2019-09-16 Other MLB Games with Playoff Implications - Nats and Cards at 645pm

[BruisedCrew]

Simultaneously, Ozuna and Hayward with run scoring doubles and the Cubs and Cards both are up 4-2.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Bummer day outside of winning. Cubs/Cardinals both looking like they will win.

 

Well that means the nats will lose, and the brewers odds at snaring a playoff berth climb regardless

 

Just keep winning baby

[MrTPlush]

On a brighter note a loss likely ends the Mets season. Would but the 4.5 behind the Brewers...5.5 out of a spot.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

On a brighter note a loss likely ends the Mets season. Would but the 4.5 behind the Brewers...5.5 out of a spot.

 

Good. Sick of hearing about the Mets and their boy wonder GM. Big whoop buying your way to a playoff spot. I can't believe a team with the rotation they have hasn't been better over the years.

[dlk9s]

Don't care about the Mets, Phils, or Dbacks. If they catch us, we're not catching the teams ahead of us, anyway.

 

It's just down to the Cards, Nats, and Cubs.

[homer]

Bummer day outside of winning. Cubs/Cardinals both looking like they will win.

 

Well that means the nats will lose, and the brewers odds at snaring a playoff berth climb regardless

 

Just keep winning baby

 

I'd be OK with an all NL Central Wild Card.

[FVBrewerFan]

Bummer day outside of winning. Cubs/Cardinals both looking like they will win.

 

Well that means the nats will lose, and the brewers odds at snaring a playoff berth climb regardless

 

Just keep winning baby

 

Most nights the rest of the season someone will lose that needs to lose. Cards/Nats, then Cards/Cubs 7 games.

[long ball]

Picking up a game on the Nats isn't the end of the world.

[bigredrobbo]

I want the Cards to take care of the Nats. I want ZERO part of a one game shootout with Max Scherzer. The Cubs starters are gettable.

[Ennder]

It is pretty hard to expect the Reds to take any games here, they are a really bad team. Not sure who I'm cheering for in the Nats vs Cardinals.

[Lostpawn]

Officially turning the Cubs game off.

[mtrebs]

Bummer day outside of winning. Cubs/Cardinals both looking like they will win.

 

Well that means the nats will lose, and the brewers odds at snaring a playoff berth climb regardless

 

Just keep winning baby

 

I'd be OK with an all NL Central Wild Card.

 

Me too, as long as it’s the Cardinals and Cubs. I can’t imagine the stress of playing the Cubs in a one-game playoff (or any postseason series foe that matter).

[homer]

 

Me too, as long as it’s the Cardinals and Cubs. I can’t imagine the stress of playing the Cubs in a one-game playoff (or any postseason series foe that matter).

 

I would just imagine last year

[long ball]

It is pretty hard to expect the Reds to take any games here, they are a really bad team. Not sure who I'm cheering for in the Nats vs Cardinals.

 

Tomorrow is the Reds best shot. Sonny Gray has been pretty good.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

It is pretty hard to expect the Reds to take any games here, they are a really bad team. Not sure who I'm cheering for in the Nats vs Cardinals.

 

Tomorrow is the Reds best shot. Sonny Gray has been pretty good.

 

I am starting to doubt the potency of Derek Johnson's pixie dust.

[BruisedCrew]

Unless the Mets can rally from a 5 run deficit in the 9th they have joined the DBacks and Phillies as not even worth talking about as playoff contenders unless and until they win 5 or 6 in a row.

 

I think the Brewers have to get to 89 wins to have a decent shot at a playoff berth, and even that wouldn’t be a guarantee. Those other 3 teams now almost have to win out to have any chance and they’ve shown no sign of being able to do that.

[adambr2]

I hope the Pirates and Reds curl up into the fetal position with their thumbs in their mouth as much for us as they have for our friendly rivals to the South.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Unless the Mets can rally from a 5 run deficit in the 9th they have joined the DBacks and Phillies as not even worth talking about as playoff contenders unless and until they win 5 or 6 in a row.

 

I think the Brewers have to get to 89 wins to have a decent shot at a playoff berth, and even that wouldn’t be a guarantee. Those other 3 teams now almost have to win out to have any chance and they’ve shown no sign of being able to do that.

 

89 wins easily gets the Brewers in - that would mean an 8-4 finish while the Cubs and Cards, and Nats are guaranteed 9 losses between them while they play each other in remaining games. The Brewers are just 1 GB of the Cubs, 1.5 GB of the Nats, and 3GB of the Cards. 89 wins gets the Brewers closer to the division title than missing the playoffs altogether, IMO

 

Wanna know something nuts? The 2018 Brewers squad we are all certain was a much better roster only had 4 more wins than this year's team does heading into 9/17. They wrapped the season up on a 10-2 run to catch the Cubs despite not getting any head to head opportunities in that stretch. The Cubs finished a solid 8-5 yet still couldn't hold the Crew off.

