12/21/24
October 11, 2012
SportsFilter: The Thursday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Hamilton was using Matthew 10:14 against the Rangers the day after the playoff exit. That does not suggest he's looking for reasons to stay in Texas.
posted by rcade at 08:48 AM on October 11, 2012
Sending a campus photo to a potential recruit? Don't use any Instagram filters.
posted by yerfatma at 09:11 AM on October 11, 2012
Well the Reds totally choked against the Giants today. The game ended on a Scott Rolen strikeout. The Reds had two men on base for each of the last 4 innings and they only managed to score one run during that time. Mat Latos gave up a grand slam home run as well.
The thing that really gets me is if Brandon Phillips hadn't been greedy going for 3rd and hadn't gotten thrown out there early in game 3 the Reds would have won game 3 by a score of 2-1 and the series would have ended right there. That play not only cost them the game it cost them the series.
Also, the Reds need to either get rid of Drew Stubbs or teach him to hit or send him back down to AAA. He had maybe one hit all five games and generally just struck out, popped out or grounded out.
A really sorry effort by the Reds facing elimination. So much for their great season.
posted by insomnyuk at 05:09 PM on October 11, 2012
There's always a lot of ifs and buts in any playoff series, insomnyuk, especially in a 5-game series where the difference between vacation and the *LCS might be ground ball being two inches foul in game 1.
But I'm again surprised how many games are ending where the losing team has the tying or winning run at the plate in their final at-bat. As happened today with the Reds: they'd scored 1 to make it 6-4, with men on 1st and 2nd and only 1 out, before a fly ball and a strikeout ended their season. Not that I'm expecting these teams to always come back, but there seem to be proportionately few "boring endings", like the 8-0 pasting the Cardinals did to the Nats yesterday.
I expect the Nats will lose today, and if they do it can be blamed on some of the worst hitting in a division series I've seen a while. 6 runs through 3.5 games isn't going to get you far in the playoffs.
posted by hincandenza at 05:33 PM on October 11, 2012
So, if Baltimore can pull it off tonight, that will give us the full slate of LDS games possible (20).
posted by grum@work at 07:08 PM on October 11, 2012
As they did... this has been some playoffs so far, with a lot of 1-run games, games won/lost on the final at-bats, extra innings... sheesh!
posted by hincandenza at 02:28 AM on October 12, 2012
There's always a lot of ifs and buts in any playoff series
Doubly so when Dusty Baker is involved.
posted by yerfatma at 09:27 AM on October 12, 2012
Doubly so when Dusty Baker is involved.
I wouldn't send his luck on a date with Ann Coulter.
Dusty's contract is up. Bored with going 8-0 in two recent World Series, why wouldn't the Red Sox want to bring him in so they could revert to the good old days of high tragedy?
posted by beaverboard at 10:20 AM on October 12, 2012
Do the Red Sox have any Joe Girardis from their Series years who are ready to make the leap into managing?
posted by rcade at 11:08 AM on October 12, 2012
Do the Red Sox have any Joe Girardis from their Series years who are ready to make the leap into managing?
I believe Mike Lowell had been mentioned as a dark horse candidate for the managerial vacancy, but he has suggested he is not interested.
posted by holden at 11:52 AM on October 12, 2012
I heard Varitek's name come up once or twice. Don't know how much there is to that.
posted by beaverboard at 01:19 PM on October 12, 2012
Varitek's now one of those nebulous "Special Assistants" for the Red Sox. I assume he's in charge of finding new sideline reporters.
posted by yerfatma at 01:43 PM on October 12, 2012
I heard Brad Ausmus was interviewing in Boston today. He always seemed to be level-headed, for a catcher...
posted by MeatSaber at 02:22 PM on October 12, 2012
It looks like the Texas Rangers are going to employ the "Red Sox method" of handling a star player leaving their team.