NLCS Game 4: Cubs 3, Dodgers 2

In Playoffs, Postgame by berselius38 Comments

OSS:

Three up:

  1. Javy Baez homered twice, and Willson Contreras hit the longest HR of the entire season across all MLB (assuming I heard the announcers right) to account for all of the Cubs runs, which was just enough to hold on. The Cubs even managed to put some balls in play!
  2. We were hoping for Vintage Jake, but we ended up with a mix of Very Good Jake and Effectively Wild Jake. He walked five and hit a batter, but he had the Dodgers off balance for most of the game and they were not getting great contact off of him. He struck out nine, and his stuff seemed to get better as the game went along. A worthy outing if it is indeed his final one with the Cubs.
  3. Wade Davis came in for the two inning save, and he got the job done. It would have been less stressful if he didn't immediately give up a homer to Justin Turner when he got in, but managed to get the outs when he needed. His strikeout of Utley to end the eighth and the double play ball to end the ninth were the two biggest plays on 'defense' for either team by WPA. DeRosa knows who closes tomorrow if needed. I'm guessing it's Strop. Or maybe Maddon gives the job back to Rondon for the day for old times sake (dying laughing).

Three down:

  1. Bryzzo were brutal in this one, combining to go 0-7 with four strikeouts. Rizzo's last strikeout was an especially awful one where he swung at a pitch that hit him, and Bryant tapped out to second to end the possible Cubs rally in the eighth. If the Cubs are going to play more than one more game, these two bats are going to need to emerge from their slumber.
  2. Joe was tossed on a chickenshit foul tip call in the eighth after Davis struck out Granderson. The home plate umpire (correctly) ruled that Granderson whiffed, but Roberts made a hail mary appeal to the other umpires and the 3B ump bafflingly overruled the HP ump, even with a giant fucking replay playing on the board behind him. Which they technically can't use, but what the fuck. Davis struck out Granderson on the next pitch but that was a bizarre sequence all around.
  3. I get that Joe (and I guess, by extension Dave Martinez) only trusts Davis out of the pen, but having him bat for himself in the eighth after throwing a billion pitches (for a RP) and not even try to lay down a bunt was pretty dumb. The at bat was pretty funny though, as Davis fouled off something like six pitches from Cingrani. It must have been somewhat easier since he throws nothing but fastballs, but it was still kind of impressive.

Next up: Jose Quintana has a rematch with Clayton Kershaw at 7 pm CT tomorrow. It sure would be great if they pushed up the start time since there is no AL game. Quintana has had a slightly less crazy past few days than before his last start, let's hope it translates to the mound.

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  2. Berselius is too lazy to log in

    Perkins,

    Oh, good. I get three different time zones with no rhyme or reason which one is chosen when I look up game times so it’s easy to miss. (dying laughing).

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  5. SK

    Is There A Cubs Game‏ @IsThereCubsGame 31m31 minutes ago
    More
    Is There a Cubs Game Today? Today is Thursday, October 19th. NO.

    Dude hates Cubs so hard

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  8. Edwin

    From 2014-2016, in 207 IP including Post Season, Wade Davis gave up 3 HR, all in the 2015 regular season. For the Cubs he’s given up 6 HR during the regular season, and now 2 HR in just 6 IP this postseason.

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  12. 67catch

    Watching this Bryant, Rizzo meltdown has been very strange. If they were hitting even just a little bit this would be a very different series.

    I think undermining the umpires with instant replay has made them shittier all around. They used to be the word of god out there. Now they’re guessing like deer in headlights much of the time. And, of course, it slowed the games down while doing nothing to change the fact that some go for you, some go against you. Seriously hate the replay.

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  13. dmick89

    67catch,

    I love replay, but the only umpire that can make that call is the home plate umpire. MLB either needs to say no to the umps gathering for tipped third strikes or allow replay on it. That particular play would have been resolved in half the time and it would have been resolved correctly.

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  16. BVS

    Ryno:

    The one wear Javy shows his true bona fides as a Puerto Rican. I used tp see that finger wag All The Time there. (dying laughing) (dying laughing)

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  17. BVS

    Hey, remember that time when the Cubs were in the playoffs and they only used one guy out of their bullpen?

    Neither does Joe Borowski.

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  28. 67catch

    dmick89,

    There is so much bad about the replay. Umps have always gotten some wrong because that’s inevitable. Some go for you some go against you. Same with the wind blows one way one inning shifts the next inning and what would have been a home run is a flyout. Umps have always just been one more of the breaks you have to deal with. Part of baseball is luck. The best players have the character to deal with that and not get distracted. The replay doesn’t change any of that. And, as we’re seeing, it doesn’t even really diminish it even. But it does undermine the umpires who are constantly second guessed and overruled so we get more plays like last night where they look like deer in headlights and wind up making a guess about what they should do. There is no way a few years ago a home plate umpire was going to listen to a batter and a manager say, “Hey that was a foul tip” after he’s called the guy out. That was freaking insane. But kind of normal now. And it just slows the game down at a time when you don’t even have to pitch an intentional walk any more because that would take too long.

    And the worst thing is that just about every intense close play is now a matter of, “Play at the plate….heeeeeees OUT…. maybe…. let’s wait and see. ” It fucking sucks.

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  31. Perkins

    SK,

    I lost a bit of money on game 4, but fortunately game 5 sold at a profit almost immediately after they beat the Nats. Was really happy they took it to five games, even if just for that reason. (dying laughing)

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  33. dmick89

    SK,

    That’s not surprising, is it? I had assumed that game 4 value plummets when the team is down 3-0. I’d assume the number of Cubs fans who watched on television dropped quite a bit, but the number of Dodgers fans who tuned in may have offset that.

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  34. SK

    dmick89:
    SK,

    That’s not surprising, is it? I had assumed that game 4 value plummets when the team is down 3-0.

    Agree about the 0-3 plummeting but still a little surprised. The guy said it was a $400 face value ticket so I assume it wasn’t bleachers or grandstand.

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  35. Perkins

    SK: Agree about the 0-3 plummeting but still a little surprised. The guy said it was a $400 face value ticket so I assume it wasn’t bleachers or grandstand.

    Woof. Those are Club Box seats or possibly better. That’s a huge bath to take.

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