10/16 NLCS Game 2: Dodgers (Kershaw) @ Cubs (Hendricks) 7:08 PM CT FS1/670

[jersey cubs fan]

sorry about the loss I was at a wedding and then driving up for last few innings. My fault.

[Brian]

Game 3 is the game to find out if the Cubs will be ok or if its time to worry (in my eyes). What they do with Hill and how Jake looks.

[bukie]

I know people are despondent following the worst Cubs blowout loss of this playoffs, where the Cubs gave up a run on one of the more improbable home runs of Gonzalez (and Hendricks) career, and failed to score after a 90% success rate batted ball didn't fall in against the best SP and RP combo in baseball.

 

I, however, feel like the chances of that happening for 4 games out of 7 are slim.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I know people are despondent following the worst Cubs blowout loss of this playoffs, where the Cubs gave up a run on one of the more improbable home runs of Gonzalez (and Hendricks) career, and failed to score after a 90% success rate batted ball didn't fall in against the best SP and RP combo in baseball.

 

I, however, feel like the chances of that happening for 4 games out of 7 are slim.

 

Yeah. We didn't get to Kershaw, but they tagged Hendricks on a wind aided fluke. That was a tough loss but by no means indicative of how this series will trend I believe.

[UMFan83]

Game 3 is the game to find out if the Cubs will be ok or if its time to worry (in my eyes). What they do with Hill and how Jake looks.

 

Meh, I wouldn't be officially worried unless they went down 3-1. I think we will win Game 3 but if we don't we have probably the best Game 4 starter in the playoffs (people will say he was shaky in his last start, boo hoo, in his 9 starts before that he had a 2.34 ERA) going against their rookie starter who we already hit hard once this year. If its 2-2, we are looking at a best of 3 series with HFA. Until the Dodgers win a 3rd game, I am not going to worry too much. However if they win that 3rd game I'm going horsefeathering apocalyptic, y'all better watch out.

[Bull]

I need a game 3 thread. I need to move on.

[UMFan83]

I'm still mad about that strike call to start Bryant's AB in the 9th. Bryant has a good history against Jansen so I thought he had a good chance to do damage. Then this happens:

 

 

Maybe Bryant still strikes out, or maybe he pops up or some other failed result. But once that was called a ball the odds of a successful AB dropped drastically.

[imb]

If it was another guy that would make me more confident. Like I said if he goes on short rest I'll feel better going into that game than I did coming into this one, but it's striking seeing people's opinions about him

 

"Oh it's playoff Kershaw we're going to get him."

*we don't get him*

"Well we almost got him. (Editors note 7 innings of two hit ball on just 84 pitches)

"Ok but we'all get him next time because it's gonna be hot outside"

 

Regardless, he's making one more start. And the point is: If he is making that start, I'd rather he be doing it on short rest. And even still, the Dodgers with someone else on the mound don't scare me. What is your deal tonight?

 

TBH it just felt good to vent after a game that played out worst-case imo.

 

here's my deal and then i'll move because i want to send normal-jake some vibes and hope he turns back into god-mode jake.

 

to maintain HFA we needed to beat the best pitcher on the planet. We needed to either A.) score runs B.) hold their offense down C.) some combo of both.

 

We actually got the pitching we needed but we wasted it. And we wasted Kershaw's short-rest start because we only managed to get him to 84 pitches. I'd feel better if we had gotten the pitch count up and gotten him out earlier. As it is the first four innings shouldn't even count against him, he'll throw more pitches than that warming up during game 5 (or 6 whatever.) AND they went to Jansen for a two-inning save, which you'd think would play into our favor for future games considering they taxed his ass in the NLDS and used him up in Game 5 except we only got him to throw like 18 pitches in two innings.

 

After a playoff loss I like to try and take away some silver linings and we got basically none of them (except the pitching, i like that outside of Gonzalez' close your eyes and swing single off chapman in game 1 we've really kept them off the board.)

 

there now im back on board go cobs

[Little Slide Rooter]

 

the offense has been propped up by some incredible clutch late-inning horsefeathers.

