2019 Division Series Day 5

Houston at Tampa Bay
Game in progress, Greinke gave up six runs in 3.2 innings.

Atlanta at St. Louis
Game in progress, no score in top of first.

Los Angeles at Washington 5:40 p.m.
Rich Hill vs Max Scherzer

New York at Minnesota
Luis Severino vs Jake Odorizzi

314 thoughts on “2019 Division Series Day 5”

  1. I want everyone to keep it civil tonight. If you're writing a hundred-plus word letter, that's cool but maybe take a walk after submitting it.

    1. I have a tendency to be an emotional spectator, but I've been trying to emulate my father. He could remain more calm watching a big game than anyone I know. The only way you could tell if he was upset by the outcome was if he got up and went out to work in the yard after the game. If he was happy with the outcome, we would sometimes get ice cream.

  2. One of the neighbor girls was just here and said Molina was her favorite player (they're from Missouri). Thinking about not letting my daughter play with them anymore.

      1. They're cardinal fans, so that would have been weird. If she would have, I'd have told the family they all need to move. Imagine messing a kid up that badly.

      1. It's more a joke based on Molina being an important figure on bad cardinal fan behavior on Twitter and also the always hilarious "would you trade Molina for Trout?" question.

  3. I've made one homerun prediction all year and it happened. Oh, and Kepler is hitting two tonight.

  4. Broadcast talking about how Twins need to attack strike zone more and showed a bunch of Twins pitchers throwing strikes that were called balls.

  5. Catcher interference - 0-2 wild pitch. This is a team that is shrinking rather than rising to the occasion.

    1. Inferring shrinking from a catcher's interference against the tallest player in the league seems a stretch.

      1. Im open to calling it something else but this sure looks like a nervous team that is not ready to slay the dragon.

        Odor got himself out of the inning though - hopefully the bats are hot tonight.

        1. This is a team that had no issues throwing wild pitches in zero leverage games, why any difference now? This really feels like reading into it more because of the narrative rather than the team being bad at blocking pitches.

    1. When was the last time a 100 win team played another 100 win team with more than twice the payroll?

        1. I was just going to ask when the last time two 100 won teams met in the DLS, but I didn't want to get burned if it had actually happened before.

        2. 2018 ALDS, where the 100-win Yankees played on the road against the Red Sox. Before that, 1977 ALCS I think. The 100-win Yankees beat the 102-win Royals.

    1. It’s always blown my mind that they “rebuilt” with a bunch of top flight prospects they got for relievers. Sigh.

        1. I am beginning to believe the Yankees also excel at coaching and developing once they get guys

            1. It's infuriating that they can turn so-so guys into All-Stars (and that MLB let them juice their new ballpark, which helps), but I can't fault them for doing good development work.

              It's their fans that I really loathe. That, and the patsy-like deference of the media.

            2. Yeah, I have a lot more respect for a team that builds from within and then keeps those players and adds occasional pieces from free agency instead of just throwing tons and tons of money at free agents and hope enough of them stick. Still, Junior is a senior this year and the Yankees have won 1 WS title in his lifetime, none this decade.

          1. No doubt. There was talk around the deadline that the Mets were afraid to trade with teams they thought would make them look bad by helping players make adjustments or take the next step. Cashman's actually had repeated success doing exactly that. So why give them even high-quality raw materials?

    1. Well they are about to sweep a 100 win team out of the playoffs in the least competitive series of the first round.

    2. I made the mistake of seeing why John Smoltz was trending on Twitter. The vast majority of the Tweets were Yankees fans complaining about Smoltz cheering for the Twins. Seriously.

  6. So, uh, should I even bother bringing it up on the tablet or just go about my merry way?

    1. It is amazing to watch some players just lose themselves to the pressure. I suppose it happens in all sorts of professions, we just see it here. But wow.

    1. That was the first pitch where they shifted him there. He moved when Odorizzi went into his windup.

      1. I know it's the worst fan cliche ever to blame losing on the umpires, especially when the final score wasn't particularly close. But most people don't realize how easy it is for just a few missed ball/strike calls to completely change the course of a game.

