adambr2

I'm not following this logic at all. Yes, you just need one out. So wouldn't you want to face a pitcher who gives you far and away the best chance at getting that one out? The optimal move would have been to walk Bellinger to get to Grandal. Set up a force at third or second and face a struggling hitter. Walking the bases loaded? Hell no ... and I don’t care if the pitcher was up or not. Guerra was tiring and he’s a breaking ball pitcher. There would have been a high probability of a ball going in the dirt. Remember ... MACHADO WAS IN SCORING POSITION IN THE FIRST PLACE DUE TO A WILD PITCH! Game over if there’s another one. Given how tired he was and the stakes, there was a decent probability he might walk the pitcher, who, given the situation, would be ordered not to swing the bat. Game over at that point. I saw one analyst surmise that he could have thrown BP fastballs and got the out. I find that dubious, and even so, are you willing to stake a playoff game on that? I think the only thing Counsell should have done was walk Bellinger. Everything else is 20/20 hindsight at its worst. Bellinger was "struggling" too, so no your logic here is flawed. 1 for 21 entering that AB. Simple solution to your concerns about Guerra, put in Cedeno. Guerra wasn't going another inning anyway. If Cedeno can't throw 3 pitches in the strike zone, well, too bad, but there's sure a lot better chance at Bellinger or Grandal coming up with a single. Am I willing to stake a playoff game on being able to retire a pitcher? Uh, yeah, a lot more so than that same exhausted pitcher being able to retire a position player. And it's not "20/20 hindsight" whatsoever as people were saying to do this at the time and Counsell himself said that Grandal was going to be walked to load the bases next.

Here's a guy who has contributed this postseason: Manny Pina, who has gotten 12 plate appearances in the playoffs. He's reached base 8 times, a .667 OBP. He's also well above average defensively. But no one notices his contributions, because he can't buy an AB while Erik Kratz is killing the offense at the bottom of the order. It's baffling.

He isn't going to be benched and shouldn't, but he has a .638 OPS this postseason; to call that showing up is pretty generous. If he's shown up to both series' I would say Orlando Arcia has definitely shown up to both. I would be more comfortable with Braun back at #5 where he had more success this season, but I don't know what they can really do. Aguilar is tough to trust right now. I'd just like to see Braun (or anyone) start driving the ball a little more as we just aren't picking these guys up when they get on base. I don't know that benching Aguilar to get Santana here is the right call either. At this point you probably just have to stick with what got you here and hope a couple of them are ready to break out the next 2 games.

Yeah Braun is not doing enough either. Had a nice 3 for 6 the other night but still only 5 for 21 in the series and hitting for almost no pop. The problem is first that L.A. has too many lefties which don't match up well for Granderson. Secondly that guys like him and Santana can only play the OF. They deserve to play, but Braun isn't getting benched right now. It's a terrible time for Yelich to slump but we could get away with it if Braun and Aguilar were picking them up. They are not.

I believe Counsell said the plan was to not give Bellinger anything to hit, in the hope he might chase. Then they would have walked Grandal to get to the pitcher. But Junior caught too much of the plate, and Bellinger smoked it. In hindsight, that's the whole point of an intentional walk. Again, I'm a Counsell fan. I think any rational fan is. But that's an incredibly bad plan when you're up to a 50 pitch outing for a guy who hasn't been stretched out to pitch that long since August and was already missing his spots. It wasn't a big surprise that he mlssed his spot to Bellinger. It was an awful matchup for Junior, regardless. If Cedeno cannot be used for that situation he is useless to have.

It's on par with Kotsay in CF. It's more forgiveable though, because it was made in the heat of the moment. Kotsay required actual aforethought.

I'm not following this logic at all. Yes, you just need one out. So wouldn't you want to face a pitcher who gives you far and away the best chance at getting that one out? The only marginal defense of it is that walking 2 to get to the pitcher in that spot guarantees the middle of their order comes up the next inning, and CC wanted to try and leave as many "easier" outs in the current Dodger batting order for the bottom of the 14th. To win that game they were going to need to get at least 4 more outs without giving up a run. I'm not saying it's the right move, but that had to factor in the equation. What ticks me off is the fact Guerra was in that spot against Bellinger, in large part because the Brewers' situational lefty who was still available can't be counted on to get a lefty out (Cedeno). Last two games have been disappointing, obviously...but I'm hoping this ride doesn't end in a couple days - really want to see the offense wake up with some home cooking and get things to a game 7 winner take all scenario! I buy your logic, but I disagree with it a lot. Get to that next inning is all that mattered. The Dodgers were out of pitchers and going to be forced to use a future starter. Cody Bellinger is way too talented of a bat to take a chance with when the winning run is in scoring position and 2 out when you literally have the option of making the pitcher bat in the same situation. I think what Counsell also feared is using more pitchers and not having them for today. I love CC, wouldn't want any other manager. But he was locked in a game of extra inning chicken with Roberts to see who was going to blink first and worry about something other than the moment at hand, right now. And he lost.

Never really felt like today was going to be a good one for us, even up 1-0. You cannot ask the pitching to continue to be perfect every single day to have a chance. If we don't figure out how to get the bats going now, we're done. Still time, but it's the last chance. Game 4 is going to be the one that really haunts the offense in the offseason if they can't still pull this out.

I'm not following this logic at all. Yes, you just need one out. So wouldn't you want to face a pitcher who gives you far and away the best chance at getting that one out?

Moose seemingly about 0 for 700 this series.

While he is a great story I cannot understand this team's infatuation with Kratz. Pina is having a great series, but he isn't playing. Kratz is not a guy who should be playing daily in the NLCS.

What an absolutely mind numbingly stupid move not to walk Bellinger after the steal. Sorry, Junior. You deserved better. Shame on you, offense.

Disgusted with this offense. Cain, Moose, and Schoop all equally useless tonight.

Cain. Just awful.

That seems like it would be a tremendous disadvantage for us.

How about we just hit it better? The taking of 0-0 main street fastballs gets old, too.

One incredibly quick out.

If we don't score here I think I have to just mentally prepare for a loss and get some sleep. I do still require sleep and work 12 hours tomorrow.

I think there is a good possibility of that. Gio would be done for the playoffs. Brewers could add Davies or Anderson, maybe? Anderson hasn't thrown in a month. Davies is probably the safer call.

If so is there a 10 day DL limiting his WS eligibility? Thought someone said if you remove an injured player from your roster in the playoffs he can't return later. Not that Gio would be an enormous loss from the World Series roster.

At this point we have no one to put in for him, so he isn't going anywhere.

I don’t think that’s how it works... Well, one still hopes.

God this offense is hapless. I thought maybe the Machado incident would spark them to life, but nope. Nothing doing.

So, probably 3 ejections and 3 free baserunners? In a low scoring NLCS?

I want this game about twice as much as I did 10 minutes ago if that's possible.