aaaaargh...as much as I'm pulling for my dude Randy and the Rays...the Dodgers are SO complete. If they get em...it's gonna go long. Rays in 7.

Our quest to be Titletown continues...

off his back.

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Mookie Betts. He can play all aspects of the game, and is such a throwback player to players like Rickey Henderson, Kenny Lofton, Kirby Puckett, etc.

And he did a perfect Petey at the plate.

with Mookie when they sat out

but, went with Tyler way too long. The Dodgers are too damn good...they had dude mastered by that 5th inning.

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The Rays got slapped around a little bit by the Dodgers. But that was just 1 game. I didn't wanna ring any alarms. If we got beat up like that again in game 2, then I would have been worried.

But we looked straight last night. Some of the bats that have been cold, finally warmed up. We managed to take homefield advantage from them and we're still right in the mix.

I hope we can keep the offense moving. I feel like we need to score first & keep the pressure on LA.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30165527/world-series-2020-how-brandon-lowe-got-swing-straightened-exactly-right

Thanks for that article.

That was a good matchup for Tampa.

Game 3 is a big one. Strong starters on the mound for both teams.

and is slowly becoming the most dominant PS pitcher in the history of baseball.

He is two postseason wins away from tying Bob Gibson’s record for most consecutive post season wins.

Ahhhaha

is the only African American on either team and overall declining numbers in MLB. Doug Glanville was on there and dropped some gems.

playing baseball is due to African Americans no longer being interested in the game. Baseball used to be the number 1 sport in Black America, going all the way back to the negro leagues.

That all changed when Michael Jordan came into the NBA. Kids no longer wanted to play strikeout or little league. They wanted to be like Mike, and it just went down hill from there.

As a kid, the only thing we cared about was baseball and playing little league all summer long. Now African Americans kids just care about basketball, and playing AAU all year around, followed up by football.


You could also throw hip hop in there as well. Kids started to focus on breakdancing, rhyming and djing over the summer. There were just so many new forms of recreation and expression that didn’t exist prior to the 80s....baseball had and has too many things to compete with in the African Americans community.

When the Michael Jordan’s, Dr.js, Magic Johnsons, the LL CooL Js, Run DMCs ,
Kool Moe Dees,etc, became the celebrities and hit fame, that is what kids started to
follow in the black communities.

The path to making millions and billions and becoming a celebrity was/is a lot quicker with basketball and football. That is what was being promoted on TV...Magic with the cons converse , Mike with the Jordan’s, the hip hop videos. Baseball took a huge backseat, because baseball players weren’t and aren’t marketed like that.

And the growth of basketball summer leagues and AAU in the 80s had kids leaving the diamond during the summer as well.

Just too much competition.

Look at the countries that Latin baseball players come from : Cuba, DR, Puerto Rico, Venezuela. Baseball is the number 1 sport, and really has no competition from any other sport. We all know that soccer is the number 1 sport in most Latin countries, and in those countries, like Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, etc, there are no baseball players coming from there. And if they are not playing soccer in those countries, they are playing basketball...A lot of nba players are from Argentina, Brazil, Spain, etc.

And with African American fans and players growing in hockey and soccer ...I just don’t see black kids going back to baseball. Kyler Murray ,Patrick Mahomes,and Russell Wilson got drafted to play baseball....and both passed on it to go play football.

decline in blacks in MLB coincide with the decline of the black family, the “war on drugs” etc.

More than any other sport baseball is a game that’s passed down from father to son.

because kids are introduced to sports through male figures. However, the demographics of African American athletes grew in other sports while baseball numbers dwindled.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/baseball-demographics-1947-2016/

The black demographics in baseball plateaued in the 1970s, while Football and Basketball numbers increased. Black kids just flipped sports

AFL-NFL merged to create the Super Bowl in the 70s. ABA-NBA merged creating mega stars like George Gervin and Dr.j. Kids wanting to go see them play at Rucker Park in the summer time instead of playing baseball.

Baseball had zero competition in the 40s,50s,60s...

So for me 3 factors pulled kids away

- football and basketball becoming more popular and entertaining
- the birth of hip hop in the black community in the late 70s
- crack cocaine era pulling kids into the streets to make easy money

I’m also willing to throw in the arcade and video game explosion of the late 70s and 80s as well. Kids wanting to hang out at the arcade during the summer, and staying at home playing Atari, Nitendo, etc.

