2014 Wildcard Games: Royals beat A's, 9-8, 12 innings; Giants beat Pirates, 8-0

[adamb100]

Really wish last night's game was OTA. I don't have cable. Going to miss half the playoffs because of the cable thing.

[Baldkin]

Probably not any more severe here than what the national guys gave him. David Schoenfield, for example:

 

 

"Ned Yost Shows Why He's A Terrible Manager"

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/52046/ned-yost-shows-why-hes-a-terrible-manager

 

 

Also followed up in a postgame article, saying "Yost did make one of the worst tactical decisions in recent playoff history."

 

 

Seems like most of the criticism is regards to the pitching change he made. I agree with that, probably was not a good decision. However, no one seems to be talking about the gutsy steal of 3rd in the 9th inning. Yes, that could have been disastrous, but it turned out to be necessary to score the tying run.

 

I'm not some huge Yost fan. I have just always found the amount of venom directed towards coaches and managers in general, in all of sports to be very interesting. If you listen to all the arm chair QBs out there, for every coach/manager that is good, there are 5 that are horrible at what they do.

 

They led the league in stolen bases and were 4th in steal percentage. That steal was a no brainer move to make in that situation.

 

When you have 3 amazing relievers and you choose not to use one of them in the biggest situation of a one game playoff, because they are the "7th inning guy" and you decide, instead, to bring in a pitcher who walks a lot of guys, who also threw 75 pitches two days earlier.... well... yeah.... that's a horribly idiotic decision.

[Patrick425]

Probably not any more severe here than what the national guys gave him. David Schoenfield, for example:

 

 

"Ned Yost Shows Why He's A Terrible Manager"

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/52046/ned-yost-shows-why-hes-a-terrible-manager

 

 

Also followed up in a postgame article, saying "Yost did make one of the worst tactical decisions in recent playoff history."

 

 

Seems like most of the criticism is regards to the pitching change he made. I agree with that, probably was not a good decision. However, no one seems to be talking about the gutsy steal of 3rd in the 9th inning. Yes, that could have been disastrous, but it turned out to be necessary to score the tying run.

 

I'm not some huge Yost fan. I have just always found the amount of venom directed towards coaches and managers in general, in all of sports to be very interesting. If you listen to all the arm chair QBs out there, for every coach/manager that is good, there are 5 that are horrible at what they do.

 

They led the league in stolen bases and were 4th in steal percentage. That steal was a no brainer move to make in that situation.

 

When you have 3 amazing relievers and you choose not to use one of them in the biggest situation of a one game playoff, because they are the "7th inning guy" and you decide, instead, to bring in a pitcher who walks a lot of guys, who also threw 75 pitches two days earlier.... well... yeah.... that's a horribly idiotic decision.

 

Regardless of where they rank in stealing percentage Baldkin, stealing a base is never a sure thing. Especially 3rd base. It was by no means a "no brainer". If Dyson got thrown out there when he was already in scoring position, I am sure everyone would have been up in arms about that as well.

[hawing]

My goodness, was that ever a game. I shudder to think of what kind of physical and mental condition we'd all be in today had either of last night's teams been the Brewers.

I was marginally rooting for the Royals but would have been content with either team advancing. Seeing the KC fans finally get their chance after a long drought took me back multiple times to both 2008 and 2011.

 

Joe Posnanski wrote a terrific piece on the game, with plenty of Ned criticism for those of you who like that: The Beauty of Belief

[Blancofan1]

The stat that I couldn't believe after that game was that Lester hasn't thrown over to first base since April of 2013! I though Garza had the yips throwing to bases but to go two full seasons basically without trying to keep runners close by throwing over is absolutely insane to me.

[vegasbrewcrew1993]

How on earth do you guys have a 2nd team? I can only support one team, under any circumstance. I don't have it in me to split loyalties. I hear of people all the time with more than one favorite team in a given sport, but that concept just doesn't compute with me...

 

I actually sometimes wish I was a fan of a different team though, does that make me a bad guy?

it's different in my case since i grew up watching both the brewers and a's at the same time. them being in different leagues makes it easy to like both. however, the brewers are the clear cut number #1 for me since i grew up in milwaukee. i think it's fine to have other teams that you like watching. nothing wrong with it. doesn't make anyone less of a ''true fan''. of course that argument goes out the window if the yankees are your #2 team lol.

[pebadger]

I am shedding no tears over the Pirates. Not desirous of any late drama either, due to sleep deprivation from last night.

[DocLuna7]

I know that there are some on this board rooting for PIT but I am most definitely not one of them. I love the fact that they are getting pounded right now, and even though I have no love for the Giants, it excites me to see the look of despair on Russell Martin's face.

[trwi7]

Just change this from Yankees to game last night vs game tonight.

 

[1992casey]

I have trouble listening to Tim Kurkjian without thinking of Tim Dillard.

[Patrick425]

I have trouble listening to Tim Kurkjian without thinking of Tim Dillard.

 

 

Ha, my son and I were pretty much saying the exact same thing last night when we were watching the game.

[fondybrewfan]

If I were the Pirates I would even feel like I made the playoffs. You basically just played a "play in" game and got absolutely smoked. Its basically the equivalent of the opening round on Tue and Wed of the NCAA Bball tourney. Its over before it even begins.

 

It also makes me feel better that I doubt the Brewers would have fared any better against Baumgarner. If we would have gotten hot and made the playoffs we would probably still be home right now and drafting a couple spots later next June.

[hawing]

I was happy for the Pirates' fanbase last fall, with their long postseason drought ending; but I was struck last night by how nearly all of my PIT goodwill was just gone. By the end of the game I was in schadenfreude mode. It's like they're yesterday's news.

 

I can't say I was particularly happy to see SF advance, since they're going to just feel like they're all but entitled to win it all in even numbered years. But for once I was able to watch a game and have absolutely zero rooting interest.

 

On another topic, it certainly looks like colored (not white) rally towels are the in thing for 2014. Royal blue for KC looked pretty good, I thought, while black for PIT gave PNC (a stadium I really, really like) kind of an evil tone.

[Baldkin]

So, maybe, just maybe, people realized that waiving the international symbol for surrender was a bad idea?

[Dead Simmons]

The towel wagging disgusts me. I'd rather see the wave.