Quote:
Originally Posted by Westheim
I knew we'd lose when they sent the young deer Alvarez into the beaming headlights with the bags stacked with the tying runs. No. Just no. Not against a potential Hall of Fame closer. And a right-hander. Was Daniel Vogelbach busy with chicken wings?
We'll lose the division, and then we'll lose against the phu---untastic Phillies in the Numbfred Round. (slaps a tenner on the table)
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I'LL TAKE THAT BET!!!! (grabs the tenner). There's no way we're going to lose to the Phillies!
(It's San Diego that likely has the #5 spot. Philly is battling the Brew Crew for #6 and the trip to St. Louis that comes with it.)
According to Chip Caray, Vogelfat was going to bat for Nido. Of course Alvarez (swinging at anything, apparently with his eyes closed and his hands not properly gripping the bat) and Naquin (who fouled off six pitches before whiffing…including three obvious balls …must be nice to miss the zone on 5 of 8 pitches and not walk the guy…) made that all moot, anyhow.
Buck later said that Jansen is just as hard on lefties, so there wasn't a point in going for the platoon advantage. I mean, look at
Jansen's current splits
.555 OPS v. righties, .729 v. lefties. What's .174 worth of OPS difference with the game on the line?
Nah, much better to trust the rally to a kid who's yet to get a ball past Austin Riley when you need a solid drive to the outfield. Makes total sense.
Seriously, if you're not using Vogelfat here, why is he on the team?
Schmuck, er, Buck also defended his decision to try and work Megill into shape in the low-leverage situation of
the season being on the line by saying he didn't have any alternatives. Lugo had thrown multiple innings…on, er, Wednesday. Drew Smith had pitched on Wednesday! (He threw 15 pitches. He hadn't pitched since Sunday. He pitched Sunday after pitching last Friday. The idea we can't use him on one day's rest is silly, IMO.). Nobody bothered to ask why, if Trevor May was tasked with cleaning up Megill's mess, May couldn't have started the inning. Especially as two of the first four Atlanta hitters (Olson, Rosario) were lefties.
I have to say, 98-59 doesn't suck. But any more game decisions such as this and I'd have to reconsider my (nonexistent) vote for Manager of the Year. What with Dave Roberts apparently about to surpass last season's 106-win total, and Snitker quite possibly overcoming a 10.5 game deficit to take the division.
Still, all Max has to do is win in order to ensure that the only thing stopping us from avoiding Juan Soto is Juan's ex-mates. So we'll see, tonight. One win here, and all we need do is sweep the Gnats. Thanks to the Tiebreaker! (God bless Rob Manfred! Such Vision!!)
Just as we swept them in…in…May. (After sweeping the DC Doormats in our first two series this season, we're a resounding 5-5 in the three series against them since.) Go, team!