172 thoughts on “2017 Final Day of MLB Baseball and Wolves at Pelicans”

  6. A lot of pitches for both starters in the first inning. 24 for Darvish, 22 and counting for McCullers.

  7. Did you know that home plate ump Mark Wegner graduated from Cretin-Durham Hall where he was a baseball co-captain with Chris Weinke? Weird, right?

      1. Who was the other? If I had to guess, I would go with Byung-Hyun Kim because I remember Bob Brenly stupidly bringing him several times.

              1. Would not have guessed, but it seemed familiar when I saw that last night. Probably just the power of suggestion.

          2. I did the search wrong, but found out Morrow makes history in another way too. The record for number of postseason game appearances is 14. Eight players have appeared in 13, including Morrow before today. Chapman appeared in 13 last year too.

            Previous player to appear in all seven.

            Spoiler SelectShow

            1. I'm going to guess either...

              'Spoiler' SelectShow

              .

              Edited to add: didn't realize the link was there. I had the right strategy, but wrong guy.

  15. 1.2 innings for Darvish in both games. Again one walk and zero strikeouts. 49 pitches in Game 3. This time, 47 pitches. Four earned runs both times. Last time was six hits compared to only three this time.

  16. The way this game is going, the wolves might get the honor of the big screen while the WS gets relegated to the tablet. (greatest WS eva!)

    2. I was offered free tickets to see the wolves 'cants tilt tonight, but I went to see the second line for Fats Domino instead. Seems like I couldn't have lost tonight (though, truth be told, it's an amazing experience to see a second line funeral with a whole lot of people (some suggest 10k or more) and a brass band that is absolutely killing it, probably more worth while than a basketball game...)

          1. And the ticket prices. I went to one game down there a few years ago and it was about 3x the price of a Wolves game for the equivalent seat.

            1. which is why I don't shell out for any sports in NOLA (though baby cakes games are nearly free...)

  17. Stupid Pacific time zone starts – I just got home from work a few minutes ago. Probably will have to stay up past my bedtime for the conclusion of this one. Hope I don’t need to participate in the staff meeting tomorrow morning.

  18. Charley Steiner just used a simile. I missed the first part, but the second was “it’s like visiting a restaurant that does nouvelle cuisine.” Perhaps the least-expected reference in a baseball broadcast ever.

  21. I just got home from All-Saints' Day Mass and got the kids to bed and, well it looks like the game's not close.

  22. Four HBP is also a record in a postseason game. Previous record was three, done five times. Most recently by José Centreras battering the Astros.

    2. If the bullpen loses the lead, that decision will be savaged.

      It's not like McCullers was lights out, but you've got SOME wiggle room, and the bullpen can come in if it's 5-3.

      3. I was thinking you'd at least let him finish an inning so if the pitcher's spot came due you wouldn't have to burn one of your few bullpen options on a PH.

  24. Jameer Nelson looks like he's about 40 pounds heavier than when he played against GW when we were both in college.

    (Although I'm willing to bet that I have put on more weight than him during the past 14 years)

  25. Wolves announcers say Shabazz wants "Bazz" on his jersey, but the league won't let him so he's talking about legally changing his name to Bazz. Not "Bazz Muhammad," but just "Bazz."

    One announcer (can't remember which now): "That's so many hoops to jump through."

    Huh? It's one. One hoop to jump through.

    1. I don't kno, have you seen him try to put anything through a hoop? It takes a lot of tries.

    2. There are so many hoops to jump through. Changing the name is super easy. The repercussions of that if you aren't a woman and doing it when marrying are immense. We're still dealing with it, though almost done I think.

  27. One thing I love about the Wolves announcers is that they're tough on the team's bad decisions and plays in a way the Twins guys don't have the stones for. They don't get malicious, but they do a good job of mirroring the viewer's feelings and never pandering.

      1. When he does that, just think about Kevin lynch taking about Rubio and you'll be able to overlook it.

  28. As much as The Doors are ridiculously overrated, "Light My Fire" on the organ there was pretty great.

    1. 14-year-old me just died a little. The Doors were the first classic rock I discovered 'on my own'. Still groove to the likes of Waiting For The Sun, People Are Strange and Riders on the Storm two+ decades later.

      1. I hate them as much or more than Pirate. A friend had a Jim Morrison poster up on his door in college, splashed with his poetry. It was so bad.

