MLB 2018

[Hot Pepsi]

Luke Voit played for the Spikes.

[Incandenza]

Another good game for the Dodgers, but part of me worries if they can still produce runs without having home runs all the time.

[Femme Folle]

Part of me wonders how the Red Sox' bullpen will make it through the ALDS, never mind the ALCS or the WS. It's not looking good.

[danielmak]

Part of me wonders how the Red Sox' bullpen will make it through the ALDS, never mind the ALCS or the WS. It's not looking good.

This is going to be the question for the Red Sox. They spent a lot tonight to get the win, but this is a 5 game series so they have to hope they can sweep or that Price can go deep into the game on Saturday and save that pen. I'm impressed with the Yankees comeback to get within 1 but that's still not enough.

I saw very little of the Dodgers game unfortunately; just the last 3 outs. But the score looked good. I expect they will sweep. The good thing is that this pitching staff seems like a rest will not be a problem. The question will be if the hitters go cold since right now they are doing what they need to do, even if, as Inca notes, the long ball can't be the only option.

I fee bad, but not too bad, for the Rockies. They really can't score any runs right now. I'm surprised that they have been able to do just enough until Friday. I think this one might be a sweep as well although I'm shocked the Brewers staff has been able to do this well.

It's still so early but I have a hard time seeing someone beating the Astros in a series. They are stacked.

[danielmak]

Brewers are cruising right now. Top 9, 6-0 Brewers with 2 men on. Even in that bandbox, it's hard to see the cold Rockies bats heating up. I'm hoping the Dodgers repeat the Brewers' performance in the second match tonight.

[ursus arctos]

Not the ideal start for Los Doyers.

Too bad, so sad.

[danielmak]

A very poor inning; he just could not find the strike zone. But it was early and now it's 5-4.

[danielmak]

5-5. I hate being on the other end of these. If a team scores too early against a hot hitting side, the lead is never safe. I feel that way every time the Yankees get an early lead against the Red Sox and I felt it every time the Dodgers had any kind of lead against the Astros last year. And for that reason I hate all the bulls**t that happens when managers and players jack their jaws about stealing with a lead or bunting or whatever. Some leads are just never safe.

[ursus arctos]

Dodgers are much better than Atlanta, but it is also more important for them to have their rotation set than it is for the Brewers.

It would be strange if we get clubs having represented each league in consecutive World Series after having gone more than a century without that happening.

[ursus arctos]

I am not at all Dodgers-inclined, but Muncy is fun to watch. He looks like the best ringer in your rec softball league.

[danielmak]

Muncy and Voigt.

Well, Kemp makes the right move but is thrown out at the plate, Dodgers later have bases loaded but get nothing from it. Freeman leads off the next inning with a home run. 6-5 Braves now.

[danielmak]

Two on and no outs. Muncy trying to hit a home run. Now Manny with two swings that show he's trying to hit a home run. If these fools would just try to get a hit, that would have been enough. Manny got lucky that there was a passed ball. But now two outs.

[danielmak]

Game 4 tomorrow. Muncy and Manny both blew it. Dozier wasn't going to do much since he really hasn't done much since coming to the Dodgers. Muncy and Manny needed to be smarter. Atlanta win 6-5.

[Incandenza]

Machado's AB in the 9th was disgraceful. What a waste.

[Gerontophile]

Heard an amazing rumour on Twitter about one of the off-strip casinos (not THAT far off-strip) might be getting demolished, to be replaced by... An MLB stadium.

[Hot Pepsi]

Heard an amazing rumour on Twitter about one of the off-strip casinos (not THAT far off-strip) might be getting demolished, to be replaced by... An MLB stadium.

Unlikely to happen, though I wouldn't be surprised if somebody tried.

I suspect that Las Vegas residents will sour on publicly financed stadiums and maybe stadiums in general once the Raiders situations shakes out.


BTW, has anyone explained to the designers of the new Raiders' stadium how heat and color work?

[Gerontophile]

It won't look like that. There are too many cars.

[Hot Pepsi]

Apparently parking is one of the problems they haven't figured out.

What will probably happen is that people will pay $40-$50 a car to park far away and take a jam-packed bus to the stadium. On the way out, one will have to wait a long time for that bus. Of course the people in the luxury boxes will be served by a limo fleet and/or helicopters. There will be plenty of room for them. There will probably also be some effort to create an Uber/Lyft line and a line for shuttles from specific hotels, but that will also be slow and outrageously expensive. Well, the hotel shuttles will be free, but the hotels offering such service will be expensive.

That's how it is at FedEx Field and that actually has a lot of parking around it. After the novelty of having an NFL team wears off, that will really start to piss people-off and attendance and the general attitude toward the team will sour among "average" fans. But they don't really matter.

At this rate, by the end of the century, we'll have stadia that have no regular seats. Just 500 luxury boxes and a lot of cameras to create the images people at home can watch on their 3D Holotables and VR rigs.

Actually, that might be an improvement over the current situation. Indeed, why not just get rid of the stadium completely and just have people watching the game on their VR. The audio could be two way so that the crowd noise comes from the millions of people watching remotely rather than anyone on site. The fields/courts/rinks along with all the necessary audio/visual stuff could be rolled-up and packed away out in a warehouse rather than just taking up precious real-estate all the time.

And then we won't even need the games to be played in reality at all. That could all just be VR. Save a lot of money, probably.

And then we'll all just be downloaded into the matrix anyway.

[ursus arctos]

Cleveland imploding.

The Browns may have used up the city’s strict quota of nice things.

[Gerontophile]

Imploding is a bit of an understatement.

[ursus arctos]

4-2 was imploding, 10-2 is Clevelanding

[Incandenza]

Part of me doesn't want the Dodgers to make the WS, to avoid getting destroyed by Houston.

[ursus arctos]

Works for me

[danielmak]

I got home from work in time to see the Hill load the bases and then Madsen get out unscathed. That was huge. Now Manny shows the kind of at bat he should have had last night: wasn't trying to swing for the fences but he ultimately hit a huge home run. Of course the difference makers were a stolen base (Puig) and a single up the middle Freese.

About the Dodgers-Astros, I think the Dodgers are the only team that could give the Astros a series; the Dodgers are deep enough and have good pitching. I like the Brewers story but I can't see that pitching staff doing anything that Cleveland couldn't do. Of course, the Dodgers could still get swept but they have the best chance to avoid this.

Now, that's the Dodgers side of my fandom speaking. As a Yankees fan, I think they can create some problems for the Astros; the Yanks will get their runs. But man Houston is firing on all cylinders and the scary thing is that this does not seem to be a side that would lose momentum with a break. They are a professional club (a la those late 90s/early 2000s Yankees team); they come to win and are so deep that a slump by a player or two doesn't matter.

[danielmak]

Dodgers through. And I meant to say this above, but will add here: The Yankess might be able to do some damage against the Astros' pitchers but I'm not discounting Boston. That's easier to say with Boston up 3-0 and showing the kind of baseball I would like to see more often: hit and run, singles to move guys along, more than just bash. But as we've discussed upthread, I think Boston's staff might be a concern and Houston will do damage if the starters aren't up the level they were during most of the season.