MLB playoffs 2013 (Baseball Live Thread)

Sporting News ^ | September 23, 2013

[campaignPete R-CT]

For the first time since 1992, the Pittsburgh Pirates are in MLB's postseason. The Bucs clinched at least a spot in the wild-card game after a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs that ended with a bizarre play at the plate, and a 4-3 loss by the Washington Nationals to the St. Louis Cardinals. The loss eliminated the Nats from contention.

The Cincinnati Reds are playoff-bound as well, after beating the New York Mets, 3-2 in 10 innings. The focus over the regular season's final six days now shifts to the NL Central race, which the Cards still lead by two games over the Pirates and Reds.

Lost in the NL happenings Monday: The Detroit Tigers were unable to clinch a playoff berth in the American League. They lost, 4-3 in 11 innings, to the Twins in Minnesota.

[campaignPete R-CT]

any idea who the starters are likely to be in the wildcard games?

National League on TUES
PITT Liriano
CINN Latos or Cueto

American League on TUES
TB David Price
CLE ???
TEX Garza or Ogando ? Darvish goes on Sunday? and they would play on MON in a tiebreaker.

how does that look?

[campaignPete R-CT]

CORRECTION:

American League on WED

I think TB could be Price or Cobb
Price could be used on SUN or in a tiebreaker game ... unless TB clinches before SUN.

[campaignPete R-CT]

another correction:
Price pitched on WED 25th ... so he won’t pitch on SUN ... maybe MON tiebreaker game.

[campaignPete R-CT]

ping to NL wildcard fans

[campaignPete R-CT]

I am projecting the AL Wildcard probables, assuming a 2-way or 3-way tie. I will update as the situation changes over the weekend.

———————TAMPA————CLEVE————TEXAS

WED 25 ==== PRICE -—— —— SALAZAR ——— PEREZ
THU 26 ==== COBB -—— —— McAllister -—— GARZA
FRI 27 ==== HELLKSON -—— KLUBER -—— OGANDO
SAT 28 ==== ARCHER -—— — KASMIR -—— HOLLAND
SUN 29 ==== MOORE -—— — JIMENEZ -—— DARVISH
MON 30 TIE2 PRICE -—— —— SALAZAR ——— PEREZ
TUE 01 TIE3 COBB -—— —— McAllister — GARZA/ PEREZ
WED 02 WILD HELLKSON -—— KLUBER -—— OGANDO
THU 03 OFF=
FRI 04 ALDS ARCHER/MOORE -—— JIMENEZ -—— HOLLAND
SAT 05 ALDS PRICE -—— —— SALAZAR ———DARVISH

[smoothsailing]

"For 21 years, Pirates fans have waited and wished for, dreamt of a playoff-caliber team. Now they would like the opportunity to actually see that team in person."

New to playoff party, Pirates figure to stay a while

That's what this final weekend series with the Reds is all about, bringing the Wild Card game home to the 'Burg!

AJ Burnett is starting tonight, right now he's testing the rosin bag...

LET'S GO BUCS!!!

[dfwgator]

RIP Gates Brown

[campaignPete R-CT]

Trivia stuff for SATURDAY:
NATIONAL LEAGUE
ATLANTA magic number is TWO over STL (seeding and HFA over STL)
PITT magic number is ONE over CINN (HFA over CINN)
DODGERS are locked into #3 seed.

HFA = home field advantage

[campaignPete R-CT]

Trivia stuff for SATURDAY:
AMERICAN LEAGUE
TAMPA BAY magic number is TWO (over TEX)
CLEVELAND magic number is TWO (over TEX)

TAMPA BAY magic number is TWO over CLE (HFA over CLE in Wildcard game), if TB clinches (over TEX).
BOSTON magic number is ONE over OAK (seeding and HFA over OAK)
TIGERS are locked into #3 seed.

HFA = home field advantage

[Impy]

Cards clinched the D yesterday! I was all wrong about Travis Wood.

Are any of the wild card teams willing to start a guy on short rest if necessary for the play in game? I’m thinking yes, all of them.

Over under 0.5 wins in 4 chances for Chi baseball? I’m taking the under. Come on Sox lets get to 100 loses!

What does HFA mean again? Huge farting ape? Hilly forested area? Heisenberg’s final adventure?

[campaignPete R-CT]

short rest in WED wildcard game?
TEX could go with Holland on short rest over Ogando or Garza.
Will a team actually play in all those game with a 3-way tie? I’d like to see it.

MAXIMUM TRAVELING POSSIBILITIES:

CITY WHERE THE TEAM WILL BE PLAYING, IN 3-WAY TIE SCENARIO

——————— RAYS ———— INDIANS -——— RANGERS

SUNDAY ———TORONTO———MINNESOTA—————TEXAS
MONDAY ———CLEVELAND——CLEVELAND-——— off
TUES-—————TEXAS————TEXAS-——————TEXAS
WED -———— TAMPA ————TAMPA -————TEXAS OR @ CLEVE
THUR -———— off —————— off ——————— off
FRI ————— BOSTON ? ——— BOSTON ? -—— BOSTON ?

[campaignPete R-CT]

“Cards clinched the D yesterday! I was all wrong about Travis Wood”

turns out Wood was only going to pitch ONE inning FRI so he could get 200 innings for the year. Silly. We still want Cubs to win SAT and SUN to keep STL out of #1 seed.

[campaignPete R-CT]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3072415/posts?page=6

I started a new thread for “WILDCARD week”

[Impy]

Rivera won’t pitch again on the road, that was it, arm is sore. Too bad his lackluster team didn’t give him a save chance in his final series.

[Impy]

So Wood was coming out anyway, ah. Retarded. What’s 4 or 5 more innings? This inning counting, they go overboard.

The Nats pissed off the baseball gods by not letting Strasburg pitch “stressful innings” last postseason, their demise in the playoffs and failure this season was their punishment.

[campaignPete R-CT]

if Jimenez pitch on SUN in a meaningless game that CLE wins 9-1 and then CLE loses 3-2 on WED then that is their punishment.

If TB loses their 1pm game, the CLE at MINN game is meaningless.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

wow that braves-dodgers game was pretty intense. I enjoyed watching the game while listening to the dodgers radio broadcast on my mlbtv/audio package. I think this series will go 5 games and as a reds fan I am glad the Reds got rid of Dusty Baker.