Switched shifts to see the game. Saturday have work as well 2-8... please make me cut out early, boys.
Greinke Could Pitch In Potential Game 7 Dodgers Nation -- 9 hours ago Zack Greinke kept the Dodgers alive in the NLCS by winning Game 5 and sending the series back to St. Louis for Game 6. Greinke was great in seven innings, allowing two earned runs, six hits and threw a total of 104 pitches. The Dodgers will have Clayton Kershaw on the mound in Game 6 and are hopeful he can lead the Dodgers to a deciding Game 7 on Saturday. For the Cardinals, they’ll have Michael Wacha on the mound, but if Kerhsaw can pitch a gem, this series will come down to one final game. Hyun-Jin Ryu would get the start in Game 7 and although he already beat Adam Wainwright in Los Angeles, he would be facing a tough test on the road. Regardless, Greinke said that he would be available to pitch out of the bullpen. It’s important to note that a Game 7 is only possible if the Dodgers win Game 6, but if they can force it, it’s good to know they’ll have a former Cy Young winner in the bullpen. Greinke had two great outings against the Cardinals and in the postseason, he’s pitched 15 innings and has an ERA of 2.57. __
jessica ramos @_jesssssie Dodgers will kill the Cardinals tomorrow! Haha pic.twitter.com/3acH1XGRIz 12:38 AM - 18 Oct 13
2013 NLCS: Los Angeles Dodgers more confident heading to St. Louis to face Cardinals By Dave Sheinin | The Washington Post No wonder the Dodgers appear more confident despite trailing in the NLCS: Their next man up is the game’s best pitcher: Clayton Kershaw. (Jeff Curry/Associated Press) ST. LOUIS — It was around the time Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez put his hands to the side of his head and wiggled his fingers at his own dugout Wednesday afternoon that the National League Championship Series became a referendum on one pressing (though rarely considered) question: Does Mickey Mouse have a place in baseball? The Dodgers, having recently embraced their inner Mickey, would undoubtedly answer “yes.” With the NLCS set to resume with Game 6 on Friday night at Busch Stadium, they have the appearance of a loose, confident, freewheeling bunch — despite the circumstances that remain stacked against them: They still trail the St. Louis Cardinals in the best-of-seven series, 3-2, and to earn a berth in the World Series must win a pair of games this weekend in a stadium where the Cardinals are 17-3 since the start of September. “If you’re not having fun in the playoffs,” said Gonzalez, the Dodgers’ unlikely ringleader, “then you don’t deserve to be here.” Beneath the Dodgers’ loose demeanor is a quiet confidence, undoubtedly stemming in large part from the fact they will be sending the best pitcher in baseball, lefty Clayton Kershaw, to the mound in Game 6 to face Cardinals rookie Michael Wacha in a rematch of Game 2. In that game, neither pitcher allowed an earned run, but the Cardinals stole a 1-0 victory via an unearned run off Kershaw in the fifth inning. The Dodgers clearly believe they will benefit from having seen Wacha — who will be making just his 12th big league start — five days earlier. “Now that we’ve faced him and have an idea how he’s going to attack us,” Gonzalez said, “we . . . feel more confident definitely seeing him a second time.” If the Dodgers win Friday night to force a Game 7, it would be Dodgers lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu facing Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright. When they faced off in Game 3, Ryu outpitched Wainwright in a 3-0 Dodgers win. The Dodgers’ lefty-lefty starting pitcher combo this weekend gives them one significant advantage: The Cardinals were one of the worst offensive teams in baseball this season against lefties, hitting just .238 (27th in the majors) with a .672 OPS (26th). But increasingly, this series has become less a matchup of pitchers vs. batters than one of competing ideologies. Never was that more evident than in the three games just completed at Dodger Stadium — highlighted by the polarizing showboating of Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig and Gonzalez’s own antics and the Cardinals disapproving reactions to each. Despite what he said about simply having fun, Gonzalez — typically a quiet, dour sort — is too smart, too experienced and too wily for anyone to believe his antics were merely a childish expression of frivolity. More likely, he saw an opportunity in the escalation of a simmering feud between the teams over baseball decorum and used that opportunity to both loosen up his own struggling teammates and get under the skin of his opponents. On both points, Gonzalez appears to have succeeded. The Dodgers enter Game 6 on the heels of Wednesday’s emphatic 6-4 win at Dodger Stadium, in which Gonzalez himself hit two home runs. On the first of these, he flashed his “mouse ears” sign at his dugout — an obvious reference to comments made by Wainwright after Game 3, when he accused Gonzalez of “some Mickey Mouse stuff” during that game. Once the Dodgers knew their antics were grating on the Cardinals’ nerves, their natural response was to crank up the dial. “I’m pretty sure it rubbed them the wrong way, and they’re going to use that as some kind of fuel,” Dodgers left fielder Carl Crawford said to Gonzalez following the Game 5 win. “So you might as well keep doing it.” The Cardinals, of course, won’t acknowledge they are bothered by the Dodgers’ antics. But they don’t have to. It’s obvious. “Other teams are going to do whatever they need to do in order to prepare themselves and have their guys ready,” Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny said Thursday. “As far as getting under our guys’ skin — our guys want to compete. We’re not out there to make friends. We’re not out there to do anything except win.” __
Hanley and-or Ethier have to do something for us to win. Amazing how far we've got this series carrying this dead weight. Kelly should have been K.O'd by now. What he did to our best positional player was premeditated, filthy, yet highly effective.
Good. Big balls Zack to the rescue if Ryu chokes. I like how the WS starts on Wednesday, allowing us to start with CK...