 

Has anyone felt positive about Arrieta the last few months? Lackey? The way the offense has performed this offseason filled you with confidence even before Kershaw took the mound? Now we're going on the road. Talk horsefeathers about Hill if you want, but go look at his bb ref page for the last two seasons and tell me you feel confident about game 3.

 

Hitting home runs in the 8th and 9th counts just as much as hitting them in the 2nd and 3rd. Arrieta had a good start in SF, has done well against this Dodger team, and to reiterate, the Dodgers have not hit for crap thus far in the series.

 

that's awesome. we're hitting something like .190 in the playoffs so far, but thank god roberts decided to walk heyward and coghlan last night and the guy who's so crippled he almost didn't make the roster hit a bomb

 

With a max of 12 games left to play, cumulative stats be damned. Anybody is capable of getting red hot at any moment, and in case you hadn't noticed, we've got a lot of guys who are capable of doing just that.

 

If the 2015 team was Chester Copperpot, these guys are the horsefeathering Goonies.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

 

Hitting home runs in the 8th and 9th counts just as much as hitting them in the 2nd and 3rd. Arrieta had a good start in SF, has done well against this Dodger team, and to reiterate, the Dodgers have not hit for crap thus far in the series.

 

that's awesome. we're hitting something like .190 in the playoffs so far, but thank god roberts decided to walk heyward and coghlan last night and the guy who's so crippled he almost didn't make the roster hit a bomb

 

With a max of 12 games left to play, cumulative stats be damned. Anybody is capable of getting red hot at any moment, and in case you hadn't noticed, we've got a lot of guys who are capable of doing just that.

 

If the 2015 team was Chester Copperpot, these guys are the [expletive] Goonies.

[BigSlick]

Just as I thought, the best pitches to hit Kershaw threw were almost all first pitch fastballs down the pipe

 

Our dudes mostly didn't swing at em, its too bad

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-clayton-kershaw-gets-ahead/

[UMFan83]

Just as I thought, the best pitches to hit Kershaw threw were almost all first pitch fastballs down the pipe

 

Our dudes mostly didn't swing at em, its too bad

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-clayton-kershaw-gets-ahead/

 

Did Joe mention anything about the strategy postgame? I am trying to figure out the logic behind it. Perhaps Joe wanted the Cubs to 'feel out' Kershaw and see if there was an fatigue or lack of command on his pitches. But it should have been obvious fairly quickly that he was sharp especially early in the count. Which makes Contreras just sitting there purposely taking until strike 1 in the 3rd inning more perplexing. He almost looked annoyed that he was being asked to take and instead basically telegraphed his intentions (although I don't think Kershaw would be able to recognize this in a way that would alter his pitch). Heck, given how often Kershaw was getting ahead, Contreras should have been free to swing away after going up 1-0 in the count.

 

I hate playing arm chair manager because I'm sure there was sound logic behind whatever Joe was doing, but it just felt like the Cubs went up there trying to drive Kershaw's pitch count up, which if we know anything about Kershaw when he's on, you are more likely to drive his pitch count up being being aggressive and getting some baserunners off of him.

[JonJayCutler]

If the 2015 team was Chester Copperpot, these guys are the [expletive] Goonies.

 

Really no doubt as to who Sloth would be on this team.

[Sammys Boombox]

I think the second time through the order the Cubs were more aggressive early. And they hit him very hard but didn't get anything to show for it.

[Sammy Sofa]

If the 2015 team was Chester Copperpot, these guys are the [expletive] Goonies.

 

Really no doubt as to who Sloth would be on this team.

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tcJ6kNDIYyI/SyklM6bWGiI/AAAAAAAAA6k/O-nU1kHGJkg/s320/LACKEY+SLOTH.jpg

[BigSlick]

Zobrist could have easily had 2 doubles in this game, Javy and Rizzo both barely missed homers

 

It's baseball

[bcl412]

We tried to play our game vs kershaw and got beat. Still missed a couple dongs by centimeters.