I was veeeeery nervous about the prospect of beat the Nationals. I know the Cubs have the "smell", but I'd prefer them anyway.
Man both teams worry me but from my personal opinion we already beat the 2nd best team in the NL in the DBacks. The Cubs and Nats are dangerous as hell that is for sure but if I had my pick of who i'd like to face in NL from easiest to toughest I would have gone Col, Cubs, Nats and DBacks. All the teams in NL could get hot and put a spanking on either team but matching up yea give me the cubs next.
I wanted no part of Scherzer/Gonzalez/Strasberg and I definitely wanted no part of Daniel "Dodger Killer" Murphy. The Cubs are going to be dangerous, but I still like the match-up more. Hopefully this stuff with Seager isn't a big deal. Doc downplayed it, but we need Seager to have some moments here in the playoffs if we're going to pull this off.
I hadn't been following the news too close whats going on with Seager besides being in a bit of slump again? The cubs are dangerous for sure but like you said there pitching isn't anything like the Nats have going over there. We have two big keys IMO the bottom of the lineup has to manufacture some runs guys like Grandal, Granderson, Joc (if he gets time) and even Either need to come up with a big hit or two. The other and more important thing is we need to survive the 7th inning especially with Kershaw pitching. That inning seems to be our WTF inning these last few years. Cubs are coming in on a serious high because they came back from 2 games down. we win the first two games they won't be fazed by it even if we dominate. Like our boys said, we have to stay pushing and not taking anything for granted
Seager's back is acting up now and he has some sort of issue with his elbow as well (throwing elbow too). He's really dinged up right now and he may need off-season surgery. All I'm asking for out of our back end rotation guys: have good at-bats. Make pitchers work, don't swing at bad pitches, and tire these guys out so that we can crack them up in the 5-7 innings. What bothered me in the first game with Grandal was his pitch count. In three at-bats he saw only eight total pitches, went 0-3 with no RBIs. That's just unacceptable. Granderson wasn't much better, but he was a little better. Those guys really need to lock in and make guys work. I actually thought Taylor had similar at-bat issues, but he's more productive so it's hard to be too negative about it. Plus, I don't want to muzzle Taylor. I don't mind if he pops out as long as he keeps pressure on, I just don't like seeing one-pitch at-bats. That's not good for anyone. The Cubs have to be tired too. I think it's imperative to get up early on these guys. We need to protect our home field and then hopefully Yu and Wood can give us something great on the road. Wood is sort of interesting since he hasn't really pitched in a long, long time.
They were 2-1 up this yeear, never was 2 games down. Unless if you're talking about what happened last year with the World Series. Like Real said, they're tired. If we can get to Lackey/Quintana early, they will give up on Game 1 because they completely used up their bullpen yesterday. @real I think Doc has to go with the hot hand and start with Barnes instead of Grandal. I think he should still rotate between Granderson and Kike based on who the starting pitcher is. I hope that the rest has been beneficial for Wood. His velocity dipped post all start break, which contributed to his very poor post all star break numbers. The rest should help him get his velocity back.
I'm already ready to say Barnes is our new starting Catcher. He's almost as good at framing, he's a far, far, far better at-bat, and it's not like Grandal is drilling guys who are trying to steal. Barnes is my guy now. That's a good point for Wood. I know he's going to compete, but I just hope he's not too cold after such a long rest.
Ah didn't know seagar was banged up like that. Hope he can play through it and not become a liability. Good thing we do have players that can play the infield and put up good at bats if he is unable to go. Not ideal but not the end of the world either. Yea I was very disappointed in Grandal's at bats. I don't mind the early swings because you got get the pitch you want to hit but if you do make sure you moving runners over and making solid contact. I though Granderson was making solid contact and a couple times just was unlucky to hit it where the defense was but he did come up with a big base hit in game 2 (I believe). Taylor might be pressing a little. Thats why we need veteran guys on the team to come in and show the young guys how to keep calm and do what they have been doing. The cubs are tired for sure and it would be great to jump on their Starting pitcher and get to that bullpen. Wearing out the pen is also key. DBacks never got a chance to use Rodney against us. Love the Cubs closer to be stuck to the pine too
That's how we have to approach it since we don't have your typical "power" lineups. We have Belly obviously who is a deep threat, but for the most part we don't have strong sluggers. We have to grind at bats, get on base, and then chip away at teams. There really shouldn't be an inning where Taylor/Seager/Turner/Bellinger/Puig don't come up with a run. I know that's an arbitrary standard, but the way those guys are at the plate there's no reason that we shouldn't get a run through with that lineup.
This is a huge, huge problem. There's ways to get him on the roster if we need to, but I don't think he's going to be healthy enough to do it. Our chances of winning took a big hit with his injuries.
Great win by the Dodgers today! Everyone played well, Puig was just amazing today. Cluberson did very well in the absence of Seager; let's hope they can keep this up. I'm glad that Doc pulling Kersh after the 5th inning worked out for us. There's no reason for us to wear out Kersh and keep him out there when his stuff isn't there with how good our bullpen is looking.
It doesn’t get cooler than a playoff walkoff home run. That was great, my 85 year old grandma was going crazy.
