NATS/DODGERS

Last year they announced start times for Games 1 & 2 two days before the game.
(October 2 announcement, October 4th game day). First pitch last season was at 5:37 PT.
The time slots on TBS right now are 2 PM and 5:30 PM PT.
So, you can pretty much guarantee the Dodgers will be playing at 5:37 on Thursday.
There's no way they would have a 2:00 local time start in LA and then an 8:30 local time start in Atlanta.
They'll keep it 5:07 local in Atlanta and then 5:37 local in LA.

 

It may have been a few years ago, but I’m pretty sure the Dodgers have been given the day game, even though they were the only Pacific Time game. I want to say the Cubs or Cardinals were given the night game.

 

That’s awesome, have fun over there. And you’ll be back in time to watch us lose the World Series, that’s all the matters.

 

2016 Cubs
It was a West coast day game after an east coast night game (travel day was lost to weather). It was ridiculous

 

I looked it up, and there was another PST game that day - Cubs at Giants. Technically I can't find a scenario where the Dodgers were given the day game in LA and then the night game was played on the East Coast. I will assume Game 1 is at 5:20.

 

"I have never seen a pitcher-fan relationship like King Felix and Seattle."
--Chris Rose

Fernando says hola, pkuto

Racist

 

I'm interested to see what the Friday schedule is, because I think that will make the rest of the game times more predictable.

I don't know if they will flip-flop the Day/Night games. I could be wrong (I was wrong earlier), but generally they pick one matchup as the prime-time matchup and they will get all the good slots. 2016 NLDS we played ALL early games while the Cubs v. Giants got all the primetime slots. 2018 we got all the prime-time slots and the Brewers v. Rockies got all the early games.

 

Just another reason to root for Milwaukee. A 6:37 Thursday night start would be great.

 

Dodgers finish just 2 wins shy of the Yankees for the most wins this decade. Giants #14.
They have 3 WS
Fuck baseball

 

Oh absolutely

 

Thanks Vince! Very true - really looking forward to coming back from a fun and enjoyable trip, only to have my heartbroken a third year in a row!

 

I assume that doesn’t include postseason wins. Dodgers lead the Yankees 31-19 in that category.

 

WB the key to LAD's postseason success..of course.
WB the key to the entire playoffs? Don't know about that one. I'd lean towards Brent Strom as the key to the entire playoffs

 

Man, I somehow missed this one yesterday.... that would certainly be something to have Kersh in the pen for the playoffs. I have been thinking that they could go Buehler-Ryu-Kersh-Buehler(short rest)-Ryu in the first round, but maybe instead they go Buehler(short leash)/Kersh-Ryu-Hill-Buehler/Kersh. The thinking could be that they say "fuck it", let's win this shit any way we can and Kershaw is fine with that/ all for it. This would not be a great strategy in a 7 game series, but they could still use Kersh out of the pen multiple times.

 

I'm hoping this is the plan.

Buehler and Ryu are set for games 1 and 2, Hill is set for either Game 3 or 4, and Kershaw is a fluid piece. If Buehler is dealing, they will let him go deep in Game 1 and we might just see Kershaw for an inning, but if he struggles Kershaw would be available for 4, 5, or more innings in game 1. I don't know quite how it maps out in a 7-game series, but they could go with a modified version of the same thing. In this setup, Kershaw isn't the traditional #1 Ace in the series, but it's not hard to envision him as the most important piece in that scheme.

 

I actually think this is a case of them being reactive and proactive at the same time. They are reacting to the past two WS losses where they faced a team with a shit/struggling bullpen and still couldn't pull off the win. The offense and our starting pitching did a relatively great job off putting the team in an opportunity to win the game most nights, but bullpen let downs cost us multiple games. Meanwhile, across the diamond we watched a starter or two... or more come out of the bullpen and completely shut us down. Two starters came out of our pens in that time that were somewhat dominant and that was Maeda (vs RH'ers in '17) and Kershaw ('17 & '18), while no other one could say close to the same. This year our pen very well could have at least 5 starters in it with Maeda, Gonsolin, Stripling, Urias and May that have shown the skillset to handle the duties. Adding Kersh to that mix could impact opposing lineups greatly.

Another thing to think about is it is taking Kershaw an inning to get comfortable these days and is regularly getting rocked out the gate. The thought process could be that Kershaw, after the other team has seen someone else, could benefit from a different look and teams needing an inning to adjust back could put themselves behind the 8 ball if they don't tag him early.