    1. So are these refs for buying it. But yeah, I've liked cousins in the past. After tonight, not so much.

  32. Jimmy BUCKETS! Another terribly stagnant offensive possession, but the outcome is great

  37. Despite #1pick Wiggins best efforts, nice win for the wolves.
    (I'm also aware that towns had an atrocious game. But he's at least earned the benefit of the doubt.)

  39. I imagine the genesis of these cutaway ads went something like this:

    FOX exec 1: "Why are we wasting time with all these close-up shots of the crowd?"
    FOX exec 2: "What, you want us to show more shots of the players?"
    FOX exec 1: "Hell no, someone could be paying us for that time!"
    FOX exec 2: "Genius!"

    1. Dark horse fox exec 3: but wait! There's famous people in the crowd with shows on our network!

      1. Did they change the rules for the post-season when I wasn't looking and they allow player re-entry now?

  42. I don't understand burning through all these Houston relievers with a big lead. At some point, one of them is going to stink, and then Houston will be short(er)-handed out there.

    1. I wonder if they are going to throw out Verlander at some point. I think seeing Keuchel tonight is a given.

      3. I assume Verlander is available, but I wouldn't want to be forced into using him because I burned through my entire bullpen. (I'd rather do it because it's a big situaiton late in the game and I just trust him more than other options.)

  44. The highlight of that stupid celebrity crowdshot montage was when they were pimping FOX shows and focused on Sweet Dee without even acknowledging that Mac was sitting directly to her right.

  45. Fox's presentation this year has lead me to think that I might prefer if there just wasn't a WS next year.

  46. I know at this point it looks like terrible second-guessing. But...why did Darvish start for LA instead of Kershaw? If Kershaw was able to go 3+ innings and they were willing to pull Darvish before even 2 innings, I don't see the point in starting Darvish.

    1. 41 pitches now for Kershaw. Basically Darvish's start but now almost four innings instead of not even two.

      1. I guess ideally Darvish gives you 5 innings and you don't have to ride Kershaw as hard. I wonder how many pitches these guys throw on their side sessions, 40-50ish doesn't seem too unreasonable, more than that might be pushing it.

      1. I suppose it depends on whether Kershaw or Darvish is better at getting up to speed on short notice. But with LA being the home team, if you start Kershaw knowing he can give you 40-ish pitches, then it's not so impossible that he gives you 3 solid innings and you pull him about when you'd be expecting to have to PH for the pitcher anyway. Or he gives you 4 innings like tonight and you burn one or two bullpen guys to get you to Darvish.

        Darvish theoretically gets you deeper into the game, but it could actually be a really good fit to have a starter go 40 pitches given that you'd like to hit for him when his spot in the order comes up.

      1. A McCullers that hit four batters. He hit 11 all year. I would have given him a longer leash, but something was a bit off.

  47. So...IBB two hitters to force Houston to make a pitching switch that they might have made anyway?

    1. Which "worked" in that no runs were allowed, but now Houston is 2 batters farther through their order. Instead of 8-9-1, they'll be 1-2-3. I don't love the math there from the Dodgers' standpoint.

      1. Houston meanwhile does a double switch to bring up the pitcher one spot earlier. Now the pitcher bats eighth in true sabremetric dogma.

          1. Maybe they thought it was a 5-inning game? Morton allowing the first two batters he faces to reach might eventually show why you'd rather test him out before burning through some of those other pitchers so quickly. They are certainly putting a lot of trust in him.

  51. Man, Taylor was flat-footed when that ball was hit. One of those plays where it's a "great" catch made unnecessarily difficult (like the rare times Danny Santana actually caught a fly ball)

  54. Astros are going to blow this lead, and it will go extra innings with both teams running out of pitchers and Game 7 of the World Series will be decided by position players pitching and pitchers playing a position (since they'll have run out of position players trying to break the tie before running out of pitching).

      1. Luckily, I never sleep. 11pm bedtime would be weirdly early for me.

        Blue is trying to help out by calling out Maybin on a pitch well outside the zone.

  58. By rights it should have ended on Bellinger striking out on a curve ball out of the street zone down and in.

    Long live baseball.

  60. "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." - Rogers Hornsby

  61. Franchises that have never won a World Series:

    Colorado Rockies
    Houston Astros
    Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals
    San Diego Padres
    Seattle Mariners
    Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers
    Tampa Bay Rays
    Washington Senators/Texas Rangers

  65. "hold that up there for the fans, George."

    Just a little awwwkward doing this in L.A. this is weird.

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