[owbc]

I've never been convinced that the 2018 roster was much better than 2019 on paper. Seemed like this year's team just had terrible luck until recently. The recent run seems to validate that feeling. It just took a bit longer for Stearns/Counsell to assemble the correct band of misfits to fill the rotation and bullpen.

[BruisedCrew]

I disagree about 89 wins getting the Brewers in “easily”. Let’s say those 9 guaranteed losses come in the form of the Nats and Cards splitting their two remaining games and the Cubs winning 4 of the 7 against the Cards. For all of those teams to get to 90 wins:

 

1. The Nats would have to go 7-4 against the Marlins, Phillies, and Indians. Sweeping the woeful Marlins would be a big head start on that and those last 8 games are at home. It would help if the Indians are still in playoff contention going into the last weekend.

 

2. The Cubs would have to go 4-1 against the Reds and Pirates, certainly doable for them, especially if they keep scoring runs in buckets.

 

3. The Cards would have to win 2 out of 3 against the Diamondbacks.

 

For any of those teams to drop to 88 wins, they would have to lose 2 more games than that, and that would mean a pretty big collapse. I don’t consider having to play extra games, or getting in by 1 game, getting in “easily”.

 

If the Brewers get in with 89 wins and no extra tiebreaker games, it would likely be because the Cubs lose at least 4 of 7 against the Cards.

 

I don’t know who has said that the 2018 Brewers had a much better roster than the 2019 Brewers. Coming into the season I thought the 2019 team had a better roster than 2018, which is why I thought they had a good chance to win 90 games or more. That is what made it so disappointing to me that, after getting to 10 games over .500 in mid June, they drifted down to only one game over by late August while playing the relatively weak looking part of their schedule. This recent spurt to me highlights how much the team underperformed for most of the season. If they fall just a game or two short of winning the division, or making the playoffs at all, this season will go down for me as a huge opportunity lost.

 

When you say “just 4 games”, and by the end of the season it will probably be more than that, you are ignoring that “just 4 games” is often the difference between winning a division and missing the playoffs entirely. That’s why “every game counts” and piddling away series against bottom feeding teams like the Marlins, Mariners, Padres, Giants and Reds matters.

[willie key]

I disagree about 89 wins getting the Brewers in “easily”. Let’s say those 9 guaranteed losses come in the form of the Nats and Cards splitting their two remaining games and the Cubs winning 4 of the 7 against the Cards. For all of those teams to get to 90 wins:

 

1. The Nats would have to go 7-4 against the Marlins, Phillies, and Indians. Sweeping the woeful Marlins would be a big head start on that and those last 8 games are at home.

 

2. The Cubs would have to go 4-1 against the Reds and Pirates, certainly doable.

 

3. The Cards would have to win 2 out of 3 against the Diamondbacks.

 

For any of those teams to drop to 88 wins, they would have to lose 2 more games than that, and that would mean a pretty big collapse. I don’t consider having to play extra games, or getting in by 1 game, getting in “easily”.

 

If the Brewers get in with 89 wins and no extra tiebreaker games, it would likely be because the Cubs lose at least 4 of 7 against the Cards.

 

I don’t know who has said that the 2018 Brewers had a much better roster than the 2019 Brewers. Coming into the season I thought the 2019 team had a better roster than 2018, which is why I thought they had a good chance to win 90 games or more. That is what made it so disappointing to me that after getting to 10 games over .500 in mid June they drifted down to only one game over by late August while playing the relatively weak looking part of their schedule. This recent spurt to me highlights how much the team underperformed for most of the season. If they fall just a game or two short of winning the division, or making the playoffs at all, this season will go down for me as a huge opportunity lost.

 

When you say “just 4 games”, and by the end of the season it will probably be more than that, you are ignoring that “just 4 games” is often the difference between winning a division and missing the playoffs entirely. That’s why “every game counts” and piddling away series against bottom feeding teams like the Marlins, Mariners, Padres, Giants and Reds matters.

 

 

I’m kind of at the point to have the cardinals just whip the nationals and cubs. There is just too many permutations if they split those remaining games

 

I think we have the best chance of catching the nationals now. Let the cards sweep them. Then they have 8 games against the Phillies and Indians. And three against the Marlins. The Marlins might not win a game. But they are at least competing. This whole pirates thing is a joke.

 

I thought 88 wins would be fine. But you might be right 89 is probably the number to get too

[BruisedCrew]

I can’t let go of the fact that winning the division is much, much more valuable than just getting a wild card spot, especially the second wild card spot. When they first put in the second wild card spot, my thought was that getting that spot and losing the wild card game would not feel like making the playoffs. Being out with no home playoff games and without making it into a multi game series is not very satisfying.

