27 October 2010

World Series Game 1 - Rangers vs. Giants, 7:50 PM

The epic pitching matchups haven't really lived up to all the hype this postseason - close, but not totally there. But this is Tim Lincecum against Cliff Lee, and I think it'll be a dandy.

Yes, I said dandy.

Thread on!

23 October 2010

MLB Playoffs Day 18: NLCS 6 - Giants at Philles, 7:50 PM

Edit: Game starts at 7:57 PM ET since the ALCS has finished.

***

Phillies Elimination Day, Take Two!

Game 6 worked out for the Rangers, but the Giants are on the road where they split the first two games of the NLCS.

It's a rematch of Game 2's matchup between Jonathon Sanchez and Roy Oswalt. The Phillies won 6-1. Pitching lines:

Sanchez: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K
Oswalt: 8 IP, 3 H, ER, 3 BB, 9 K

Oswalt also pitched the bottom of the 9th inning in Game 4 (0.2-2-1-0-0), and lost the game for Philadelphia.

For today's game, I am predicting the Giants win 1-0 in 31 innings.

22 October 2010

MLB Playoffs Day 17: ALCS 6 - Yankees at Rangers, 8 PM

Yankees Elimination Day, take two!

This time back in the Rangers' barn, it's a rematch of the Game 2 matchup of Phil Hughes and Colby Lewis. Here were their lines from G2 (Texas won 7-2):

Hughes: 4 IP, 10 H, 7 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Lewis: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K


Hughes got shelled, Lewis couldn't go deep into the game, so both bullpens saw significant action.

Since I was completely wrong about guessing last night's NLCS 5 was going to be a pitcher's duel for the ages, tonight I'm guessing the Rangers will score 38 runs and the Yankees will score 2.

21 October 2010

MLB Playoffs Day 16: NLCS 5 - Phillies Elimination Day? 7:50 PM

Will today be Elimination Day for the Philadelphia Phillies? Their backs are against the wall after the Giants won Game 5 on a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 9th by Aubrey Huff. Roy Oswalt volunteered to pitch the 9th on two days rest, with his next start coming on Saturday's Game 6, if there is a Game 6.

Tonight's game is a rematch of the highly anticipated matchup between the 2009 Cy Young, Tim Lincecum, and the favorite to win the award in 2010, Roy Halladay.

Neither pitcher was on his game in Game 1, with Lincecum slightly out-dueling Halladay:

Lincecum: 7 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 8 K
Halladay: 7 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 7 K


With Halladay trying to prevent elimination for his team and Lincecum trying to pitch his team to the World Series, tonight should be the pitcher's duel we all expected in Game 1 - perhaps even better than expected

I think the final score to be 1-0, but who wins? I don't know.

***

Also: Boston Bruins home opener at 7:00 vs. Washington Capitals

20 October 2010

MLB Playoffs: Day 15 - ALCS 5 (4 PM) & NLCS 4 (7:50 PM)

It's an elimination game for the Yankees!!! C.J. vs. C.C.

They send Big CC on regular rest to try to right the ship, and to their credit their pitching is decent enough to get back into this series. CC, Hughes, and Pettitte, but so far all three have been out-pitched.

The Rangers send out C.J. "Cliff Lee, Jr." Wilson, who had little to do with the Ranger collapse, venturing into 8th inning, getting into some trouble and couldn't be bailed out by his bullpen.

Let's not forget the Yankees have been outscored in this series 22-5, and the only reason why they weren't swept was one bad inning by the Texas bullpen.

I'm not doing any celebrating until the final out is recorded. 2004 and 2007 reminded me of that, as did last May. Different sport, but similar idea of momentum and confidence: The Boston Bruins were leading the Philadelphia Flyers three games to none in the 2nd round of the playoffs, only to see the Flyers storm back and win the series.

...but I've got a good feeling about this evening. The action begins at 4:00 PM.

***

Game 4 of the NLCS is tonight and I have absolutely loved this series. The baseball has been entertaining, the pitching fantastic, and there's been a lot of respect on both sides and a lot of good characters. How about Cody Ross, eh? He's been RAKING in October. He's batting .348 this postseason with 4 dongs (3 in the NLCS) and a 1.336 OPS in the playoffs (1.990 in NLCS).

Cole Hamels was asked after the game what he does when a hitter is "hitting differently" (aka RAKING). Hamels said, "Hit him! Nah, I'm just kidding."

Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said, "Matt Cain was too good. He didn't give us any runs!"

It'll be Joe Blanton for the Phillies and Madison Bumgarner tonight. Blanton didn't pitch in the LDS so he's had a ton of rest. Bumgarner pitched Game 4 of the LDS against Atlanta (6-6-2(2)-2-8).

Like in the first three games of the series, Game 4 is one giant toss-up. I don't think this series ends in 5 games.

First pitch at an incredibly accurate 7:57 PM ET.

19 October 2010

Tuesday, Oct. 18: Phillies @ Giants (day), Rangers @ MFY (night)

The Giants (Matt Cain starting) have gotten to Cole Hamels -- it's 2-0 after four.

16 October 2010

Saturday October 16 - Championship Serieses

4pm - MFY/TEX

Last night, Texas made a bid at outdueling Boston's bullpen for shittiest in the AL. This afternoon, it's Phil Hughes vs. Colby Lewis in Arlington.

