Fear The Chorizo

Its why teams are still willing to shell out $30+M bucks a year for a top of the rotation starter, even in today's game - you hope they stay healthy and you can lean on them in playoff series. The Dodgers have 4 of them.

Regular season is borderline meaningless to the Dodgers

Its only $2M now because the Dodger TV deal can allow them to easily afford paying him $68M a year for a decade after he retires and not bat an eye while they're paying the next generational talent in 2035.

Yelich may not even be on the Dodger playoff roster

The only weakness this Dodgers team when it's moderately healthy has is the bullpen. When their starters give them 7 innings plus, they really can hide that weakness and limit how much risk to actually have it cost them games - especially when their offense grinds through a pitching staff in a long series. If Sasaki throws strikes, that really leaves only a few outs other relievers need to get. I posted this early in this game thread - the four starters the Brewers will face in games 1-4 carry an AAV contract number that exceeds total team payrolls of nearly 2/3rds of MLB rosters. The Dodgers can easily afford this due to deferred money gymnastics knowing their TV deal gives them roughly $350M annually just because its LA. Baseball can be random in the postseason - but when it has to be crazy random to even give a different team a prayer in a 7 game series, the game loses. Thats where we are at right now with this Dodgers team. Brewers pen is toasted in multiple spots and it isnt even the end of game 2, and their offense isnt getting enough guys on base to make it matter.

He got thrown out for out #4 when he did go

Oof - that was smoked

Its not like they are turtling in any obvious way. They just arent as talented and the rest of MLB can say the same thing. They are down 1 run - about to turn the lineup over for the third time. I wish Yamamoto had 30 more pitches though. Bauers just missed...

Thank you for proving me wrong!

I have bad feelings about this half inning...prove my gut wrong, please

Yelich missed that pitch by 2 feet

So not at all other than half the balls they hit in 3 innings

Both teams hitting the ball hard tonight

I'm referring to the fact that brewer hitters are getting themselves out swinging at balls when they should be trying to rack up Yamamoto's pitch count, and putting good swings on actual strikes. Nm, didnt take the time to read who posted this and then wasted more of my time responding to it.

Yamamoto will notch a complete game with 63 pitches at this rate

This compared to the Dodgers, who are forcing Peralta to come into the zone to get them out.

Those arent strikes guys

Game plan is apparently swing at will

Muncy on pace for 25 chances tonight

Freddy's breaking stuff is meat tonight. Going to have to get Yamamoto's pitch count up and have a big inning to win this game - Dodgers are going to hang 4-6 runs tonight just because

My post you quoted me had more to do with the decision on whether or not to start a defensive OF with Bauers at 1B and Vaughn on the bench against a righty starter, or throw Bauers in a corner OF spot with Vaughn staying at first - I get the idea of putting Mona in for Ortiz to start the game at SS...but I just don't see that dramatic an offensive upgrade between the two, and Mona could come off the bench later in the game to play other IF positions, too depending on how pitching matchups occur. It wouldn't be upsetting to me to see Mona starting in place of Ortiz tonight, but honestly if we're worried about what we'll get offensively from the #9 spot in the order between those two players the rest of the lineup didn't come through again. One think I'll add about the "run prevention" focus of the Brewers - it's long been something that's bothered me when it comes to how the Brewers build their postseason bench, and I think it really hamstrings them offensively when the pitching generally improves from the regular season marathon. They are a defense-1st everyday lineup in many spots (or at least "all-around player" for the regulars), and then most of their bench players are also utility-level players whose calling card is their glove, not their bat. I think the Brewers wasted a golden opportunity in September to get Hoskins a bunch more ABs than the 10 he got to try and get him in a good spot before the postseason. Hoskins was carrying this team offensively at times in April/May when they were really scuffling. A locked-in Hoskins on this playoff roster off the bench and even DHing against lefthanded pitching would be much more valuable than Lockridge, and the same argument could be made for him over Collins with how he's fallen apart late in the year at the plate. I get that the Brewers opted to "dance with who brought you" over the past 3 months of the season, but in a way they removed a potentially tough decision by not giving Hoskins a regular September role. It also stinks to me that the Brewers' primary RH bench bat with pop also happens to be their backup catcher, who essentially takes up a postseason roster spot and won't see the field unless Contreras gets injured in a game.

Snell won't get the ball again until Game 5, and he won't be starting Game 7 on two days' rest unless it's to give them an inning. But yeah, he's rolling right now.

True....but I still have zero idea what in the world Teoscar was doing at 3rd base on that play - as soon as the ball hits Frelick's glove he could have tagged and crawled home and made it safely in stead of going back to third, motioning to Smith to get back, and then heading for home. I was impressed by the left field ump's quick call of "safe" indicating it wasn't a catch, which would have been right in front of Will Smith, too. It took atrocious baserunning by the Dodgers for there to be 1 out recorded on that play, historically awful to turn it into a double play. No knock on the heads up defense by me saying that, either.

Its such a tough call, because the defense is the reason it was even a game into the 9th - Bauers has to be in the lineup against any righty starter, but I think he will be at 1st and they will have either Perkins or Collins in the lineup instead of Vaughn. Wishing Collins could get something going because he would be such a solid fit for what the lineup needs when he was going good, but he's done nothing offensively to inspire confidence lately.

Yamamoto has been on a run of great start, meh/bad start for awhile now...he scuffle against the Phillies last time out, so hopefully he isnt "on" tonight. Gotta make him throw strikes. Really need good Freddy for 6-7 innings tonight!