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Saturday, October 08, 2011
The Cardinals secured their first postseason series win since the 2006 World Series with a sensational 1-0 victory over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night. The win gave them a 3-2 National League Division Series triumph over the league’s best regular-season team, and moved them into the NL Championship Series for a delicious matchup with their Central Division rivals, the Brewers.
Rafael Furcal and Skip Schumaker teamed up to get a single run for the Redbirds before the game’s first out, and a magnificent Chris Carpenter, who tossed a three-hit shutout, made it stand up.
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1. Pasta-diving Jeter (jmac66) Posted: October 08, 2011 at 03:29 AM (#3956583)"best records in both leagues, eliminated in the first round (since wild card):
2002: yankees 103 wins, oakland 103 wins, altanta 102 wins
2008: angels of azusa: 100 wins, cubs of evanston: 97 wins
this year
"
nuff said
Unfortunately, the downside is that the Cardinals play on. Damn you Tony La Russa!
Gotta love the Brewers/Cards NLCS this sets up. That will be EPIC.
That's a rather unfortunate way of putting it, if Howard's injury is serious.
Then they face Arizona instead of a red-hot Cards team, and have the potential to face a banged-up Braves team in the NLCS.
Might not have made a difference, who knows.
Well, we know the Brewers are better than the Cardinals because they won the division and outscored them by a massive 71-64 in the season series, so this should be smooth sailing.
Felt terrible for Ryan Howard, though. Pretty much the worst and most pathetic way to conclude the Phillies loss. Big slugger going down in anguish. Then, to balance that out, Chris Carpenter celebrating shirtless and tattooed. What a crazy friggin night.
Too bad for the Phillies. Expectations were, of course, sky high.
It's a bit odd to think that it was a Phillies' win that secured the Cardinals the NL wild card.
You would think they would have been more concerned with resting a tired team for the playoffs.
Then I remembered that La Russa won. Oh well, I'll take it. STEAGLES has made me hate the Phils *that* much with his worthless behavior.
Being a lifelong Michigan resident, I really should be pulling for Detroit. But I just can't yet. Every team, except perhaps the Pirates or Royals, have loudmouth fans. But living in Michigan, I'm only able to interact in person with those loudmouth fans who align themselves with the Tigers.
I feel like a heel, though, since there aren't any unsavory Tiger players (with the possible exception of Miguel Cabrera) and a title would be a nice pick me up for Detroit. But the Tigers seem to draw well enough each season so long as they're competitive. I don't think a world championship would jolt attendance numbers up THAT much.
hate to tell you this, but i stopped getting heartbroken over sporting events right about the same time i reached the age where i realized that the whole god thing wasn't for me.
I realize this is the sort of thing that brings catcalls from some sectors, but I'm not claiming this title is anywhere close to as important, just a fun thing to think about. Can the Rangers play well enough from here on out to do it? Hell, can any of the other three do it?
You would think they would have been more concerned with resting a tired team for the playoffs.
They were afraid of having people on BTF denounce them as destroying the integrity of the sport like the Yankees did.
Aren't you the dual-fanship Phillies/Mariners guy? Sports bigamy and rooting against your own team because of Steagles? Jeez.
For the record, Steagles used to annoy me, but after having had roughly 2000 fake trades involving some combination of Sam Dalembert and Andre Igouadala for LeBron get run up the flagpole, you start to get used to it.
Hey Steegs, maybe the Phils can trade Howard to the Bulls for Derrick Rose and Noah.
Halladay allowed a leadoff triple to Rafael Furcal, which has been Halladay's Achilles' heel this season.
Halladay gives up a lot of leadoff triples?
Every fanbase of course has great guys and obnoxious guys, and just guys. Also, while Steagles talks some smack about his teams, I have never seen him insult people here in particularly obnoxious ways.
And Eso rooted openly and loudly for Boston to lose on a couple of GC Threads (Games 161 and 162), drawing the ire of a couple of Therapudlians.
My mistake.
