Angels at Brewers; Wednesday, September 17 @ 6:40 p.m.: Brandon Woodruff (3.32 ERA, 3.26 FIP) vs. José Soriano (4.13 ERA, 3.71 FIP)

[treego14]

[treego14]

Play a sad SONG on the piano for Soriano!

Play a loud GONG for Wood who will be just too good!

[Brian]

Jerry Augustine said he likes for a post season starting rotation of Peralta, Woodruff, Priester but the Brewers bullpen concerns him the most with D.L. Hall and Trevor Megill both still questionable.

As someone stated on yesterdays thread, it may be Chad Patrick as a bullpen arm for the playoffs.  Yesterday Patrick pitched one inning and struck out the side in relief. 

[sobomp3]

I’d be quite surprised if Megill pitches again this season. It was absolutely asinine to let him start tossing again a week after he went down. 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

15 minutes ago, sobomp3 said:

I’d be quite surprised if Megill pitches again this season. It was absolutely asinine to let him start tossing again a week after he went down. 

Hindsight is 20/20. It was termed a mild flexor strain, and Megill himself said he thought it would be a minimum IL stay. 

[Brian]

55 minutes ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

Hindsight is 20/20. It was termed a mild flexor strain, and Megill himself said he thought it would be a minimum IL stay. 

It's not hindsight when people on this thread including me stated, "what the heck, he's pitching again" before it even happened?  He pitched 5 times in a 9 day period when he got hurt and as far as the "mild flexor strain"  you see now how accurate that was?  I just hope now he's not totally cooked and turn into a Devin Williams next season. 

[BarremlensTSSC]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Jerry Augustine said he likes for a post season starting rotation of Peralta, Woodruff, Priester but the Brewers bullpen concerns him the most with D.L. Hall and Trevor Megill both still questionable.

As someone stated on yesterdays thread, it may be Chad Patrick as a bullpen arm for the playoffs.  Yesterday Patrick pitched one inning and struck out the side in relief. 

Patrick as a replacement for a DL Hall role is probably as close of an approximation as you can get, except for availability on back to back days.  It's going to be really interesting seeing how they put that pen together for the playoffs.  There are some opportunities to make up for the guys on the IL by creative usage of their rotation depth with Patrick and even Quintana if he's available. 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

2 minutes ago, BarremlensTSSC said:

Patrick as a replacement for a DL Hall role is probably as close of an approximation as you can get, except for availability on back to back days.  It's going to be really interesting seeing how they put that pen together for the playoffs.  There are some opportunities to make up for the guys on the IL by creative usage of their rotation depth with Patrick and even Quintana if he's available. 

I'm pretty surprised that they haven't called up Robert Gasser to fill that role. They only thing I can figure is that they are trying to keep him on regular rest as part of the final stages of his rehab.

[willie key]

4 minutes ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

I'm pretty surprised that they haven't called up Robert Gasser to fill that role. They only thing I can figure is that they are trying to keep him on regular rest as part of the final stages of his rehab.

I would rather go with Patrick who is a known quantity than gasser who hasn’t pitched for the team all year and then you throw him in a playoff series?

I might be one of the few on here who actually likes Patrick as a pitcher.  I’d be fine with him finishing the season out as a starter

[Frisbee Slider]

The Dodgers need to sign additional aging free agents in the off-season to improve their chances of success in 2026

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

4 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

The Dodgers always sign additional aging free agents in the off-season to improve their chances of success every year

I updated your post to factually reflect the last 30 years.

[adambr2]

What an absolute taco organization that the Pittsburgh Pirates are.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Just now, adambr2 said:

What an absolute taco organization that the Pittsburgh Pirates are.

Oviedo must have gotten Skenes' memo to forget how to pitch when facing the Cubs.  Just a clown show

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Oviedo must have gotten Skenes' memo to forget how to pitch when facing the Cubs.  Just a clown show

He might be out of this game before he even records an out.

[Fear The Chorizo]

1 minute ago, adambr2 said:

He might be out of this game before he even records an out.

PCA to the rescue

[BruisedCrew]

Hopefully the Reds will win today to keep their fading playoff hopes alive. 

Maybe they can give the Cubs a fight in their four game series. 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

14 minutes ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

Oviedo must have gotten Skenes' memo to forget how to pitch when facing the Cubs.  Just a clown show

Apparently Joey Bart didn't get the memo. Now 4-3

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Cubs-Pirates now knotted at 4-4. With Boyd at 60 pitches and Oviedo at 54 through 2 innings, both teams will likely be dipping into the pen pretty quick.

[adambr2]

Civale has been a basically unhittable staple of the Cubs’ bullpen, because why wouldn’t he be. 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

5 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Civale has been a basically unhittable staple of the Cubs’ bullpen, because why wouldn’t he be. 

He had the opportunity to be a staple of Milwaukee's pen, but decided to piss and moan instead. Screw that guy. 

[formerlybis]

16 minutes ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

He had the opportunity to be a staple of Milwaukee's pen, but decided to piss and moan instead. Screw that guy. 

Weellll...

His complaining got us Andrew Vaughn. Where would we be without him? When Bauers and Hoskins both got injured, we'd have been playing Tyler Black for a while and probably going after someone akin to O'Hearn at the trade deadline. 

I get hating on a guy who's now doing the job that he balked at when we asked him to do it, though. Totally fair.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

I kind of figured this race was going to come down to the last week. Still might not, but the Brewers and Cubs have been two of the three best teams in the NL all year. Coming in to these past two series, you were hoping for the Rays and Pirates to each get one. It's looking like the Cubs will go 5-1. Still probably not enough, even if we only manage to split these next two against the Angels. But you never know.

I do think the Reds will manage a better showing. It's a big ask for the Cubs to get 3 of 4 in Cincy under these circumstances, facing the pitchers they'll face, and with their bullpen really having had to cover a lot of high-leverage innings (including today). Maybe they do it, in which case major hats off to them. You don't win divisions against very, very good competition by sleepwalking through the last two weeks. We've been a little spoiled in the regard recently.

Two bits of good news from my perspective:

1) It's not the worst thing in the world to get pushed down the stretch. Keep focused. Keep winning. Playing meaningful games later in the season is good for everyone in most ways. Honestly, the ideal scenario is you clinch with 3-5 games to go. That way, you can steal a week's worth of extra rest for the guys who need it without too long a lay off.

2) We're real close to clinching over the Padres and Dodgers, meaning the division means the bye. That's new, if we can pull it off. It would be worth a real big celebration and be a fitting cap to what might be the best regular season this team has ever had.

[dlk9s]

Civale still pitched pretty decently in the short time he was with the Brewers. I would have preferred him to not complain publicly, but at the same time, I don't blame him for being annoying about going to the pen.

[willie key]

Let’s just play good baseball again

[Brewcrew82]

20 minutes ago, willie key said:

Let’s just play good baseball again

We've won 3 of our last 4 since the unlucky Rangers sweep, including a 9-2 win last night....