126 thoughts on “Game Log: NL Wild Card Game”

  2. the 'talking point' today seemed to focus on the Pirates and their history (go back to 1880s! World Series! etc) and how great a story it is. And it is no doubt, but lets not forget the Reds have history and World Series and until the last few year, really hasnt been relevant in the baseball landscape since the late 80's/early 90s

    1. I would root for the Reds against any other NL team in the postsean. Unfortunately, they're facing the Pirates.

      1. Yup. I really wanted one of these two to take the Central so the other one could beat the Cardinals in this game.

  3. Mountie fields the grounder and tosses to Liriano, covering the base. It's like 2006 all over again!

    1. It's pretty amazing to think that the two of them never managed to play together in a playoff game until today.

  4. In the pre-game, TBS announcer dude informed me that it was standing room only in Pittsburgh tonight. I was disappointed when I looked up from my mac & cheese and saw the Pirates hadn't removed all the seats from PNC Park.

  19. Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist, tweets:

    My God. My ears hurt. And this is an open-air baseball stadium. The energy in here beyond description right now.

    1. Kovacevic follows up:

      Right now, there are 40,000 Pittsburghers winning this baseball game. This is just insanity.

      and

      Shame on Major League Baseball for ignoring this and other cities for so long. Here’s hoping all the suits in New York are watching this.

  23. Dusty is going on there to say "Don't worry, these guys are just clogging up the base paths."

    1. The kids don't watch the commercials doncha know. Gotta get the hard liquor message to them some other way.

  32. Long time readers of the WGOM may remember that the official best friend of FTLT is a Pirates fan. He and his old man are at PNC right now. We recently traded some texts and he stated "I am sorry for any typos, I can not stop shaking."

    1. Say what you will about these awful seasons the Twins have been having... they're sure gonna make the playoffs sweeter when we finally get back there. I can't even imagine that long of a layoff (and hope I don't have to experience it). Good for your friend. Go Pittsburgh.

      2. Say what you will about these awful seasons the Twins have been having... they're sure gonna make the playoffs sweeter when we finally get back there.

        agreed

          2. You take away their capital and they just default on everything and leave someone else with the bill.

    2. I feel we are all at a point in our lives where it is okay to root for an all-timer of your favorite team. $20.

              1. Balanced schedule, single table, promotion/relegation, multiple competitions and international breaks.

                That's not too much to ask, is it?

                  1. Minneapolis Millers vs. St. Paul Saints. Just like the old days. This board would be split.

                    Millers all the way!

                3. No! no! no! no!
                  Unbalanced schedules!
                  Quirky divisions! (4,5,5,5,6,5)

                  Or do you want standard field sizes, too?
                  Keep your standardization to your football and American football.

                    1. I wouldn't necessarily want a single table in baseball, but I do wish that all of the teams in a division had the same schedule.

                  2. Standard field sizes aren't a problem because both teams play on the same field--the important symmetry is preserved. Giving teams different schedules breaks a different kind of symmetry.

              2. No, I much prefer the cruel shortness of a 5-game LDS.
                I wrote an ode to them a year ago or two but can't find it.
                I know that if anything, it will move to 7-game series, but a 5-game series will punch you in the gut and take your money before you feel that your team has even had a chance to start playing. Boom your summer's over and the asshole rich-kid starting QB gets the girl who'd been warming up to you for 3 months. Then your pet dies. And you get caught and slapped with minor consumption while the same QB runs into the woods and gets away. As do most of the rest of the kids at the party. Which is how postseason baseball should be.
                /I know from experience.
                //Just the fan experience, some of that other stuff happened to some of my teenage-year associates.

              3. The 5-game series really sticks in my craw. I just can't think of any good reason why that round should have fewer games than any other round. 5-5-5 would almost be better than 5-7-7 in my book.

                1. It's shorter to keep baseball out of November.
                  American Professional Athletic Tradition has that later rounds can have more games.
                  LCS were 5-game series at first.
                  NBA used to do its first level of the playoffs with a 5-game series, too. But they ditched that for some reason.
                  WNBA has 3-3-5. Used to have the 3-game series 1-2 but now go 1-1-1.
                  I liked the 2-3 LDS last year*, but I can accept that's atypical and a one-time thing because the "home" team might only have one game at home and will lose out on gate receipts. #cashgrab (Don't like that? Don't get swept out of playoffs.)

                  *That was last year, right?

                  1. Yeah, but I don't really care about APAT in this case. They could easily keep the games in October if they got rid of all the extraneous days of rest. This game could have been yesterday. Everyone could have been playing today.

                    1. Make room for tiebreakers?

                      I don't want to push this any further, but I'm not just being contrarian: I really do like the irregularity of the baseball season and records and 5-game series LDS and whatnot. I can see how you and others might like it more even or fair or symmetrical, but I respectfully disagree. *cough*Communist*cough*

                    2. I wrote this in my last post but it really is pushing things further when I said I didn't want to do so. But it gave me a little chuckle, so here it is. Think of this as a deleted scene that was cut because it undermines the main plot.

                      Even if everything is balanced, some teams will face the Twins 3 times out of nine when Kevin Correia is starting and others will face three times out of nine when Mike Pelfrey is pitching, or seven times out of nine in September after Gardy's been instructed to tank for the draft pick, but "not too obviously".

  40. Gol dang ol Russ Martin man hittin that home run man dang ol Whooooo... out of the park man.
    Broke my gol dang chance of pickin the score man. I had the gol dang score picked perfect an everythin but Russ Martin's gotta hit himself another homerun and ruin it for me. Gol dang ol Russ Martin ain't got no class. Hittin that home run.

      1. Sounds like a German name, no?
        I loved watching that show trying to parse exactly what he was saying.
        Other parts of the show were good, too.

  48. Listening to this game on 4ltr audio. Wow... these Pirates fans are awesome. This is fun. I'm glad for Liriano and Morneau. I really hope they can parley this into a ring.

  53. I think I've figured out one of the reasons Craig Sager annoys me. Pirates fans watching this celebration years from now are going to be pulled out of the moment by an idiot dressed like he's covering The Family-era Buccos. Sager's clothes make the visual about him, not about the people he's covering.

Comments are closed.