QuakerOats;1755932 wrote:There must have been a dozen pitches well off the plate that he got a strike call on. This is a pitcher that doesn't need help, so if he gets those calls you may as well hang it up.

While the strike zone was atrocious last night, it was the same for both teams. Cubs played the better game. Move on.

SnotBubbles;1755939 wrote:While the strike zone was atrocious last night, it was the same for both teams. Cubs played the better game. Move on.

I disagree that it was the same.

Commander of Awesome;1755864 wrote:Granted I have not followed MLB at all this season (fuck the dolans). But how in the world do the Pirates have the second best record in baseball, and have to play a 1 game playoff?

Because, to date, Adam Silver is the only commissioner smart enough to know that division titles are nothing more than a consolation prize in the grand scheme of things, so other sports like MLB still seed division winners higher than superior teams that were stuck in a tough division. At least with Silver/NBA leading the charge to seed solely by records, there's hope for the future in other sports, but not in this situation. Sucks only having one game since that essentially gives a huge advantage to the team with the better/hotter #1 starter, but until things change, that's how it is.

Ironman92;1755888 wrote:Sean Rodriguez....douchebag of the month. Good God

I could see an explosion by him coming. You get the start as a defensive starter (as opposed to Pedro and his "counting the days until I can be a DH" approach to every aspect of defense. Your one main defensive contribution is botching a shaky throw (but one that a good defensive player probably would expect to get virtually every time). And then, because you're in a 3-0 hole, you get lifted before even getting one at bat. There was a bit of pent-up aggression ready for any reason to let it out there, I'd guess.

superman;1755890 wrote:Hey, look at that, no class from the Pirates. Shocking/s

Hmmm, at least the Pirates just lightly hit a pitcher who'd hit two of their batters (despite being a great control pitcher with an amazing K/BB ratio who'd only plunked about 10 guys in well over 200 IP). It's not like they had one of their role players take out one of their opponent's top players a couple weeks before getting them in a one game winner-take-all or anything like that, now.

In other news, last night sucked. A lot of beer had to go down to numb that one. With the way Arrieta has been pitching, I guess I expected something like this would happen, especially since the Pirates have really struggled in the early innings for the last month or so, it seemed; but still, that sucks. Six months, 4.5 of which were great, and it all ended like this. A second straight exit due to being in a one-game "series" where the opponent has a red hot pitcher at their disposal.

Heretic;1755952 wrote:Hmmm, at least the Pirates just lightly hit a pitcher who'd hit two of their batters (despite being a great control pitcher with an amazing K/BB ratio who'd only plunked about 10 guys in well over 200 IP). It's not like they had one of their role players take out one of their opponent's top players a couple weeks before getting them in a one game winner-take-all or anything like that, now.

You're telling me that Arrieta purposely hit those guys? He purposely, with 1 out, is going to put runners on 1st & 2nd for Andrew McCutchen to come to the plate?? C'mon Heretic, you're a smart guy. Think about it. The Pirates admitted they hit Arrieta on purpose. Kudos I guess for admitting it.

Funny how Kang admitted that Coughlin's slide wasn't dirty, but Pirates fans keep saying it was. I saw the Pirates do the same thing to Castro to try and break up a double play last night. The only difference is, Castro didn't tear a MCL or break his fibula.

I get being upset with a loss. I get being upset about a 1 game playoff when you're one of the top 3 teams in all of baseball. I don't get the excuses and name calling.

SnotBubbles;1755965 wrote:You're telling me that Arrieta purposely hit those guys? He purposely, with 1 out, is going to put runners on 1st & 2nd for Andrew McCutchen to come to the plate?? C'mon Heretic, you're a smart guy. Think about it. The Pirates admitted they hit Arrieta on purpose. Kudos I guess for admitting it.

Funny how Kang admitted that Coughlin's slide wasn't dirty, but Pirates fans keep saying it was. I saw the Pirates do the same thing to Castro to try and break up a double play last night. The only difference is, Castro didn't tear a MCL or break his fibula.

I get being upset with a loss. I get being upset about a 1 game playoff when you're one of the top 3 teams in all of baseball. I don't get the excuses and name calling.

Was it intentional? Probably not, but when you hit two guys, you should expect some form of retaliation.

Was Coghlan intentional? Probably not, but when you take out a key player on another team, you should expect some form of hard feelings.

My comments are directed more towards the dipshits acting like the Pirates were being a dirty team when all they did was mildly plunk a guy on the ass after he'd plunked 2 of their guys.

Heretic;1755969 wrote:Was it intentional? Probably not, but when you hit two guys, you should expect some form of retaliation.

Was Coghlan intentional? Probably not, but when you take out a key player on another team, you should expect some form of hard feelings.

My comments are directed more towards the dipshits acting like the Pirates were being a dirty team when all they did was mildly plunk a guy on the ass after he'd plunked 2 of their guys.

In reality, hitting Arrieta was a good move, they had to try something to get him off of his game. With that said, intentionally throwing at someone is dirty, regardless of any way you look at it. Do I consider the Pirates a dirty team? No. It happens. I'm sure my Cubs have done it more than a few times this year...as well as every other team in baseball.

Great season for the Pirates, unfortunate it had to end like this. The playoff formula needs revised badly, this year is more evidence than ever.

On a side note, I was able to go to Pittsburgh for the first time a few weeks back (the Kang game) and watch the Pirates/Cubs. I've had this mistaken opinion that it was this dirty, blue collar, industrial town (see Cleveland). I was pleasantly surprised. Pittsburgh is a gorgeous city (aside from the highway design) and PNC is a gorgeous ball park. I definitely plan on going back sometime soon and taking the whole family.

