2025 MLB Thread

[Déjà Bru]

Somebody on CBS Sports just said, "This should count as Game 3 and 4. Winner gets a 3-1 series lead."

[Westheim]

Pinch-running for Alejandro Kirk was a very bad move.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Somebody on CBS Sports just said, "This should count as Game 3 and 4. Winner gets a 3-1 series lead."

If they remain tied after 18, is it 2-2 then?

[monkeyman576]

Organist playing "The Neverending Story" lol..

[Westheim]

Freddie Freeman is such a ******* good guy, you can't even be mad at him when he's beating you.

Screw you, Freddie!

I will now do a Peter Griffin plunge into bed. See you tomor- ... today. :c losedeyes:

[monkeyman576]

Freddy Freeman is the first player in MLB history to have two walk off world series home runs...

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Freeman, again! Will anybody free me from this man, Freeman?

Guess who? I had a feeling.

Well, this was one of the best ballgames that I have ever seen in my long life. And this is one of the best postseasons that I have ever experienced (although I should have made my fanhood transitions years ago — I have missed much).

I think this Series is over now, though. Alas.

[Déjà Bru]

'Night, guys. It was nice hanging out with you. Westheim, you sleep until Thursday now.

[Amazin69]

So, it's 1 AM in South Carolina (and indeed the Eastern Time Zone) and the Lakers game just ended and I'm trying to find a new way to procrastinate and I open this forum and I see we have new posts in this thread and I'm like, "oh, yeah, Manly Manfred is too scared to have the World Series go against Sunday Night Football, so now we have Monday night games."

(Where it goes against Monday Night Football, so I don't even see the logic. Is Packers-Steelers that much of a bigger draw than Commies-Chiefs?)

So I thought, "I'm gonna be up for a bit longer, why don't I see when the replay is on FS1?" And it turns out that it's scheduled for 1 AM, so I switch over and they're "we'll have the postgame once the game ends" and I'm like "it's still on???" and I switch to Big FOX and they're in the 13th, and so I get to see six more innings of edge-of-the-seat tension So much fun.

It makes me angry as anything to think how many beautiful extra-inning games have been lost to the stupid ****ing "ghost runner" horse**** over the past seven years. But at least we had one game that's almost like baseball!

(Or DH-ball, which isn't actual baseball, but still.)

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

It makes me angry as anything to think how many beautiful extra-inning games have been lost to the stupid ****ing "ghost runner" horse**** over the past seven years. But at least we had one game that's almost like baseball!

It was a great game! I have to disagree though, a 16-inning game on June 20th has never been 'beautiful' to me. It's been 'find out in the morning because I am going to bed'

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by monkeyman576

Freddy Freeman is the first player in MLB history to have two walk off world series home runs...

I was wondering this. I was thinking he is probably the 1st to do it in back to back seasons. Then said "nah, he has to be the 1st to do it twice, period".

Here's the thing.........Can you imagine winning a WS game w/a walk off & it is not even the biggest in your career? Max Muncy, Joe Carter, Bill Mazeroski, Bobby Thompson etc know with out a doubt which is their greatest. FF has to take pause.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

'Night, guys. It was nice hanging out with you. Westheim, you sleep until Thursday now.

I gave it an honest go, but it's only 1:40pm in Germany and here I am

I wanted to go to the store today to fill up on all the non-perishables for the rest of the year (y'know, bottled water, all the good paper products you can imagine...), but I think I will need today for rest and recovery instead.

(old-man-slouches his way to the kitchen for a "morning" coffee)

[Déjà Bru]

Besides the FF home run, of course, this was the turning point of the game:

A bad call cost the Blue Jays

We cannot say for sure this cost the Blue Jays a run, but it was certainly a bad and costly call by home plate umpire Mark Wegner. His delayed strike call on an elevated 3-1 fastball led to Bo Bichette wandering too far off first base -- he assumed it was a walk because the pitch was high and Wegner's call was delayed -- and getting picked off for the first out of the second inning.

https://x.com/MLB/status/19829689998...ghts%2Flive%2F

"Very delayed call. Pretty deliberate," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said during an in-game interview. "(Wegner) just didn't say anything, so Varsh assumed it was a ball and Bo assumed."