 

So, I’m still going to be rooting for the Nationals to beat the Cardinals before I start rooting against them the rest of the way. I’ll decide how I feel about the Cubs and Cardinals on Thursday. The Brewers could be anywhere between 1 and 5 games behind the Cardinals by then. I’ll probably be rooting against the Cubs no matter what because keeping the Cubs out of the playoffs would help ease the disappointment if the Brewers end up losing the wild card game to the Nats. But, if the Brewers are only 1 or 2 games behind the Cardinals, I will be hoping for the Cubs and Cards to split.

[Zad Fnark]

I feel just let the Cards smoke the Nats in this series.

 

The Cards will probably get smoked again at Wrigley like they have all year.

 

If they cancel each other out in their next couples series, maybe Milwaukee can creep ahead.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I disagree about 89 wins getting the Brewers in “easily”. Let’s say those 9 guaranteed losses come in the form of the Nats and Cards splitting their two remaining games and the Cubs winning 4 of the 7 against the Cards. For all of those teams to get to 90 wins:

 

1. The Nats would have to go 7-4 against the Marlins, Phillies, and Indians. Sweeping the woeful Marlins would be a big head start on that and those last 8 games are at home. It would help if the Indians are still in playoff contention going into the last weekend.

 

2. The Cubs would have to go 4-1 against the Reds and Pirates, certainly doable for them, especially if they keep scoring runs in buckets.

 

3. The Cards would have to win 2 out of 3 against the Diamondbacks.

 

For any of those teams to drop to 88 wins, they would have to lose 2 more games than that, and that would mean a pretty big collapse. I don’t consider having to play extra games, or getting in by 1 game, getting in “easily”.

 

If the Brewers get in with 89 wins and no extra tiebreaker games, it would likely be because the Cubs lose at least 4 of 7 against the Cards.

 

I don’t know who has said that the 2018 Brewers had a much better roster than the 2019 Brewers. Coming into the season I thought the 2019 team had a better roster than 2018, which is why I thought they had a good chance to win 90 games or more. That is what made it so disappointing to me that, after getting to 10 games over .500 in mid June, they drifted down to only one game over by late August while playing the relatively weak looking part of their schedule. This recent spurt to me highlights how much the team underperformed for most of the season. If they fall just a game or two short of winning the division, or making the playoffs at all, this season will go down for me as a huge opportunity lost.

 

When you say “just 4 games”, and by the end of the season it will probably be more than that, you are ignoring that “just 4 games” is often the difference between winning a division and missing the playoffs entirely. That’s why “every game counts” and piddling away series against bottom feeding teams like the Marlins, Mariners, Padres, Giants and Reds matters.

 

All good points - I just think between those other three teams, at least one is going to crater enough to make an 89-win Brewers squad a shoe-in for the playoffs. By getting in easily, I simply meant that an 89-win total has them clear of a wild card play-in game - since two of their competitors are also NL Central teams, there still may be some sort of tiebreaker games for the division, with the loser winding up as either WC1 or WC2...but that still guarantees a playoff spot to both teams in that extra game scenario.

 

And I guess the other part of my post was surprised at this stage of the season the 2018 Brewers' record was only 4 games better than the current club. Granted, that's only possible after this crazy hot early September stretch by this year's team, just a few weeks ago they were barely over 0.500. I always did think this year's roster looked more talented on paper, but to be honest I feel like the NL as a whole was much more competitive this season - so it makes sense that wins are harder to come by. Plus, injuries to pitching and poor performances by arms the Brewers leaned heavily on in 2018 quickly cratered the thought this year's staff was going to be really good.

[BruisedCrew]

I feel just let the Cards smoke the Nats in this series.

 

The Cards will probably get smoked again at Wrigley like they have all year.

 

If they cancel each other out in their next couples series, maybe Milwaukee can creep ahead.

 

If you think the Cubs are going to smoke the Cards, to me that’s all the more reason to hope the Cards also lose one or two to the Nats.

 

To illustrate, if the Cards lose 2 to the Nats and 3 of 4 to the Cubs, the Brewers could move ahead of the Cards by winning 5 of their next 6 and still be no more than one behind the Cubs.

 

If the Nats lose 2 to the Cards they still have a lot more games, all or most of them against non contenders, to stay in the wild card race. By next week the Phillies will likely be out of the playoff hunt and by the last weekend the Indians might be too.

 

Again, for me it comes down to winning the division being much more valuable than winning a wild card spot.

 

Winning the division means a couple of days rest before starting a best of 5 series against the Braves. Getting a wild card spot means a one game crapshoot on Tuesday followed quickly by starting a best of 5 against the Dodgers. I’d rather shoot for the best instead of settling for a consolation prize.