National League: 2009 NLDS: Los Angeles Dodgers V. St. Louis Cardinals, LAD Wins Series 3-0

[Party]

Western Division Champion | Central Division Champion

[Beef]

I seriously thought the Dodgers wouldn't score a run, because they almost didn't win their division.

I think we are seeing the leftovers of St Louis having a horrible finish to the regular season right now though. They gotta break through that

[FishFanInPA]

Interesting throw there

[Namaste]

I seriously thought the Dodgers wouldn't score a run, because they almost didn't win their division.

I think we are seeing the leftovers of St Louis having a horrible finish to the regular season right now though. They gotta break through that

A little early in the series to be talkin smack Beef.

I don't recall ever saying they wouldn't score any runs.

[Beef]

I was led to believe they had no chance to compete, because they didn't finish strong. But then St Louis didnt finish strong too.

I called you out in the September thread, more of a sarcastic asshole kiddingness in response to the time you posted that one thing that didnt make too much sense, but you never responded, so I had to be an asshole here too.

I stand by what I said. If the Dodgers lose, it's not because of the way they finished their season. It's hard to dispute that really, since based on the reasoning that it's so hard to recover from something like that, if one of these teams wins, its in spite of their shitty finish, but if one wins, is it a direct result of that shitty finish?

One team will win for certain. The other will definitely lose.

[Namaste]

So what you are saying is there is no such thing as momentum heading into the post season. (?)

Over 162 games, teams go through peaks and valleys (would you agree with this?) and if a team is in the valley during the last 2 weeks of the season this can be problematic in the post season.

[Beef]

Both teams were in the valley.

I would say momentum is very overrated heading into the postseason.

You are one that would tend to say just because a team loses an insanely horribly tough game the night before, it wont affect them the next day. Why isnt momentum a killer in that instance? I suppose only because it is one night as opposed to weeks or so?

[Namaste]

You have every right to say momentum is overrated going into the loffs. I don't agree though.

I think a team losing a tough game the night before does affect the losing team. But not like most fans think. I think it affects them positively the next night out because they are hungry for redemption (probably the wrong word but you know what I mean).

And yes one night is very different than a solid 2.5 weeks like LAD experienced.

[Omar]

There's someone wearing a Marlins' hat behind home plate

[Beef]

St Louis experienced a week and a half of it.

Perhaps the Dodgers came out and were hungry for redemption because of the way they finished. Perhaps they are like, Hey Daft, we are still a talented team that can win this thing, it's the playoffs now, we are going to prove what we are capable of, it is no longer the last few weeks of a season in which the team knew it had already accomplished its first goal of reaching the playoffs.

Perhaps instead most of the players are dumb and are just like, aight, lets go out and get some hits and catch some balls.

[FishFanInPA]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slMTiDZuVp0[/ame]

[Metes]

Why oh why

[Namaste]

www.dodgerblues.com take on Game 1:


As Matt Holliday walked to the plate with the bases loaded and nobody out in the top of the first inning on Wednesday night, I had already seen enough. I had yet to even bite into the disgusting Western Bacon Cheeseburger sitting on my lap, but I couldn’t stomach the thought of witnessing the Dodgers’ playoff hopes dashed in an instant. So I got up and went to the bathroom. With Vin Scully talking me through my pee, I heard Holliday strike out looking. As I struggled to pull a paper towel from a dispenser clearly infected with swine flu, I wondered what the hell I was doing in the bathroom during the first inning of the playoffs. I rushed back to my seat, vowed to myself that I wouldn’t get up for the next nine innings, and then watched Matt Kemp stare at Ryan Ludwick’s pop fly to shallow center as if was a little flaming meteor that shouldn’t be touched. The ball dropped in front of Kemp despite hanging in the air for, oh, about a minute and a half, and the Cardinals were up 1-0.

As I was busy cursing Kemp under my breath, however, Ronnie Belliard started a 4-6-3 double play and Randy Wolf was out of the inning. Officially, two Cardinals were left on base—setting the stage for the most wasteful NLDS game in history. In fact, we shouldn’t even be talking about guys left on base. It’s easier to tally the bases that were empty when an inning ended. For the Dodgers, this number was eight. That’s just a base per inning that the Dodgers left empty—a pretty gruesome stat. Which makes it all the more impressive that they actually came away with the victory.

Of course, it was Kemp’s home run in the bottom of the first that really turned the tables. After Rafael Furcal led off with a base hit, Kemp crushed Chris Carpenter’s third pitch of the game over the fence in center to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead. Those were the only runs the Dodgers would actually score on a hit, the other three coming later on a sacrifice fly, an error, and a hit batter. The Dodgers thoughts on that? “We’ll take it!”

Between Kemp’s defense (including a ninth-inning blunder), Wolf’s pitching, the lack of clutch hitting, a rapidly declining Manny Ramirez, and a somewhat shaky ninth from Jonathan Broxton, the game certainly wasn’t pretty—but it was huge. The Dodgers hit Carpenter for the first time in his career, the Dodgers' bullpen picked up a struggling Randy Wolf, and Jim Thome actually worked a full count before striking out with the bases loaded.

More good news: It seemed like there were about a dozen arrests at the stadium during the game, so that’s twelve fewer fucks to ruin Thursday’s experience.

[Swifty]

Holliday goes yard to make it 1-0 Cards.

[Metes]

Every playoff game should be called by Vin Scully.
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He's so much better than any other announcer, it's not even close.