The batter, Daulton Varsho, did eventually draw the walk, then the next batter, Alejandro Kirk, singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Bichette is not running well because of his knee injury, but the walk would have moved him to second base, and it is conceivable he would have scored on Kirk's single. Instead, Toronto did not score in the inning.

We can't assume the inning would have played out exactly the same way had Wegner made the correct call and Varsho walked, but clearly it was costly. At minimum, it gave Tyler Glasnow a free out and saved him some pitches. At worst, it sabotaged a potential big inning and cost Toronto at least one run. The Dodgers caught a break.

[Cobra Mgr]

Words that will never be together like this again........"Our starting pitcher tomorrow got on base 9 times tonight." - Freddie Freeman

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Besides the FF home run, of course, this was the turning point of the game:

Reason for Roboumps #62,843

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Reason for Roboumps #62,843

You said it.

On a more pleasant plane, there is this, from The Athletic:

Would Aroldis Chapman ever pitch for the Yankees again? ‘Not even dead’ []

By Maria Torres



Veteran closer Aroldis Chapman isn’t likely to leave the Boston Red Sox soon, but that didn’t deter a commentator from asking the left-hander if he would ever entertain a reunion with the New York Yankees. Chapman’s answer was unequivocal.

“No. Not even if I was dead,” the 37-year-old said in Spanish in a recent interview on the Swing Completo Podcast, a long-running baseball show that focuses on Cuban players. The clip was posted on Instagram Saturday.

He added that someone asked him in recent years about how he would feel if his team traded him to the Yankees, and he replied, “If you sent me to New York, I’d pack up my things and go home right now. And I’m done. I’ll retire right here, in Kansas City (his team at the start of 2023). You’re crazy.”

Chapman had two stints with the Yankees — in 2016, when he arrived in an offseason trade and was sent to the Chicago Cubs at that year’s deadline; and again from 2017-22. He earned three All-Star nods, racked up 124 saves and had a 2.48 ERA in the first five seasons of his second tenure.

But Chapman posted career lows during his final year in the Bronx in 2022. He posted a 4.46 ERA, a 1.43 WHIP and a 10.7 K/9 rate and lost the closer job before the midpoint of the season. He spent time on the injured list after a leg tattoo became infected, skipped a practice during the playoffs and subsequently wasn’t put on the team’s American League Division Series roster.

“I felt very disrespected,” he told Swing Completo. “I put up with a lot of things that whole year. I knew they wanted me out. I knew they wanted that. They wanted to get rid of me, but they didn’t know how. And I just endured it silently. Playing badly, but I did what I always do. I carried the same attitude, same as always. Everyone, all the players, we all spent time together. I never had a problem with anyone. Same with the manager (Aaron Boone). The manager is a friend of mine. We talked and everything. They were doing their own thing. The bosses upstairs are who call the shots.”

Chapman made changes to his offseason routine and began to return to form the next season, winning the 2023 World Series with the Texas Rangers. He has a 2.68 ERA with 52 saves in the last three years. He assembled his best campaign to date this year, his 1.17 ERA, 0.71 WHIP and 32 saves playing a pivotal role in Boston’s return to the postseason.

Chapman, who signed with Boston on a one-year deal last winter, was awarded another contract in August for 2026 with a mutual option for 2027. He has 367 saves in his 16-year MLB career.

[Westheim]

I ran some numbers and I think today's game will be shorter than the one yesterday that viciously melted into today.

[liberty-ca]

I heard a nice joke this morning on the radio: "Sometimes a game of baseball is like a round of golf. For example, yesterday's game had a front nine and a back nine".

[Westheim]

I did not think that Biebs would (broadly) fight Shohei-sama to a draw, and that the Fudgers' pen would crumble first.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I did not think that Biebs would (broadly) fight Shohei-sama to a draw, and that the Fudgers' pen would crumble first.

Well boys, it looks like we got us a Series!