{"id":13018,"date":"2016-10-17T10:11:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T14:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=13018"},"modified":"2016-10-17T10:11:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-17T14:11:03","slug":"nlds-game-5-via-my-live-texting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=13018","title":{"rendered":"NLDS Game 5 via my &#8220;live texting&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6017\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/RendonAnthony-Nats-Official-via-espn.com_.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6017\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6017\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6017\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/RendonAnthony-Nats-Official-via-espn.com_-300x217.jpg\" alt=\"Rendon's struggles on the night led to an ending that was tough to swallow.  Photo Nats Official via espn.com\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/RendonAnthony-Nats-Official-via-espn.com_-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/RendonAnthony-Nats-Official-via-espn.com_.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-6017\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rendon&#8217;s struggles on the night led to an ending that was tough to swallow. Photo Nats Official via espn.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As I watched the <a href=\"http:\/\/m.mlb.com\/gameday\/dodgers-vs-nationals\/2016\/10\/13\/487616#game_tab=box,game=487616,game_state=final\">NLDS game 5<\/a> unfold, I was texting with a couple of fellow baseball fans. \u00a0Here&#8217;s the content of my texts as the game unfolded for a &#8220;fun&#8221; look at my instant reactions to what was happening. \u00a0I&#8217;ve only edited the texts to correct my spelling errors as I furiously typed them after two stiff drinks from my basement &#8230; everything I wrote is in\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>blue italics.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>We pick up the thread at around 10:15 pm at the bottom of the 5th.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>That pickoff \u00a0was a f*cking balk<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/deadspin.com\/did-julio-urias-commit-a-balk-when-he-picked-off-bryce-1787779463\">Yup, it was<\/a>. \u00a0You&#8217;ll note that\u00a0<strong>Bryce Harper<\/strong> was not even looking to steal and his eyes, once\u00a0<strong>Julio Urias<\/strong>&#8216; leg crossed the plane, diverted to home assuming the pitch was going home. \u00a0I thought\u00a0<strong>Harold Reynolds<\/strong> was awful announcing, but I agreed with him whole heartedly here when he said something to the effect of, &#8220;If they&#8217;re going to let him do that, he&#8217;ll pick everyone off.&#8221; \u00a0What surprised me was the lack of real complaining done by either Harper or\u00a0<strong>Dusty Baker<\/strong> there, as if they knew arguing about it was futile. \u00a0In the end, it didn&#8217;t really affect the outcome of the game.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Scherzer looks better than I ever thought he&#8217;d do. \u00a0I assumed he&#8217;d give up 2 or 3 runs. \u00a0<\/em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">After his Game 1 performance, yeah six scoreless innings was well above the expected result. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">He will run the table in the 7th then Solis for the top of the order in the 8th and then Melancon. \u00a0Game is over<\/span>. \u00a0<\/em>Ha Ha. \u00a0Yeah, didn&#8217;t quite happen that way. \u00a0But after he made it through the meat of the order in the top of the 6th, that was a reasonable prediction.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Dumb play there on Werth at home<\/em><\/span>; yeah, he was out by 30 feet. \u00a0Post-game analysis seemed to question what <strong>Bob Henley<\/strong> was looking at; at the point where the relay throw was in, he was still looking out in the outfield. \u00a0Is it possible that he thought the left fielder was still trying to retrieve the ball?\u00a0\u00a0In a meager defense of the coach, they did have\u00a0<strong>Danny Espinosa<\/strong> coming to bat, so its not like they had a high probability of a 2-out hit based on his series batting average.<\/li>\n<li>[in response to a comment\u00a0that it&#8217;s going to come down to the Nats bullpen]\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Except this year they&#8217;re stellar. \u00a0Nats Bullpen #1 or #2 in the league in FIP and ERA and they&#8217;ve been solid this post season; just two runs in 17 innings<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0All true. \u00a0It didn&#8217;t matter.