so taylor 9th huh? really overdoing the r/l thing or maybe hit taylor 5th and smith 9th?... Betts RF Seager SS Turner 3B Muncy 1B Smith C Bellinger CF Pollock LF Pederson DH Taylor 2B
Something of note: The A's moved into the #2 seed spot with yesterday's win. It's looking like the #2 seed in the AL will open the playoffs against Cleveland whereas the #3 seed will open against Houston. I don't know how much the A's are into controlling their own destiny but I would think they'd rather face the Astros, who they have handled easily this season, than Bieber and the Indians. With the White Sox and Twins fighting for the AL Central, the A's could easily slip back down to 3rd with a losing streak to finish the season. If you like conspiracies, look for the Dodgers to have an oddly easy win tonight.
on the nl side, i'd really hate to have to face the reds in the first round bauer, gray and castillo in a best of three... that's a nightmare
Since the Grisham game Belli has a .393/.500/.714 slash line with 2 HR in 8 Games. Muncy's 2 HR's in the last 2 games is a great sign as well. Both these guys getting going now would be unquestionably huge, especially with the levels that Smith, Seager, Betts and Taylor have been playing at. With Pollock and Turner being merely just steady bats, that leaves the DH as the only issue. Rios and Pederson need lots of AB's in the final games to determine who that role should belong to.
I think they were doing that in case of a short outing from someone else and then they are needed to come in early to knock out multiple innings. Then go to a bullpen game where they were. This totally relies on score, imo as they would only want to bring these guys in if it's close or the Dodgers are up and they want to seal the deal. They very well could go Kershaw/May G1, Buehler/Urias G2, Gonsolin G3 and have a loaded/rested bullpen. Yes this changes in the next round, but if they have the chance to end things in 3, they may look to do that and adjust if they have to.
I knew the Dodger schedule was soft, but I didn't realize the only two teams they've played currently above .500 are the Pads and the A's. Not sure how that plays past the first round of the playoffs.
They’re actually hot rn. Maybe we should lose to them in hopes the Rangers can knock the Astr*s out of the playoffs
Maybe the asterisk might mean: "more difficult than the regular season by far because of multilevel fucking insanity. And a plague"....
We just looked like the better team in this series, really only one a bad performance by Kelly and Treinen. Good win. Bellinger looks good. Let’s close out season healthy and hot