Maddon been hitting the pitcher 8th all year and for this game he decides to hit him 9th. Interesting.

Also not a fan of the recent benching of Chris Coghlan. I like LaStella and all, but I'm surprised that Maddon has taken a shining to LaStella after Coghlan was that guy most of the year.

Probably a gut feeling. Something I'm completely against going with. You dance with what brung ya as Jim Ross used to say.

Hurdle went way too long with volquez last year and waited till he was gassed and the game was over to pull him. Wonder if Cole's leash is shorter. Granted they're two completely different guys, however I can see Hurdle trying to avoid being too passive with his pitching changes tonight.

<font color=goldenrod>Schwarber with a 2 run bomb into the river. 3-0 Cubs.

And just like that, this thing is probably over in the 3rd inning.</font>

Too bad it won't be in Gray's Sports Almanac.

cubbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbies

Shit

Throw the bum out. 2 outs and he throws at the pitcher.

Why the hell wasn't Melancon tossed that was blatantly intentional

Edit I don't even know who's pitching lol

Who gets thrown out meeting.

I don't know if you want to intentionally hit people in a 1 game playoff.

It's not like you're out of the game if you're the pirates.

<font color=goldenrod>This'll be 2 years in a row the Pirates fell victim to a complete game shutout in their building during the Wild Card game. Ouch.

Arrieta is ridiculous. Starts practically every batter with a 0-2 count.</font>

GREAT SCOT!

Sean Rodriguez was all fired up after Arrieta was plunked, someone must have chirped that he hasn't been relevant since 2009....

He's only a Pirate cause he looks like Jack Sparrow.

I was thinking x-pac. He's certainly got x-pac heat now.

<font color=goldenrod>I'm sure there will be a lot of outcry about a 98 win team being bumped after one game, but I'm really not sure what the fix is.

You could conceivably do a best of 3 Wild Card series that runs from Monday through Wednesday with the regular playoffs starting Thursday, but what if there's a rainout or something? It could screw up the entire playoff schedule.

Seeding all playoff teams by best record regardless of division winners wouldn't work either as it'd make winning the division at all somewhat pointless. And MLB isn't going to get rid of divisions to go to a balance schedule because it'd cut down on rivalry games and add a ton of miles to the travel schedule.</font>

<font color=goldenrod>I do think things will be a bit better once the league expands to 32 teams in the next few years as it the rumor.

2 divisions of 8 teams per league. Division winners get homefield in the first round, the top wild card team gets a "bye" to the division series and the other two play the one game playoff as they do now. Schedule will be somewhat more balanced then.</font>

Sounds too much like the clusterfuck that is the NHL conferences

<font color=goldenrod>Yah. Don't really see any way around it if they expand though. MLB seems really gung-ho on having an equal number of teams per division, hence the Astros move to the AL.

Wouldn't really like to expand tbh, there doesn't seem to be enough legit talent out there for the 30 current teams.</font>

What?

Would they be expanding the amount of minor league teams as well?

That's another 2-3 smaller teams for every expansion team in MLB going by the current set up. Even more if you start counting developmental teams and other associated teams each MLB club has under their umbrella.

David Price isn't very good in the playoffs

It'll be funny seeing the Blue Jays get bounced in 3.

Really excited to see Baltimore play again!

Gertner noticeably absent from this thread tonight.

How did Scott Feldman do tonight?

Gallardo is going next for the Rangers and I don't see a very good outing in his future. He doesn't miss bats and if he's relying on the Jays to hit his mediocre fastball into outs it's gonna be a long evening.

Why not use the NFL model? 1st round best of 3, 2nd best of 5, ALCS/NLCS and WS best of 7.

Regular season play:
- your 3 division foes 18 times each (3 3-game series home and away)(54 games)
- a 3-game series against the other 12 teams in your league, home and away (72 games)
- a 2-game series EITHER home OR away against 15 of the 16 teams in the other league (30 games)
- a 2-game series home and away against your "natural" rival as has been in place since 2013 (4 games)

54+72+30+4=160. Each team ends up losing 1 home date and 1 away date.

what

he pitched game 1 dogg

Hamels going today

Well that's what I get for not having cable. I'd assumed Hamels would go game one and Gallardo would go 2. I should've checked the damn box score. My reputation is now lost.

rip

<font color=goldenrod>It's a nice idea, but I feel like that would just add a shitload of travel to an already brutal schedule.

There probably is no "perfect solution" that will satisfy everybody or not cause a bunch of complications.</font>

I was pondering the problematic postseason travel schedule, and just came up with something: The team WITHOUT home field in rounds 1 and 2 host first (Game 1 in round 1 and Games 1&2 in round 2) The team WITH the advantage then hosts the remaining games in the series. You end up with only one travel day per series.

The removal of 2 games would make the season end on a Friday. Any tie-breaker game would be played on Saturday, and the first round schedule would be Sunday/Tues/Wed. Round 2 then would be Fri/Sat/Mon/Tues/Wed. CS and WS would be unaffected.

is it possible to find working streams anymore?

postseason.tv is like $10

but try something like r/mlbstreams I guess

sweet

<font color=goldenrod>Astros aren't fucking around</font>

Lol I can't take this stress!!!!

Like Ubaldo, Gallardo has the Jays number

That call on Odor was way off. Brutal.