Anyone Up? 3/18 Opening Day in Tokyo

[Outshined_One]

Ben Brown looks a bit rusty.

[Irrelevant Dude]

Feeling the absence of Nico already.

[CubinNY]

BASEBALL!!!! Watched on my way to work. 

[itisallpartoftheplan]

I’ve been up on 3rd shift watching. Saw a thread pop up in the second inning and it was deleted.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Just waking up and discovered there's no way for me to watch this game!

[Derwood]

There's a game thread.

@Brock Beauchamp can you move the Game Thread forum up near the top of the list please?

[CubinNY]

Dodgers make it look so easy. Shota looked great in the one inning I saw him pitch. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

Ah, I can preview the game for an hour in a browser on the Fox Sports site.

[gflore34]

1 hour ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

Feeling the absence of Nico already.

Yes, Berti is worthless, hopefully, Nico will be back soon.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Annnnnd the game is over. Damn it.

[Jason Ross]

Shoot for 161-1 now. 

[NorthsideAvenger]

Cubs seem to never play well in Japan.

[squally1313]

@Brock Beauchamp I’m sure these games are throwing off the normal plan here for a few different reasons, is it possible to just toss up game 2 in here now? 

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 minute ago, squally1313 said:

@Brock Beauchamp I’m sure these games are throwing off the normal plan here for a few different reasons, is it possible to just toss up game 2 in here now? 

I'm going to give this thread some time to fester on its own but I'll make sure the game two thread is up this afternoon.

[Bertz]

I'd presume since it's mid March the Dodgers aren't going to throw any relievers back to back.  So between that and the Betts/Freeman situation tomorrow should be a winnable game if the team can get anything off of Sasaki.

Speaking of relievers not going back to back, I'm wondering if Morgan/Brasier going while the team was down is an indication as to where they are in Counsell's pecking order.  Morgan does have a MiLB options so if the whole pitching staff is still healthy next week will he be the guy going to Iowa to make room for Keller?

[Transmogrified Tiger]

18 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I'd presume since it's mid March the Dodgers aren't going to throw any relievers back to back.  So between that and the Betts/Freeman situation tomorrow should be a winnable game if the team can get anything off of Sasaki.

Speaking of relievers not going back to back, I'm wondering if Morgan/Brasier going while the team was down is an indication as to where they are in Counsell's pecking order.  Morgan does have a MiLB options so if the whole pitching staff is still healthy next week will he be the guy going to Iowa to make room for Keller?

I had a similar thought about Brasier's place in line relative to Hodge/Pearson when I saw he was the choice in the 9th.  Probably not a wide margin, but probably a safe assumption that Counsell didn't throw any of his preferred 3 leverage RPs.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

1 hour ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Just waking up and discovered there's no way for me to watch this game!

Too late now, but it was on big Fox.  Tomorrow is FS1.

[Brock Beauchamp]

4 minutes ago, Transmogrified Tiger said:

Too late now, but it was on big Fox.  Tomorrow is FS1.

Yeah, I don't have an antenna or anything in the house and my MLB.tv sub doesn't kick in until T-Mobile offers their free promotion just before OD.

[UMFan83]

Skimmed through the game, meh.  No offense but not sure if that's the early regular season start, the Dodgers elite pitching, or just one of those games a team has over 162

[Outshined_One]

3 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Skimmed through the game, meh.  No offense but not sure if that's the early regular season start, the Dodgers elite pitching, or just one of those games a team has over 162

These are not mutually exclusive.

[Bertz]

Yamamoto was pretty nasty.  Especially that first inning those splitters were coming in at 93-94.

There's a real chance the bottom half of this lineup ends up being a problem, but I feel comfortable chalking this up as getting the meat of the Dodgers' pitching staff.

[CubinNY]

1 minute ago, Bertz said:

Yamamoto was pretty nasty.  Especially that first inning those splitters were coming in at 93-94.

There's a real chance the bottom half of this lineup ends up being a problem, but I feel comfortable chalking this up as getting the meat of the Dodgers' pitching staff.

yes, his splitter just disappears. Hitters have no chance. 

[Ding Dong Johnson]

8 walks seems a bit suboptimal 

[UMFan83]

9 minutes ago, Ding Dong Johnson said:

8 walks seems a bit suboptimal 

Especially facing a lineup without Betts or Freeman

[Jason Ross]

21 minutes ago, Ding Dong Johnson said:

8 walks seems a bit suboptimal 

You could tell Shota and Brown were both a bit off. If there's a positive, it's that they generated a good amount of whiffs - though partially because they threw a lot, too. 

I know this one "counts" all the same, but generally speaking, a game on March 18th is usually a ST affair that guys are still working on gearing up, and even by Opening Day, guys are still rounding into form. So I'm a bit willing to be "eh, whatever" for now on those polish things.