Red Birds @ Los Angeles Doyers NLDS

[lasportzphan]

Fuck tomorrow's game. This is bullshit!

Yeah. Tough one. It's what this organization has done for decades now. I just don't see them coming back after this.

 

[sublime4eva]

This team is ball less heartless and spineless and Kershaw is a choke artist.
Till he proves me wrong he's just a regular season wonder, postseason flop!

 

[lasportzphan]

This team is ball less heartless and spineless and Kershaw is a choke artist.
Till he proves me wrong he's just a regular season wonder, postseason flop!

Sadly, that is the dialogue on Kershaw now.... I don't know if it's fair or not. Still young and can rewrite the rhetoric, but for now, he's not a playoff gamer. Or maybe the Cards just have his/our number.

 

[pete6835]

Kershaw played a great game and after the 4 straight hits, he should have been pulled, this is on Mattingly.

 

[lasportzphan]

Kershaw played a great game and after the 4 straight hits, he should have been pulled, this is on Mattingly.

Perhaps, but Mattingly does not trust the 'pen and Kershaw has the option to leave which he did not take. Then Baez steps in and really ruins the thing for us. Hard to blame Mattingly when all of his options failed.PLus, Kershaw's pitch count was below 100 for much of the rally.

 

[OutlawImmortal]

I would have preferred anyone over the rookie Baez who's never sniffed postseason play, Mattingly put him in with a runner on second against a rolling Cardinals team. The Dodgers' may have been able to come back if Mattingly thought about conserving a 1 run deficit instead of trying to conserve his relief pitchers.

With all that said, tomorrow is a new day and the Dodgers showed a lot of heart by refusing to lay down and making a game out of it. That's more than they did in previous years after they got punched square in the mouth. I still have hope for this team, and if we're down 2-1 I suggest we start Kershaw for Game 4.

 

[Inimical]

That 3 run shot though.

 

[Inimical]

Hard to defend mattingly after today. What was he thinking?

 

[OutlawImmortal]

I hope they still have that '30 minute rule' thing going.

 

[BrockForBroglio]

A suspect 3 man rotation? Only Washington has a better 3 man rotation than LA.

Kershaw 21-3 1.77 v. Waino 20-9 2.38
Greinke 17-8 2.71 v. Lynn 15-10 2.74
Ryu 14-7 3.38 v. Lackey 14-10 3.82

I'll give you the inconsistent bullpen all day. But even there, LA's bullpen ERA is 3.80 and StL's is 3.62. I have to give the edge in pitching to LA.

Hitting, LA leads StL in every category, and it's not even close.

How's that working out for ya?

 

[CatsTopPac]

Sadly, that is the dialogue on Kershaw now.... I don't know if it's fair or not. Still young and can rewrite the rhetoric, but for now, he's not a playoff gamer. Or maybe the Cards just have his/our number.

I don't know about any of that. Kershaw shut StL down in 2009 in his start against them and then last year in two starts against ATL he was brilliant. He had a bad start in the 2009 NLCS, a bad start last year against the Cards, and then finished bad after retiring 17 straight, tonight. He's inconsistent, but I don't know how anyone can call him a flop.

If anything, I would take it in a positive only in the fact that the Cards did as bad as we did. That's not mettle. They escaped. It's not like they all of a sudden figured out Kershaw, Kershaw gave it up. The Cards didn't beat the Dodgers or Kershaw, Kershaw beat Kershaw. I think that the Cards have bigger questions than we do. Kershaw has questions about closing the door. All of Cards' pitching was horrible. Baez gave it up, but he's not coming back. The rest of the bullpen did fine. Three different Cards pitchers in the bull pen gave up ERs. And they used 8 pitchers. Waino did worse than Kershaw.

You guys say whatever you want, I'm looking to tomorrow.

 

[lasportzphan]

How's that working out for ya?

Wainright looked great.

 

[lasportzphan]

I don't know about any of that. Kershaw shut StL down in 2009 in his start against them and then last year in two starts against ATL he was brilliant. He had a bad start in the 2009 NLCS, a bad start last year against the Cards, and then finished bad after retiring 17 straight, tonight. He's inconsistent, but I don't know how anyone can call him a flop.

I said nothing about a flop. I just said "dialogue" taking no stance on the matter. I love Kershaw, ride or die with him. Tonight we died. Last year, we died. That's baseball.

If anything, I would take it in a positive only in the fact that the Cards did as bad as we did. That's not mettle. They escaped. It's not like they all of a sudden figured out Kershaw, Kershaw gave it up. The Cards didn't beat the Dodgers or Kershaw, Kershaw beat Kershaw. I think that the Cards have bigger questions than we do. Kershaw has questions about closing the door. All of Cards' pitching was horrible. Baez gave it up, but he's not coming back. The rest of the bullpen did fine. Three different Cards pitchers in the bull pen gave up ERs. And they used 8 pitchers. Waino did worse than Kershaw.