<\/li>\n<li><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Oh man homer. \u00a0Finally Max makes a mistake<\/span>. \u00a0<\/em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Except he really didn&#8217;t; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brooksbaseball.net\/pfxVB\/pfx.php?s_type=3&amp;sp_type=1&amp;year=2016&amp;month=10&amp;day=13&amp;pitchSel=453286&amp;game=gid_2016_10_13_lanmlb_wasmlb_1\/&amp;prevGame=gid_2016_10_13_lanmlb_wasmlb_1\/&amp;pnf=&amp;prevDate=1013&amp;batterX=49\">look at the Pitch F\/X plot<\/a> of the ball\u00a0<strong>Joc Pederson<\/strong> hit out: it was on the black and low; Pederson made a hell of a swing. \u00a0It isn&#8217;t like Max grooved a belt-high gopher ball there.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Why take him out now? \u00a0Don&#8217;t like that move<\/span><\/em>. \u00a0Still don&#8217;t like the move yanking Scherzer; he&#8217;s on 99 pitches, he&#8217;s got 6-7-8 coming up; yes I could understand not wanting the top of the Dodger&#8217;s order to see him a fourth time, but if he already made it through all the sluggers, why not let him finish the inning?<\/li>\n<li><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">First batter four pitch walk; Great. \u00a0I think the wrong guy is in the game<\/span>. \u00a0<\/em>Here of course i&#8217;m talking about\u00a0<strong>Mark Rzepczynski<\/strong>&#8216;s not-even-close four pitch walk upon relieving Scherzer, and of course i&#8217;m saying that Dusty has brought in the wrong lefty (I wanted\u00a0<strong>Sammy Solis<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Geeze; well I guess I was wrong on the bullpen<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0This was after the\u00a0<strong>Carlos Ruiz<\/strong> hit gave the Dodgers the lead.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Every time Seager swings I think its going out he has such a powerful stroke<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0Its funny, but\u00a0<strong>Corey Seager<\/strong> didn&#8217;t really have that great of a series; 3-23 but his three hits were two homers and a RBI double.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Well that&#8217;s what happens when you don&#8217;t have a real CF. \u00a0And where the f*ck was Werth backing him up? \u00a0<\/em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">This was my reaction to\u00a0<strong>Justin Turner<\/strong>&#8216;s triple over\u00a0<strong>Trea Turner<\/strong>&#8216;s head. \u00a0Initially I thought he took a bad route, but in retrospect I think that ball was just crushed. \u00a0I did have a legitimate complaint about no backup though; Ruiz was running from first; could a backed up play and relay have gotten him at the plate? \u00a0Maybe, maybe not. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>I think Kelley just blew out his elbow again. \u00a0It did not look good when he did it &#8230; we now know he just threw so hard that he lost feeling in his hand. \u00a0I&#8217;ve done that too (never on the mound, but definitely making a 100% max effort throw as an infielder, usually on a relay home)<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0I&#8217;m glad he&#8217;s not seriously\u00a0hurt.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>6 pitchers in the inning. \u00a0Crazy<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0Just an observation. \u00a0I don&#8217;t know how long that inning took in &#8220;clock&#8221; time but it had to be over an hour.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>The guy pitching Dayton? \u00a0He lived in my parent&#8217;s basement for a summer and I played with him several games back in like 2008. \u00a0He didn&#8217;t throw 93 back then though<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0We&#8217;ve reviewed the Boss family&#8217;s personal connection to Dayton before&#8230; nothing new here.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Lifeline!! Holy sh*t!<\/em><\/span> \u00a0This was of course the\u00a0<strong>Chris Heisey<\/strong> homer. \u00a0Man; Heisey&#8217;s stat-line numbers may have sucked this year, but he definitely has come up big with pinch hit homers.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Love the move to the closer in the 7th<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0[on <strong>Kenley Jansen<\/strong> entering the game way early]:\u00a0I did, and a lot of the observers of the game did too. \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Buck Showalter<\/strong> committed serious managerial malpractice for not getting\u00a0<strong>Zach Britton<\/strong> into that do-or-die game, and now we&#8217;re seeing nearly every other manager left really thinking outside the box on closer usage. \u00a0<strong>Andrew Miller<\/strong>&#8216;s numbers this off-season are just off-the charts; I know he&#8217;s not the &#8220;closer&#8221; but he&#8217;s absolutely the best reliever out there, and so is Jansen for the Dodgers.