So there isn’t just one factor, but so many factors across the board that pushed baseball to the back in the black community.

Made me google it. Technically have David Price, but he opted out this season.

Feels like we just had Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford, Howie Kendrick, Jimmy Rollins, Andrew Toles...

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I feel good that if this thing goes 7, he’ll be that game 7 starter.

Game 4 is HUGE. Urias has been outstanding this year....last year too, it was just out of the bullpen.

Sentimental side of me really wants to see Kershaw win it and Jansen close it in game 5. Career Dodgers and the best at their positions for a time.

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That’s twice, though Muncy’s was a tough break.

If he was in LF with Bellinger in CF.

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Fuck this beer league shit.

He pitched pretty good Game 1, but his playoff rep obviously still looms

Meanwhile Glasnow has it in him to be unhittable, though def hasn't shown it in the playoffs.

Majority of his “chokes” where when they pitched him on short rest or brought him out of the bullpen, or left him in too long. Or when Houston was cheating.

even now, LA fans are clamoring that Kershaw win the decisive game or get the last out as a redemption fantasy

Roberts needs to treat him as the guy who has a 4.22 ERA in the postseason. not Clayton Kershaw the Hall of Famer.

Because they’ve used him like “normal” and not like he’s some magical “bail us out” robot.

Just use him like you would all year. I’d expect him to be fine. Hopefully the bullpen will be better than last night.

And hopefully we won’t just hand Tampa multiple outs(running the bases dumb and bunting rockets at the 3rd baseman smh), especially if they’re struggling to get us out.

Kershaw is definitely a mediocre postseason pitcher (it's fact -- 183 innings and 4.22 ERA is not the fault of all the managers he's had)

so I guess I agree -- treat him like a regular pitcher and PULL HIS ASS when he starts sucking

if you took out the relief appearances and short rest starts.

And ignore that Houston rocked him in Houston when they were cheating, but couldn’t touch him in Dodger Stadium.

I read somewhere that an extraordinarily high number of his runners inherited by relievers have scored too. Like way over league average.

He has had his struggles he’s had to own, but a lot of it has been him being asked to do things that nobody else is asked to do, and bad luck. Hopefully he shuts that narrative up tonight.

>Kershaw is definitely a mediocre postseason pitcher (it's
>fact -- 183 innings and 4.22 ERA is not the fault of all the
>managers he's had)

Kershaw has had struggles in the postseason and his managers have mismanaged it. they said on the broadcast last night his career postseason ERA in the 7th inning and on is over 7 (think they said it's under 3 in the first 6 innings), Yet before they repeatedly pitched him into the 7th and on and left him in when he was struggling, started him on short rest, and brought him in from the bullpen to detrimental effect. They've done a better job managing his outings this postseason and he's responded accordingly.


>so I guess I agree -- treat him like a regular pitcher and
>PULL HIS ASS when he starts sucking

pretty much.

So blame the managers. Stats have already proven that Kershaw falls apart from
the 6th inning on up.

Crazy thing is that baseball introduced Sabermetrics but some of these teams just disregard it.

I remember one game where kershaw blew off the manager to come out. It’s like dude you suck once the game hits the sixth inning....yank him, period. Managers need to be more like Pat Riley.

I wouldn’t expect you to get the facts right on it though, lol.

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>So blame the managers. Stats have already proven that Kershaw
>falls apart from
>the 6th inning on up.

7th inning and up in the postseason.


>I remember one game where kershaw blew off the manager to come
>out. It’s like dude you suck once the game hits the sixth
>inning....yank him, period. Managers need to be more like Pat
>Riley.

right, that's on the manger.

He isn’t a Andy Petite, Madbum, or an Orel Hershiser. If he can’t locate that slider in the PO, he gets nervous. So he starts to go to the fastball and gets rocked. ...Chris Sale gets into the same type of trouble when his slider isn’t working, but he has an 100 mph fastball to get out of jams.

I would give him a mandatory 6 inning schedule, bring in middle relief for 2-3innings, then go to my closer. I’ve seen the manager wait until he gets into serious trouble to yank him...bases are often juiced, putting pressure on the next picture.

His PO pitching is too weak to push anything past 6or 7 innings...I don’t care how lights he is.

