NL wildcard race

[Just Regular]

Phillies just finished getting swept at Wrigley to fall into 83-72 tie with the Brewers.

They tried fixing CF with the O'Hoppe-Marsh trade, but Marsh just plain whiffed a routine flyball this afternoon.

Brewers are all Home, Phillies are all Road, but Philadelphia did win the season series for tiebreakers, and four of its road games are at 100-loss Nationals.

Philadelphia hometown announcers were saying doubleheader tomorrow in Washington (that would be a change from scheduled Saturday, but probably to avoid Ian rainfall getting up here).    

Brewers homestand is Miami-Arizona, and a scheduled Burnes-Alcantara duel tomorrow.

Bryce will get a winning record in his Year 4 in Philadelphia, but his employee experience still might not end well in 2022.

[eddie83]

Brewers just lost. 
 

We’re up 2-0 in 8th. Garcia hit 2 out, 3 strike HR off Peralta. 4-2 final. 

[Frobby]

Glad to see that Manny’s Padres are likely to get in now.  With Tatis out and Soto being a huge disappointment, Manny has really carried that team.  When you look at what he has meant to that team, he deserves serious MVP consideration, though I suspect Goldschmidt will win based on gaudier offensive numbers.   Goldie has a much stronger supporting cast though.  Manny’s been doing it all by himself.  

[backwardsk]

 

 

[Just Regular]

Loosely counting the Mets-Braves loser in this, deGrom-Fried alongside Alcantara-Burnes is quite a pair of Friday night matchups.

MIL has worked Burnes harder this year - 14 starts on 4-days rest, 14 on 5-days, and 3 other YTD.

Last year only 2 of his 28 starts were on 4 days rest.

Brandon Woodruff turns on 4 days rest, 7 out of 26 this year, a smaller increase above last year's 2 out of 30.

[Just Regular]

I think if the Phillies and Nationals can't complete three games in the next ~36 hours in the mid-Atlantic, it opens the possibility Philadelphia would need to come back to DC on the cushion Thursday to make up its Game 162 which could easily affect the outcome of the Padres-Phillies-Brewers race for two spots.

I assume they'll play a doubleheader tomorrow, and they can't on the fly make up something like 7-innings per game in a tripleheader.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Just Regular

[eddie83]

Huge swing in NL tonight. 
 

Phils lost game one. We’re tied with MIL 

Phils won a blowout Game 2. MIL had one run lead in 9th and blew it. 

[Just Regular]

Wow.    Marlins Bats have beaten both Freddy Peralta and Devin Williams late and close in Milwaukee in crucial games.

I imagine Brewers Hangout writing the same posts about Hader we've written about Jorge Lopez and the cumulative wearing down of the bullpen by Luhnow GM tree geniuses.

Tonight on the Mets-Braves national telecast I was reminded Rick Kranitz is the Braves pitching coach.   I believe he and Buck overlapped in the Orioles dugout just Buck's first couple months of 2010.

[eddie83]

Padres won. Magic number is 1. 

[Just Regular]

Tanner Scott just finished off the Brewers to clinch berth for Padres.

Brewers need 3-0 and Phillies to go 0-3 to make it.

Brian Kenny dropping a "way too cute" judgment on Stearns, and pointed out since trade Milwaukee's 18 blown lead losses most in MLB.

Edited October 2, 2022 by Just Regular

[SteveA]

The Padres are in an odd situation.   They are currently the #2 wild card, which means they would play the #1 wild card, likely to be the Mets.   And have to face Scherzer and deGrom Friday and Saturday in a best of 3 at Citi Field.

If they were to fall to the #3 wild card behind the Phillies, they would play the #3 division winner, the Cardinals.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather take my chances against Wainwright and Montgomery (or whoever) than Scherzer and deGrom.

San Diego, IMO, has a motivation to lose these games vs the Giants in hopes that Philly would gain 2 games on them and pass them for the #2 wild card spot.   San Diego has the tiebreak, so Philly would have to pick up 2 games on them the next 3 days.   (Philly is playing at Houston).

If you are Bob Melvin, do you "play it straight" and try to win the games?   Or do you start some scrubs and hope to lose?

[Just Regular]

33 minutes ago, SteveA said:

I don't know about you, but I'd rather take my chances against Wainwright and Montgomery (or whoever) than Scherzer and deGrom.

Adding to this, since the brackets are firm, a change from NL5 to NL6 would also move a Club from the "Dodgers Half" to the "Braves Half".

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/2022-mlb-playoffs-schedule-dates-tv-channel-live-stream-format-as-wild-card-series-kicks-off-oct-7/

I've been looking forward to both leagues playing the same set of days in Round 1, and was kind of hoping that'd stick in round 2, but from link above, looks like there is staggering.    Awkwardly, as the Astros and Yankees knock off the rust, it looks like ALDS's will have offdays after Game 1 and after Game 2.