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Yeah! \u00a0Great PR [pinch runner] move too by Dusty<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0That was putting in\u00a0<strong>Joe Ross<\/strong> to run for\u00a0<strong>Clint Robinson<\/strong>. \u00a0I will complain about\u00a0<strong>Wilmer Difo<\/strong> later on, but I think its worth noting that the Nats bench came up relatively\u00a0big in Game 5. \u00a0Heisey 2-run homer,\u00a0<strong>Stephen Drew<\/strong>\u00a0&#8220;drew&#8221; a walk (pun intended), Robinson got a \u00a0hit. \u00a0On the flip side,\u00a0<strong>Pedro Severino<\/strong> flew out and both\u00a0<strong>Michael Taylor<\/strong> and Difo struck out.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Can&#8217;t believe Werth struck out there. \u00a0Two straight un-clutch ABs<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0Those two &#8220;un clutch&#8221; ABs were of course Werth and then\u00a0<strong>Anthony Rendon<\/strong> both striking out with a runner on third. \u00a0Werth especially; all you have to do is hit a f*cking fly ball there and the game is tied. \u00a0That&#8217;s it! \u00a0Rendon&#8217;s strikeout clearly closed the book on him in Baker&#8217;s eyes.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Good night to be an Uber driver. \u00a0I think metro closed at 11:2<\/em><\/span>0: this was past midnight, observing that the stadium was still pretty frigging full. \u00a0<strong>Steve Case<\/strong> had departed though; he was in the center-field camera angle all night with his front row seats.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Huge Walk; 80% chance of a run now. \u00a0How about a f*cking Espinosa bomb<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0This was in reference to Drew&#8217;s lead-off walk; RE of a man on first with no outs is above .8. \u00a0What does Espinosa do? \u00a0a bunt pop up?? \u00a0From there two scrubs out quickly to end the 8th.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Well, at least the\u00a0Nats have the top of the order in the 9th<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0Yup; that was the silver lining; the top of the order, the best hitters on the Nats were getting a 5th shot at the title to eke out a run. \u00a0If anyone could do it, it would be Turner-Harper-Werth-Murphy.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>I can NOT believe Kershaw is warming up<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0Enough has been written on the topic by now. \u00a0But this was definitely shades of\u00a0<strong>Orel Hershiser<\/strong> warming up in the 88 series, or\u00a0<strong>Madison Bumgarner<\/strong> coming in for a relief outing on 2 days rest in the 2014 series.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>We&#8217;ll know soon enough he&#8217;s definitely facing Harper<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0I got this wrong; totally thought Kershaw would relief Jansen as soon as Turner AB was done.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Harold Reynolds is captain obvious<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0I wish I could remember what he said, but it was pretty dumb. \u00a0Probably something like, &#8220;If the Nats don&#8217;t score here, they&#8217;ll lose.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Nice inning lets see how big their b*lls are<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0To channel the criticism of the 2014 team as levied by San Francisco pitcher (and long time Nats tormenter)\u00a0<strong>Tim Hudson<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Katie Nolan is hot<\/em><\/span>; this was my humorous comment about the\u00a0<strong>Katie Nolan<\/strong> commercial during the pitching change in the 9th. \u00a0 She is hot, and she knows a ton about sports, and her podcast is pretty good.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Why is there some idiot in a marlins jacket directly behind home plate<\/em><\/span>? \u00a0Again, another &#8220;killing time&#8221; text. \u00a0On the TV broadcast some fool in a bright orange gaudy as hell Marlins jacket had positioned himself in pole position for the CF camera.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Why isn&#8217;t Kershaw in<\/em><\/span>? \u00a0As Jansen walked\u00a0Harper on four pitches. \u00a0I was starting to see the narrative; &#8220;<strong>Dave Roberts<\/strong> holds on to his closer one batter too long&#8221; as one of the Nats middle-of-the-order guys hits a walk-off homer.