7:30pm - SF/PHI

The first game will likely still be going on when this one gets underway, but MLB is stupid that way. This one's on FOX and I'll be drunk at the biggest Oktoberfest outside of Germany, but I'm sure I'll come home to a high scoring affair, as Tim Lincecum takes on Roy Halladay in this wickedly sweet pitching battle. Two great pitchers that aren't complete fist-pumping knob donglers like Joba.

(Just had to throw in a JtC dig there)

***

Unrelated but possible threading material, the Bruins are back in North America and taking on the cap-sensitive Devils in New Jersey at 7pm. Tim Thomas getting the start for the Bs.

And a whole bunch of other NHL games.

12 October 2010

ALDS5: Fuckin' Rangers @ Fuckin' Rays

Blown call at 1B to bring in the 3rd Texas run courtesy of Wheelz Guerrero and more, inside.

***

RAYS LOSE!

MFY in TEX, Friday at 7:30, Saturday at 4. Total BS.
Giants in Philly, Saturday at 7:30, Sunday at 8. Buck/McMoron.

10 October 2010

MLB Playoffs - Day 5

We won't have to see the Yankees play for a few days.

Tampa Bay survived against Texas yesterday. Both will go with a fourth starter instead of pitching aces on short rest; that's Tommy Hunter (TEX) in Tampa versus Wade Davis at 1:07 EST.

In the infinitely more interesting National League, San Francisco will venture into the park of the best home team in the MLB this year. The Braves went 56-25 there, and have reserved ace Tim Hudson (2.83 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, .229 BA, 228.2 IP in 2010) for Game 3. The Giants counter with young loudmouth Jonanthan Sanchez (3.07 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, .204 BA, 193.1 IP), who started the division-clinching game last Sunday under the pressure of having predicted his team would do so. 4:37 EST.

Philadelphia will try to finish off the Reds (Hamels vs. Cueto) at 8:07 EST.

There is also football.

09 October 2010

MLB Playoffs - Day 4 (AL only)

A "rivetting battle continues" as Australia and India's cricket teams continue to kick the shit out of each other. "As it has been through five previous days of rivetting cricket, the battle remains evenly poised at the end of Day 1 of the second Test," reports cricbuzz.com. "The end result was that after the first session, Australia were 95/0," -- a result most JoSers were able to predict even when they weren't particularly high.

"Watson...scored yet another half-century. Zaheer had bowled well, Sreesanth had been good but evidently was not at full rhythm after a long lay-off, while Harbhajan and Ojha had got prodigious turn, which would have given the Indians some hope, and some cause for worry at the thought of batting last on this pitch." Ish was unable to travel to the match and take pictures, but Allan was said to be scoring the game on a poster-sized piece of paper covered with something more than ten little charts.

In other, less interesting news, Texas (behind the starting pitching effort of young Colby Lewis) was leading Tampa (featuring Matt Garza, the subject of many fawning compliments by Joy of Sox posters) by a score of 1-0 after four innings.

Starting around 5:37 EST, a fuckin' bunch of non-union hard-ons will continue their push toward another World Series against a team that has a really nice new stadium and apparently not that much else going for them. That's Phil Hughes v. Brian Duensing.

08 October 2010

MLB Playoffs - Day 3 Gamethread

12:00p - Minnesota Wild vs. Carolina Hurricanes from Helsinki

3:00p - Columbus Blue Jackets vs. San Jose Sharks from Stockholm

6:00p - NLDS 2: Cincinnati Reds @ Philadelphia Phillies
Bronson Arroyo / Roy Oswalt

I wouldn't bet on "Little Roy" topping or equaling the no-hitter by Roy Halladay, but Oswalt is a #2 pitcher only on this team, and an ace most anywhere else. Bronson Arroyo will have his hands full with the Phillies lineup in a virtual must-win for Cincinnati. You can't expect to ever beat Halladay, and if they lose this game, go down 0-2, then come back, they'd have to face him in Game 5, most likely.


9:30p - NLDS 2: Atlanta Braves @ San Francisco Giants
Tommy Hanson / Matt Cain

What a pitcher's duel last night, eh? That's what you'd think with a 1-0 result, but Tim Linecum had it (9-2-0-0-1-14, 119), and Derek Lowe kinda sorta not really had it (5.1-4-1-1-4-6, 96), and was lucky to only give up one run. Atlanta's bullpen was excellent, giving up just one hit between the four relievers who pitched the final 2.2 innings.

07 October 2010

ALDS2: Yankees @ Twins, 6 PM

Andy "Tucan" Pettitte / Carl "Mustache Ride" Pavano

The Twins are looking to TIE THIS ONE UP. Like seriously, do it. These two pitchers are wildcards and question marks in this series. Is Tucan healthy? Can Pavano out-smart the Yankee lineup? Needless to say, this is a big one for the Twinkies.

ALDS2: Rangers @ Rays, 2:30 pm

C.J. Wilson / "Big Game" James Shields

Texas goes for the 2-0 chokehold this afternoon at the juice box, trying to win their first ever playoff series. Rocco Baldelli has been removed from the Rays roster and replaced with Willy Aybar.

Thread will be open and ready for action at 2:30!