Eso's a Nats/M's guy.
Passing the Yankees wouldn't be too difficult, if they haven't already. A convincing WS run would probably do the trick against the Phils.
I noted that earlier. I was in the group here who gave TLR some crap after the Rasmus deal. But here we have the Cardinals back in the NLCS.
And while I was rooting for the Sox to lose, it wasn't because I disliked the Sox per se (although I have no love lost for them), but rather because "the story" was just so irresistable in all ways. And furthermore I think I really went out of my way to be very gracious about it both during (after some folks complained) and after, when it was all over. There really is no comparison.
Sez who? I have cordially disliked the Phillies -- and the Iggles and the Sixers and the Flyers -- for decades. Screw all Philly teams.
They made up for it in the 00's, losing 4 out of 5 (and 2010 to boot).
Now the Mets have never lost an LDS. Too bad they almost never make it to the post-season.
Hold on just a second...pretty sure that if you add in postseason results the Yankees are STILL dominating the Pythagorean standings.
Perhaps not, and I think you are mostly one of BTF's nice guys. But Steagles is just a guy who talks some trash about his team, and given what the Boston fans were facing at that time a guy saying "Go Orioles!" twenty times when he is not an Orioles fan...well, let's say the sword of metabrution can cut both ways.
Plus the double game 162 madness. It's been a great couple of weeks.
Agree, there is nothing like a division rival.
I am rambling, I am just excited and horrified that the Brewers have to play the Cardinals now. I love the shaggy characters and I fear the angry professionals. We all know who usually wins.
Not exactly, but his 1st inning split was bad for him, yet slightly better than league average.
Split G IP ER ERA PA R 3B HR BA OBP SLG OPS tOPS+ sOPS+
1st inning 32 32.0 13 3.66 132 14 1 4 .274 .298 .419 .717 145 91
2nd inning 32 32.0 6 1.69 123 6 0 1 .239 .258 .316 .575 97 67
3rd inning 32 32.0 6 1.69 133 7 0 1 .239 .295 .291 .585 103 63
4th inning 32 32.0 10 2.81 134 11 1 1 .308 .311 .377 .688 136 86
5th inning 32 31.0 7 2.03 120 7 1 1 .209 .222 .252 .474 63 31
6th inning 30 30.0 5 1.50 110 5 0 1 .155 .200 .204 .404 40 9
7th inning 26 25.0 7 2.52 103 5 1 0 .220 .287 .297 .584 102 66
8th inning 13 13.0 2 1.38 46 3 0 1 .133 .152 .222 .374 27 8
9th inning 7 6.2 5 6.75 32 5 0 0 .400 .438 .467 .904 212 173
His splits against batters leading off a game and an inning are also striking.
Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR BA OBP SLG OPS BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
First Batter 32 32 31 0 14 3 1 0 .452 .469 .613 1.082 .483 270 215
Leadoff Inn. 32 236 227 4 72 13 1 4 .317 .343 .436 .779 .384 167 117
Source: B-R
I think Milwaukee is a slightly better team, but my gut says St.Louis takes it.
I think the Brewers are pretty clearly the better team based on entire body of work. I have no idea who wins this one. I expect a hell of a show.
Point being: St. Louis is playing very well right now, and they are getting contributions from a lot of different guys.
Personal environment note - NO, IT'S NOT WRITTEN IN THE STARS, STFU.
And for the record, Steagles is a pretty good guy. He and I were in the same DMB League for about four years and have spent many hours chatting with each other over messenger about baseball and such. Yeah he proposes a lot of crappy trades (he must have tried to trade me Elijah Dukes at least ten times over the last two seasons), but you can never arse-rape anyone in a trade if you don't propose it. Do you think AA up in Toronto stopped himself from offering Vernon Wells to the Angels because it wasn't a fair deal? Yeah, Steagles can be a little abrasive, but we all can be a little judgmental and intolerant too. Just look at the hatred spewed about TLR on this site... and I'd be willing to bet that 99.9% of us have never even met the man.
