2 in the 8th, and 4 in the 9th. Atlanta attempted a comeback in the 9th, but fell short when Carlos Martinez was able to retire Josh Donaldson and Nick Markakis to end the game. Things were off to a pretty slow start, with the Braves picking up a run in the first and two in the 6th, and the Cards picking up on in the 5th. It wasn’t until Paul Goldschmidt homered in the 8th that things started to get really exciting. For the Braves, the bullpen has been a question mark the entire season, and Luke Jackson and Mark Melancon let the squad down in this one. Ronald Acuna and Freddie Freeman both homered in the 9th, but it was too little too late.
Nationals 0, Dodgers 6 – Scouts: No disrespect to the Nats or their fans, but the Dodgers are simply on another level right now, and they soundly dominated the Nats. Walker Buehler opened up the series holding the Nats to 1 hit and 8 strikeouts over 6 innings, and the bullpen carried the rest of the way allowing just 1 further hit. 5 total base-runners is not going to get it done vs this team, no way no how. On the other side of the ball, things didn’t improve any for the Nats, as Patrick Corbin didn’t get things started off on the right foot, walking Max Muncy, allowing the first run to score in the first inning. Following that, the next run came in the 5th with Max Muncy batting after a fielding error by Howie Kendrick. Then in the 7th, Max Muncy was in the thick of it again, singling in Joc Pederson and Justin Turner. By the time Gavin Lux and Joc Pederson homered in the 8th, the game was well past over. The Nats will have to improve in every aspect of the game if they hope to stay in this thing.
Fan Interference 
Nats need to be at their best in order to have a chance at beating the Dodgers. Even that may not be enough, but last night they weren’t even in the same area code as their best, and that ain’t gonna get it done.
Will be interesting to see whether Strickland drills Lux and Pederson in three years, but they didn’t really pimp their home runs, and Strickland says he’s a changed man now, so…
Strasburg on short-ish rest tonight versus Kershaw, so Nats have a chance to climb back into this and make it a series. Game time in 9:37PM ET; hope I can stay awake.
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Tomorrow’s Saturday, you can stay up late. Put on a pot of coffee to help. Hope the game is exciting enough that it compels you to stay awake. Hopefully Strasburg’s outing vs the Brewers was nothing more than his normal between start bullpen session as far as wear and tear.
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I’m entered in a golf tournament tomorrow, and don’t yet know my tee time, other than it’ll be after 9AM, so being allowed to stay up late isn’t the issue so much as being able to do so.
As for Stras, Davey’s already called Tuesday a “34 pitch bullpen session, but at higher than normal intensity”, and Stras said yesterday he wants the ball tonight, so he gets it.
The Nats’ whole strategy for winning here is “get the starter to go 7 and have a lead, then pitch Hudson and Doolittle in the 8th and 9th in some order”. That’s a fine line to walk, especially for three games, but it’s pretty much what they’ve got, since Rainey, Rodney, and Strickland showed last night they probably won’t be able to get it done in this series.
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It’s absolutely absurd that a baseball game is starting at 9:37pm, regardless of the weeknight.
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Well, if you’re in the “baseball is a provincial game” camp (meaning you believe, correctly, that most teams only have regional fan bases rather than national ones) then there’s no real need to schedule things so that it’s possible to watch (most of) all four games in one day; you can just run them head to head.
However, the people paying and collecting the money for rights fees have to tell themselves the lie that it’s a national game with national interest, and so you have to make it so that you can watch all four if you want on only one screen.
Monday is the only other day where there’s a real possibility of more than two games, so we don’t have to deal with this too many days.
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That’s only 6:37 pm on the west coast. Maybe the playoffs should be based more on geography rather than W/L record, then the Cardinals @ Dodgers would be a 8:37 start for Cardinal fans.
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Thank plate tectonics for the hour, Scouts. If not for the Pacific plate running interference, the sunset side might have broken away at New Madrid and turned completely upside down, and you’d’ve been able to watch the game at 7PM when it went on at 6 locally.
Or something.
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C’mon, Twinkies!
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Bad night for the Tweenkies. I’m sure they can’t wait to get home. The Borg looks monstrous.
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