>He isn’t a Andy Petite, Madbum, or an Orel Hershiser. If he

Tommy rode Orel to a championship and his arm was shot after age 30 as a result.

>can’t locate that slider in the PO, he gets nervous. So he
>starts to go to the fastball and gets rocked. ...Chris Sale
>gets into the same type of trouble when his slider isn’t
>working, but he has an 100 mph fastball to get out of jams.

Sale has a career 5.76 postseason ERA.


>I would give him a mandatory 6 inning schedule, bring in
>middle relief for 2-3innings, then go to my closer. I’ve
>seen the manager wait until he gets into serious trouble to
>yank him...bases are often juiced, putting pressure on the
>next picture.

yeah we all agree on this.


>His PO pitching is too weak to push anything past 6or 7
>innings...I don’t care how lights he is.

he closed out Milwaukee in the WC with 8 shutout innings + 13Ks. If he's rolling he can still go 7-8 innings. But generally speaking 6 innings, which is pretty standard in today's game even for #1 starters.

he's right out of central casting, for a right hand, power pitcher. He can overpower any hitter in the league, but he misses so many curve ball setups. It's like he's trying to overthrow the curve, instead if locating it. The Dodgers will beat his ass, if all he can throw is fastballs. Also...he and Zunino seem to have shitty communication.

>he's right out of central casting, for a right hand, power
>pitcher. He can overpower any hitter in the league, but he
>misses so many curve ball setups. It's like he's trying to
>overthrow the curve, instead if locating it. The Dodgers will
>beat his ass, if all he can throw is fastballs. Also...he and
>Zunino seem to have shitty communication.

.

This pitcher sucks and can’t get people out! Stop doing it for him! Same story as yesterday. Another horrific slide.

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Especially with a runner on base. 0 outs

His slider is some shit tonight, that’s the problem. “Rattled”...smh.

He gave up 2 runs.

And the following inning he gave up two walks, runners on first and third.

Rays messed up the inning by trying to steal home. But they had him rattled that inning but blew it. Could come back to hurt the rays. They could have easily scored a couple of runs but did stupid base running.

He would’ve went through with the pitch or balked and given up the run. Someone struggling for a stretch doesn’t mean he’s rattled. And I agree that was a big play and a huge help for Kershaw. But he handled it perfectly once he noticed it.

Rattled means struggling.. or in a jam..that’s all it means.

It just simple means he was in trouble. And the rays let him off the hook by playing dumb Baseball. But he was definitely rattled that inning ( in trouble)

Let’s not get into semantics.

Should be noted that he settled in after putting the first two on and got a pop out and strike out, and the Rays saw it slipping away and got desperate enough to try that.

with two outs and runners on base, and still early in the game?

You got a pitcher struggling in the inning, you got the momentum ....all they had to
Do was continue to work him. He had already walked two batters in the inning.

That was bad baseball. Wrong time for a squeeze play .

Pulled him in the sixth as his command and location started missing, and hitters were getting some pop. He wasn’t super sharp...

Pitched 5 2/3 innings.

Pulled him to prevent the choke.

Who is the red head kid? He looks strong

After a 1-2-3 5th. You don’t even pay attention.

he had a rough start but hung in there and persevered and got better as he went. Solid start.

May is a top prospect who came up midway through last year and was a starter all regular season this year.

John smoltz was stating all night even as he was being taken out, That Clayton didn’t have his best stuff, and was not locating his pitches. He got the 2 outs but clearly you could see the batters making good contact, and it was just a matter of time ...plus factor in the previous inning where he was struggling.

It was a smart move, because his command was clearly on a downtrend. So the proactive move prevented another choke....Take him out in the 6th in the PO, should always be the move.

I have no horse in the race. I’m just an American league guy.

He didn’t have his best stuff tonight but the 5th and 6th were his easiest innings.

Regardless....solid start, he did his job, and he’s been good the entire playoffs this year.

I like his command and confidence.


Now the dodgers can’t make another change until he faces 3 batters. Crazy move

Rays got a little life here.

surprised rays didn’t send both runners for a double steal with one out.



But I guess it wouldn’t hard enough like trying to steal home plate...

4-1 in the 2020 postseason!

Rays had some chances, but couldn’t break through, and made some bad decisions. They didn’t capitalize when they had Kershaw in a jam.

Dodgers sustained and didn’t make mistakes. These types of games are decided by the managers ..questionable pitching change, but they survived.

