Prof: Sorry, you guys. Kinda dropped the ball on this weekend’s playoff posts. I wasn’t feeling well, and then Saturday was my birthday, AND I had to work. But I’m here for y’all today. Just two games, but boy howdy, what games. Let’s get started.
Braves 3, Cardinals 1 (NLDS Game 3) – Prof: THESE KIDS CAME TO PLAY!!! They don’t give up. It looked like St. Louis was going to win this one and get the series lead. Matt Carpenter had hit a sac fly in the second for a run, and Adam Wainwright had pitched very well, not allowing any Atlanta runs. On the Braves side, Mike Soroka also pitched very well – he had seven K, and only the one run. It was pretty clean on both sides. Things were looking bleak for the young Braves, until the ninth inning. Now, during previous games, Carlos Martinez was weird about Ronald Acuna’s existence, and complained about him a lot. So for Braves fans, it’s a sweet type of karma that he was the one who got rattled, and Acuna didn’t even have anything to do with it. Dansby Swanson, he of the sweet swing and even sweeter hair, had an RBI double to tie it up. Then next up was Adam Duvall. Duvall has been The Man in this series for Atlanta, and he kept right on being The Man. A timely single off Martinez, and two Braves scored. So it was up to the shaky Atlanta bullpen to pull off this impressive rally, and they did. Mark Melancon went out there and did work, and the baby Braves stunned the Cardinals in the Lou, taking a 2-1 lead in the NLDS. Are these wild eyed youngsters and upstarts going to break the Devil Magic? Only time will tell.
Dodgers 10, Nationals 4 – Scouts: Things were looking pretty good for Washington for a spell. Juan Soto got to Hyun-Jin Ryu early with a two-run home run in the first. Anibal Sanchez was cruzing across 5, allowing just a solo homer to Max Muncy in the 5th. And then the bullpen came in. A bullpen that’s been a source of frustration for Washington all season long. Patrick Corbin was called in from the pen and immediately allowed 6 runs, recording just a pair of outs. Russell Martin doubled in a pair of runs, Enrique Hernandez doubled in two more, and finally Justin Turner homered in the final three to complete the 7-run 6th that pretty much ended things for Washington. Sure they came back for two more in the bottom of the frame, but even still the 4 run gap at that time was too much for the Nats to cover. Washington gets one more game at home, with their backs against the wall, they will have to take the next two to stay alive. Max Scherzer will be on the bump facing Rich Hill for game 4.
Fan Interference 
The magic of real baseball. Nibble. Swat! Got to the boolpen. Nibble, nibble. Swat! Compare to designatedhitterball: Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud…..
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Did somebody get older?
https://imgflip.com/i/3clfyr
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Yes, your friendly neighborhood Prof is now 40. 🙂 Not that that’s old around here…
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Happy Belated Birthday, young-in
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No kidding. At this point in my life, I couldn’t even get around without plate tectonics.
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I said Friday morning that the Nats had to be perfect to have a chance in this series, and they were close to it Friday night and through five innings last night, but then they weren’t, and it all went south.
The bullpen will get all the blame when this series (and season) ends, but the offense hasn’t shown up for the Nats yet; their team OPS in this series is at .563, and they keep turning two on, no out situations into no runs, and that won’t do. Even when they do get something going, like their answering rally in the 6th last night, they somehow manage to TOOTBLAN their way into a double play on a sac fly; Howie Kendrick’s been having an awful series, and his brain fart on that play was the icing on the cake.
There’s still a glimmer of hope, because Scherzer and Strasburg are lined up to start games four and five, but there’s no question the Dodgers are the better team here, and anything other than a Dodger series win will be a monumental upset.
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Say the Nats have a miracle and beat LA. Would that buoy them to the next level or would this deplete the reserves? I would think a Nats/Braves championship series would be nasty, but would there be enough in the tank? I mean, we still get rocked by Max but do well against Stras…
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I saw reports over the weekend (maybe in WaPo?) that the Nats believe that they can face either the Braves or Cards on a more even footing, with a much more conventional approach to pitching than they’ve used in this series.
I don’t know how much stock I put in that. A number of guys on the pitching staff have been quoted this post-season as saying that everyone on the staff understands that playoffs are different, and roles go out the window, and one for all and all for one, but the guys being quoted in the papers are the guys who are pitching in the highest-leverage situations. If they somehow stagger into the NLCS, and then tell every reliever not named Hudson and Doolittle, “Okay, now’s your time to shine, we still believe in you”, I’m not sure how much that would resonate with those guys.
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Understandable. Plus you guys have been throwing out starters in relief all series. How does that work going forward? The Braves are only doing it with Max Fried, although I’m sure if it was series on the line type of thing they’d toss Folty and Keuchel out there, too.
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Well, assuming that the Nats revert to normal usage in the NLCS, and assuming that Strasburg starts game 5 of the NLDS on Wednedsay, and the NLCS starting on Friday, we’d likely see:
Game 1 – 10/11 – Sanchez
Game 2 – 10/12 – Scherzer (full rest)
Game 3 – 10/14 – Strasburg (full rest)
Game 4 – 10/15 – Corbin
Game 5 – 10/16 – Sanchez
Game 6 – 10/18 – Scherzer
Game 7 – 10/19 – Strasburg
That’s all a big IF at this point, though…
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Thanks to a misunderstanding of the announcers, Juan Soto is now known as Han Solo in our house. 🤣
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We got to our local sushi bar just after seeing The Joker (fabulous lead performance, overrated film in most other respects) in time to watch Marcell Ozuna beat out a double play ball at first and set up Yadier Molina’s game-winning sac fly. Series even at 2 games apiece. The Cards had to win it. This is the kind of tight, tense, well played series you hate to see either team lose.
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