2018 World Series

[Timsup2nothin]

Go Dodgers!

 

[shadowplay]

Bah. Bah on both their houses.

Although I still like David Price and wouldn't mind seeing him pitch in the World Series.

 

[schlaufuchs]

#NeverDodgers

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Bah. Bah on both their houses.

Although I still like David Price and wouldn't mind seeing him pitch in the World Series.

Well, I'm definitely a bah on the house of Red Sox. I'd be pulling for whoever they were playing even if it weren't the Dodgers. Since it is the Dodgers I hope Kershaw mows them down like grass.

 

[rah]

Screw the Dodgers. RED SWEEP

 

[EgonSpengler]

I'd be rooting for the Dodgers against anybody but the Sox. I've never set foot in Los Angeles, but my little league team was the Dodgers, back in the days of Tommy Lasorda, Steve Garvey, Pedro Guerrero and Fernando Valenzuela, and they've been my NL team ever since.

 

[rah]

We always hated that 'Dodgers' little league team. Every league had one. And any Yankee's team too.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Yeah, thank god I didn't get assigned to the Yankees. Reggie Jackson. Ron Guidry. Bucky [bleep]ing Dent (that's his given name, as far as New Englanders know ).

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The Yankees are the only team I can think of that I like even less than the Red Sox.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The Yankees are the only team I can think of that I like even less than the Red Sox.

Well, that's something, at least. I'll take it. The silver lining for fans of other teams is that at least they're in the same division and can beat each other's brains out every year, and can't face each other in the WS (cold comfort for Toronto and Baltimore fans, I suppose).

I think the Dodgers are the payroll monsters of the NL, but over here, I never hear anybody complain about them the way people complain about the Yankees and the Red Sox. Do Angels and Padres fans loathe the Dodgers? The stereotype is that people on the West Coast are too laid-back to get that invested in their sports teams, but I don't know the reality. I saw a Seattle-Portland MLS game on the web, and they made the East Coast soccer fans look pretty tame by comparison.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Angels fans are frequently half hearted Dodger fans also. Benefit of being in opposite leagues. As for Padres fans...I don't know that there are any. For fans that automatically loath the Dodgers, and vice versa, look to the Giants.

 

[Ozbenno]

Go the Sox!

I was introduced to Baseball visiting a friend who was working at Harvard in 2003. Took in a game at Fenway Park and the Red Sox beat the Rangers (A Rod hit a home run though).

So far so good.

Can't actually watch the games here though unfortunately.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Is Dave Roberts fumbling the lineups? From Alden Gonzalez, ESPN:

When [Max] Muncy, [Cody] Bellinger, Joc Pederson and Yasmani Grandal all were out of the starting lineup Tuesday, the Dodgers became the first team in history to begin a World Series game with their four regular-season home-run leaders on the bench, according to research from the Elias Sports Bureau. On Wednesday, it happened again.

"Ya gotta dance with the girl that brung ya" is an old sports aphorism, here in the US. I haven't followed the Dodgers closely enough to know their lineups. Has this been who they've played against lefties this season? As a team, their OPS vs lefties in the regular season was .733 (.796 vs righties); in the postseason their OPS vs LHP has been .585, in 172 PAs (.697 in 304 PAs vs RHP). One wonders if Roberts has been overthinking it.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Is Dave Roberts fumbling the lineups? From Alden Gonzalez, ESPN:



"Ya gotta dance with the girl that brung ya" is an old sports aphorism, here in the US. I haven't followed the Dodgers closely enough to know their lineups. Has this been who they've played against lefties this season? As a team, their OPS vs lefties in the regular season was .733 (.796 vs righties); in the postseason their OPS vs LHP has been .585, in 172 PAs (.697 in 304 PAs vs RHP). One wonders if Roberts has been overthinking it.

As the article states,not starting Pederson and Grandal is reasonable, Pederson having a big difference in production when facing righties instead of lefties, and Grandal making a bunch of errors.

There have been a few articles about this, some saying they've been doing it in Sept-Oct, and another article saying they've been 'platooning' all year.
"It worked for us so far/It got us here" is one argument, but when it fails of course there is second guessing "But the World Series is different".

I hated when the brewers would pull Hader after one or two batters then put in Jeffress who would give up a bunch of runs (not to say I thought Hader should go 3 innings and be unavailable for the next game), but they always said Jeffress was their 'ace closer' when he sure didn't look like it in the postseason.
Sometimes you gotta stick with who's hot at the time, Half the Dodgers lineup is cold no matter who is in there.

A drop in batting production can be from facing better pitching in the postseason than they often face in the regular season. During the NLCS, batting averages:

Pederson .231
Bellinger .200
Muncy .182
Grandal .182

Team .223

Granted , the other options weren't any better:
Dozier .111
Hernandez .071
Austin Barnes, (the other catcher to replace Grandal) .111

Based on how some performed in the postseason, it almost seems maybe the Brewers should have sat some of their starters:
Shaw .211
Yelich .179 ('MVP'?)
Moustakas .138
Kratz .125
Perez .125

Schoop (I never understood why he gets in there so much as a pinch hitter, don't have anyone better?)
.000 NLCS (0-6)
.202 regular season

Team .232

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The Dodgers can bomb right handed pitching. The Red Sox, unfortunately, could open the series with two left handed starters. I'm looking for a different outcome tonight.

 

[Ozbenno]

Wouldn't be surprised if Porcello gets rocked that Eovaldi sticks in the pen and Rodriguez starts game 4 as a lefty.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

*weak, groggy voice* Go Dodgers!

I'm thinking Eovaldi is done for the series. Stud work, but I don't see any way he can recover in time to see any more action. Maybe if it goes seven.

 

[shadowplay]

Fell asleep in the top of the 18th.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Fell asleep in the top of the 18th.

To be honest, I woke up in the bottom of the 18th to Joe Buck saying "...back at the wall...IT'S GONE!" I did get my eyes focused in time to see it clear the wall though. I'm not sure exactly where I faded, but it was somewhere around the 15th.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Weirdest fact of the day: at seven hours twenty minutes game three was longer than the entire 1939 World Series, in which the Yankees swept the Reds in a total of seven hours and five minutes.