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Saving Kershaw for Murphy<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0Yup, it became pretty clear that was the strategy.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Look at Kenley; he&#8217;s done. \u00a0He&#8217;ll walk Werth. Yup.<\/em><\/span> \u00a0This was after watching a painful AB against Werth; clearly Werth was either going to drive a ball or he was going to get walked. \u00a0I think Roberts let him go at least one batter too long; he threw nearly half a game of pitches. \u00a0I saw a snarky post at <a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.nbcsports.com\/2016\/10\/16\/lets-check-in-on-dusty-baker\/\">HardBallTalk this morning<\/a> &#8220;checking in with Dusty Baker,&#8221; who was quoted as saying that Jansen&#8217;s outing may affect him in the next series. \u00a0 Well, its a reasonable concern; he threw a TON of pitches that night. \u00a0And he was gassed, perhaps before the 9th even started. \u00a0Imagine the narrative if the Nats had won with Kershaw warming up and with Jansen throwing his 50th pitch?<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>One day rest. \u00a0Poor form booing him he&#8217;s one of the best guys in the game.<\/em><\/span> \u00a0Yeah, didn&#8217;t like the booing of Kershaw as he walked in.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>This is an epic match-up all things considered. \u00a0Double could win it.<\/em><\/span> \u00a0 Murphy-Kershaw. \u00a0Murphy got him for 2 homers last post-season; could he at least drive in a run?<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Ugh. \u00a0Worst case. \u00a0Now its up to a f*cking rookie. \u00a0That was it.<\/em><\/span> \u00a0Murphy popped up. \u00a0Not a fly ball to even advance the runners. \u00a0Just worst case result given the situation.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>This is 3 strikes fast<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0My prediction of how long it&#8217;d take for Difo to whiff.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>I bet they wish they had up Rendon right now<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0This, and the early \u00a0hook for Scherzer, might be the two biggest second guesses I have of Baker&#8217;s moves in the game. \u00a0Rendon is your #5 hitter; yes I know he struggled all series and he had badly choked earlier in the game &#8230; but why are we ending our season with a kid who struggled in AA most of the year instead of one of your most important hitters?<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Man. \u00a0That sucks<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0Game over.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Welcome to the off-season. \u00a0When I get some time, i&#8217;m going to dig into the &#8220;draft class&#8221;posts.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I watched the NLDS game 5 unfold, I was texting with a couple of fellow baseball fans. \u00a0Here&#8217;s the content of my texts as the game unfolded for a &#8220;fun&#8221; look at my instant reactions to what was happening. \u00a0I&#8217;ve only edited the texts to correct my spelling errors as I furiously typed them [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2036],"tags":[2972,185,3322,164,1174,912,2095,426,2729,2594,135,604,845,3318,3321,115,2976,2691,2949,3319,3324,2676,894,662,1035,1037,708,1320,2000,19,3277,1014,3323,219,2426,2650,2327],"class_list":["post-13018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral","category-post-season","tag-andrew-miller","tag-anthony-rendon","tag-bob-henley","tag-bryce-harper","tag-buck-showalter","tag-carlos-ruiz","tag-chris-heisey","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-clint-robinson","tag-corey-seager","tag-danny-espinosa","tag-dave-roberts","tag-dusty-baker","tag-grant-dayton","tag-harold-reynolds","tag-jayson-werth","tag-joc-pederson","tag-joe-ross","tag-julio-urias","tag-justin-turner","tag-katie-nolan","tag-kenley-jansen","tag-madison-bumgarner","tag-mark-melancon","tag-mark-rzepcynski","tag-max-scherzer","tag-michael-taylor","tag-orel-hershiser","tag-pedro-severino","tag-sammy-solis","tag-shawn-kelley","tag-stephen-drew","tag-steve-case","tag-tim-hudson","tag-trea-turner","tag-wilmer-difo","tag-zach-britton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13018"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13028,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13018\/revisions\/13028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}