You guys say whatever you want, I'm looking to tomorrow.

Coming back from 6-1 down against the best pitcher in baseball is mettle. Pluck is another good adjective. If you are spinning this any other way you are as outrageously optimistic as I am pessimistic. Spin this all you want, but the team that has been in the playoffs 11 times (with two titles) in the last 14 years took a 1-0 lead. The team that has not won more than 5 playoff games in season for the last 26 years lost.

 

[CatsTopPac]

How's that working out for ya?

Well, after one game, it worked out about the same for both.

Kershaw 0-1 10.80 ERA and Waino went 0-0 12.46 ERA. Both looked like dog shit.

Let's see how the other 66% of the 3 man rotations look.

 

[lasportzphan]

Well, after one game, it worked out about the same for both.

Kershaw 0-1 10.80 ERA and Waino went 0-0 12.46 ERA. Both looked like dog shit.

Let's see how the other 66% of the 3 man rotations look.

Well, their rotation is deeper than ours. We play lke dog shit in St. Louis. But yes, they series is not over but tomorrow is as must win as it gets.

 

[lasportzphan]

mvpuigs next post: it's just one game. Series not over.

 

[CatsTopPac]

I said nothing about a flop. I just said "dialogue" taking no stance on the matter. I love Kershaw, ride or die with him. Tonight we died. Last year, we died. That's baseball.



Coming back from 6-1 down against the best pitcher in baseball is mettle. Pluck is another good adjective. If you are spinning this any other way you are as outrageously optimistic as I am pessimistic. Spin this all you want, but the team that has been in the playoffs 11 times (with two titles) in the last 14 years took a 1-0 lead. The team that has not won more than 5 playoff games in season for the last 26 years lost.

If you don't think that there was a difference between the Kershaw that pitched the first 5 innings, and the Kershaw that pitched the 6th, then we didn't see the same game. Every pitch that was hit in the 6th was a thigh high fastball to just above the belt. He didn't finish on his fastball and left it high for the hitters to feast on. That was nothing like his first 5 innings where he pretty much pitched like the best in baseball. Take nothing away from their offense to capitalize, but he ran out of focus, and then gas. Still had 10 SO and O BB. Mettle is being patient and evolving to hit Kershaw's best stuff. StL hit his worst; any team would light up a pitcher that throws that many pitches up across the plate. Sometimes you tip the hat to the offense for figuring it out, and sometimes you look at the pitcher and say, "You had it to the 6th until you lost focus, and that inning cost us the game."

 

[lasportzphan]

If you don't think that there was a difference between the Kershaw that pitched the first 5 innings, and the Kershaw that pitched the 6th, then we didn't see the same game. Every pitch that was hit in the 6th was a thigh high fastball to just above the belt. He didn't finish on his fastball and left it high for the hitters to feast on. That was nothing like his first 5 innings where he pretty much pitched like the best in baseball. Take nothing away from their offense to capitalize, but he ran out of focus, and then gas. Still had 10 SO and O BB. Mettle is being patient and evolving to hit Kershaw's best stuff. StL hit his worst; any team would light up a pitcher that throws that many pitches up across the plate. Sometimes you tip the hat to the offense for figuring it out, and sometimes you look at the pitcher and say, "You had it to the 6th until you lost focus, and that inning cost us the game."

Well, the heat clearly got to him. I'd take Kershaws worst stuff over a majority of MLB pitchers. Cardinals deserve credit too, but I get your point.

 

[lasportzphan]

I would have preferred anyone over the rookie Baez who's never sniffed postseason play, Mattingly put him in with a runner on second against a rolling Cardinals team. The Dodgers' may have been able to come back if Mattingly thought about conserving a 1 run deficit instead of trying to conserve his relief pitchers.

With all that said, tomorrow is a new day and the Dodgers showed a lot of heart by refusing to lay down and making a game out of it. That's more than they did in previous years after they got punched square in the mouth. I still have hope for this team, and if we're down 2-1 I suggest we start Kershaw for Game 4.

Who then? Wilson? Howell? Elbert? League? Any of the clowns can and have imploded just like Baez.

 

[Chilipepper]

I didn't think Kershaw had his good stuff all game. His Velocity was down and also his control wasn't as sharp as it can be. But Kershaw knows how to get outs even when he is struggling. But when he started to give up base hit after base hit he was getting just too tired for his poor stuff he had all day. I watched Bumgarner pitch his first game. Now that was a gem on the big stage. Bumgarner was throwing bullets.