    1. Now that ... that is a fantastic idea. I can’t think of the last time I made made nachos at home.

            1. Ooh! pretty sure I have those too (but if I do, I can almost guarantee they’re freezer burnt).

        1. How not?

          I'll answer my own question: because fawning over Yankees takes no actual knowledge.

            1. It's amazing how poor most of the national baseball broadcasters are. I miss the old days, when they'd use local broadcasters on the national broadcast in the postseason. You probably got a little bias, but at least they usually knew what they were talking about.

      1. Point being, of course the Twins make him look like he pitched 212 innings with a 2.13 FIP, rather than a guy who should be still shaking out the rust.

        1. Keuchel shook off the rust quickly too. He had two starts in the minors before joining Atlanta. His first start wasn't as good but Severino is also a better pitcher. I guess if you can figure out how to develop any minor leaguer you can also do the same for a pitcher returning from injury.

          1. Seems like. I wonder if the Twins will try something like Lance Lynn again, considering how that worked out. Granted, they didn't have Wes or Hefner in coaching positions last year.

  7. Smoltz saying the only reason the 3rd time through the order is worse is because pitchers gets no practice doing it anymore.

    Can Jason Benetti get playoff games?

    1. Smoltz was pretty good the third time through the order. He was also a pretty good pitcher. He refuses to recognize that maybe teams figured out how to turn 3rd/4th starters into 2nd starters by having the bullpen cover an inning or two.

  8. Tidy little top half-inning there Jake... I would very much like the offense to give him something in the bottom half.

  9. That might be my favorite part of the 2019 season. Lots of players either developing or taking big steps forward. Kepler, Polanco, Sanó, Buxton in his limited time, and obviously Arraez.

    1. They certainly won’t have bare cupboards for 2020 ... though unfortunately, none of those “developing or taking big steps” who so quickly come to mind are pitchers.

  10. If there was any logic or reason to it, I don’t think it would make me so angry. It’s not series; I don’t expect to win those necessarily. But not even one game?

    1. A polished playoff team they are not. I'm more optimistic for the future. I feel like we're seeing growth in this series already. If they looked like they did at the plate game 1 & 2, I'd be more frustrated, certainly.

      1. Yeah. Even with the bases loaded, I didn't think the at-bats were bad. They got pitches to hit and fouled them off. They were chasing bad pitches and/or taking pitches they should jump on.

  11. Hi guys. Watched the first 6 innings with a Red Sox fan. Still hate the Yankees. Peace out!

  12. This is just ... I’m not... How can these hitters be so inept!?! Collectively... they are just terrible right now. Like, like all of them!

      1. For sure. I meant, why not move Eddie back to left (124 games v. 11 in right) and Marwin to right where he’s played 44 games (vs. 18 in left).

      1. Bomba acknowledged, but I'll stand by it. The lapses and chasing are easy to take when he's not Terrible Eddie, and I'm pretty done with Terrible Eddie.

    1. They had ridiculously long mound visits before both pitching changes in the fifth, too. Sanchez would wander out, then 30 seconds later Gregorius would wander in, then twenty seconds later Boone would amble by. Glad the umpire finally caught on.

  13. Some seriously bizarre Sanó hating coming from the row behind me. He apparently shouldn't have double-pumped when waiting for Cron to get to first base.

    1. "What kind of stupid name is Gleyber Torrez? Sounds like Gay Retardes"

      It took eight innings, but yikes

      Edited to add: comment from the same woman behind me

        1. No, it came from them. Shocking that a random Minnesotan would find Sanó lazy while also critiquing a Hispanic name....

      1. I can let you have it. My expectations were low.

        That said, my offseason expectation is Cole.

  14. Fellas ... I don’t think I love regular season baseball enough to offset my feelings of Twins postseason ennui.

    1. I have Dish, so I couldn’t even enjoy the second half. The first Twins baseball I got to watch since... that 14-12 nightmare they really enjoyed bringing up was this.

      Could we just... match up with any other fucking team? Please.

  15. That just makes me feel sad and empty inside. I don’t feel like the Twins truly did quite enough to win that game, but fuck it, basically everything that could go wrong did go wrong. They had enough hard-hit balls to score 6+, it was just one of those days.

    It’s so hard to go through such a good season and have it turn out like that.

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