If you hit 2 players, intentional or not, your getting beaned yourself (or best player if AL pitcher). Its just how it goes. It isnt dirty.

Laley23;1755979 wrote:If you hit 2 players, intentional or not, your getting beaned yourself (or best player if AL pitcher). Its just how it goes. It isnt dirty.

Yeah, there's a reason the only guy who got kicked out of the game was Rodriguez for taking out his frustrations on having no impact on the game (if only guys on the team could hit baseballs like he hit that cooler, I might be in a better mood today...). I mean, when it's very obvious you were hitting a guy intentionally and the benches clear and you're not kicked out of the game, it's obvious the umps' were basically like "Okay, you guys all got this out of your systems yet? Cool, everything's equal so now let's get through these final couple innings without any more shit happening."

I feel terrible for whatever GM that gets suckered into giving David Price $180-200 million this off-season to bring his own personal brand of playoff failure to their city to screw their team like he has every other one he has been on.

This guys ability to come up small in the biggest moments makes even Andy Dalton blush. Who gives a shit about your regular season abilities when you provide a recurring episode of failure theater everytime the games start to mean something.

Cueto now the next in a long line of soon to be free agent frauds costing themselves 10s of millions of dollars with every start as they are further exposed for being what they really are.

How fired up must the league be about a Texas/Houston ALCS. That will really spin the meter on the TV ratings.

As an aside, how shameful is MLB's scheduling that some teams can have played 2 games in a series already before some of these NL series even start. Completely pathetic.

IggyPride00;1756108 wrote:Cueto now the next in a long line of soon to be free agent frauds costing themselves 10s of millions of dollars with every start as they are further exposed for being what they really are.

How fired up must the league be about a Texas/Houston ALCS. That will really spin the meter on the TV ratings.

It would suck for them to have two top ten tv markets when they could have had Kansas City and their 31st size market instead.

"Fucking bitch. Fuck you. Fuck you."

Lol

Al Bundy;1756110 wrote:It would suck for them to have two top ten tv markets when they could have had Kansas City and their 31st size market instead.

Yup, and outside of the state of Texas the rest of the country will give exactly zero fucks.

There is no good storyline there. Will be easily one of the least watched ALCS's in history.

Home plate umps have not been up to par this postseason....I've seen more called strike 3's out of the zone than I have the entire last month.

IggyPride00;1756112 wrote:Yup, and outside of the state of Texas the rest of the country will give exactly zero fucks.

There is no good storyline there. Will be easily one of the least watched ALCS's in history.

What? Haha it's an amazing storyline. Two teams predicted to be last in the division before the season coming off horrendous seasons in 2014 now playing for a World Series appearance. Add in they're in state rivals and I think you have a pretty intriguing ALCS

Classyposter58;1756121 wrote:What? Haha it's an amazing storyline. Two teams predicted to be last in the division before the season coming off horrendous seasons in 2014 now playing for a World Series appearance. Add in they're in state rivals and I think you have a pretty intriguing ALCS

Jim Crane runs 1 and 1A with the Dolan family as being among the cheapest/worst owners in all of professional sports. He is a pox on the face of the sport and has no business being associated with MLB. For that reason the Astros are a travesty and have no business being where they are.

The Astros being where they are sends a bad message to baseball fans everywhere.

The Blue Jays were a good story, but any team counting on David Price is destined to fail. As a Tigers fan that is something you are intimately familiar with.

This is without question the worst MLB post season I can remember in the recent past.

I don't think I would watch 1 inning of Rangers/Astros.

IggyPride00;1756124 wrote:Jim Crane runs 1 and 1A with the Dolan family as being among the cheapest/worst owners in all of professional sports. He is a pox on the face of the sport and has no business being associated with MLB. For that reason the Astros are a travesty and have no business being where they are.

The Astros being where they are sends a bad message to baseball fans everywhere.

The Blue Jays were a good story, but any team counting on David Price is destined to fail. As a Tigers fan that is something you are intimately familiar with.

This is without question the worst MLB post season I can remember in the recent past.

Yeah... It would suck if low payroll teams can compete. Just give the Yankees the championship every year.

Al Bundy;1756132 wrote:Yeah... It would suck if low payroll teams can compete. Just give the Yankees the championship every year.

The sport is swimming in money. The only low payroll teams are ones whose owners are greedy and money hungry. Not a team out there that can't have a 9 figure payroll and still turn a profit.

Some owners are just overly reliant on having to milk the team for money because they have a family of hanger ons or they just paid way too much for it. Either way its not the fans fault, and such owners have no business in the major leagues.

Jim Crane pockets 10's of millions a year that could be going into the product instead of his grubby little mitts. Much like the Dolan family he has no business in MLB.

Kershaw is enrolled at the David Price school of post season success. Terribly unclutch.

IggyPride00;1756142 wrote:Kershaw is enrolled at the David Price school of post season success. Terribly unclutch.

6 inn, 4 hits, 1 ER, 11 K

There couldn't be anything less unclutch about his performance tonight.

Ironman92;1756143 wrote:6 inn, 4 hits, 1 ER, 11 K

There couldn't be anything less unclutch about his performance tonight.

How many runs has deGrom given up?

Ironman92;1756143 wrote:6 inn, 4 hits, 1 ER, 11 K

There couldn't be anything less unclutch about his performance tonight.

I tried to warn you. Most overrated, overpaid pitcher in the history of professional baseball.