Tag: NLCS

Posted in Baseball

An almost perfect knight

Posted on by Paul

Jon Lester had the postseason experience, but last night our Dark Knight arose to the occasion and was better than the hype.

Matt Harvey flirted with a perfect game into the fifth inning and pitched into the eighth inning, striking out nine while limiting the Cubs to just two runs on four hits. Meanwhile, Lester gave up solo home runs to Daniel Murphy and Travis d’Arnaud among eight hits over 6 2/3 innings en route to his fifth career postseason loss. (At least one baseball columnist suggested that the Cubs might want to stop payment on Lester’s next paycheck.)

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Posted in Baseball

Tonight

Posted on by Paul

The New York Mets’ 2015 season will have at least four more games, beginning tonight.

Matt Harvey will face Jon Lester in a battle of “supposed to be” aces (let’s face it, Jacob deGrom and Jake Arrieta are their respective teams’ true aces) … which should be pretty fun, assuming every Cubs baserunner (or the lack of Mets baserunners) doesn’t leave me looking for the bottle of antacids.

Let’s go Mets!

Posted in Baseball, Uncategorized

Who are you rooting for in the LCS?

Posted on by Paul

question_marksThe Division Series games didn’t really turn out the way a lot of people expected. The Angels and Tigers both got swept. The Nationals and Dodgers are out after winning just one game.

For the most part, that was what I wanted to see. I was rooting for the Royals over the Angels, the Orioles over the Tigers and the Giants over the Nationals. Unfortunately, I wanted to see the Dodgers win it all so ex-Met Justin Turner could get a ring and they couldn’t make it past the Cardinals.

So, it’s time to pick new teams to support. The ALCS opens tonight with “Big Game James” Shields on the mound for Kansas City against Chris Tillman and the Orioles. Shields may have baseball’s dumbest nickname, but the Royals are baseball’s Cinderella-story team this year and I can’t find a good reason to start rooting against them now. (I know I will miss tonight’s game – let’s see how much of the series I actually manage to watch.)

While the American League match up features two teams I don’t have strong feelings about, the National League is a different story. I don’t see any way a Mets fan could root for the Cardinals after 2006, 1987, 1985 and all of the history between the two teams. But the Giants present their own problems – I still haven’t forgotten Matt Cain‘s beaning of David Wright in 2009. And this year’s team went 6-1 against the Mets. Still, the Giants have some New York history and are probably the lesser annoyance, so go San Francisco… I guess.

When it comes to the World Series, I know I will be rooting for whichever American League squad makes it through the ALCS.

Of the remaining playoff teams, who are you rooting for?

Posted in Baseball, Uncategorized

Minor Mets news

Posted on by Paul
Pitcher Dillon Gee will represent the Mets in the 2011 Taiwan All-Star Series next month. (Photo credit: Paul Hadsall)

I was occupied with other things on Friday, so I missed out on the minor Mets news.

I caught the last inning or so of the NLCS game between the Cardinals and the Brewers last night, and some of the post-game analysis. It floored me that the Cardinals’ bullpen has recorded two fewer outs than the starters, and that no starter has pitched into the sixth inning in the NLCS. As long as it’s working, I’m sure the Cardinals fans are thrilled. But I hope that Tony LaRussa‘s quick hook and fetish for bullpen matchups fails him in the next two games of the NLCS – I don’t want to see this emerge as a new trend in baseball.