Not sure Epic is the word I would use, but this series is going to be intense and fun for fans of either team.
I have zero problems with conceeding that 'fact'. The post season is a crapshoot, I honestly think the Phillies are a better team than the Cardinals, and the Cardinals won. I honestly think the Cardinals are a better team than the Brewers, but don't think that a 7 game series is going to confirm that no matter which team wins.
You certainly qualify as one of the more esoteric posters on this site -- and I've only seen you in a few threads so far.
I love 1-0 games, too.
(acts like Donald Sutherland in final scene of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers")
Guess it goes along with Congratulations World Champion Miami Heat newspaper ad.
Utley missed the first third of the season. He had been rested for a couple games the week before. He wasn't tired. He played with (too much?) brio in the post-season.
By extra innings of that game, there weren't many regulars left in the game.
I like my chances with Lance Berkman and the bases loaded. Halladay was an absolute beast in that at bat, however. Two other reasons to bunt: 1) John Jay looked totally overmatched against Halladay anyway, and 2) a team that has just played bad defense against a bunt in a playoff game is a decent bet to play some more bad defense against a bunt.
Not saying I would have done it, but it doesn't strike me as crazy.
Well, it HAS been a steady slide down the hill since their last moment of glory:
2008 won World Series
2009 lost World Series
2010 lost LCS
2011 lost DS
2012 lose wild card playoff game?
2013 Contracted and merged with Pirates, and renamed the Phil-Pitt Philrates?
Hey, don't laugh, it's been done before
And the walk to Montero reminded him why
Well yeah, you definitely know that Milwaukee will IBB Pujols in that situation, but with Charlie Manuel and the Phils you never do quite know =D
The only thing I can think of is that TLR was neurotic about having Jay ground into a double play, therefore he wanted the highest % chance to get a runner over to third with 1 out, therefore setting up an insurance run via sac fly. I personally would have taken the risk in order to give my best hitter a chance to knock in the run, even if the case ends up being a runner at third with 2 outs. Berkman was flat out overmatched in that at-bat against Halladay.
For a Mets fan, the past two days have been like Christmas in August.
Your shitty team is so pathetic that rooting against the Yankees and Phillies is all you have. How lame.
Berkman, OTOH, homered off Halladay in game 1.
That to me is something I would root for also(of course I would prefer the Cardinals but, the logic of having a series where one team will make franchise history is a nice story)
Sensitive much?
Wow, I never realized that. Yup, 8 straight NLCSes from 1991-1999. (minus 94 of course.) 5 straight Division Series wins 1995-1999.
The Mets have also never lost a Division Series, going 3-0. (coke to Srul in #40.) In fact the Mets' all time record in the first playoff round is 6-1, the only loss being the 1988 NLCS.
There is no question in my mind that if the Phillies had gotten hot offensively, they would have won this and other series ahead of them. In 2012, I think the Phillies have to address their LF situation (either truly go all-in in with Dom Brown or get somebody on the relative cheap to replace the black hole that was Ibañez) and perhaps even 3B (Polly Polanco can and probably should be a super sub in his last year for the Phils, especially if Rollins leaves and the Phils have to balance that departure with more production in 3B).
I've stated in the past that the Phillies have become a super team, on the same level as the Yankees and Red Sox. Results on the field notwithstanding, the tremendous demand for Philly tickets (the Phillies were no. 1 in attendance in MLB) and the solid Philly TV ratings should allow the Phils to maintain that level, and in fact, they can probably raise ticket prices a little and increase payroll (by my back of the envelope calculation, the Phils can probably add between $2 and $3 per ticket per game, which should net them between $7 and $10MM extra per year). If I know Philly, fans will be disappointed all winter, but they will keep on going to the Bank next year.
Whereas the Cubs have won only of their first series in the playoffs out of their last 13 appearances. They are the New Orleans Saints of baseball before there was even a New Orleans Saints of football.
wow, them's fightin words
And a third of that will go straight into Jeff Loria's art collection.
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