I still think this goes 7 games, but Rays have to play smarter.

play that he is not getting enough credit for.

play to make with Kershaw watching the runner at 1st and the runner playing it cool not reacting when Margot broke for home so Margot got a big jump and Kershaw had to keep presence of mind and step off the rubber before throwing home or it would've been a balk. great play and shows how locked in mentally Kershaw really is.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/world-series-rays-manuel-margot-thrown-out-trying-to-steal-home-vs-dodgers-clayton-kershaw-in-game-5/

Steals of home are chaotic and Kershaw did a great job not balking there. He stepped off and threw home. Lots of times you'll see pitchers, even veterans like Kershaw, panic and fling the ball to the plate, and wind up balking the run in. Kershaw (and Barnes) had to be perfect there and they were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0ZfJuwGN2E

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I left out the G, cuz the G ain’t in him.

against these dudes.

That said, it is Betts

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https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1321277660153192454?s=19

If Cash leaves him in and it happens again he was gonna get roasted for that as well. It was a hard choice tbh, I only wouldve left him in based on the Dodgers still looking baffled but i totally get taking him out.
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IG @erichrigonan

dude was not even working hard.

Does Roberts continue to ride out Urias until he gets into trouble or does Roberts bring in Jansen for a clean inning?

It's a little different now that the Dodgers are up 2 rather than 1.

But why go against what's working?

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fences.

Hopefully, Betts can influence black athletes to stick with baseball when they get drafted. He is what Russell Wilson, Mahomes, and Murray would/could have been had they stayed with baseball.

If true, that's just stupid beyond words.

I just hope they have the sense to keep him away from Vin Scully and LaSorda.

https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/1321319728808382465

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Urias has been that good. Amazing!!

https://twitter.com/bushleague101/status/1321310224205053953?s=21

I assumed he had a stuttering problem or something, and I’d just never really heard him talk so I didn’t know.

I’ve never heard him talk I don’t think.

They're a machine. Kershaw is unreal, Betts is the future and Seager & Turner murdered us.

The focus is gonna be on Cash pulling Snell. I think I might have left him in to make it thru the meat of LA's lineup. The kid had been lights out. And to be honest, there were a few other big mistakes that hurt our chances throughout this series. And our bats just got cold, especially with cats on base.

But I'm proud of this team, man. We were a legit power this season. This was a fun season and really helpful for us being locked up in the house due to the pandemic.

In my wildest dreams, we would win the World Series and a flood of money would somehow flow into Tampa, enough to build a dope-ass, covered stadium on this side of the bay (and near my crib too) and put that asinine Montreal idea to bed.

But in real life, I'm just curious to see how we look whenever the next opening day is. #RaysUp

positive test have affected Game 7?

If he was chillin' with it in the dugout, he could have infected several other teammates. They wouldn't have been able to play in game 7, right?

On the real, I wouldn't have wanted that to be how it went down.

>
> If he was chillin' with it in the dugout, he could have
>infected several other teammates. They wouldn't have been able
>to play in game 7, right?
>

but at that point you have to finish the season I’d think.

would've came back and said it was a "false positive" and kept it moving

>would've came back and said it was a "false positive" and
>kept it moving

first test came back early in game, they expedited the second test and that also came back positive in the 7th inning so they pulled him. Would’ve been tough to keep that quiet

plane and fly back to LA unless its a charter the rules may be different.

like MLB has done all fucking season

Justin Turner's selfish World Series celebration is a symptom of a much larger problem
https://sports.yahoo.com/justin-turners-selfish-celebration-is-a-symptom-of-a-much-larger-problem-152422116.html

Justin Turner's selfish World Series celebration is a symptom of a much larger problem

Jay BusbeeYahoo SportsOct 28, 2020, 10:24 AM
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You’d think baseball, of all sports, would know the dangers of celebrating before the final out is in the books. You’d think the Dodgers, just three days removed from one of the most wrenching last-second defeats in World Series history, would realize that a game’s not over just because you want it to be.

And yet baseball might have just managed to blow a 10-run, two-out, two-strike, bottom-of-the-ninth lead on COVID-19, all because Justin Turner had to get his picture with the World Series trophy after being pulled from the lineup in the 8th inning for testing positive.

I don’t know what it’s like to win a World Series, and probably neither do you. But here’s what we all do know: We know what it’s like to go months without hugging our distant loved ones. We know what it’s like to watch children wear cute little masks, unaware of how heartbreaking that is. We know what it’s like to stare, day after day, at the same walls, at the same computer screen. We know what it’s like to worry about the health of our older relatives, worry about the effects on kids kept out of school, worry about our jobs and our mental health. We know difficult times demand difficult choices.

So, yeah, when you see someone like Turner just casually flaunting the hard-and-fast, no-gray-area rules a billion-dollar industry put in place to preserve some sense of normalcy (yes, and financial solvency) — it doesn’t go over so well. You see Turner — a guy who, again, literally just tested positive for COVID-19 — happily partying mask-off among his teammates, the same way you see beachgoers or attendees at a rally mingling up cheek-to-cheek, and you want to rip your television off the wall.

Justin Turner (bottom, middle) celebrates with teammates after winning the World Series. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Justin Turner (bottom, middle) celebrates with teammates after winning the World Series. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
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Make no mistake: This isn’t about mask-shaming or pearl-clutching scare tactics about “what might happen if.” This is science. The dude had a positive test. This isn’t “acceptable risk.” This is willfully endangering others — and their kids, and their older relatives — in the midst of a new surge for a few minutes of celebration.

I know all the smug defenses — the almost-certain survival rate for someone in Turner’s demographic; the relatively low possibility of transmission in an open-air environment; the fact that he might have already infected teammates before the test results were known; the whole aw, come on, let ’em celebrate mindset. I also know that you only need to look as far as the Dodgers’ bullpen to see what COVID-19 can do to even healthy pro athletes.

Closer Kenley Jansen contracted COVID-19 prior to the start of the season, and it wracked him for two full weeks. "Recovering from COVID was tough," Jansen told ESPN this week. "You still feel side effects once in a while. Your body feels — I don't know, fighting it."

Turner is the focus here, but he’s not the scapegoat; he had plenty of enablers along the way. Baseball and the Dodgers have plenty to answer for here too. After a stumbling start with multiple infections across several teams, the cries of “Shut it down!” surged. But baseball found its footing and pressed on, and like the NBA and NHL, played for weeks on end — 58 straight days, until Turner — without a positive test. That’s an admirable testament — plus a healthy share of good luck — to the league and the players who sacrificed for a greater purpose.

But the league owes the Dodgers a fruit basket for winning Tuesday night. Had baseball adhered to its own guidelines, Game 7 would have likely been postponed, with many of Turner’s teammates potentially quarantined as well. A Game 6 victory prevented that public-relations nightmare, but couldn’t prevent the terrible optics of Turner sitting on the field, unmasked and grinning, amid dozens of teammates and team officials.

Team and league security officials apparently tried to stop Turner from rejoining his teammates, but he was determined to push through, regardless of what it meant for everyone around him. And, apparently, he had some accomplices willing to bend the rules on his behalf.

“We’re going to get him a picture, then get him off ,” one Dodgers official said, according to The Athletic. “We can’t deny him that. The guy is the heart and soul of the organization.”

This is the conflict that’s at the heart of the entire coronavirus response in America. We don’t want to deny ourselves any good times — the parties, the hangouts, the World Series celebrations — even if it means spreading the virus further, even if it just means extending the date when America returns to “normal” far past that of so many other countries that have curbed the virus’ spread.

Sure, anyone with a shred of empathy would feel bad for Turner, having to sit on a folding chair in some sterile Globe Life Stadium back room, watching his teammates celebrate one of their life’s highlights just a few feet away. But how many millions of Americans have missed out on celebrating less-televised — but no less meaningful — moments of their own? Birthdays, graduations, reunions, holidays — all sacrificed in the name of the greater good. I’d love to have a World Series-style dogpile with my extended family on Thanksgiving. But that’s not happening this year, not for me, probably not for you, and not for most Americans.

We’re all looking for pandemic solutions. In the absence of solutions, we’re looking for hope. And in the absence of hope, we’re looking for anyone to tell us relax, this isn’t really all that bad, regardless of whether they have any idea what they’re talking about. Turner and all the other Americans who continue to hang out in crowds, mingle up close in bars, attend crowded rallies and weddings and parties are in effect saying, “See? This is no big deal!”

If only that were the truth.

The World Series is done. The much larger, far more important battle isn’t even close to being over.