{"id":7903,"date":"2013-10-10T08:51:02","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T12:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=7903"},"modified":"2013-10-10T08:51:02","modified_gmt":"2013-10-10T12:51:02","slug":"alds-game-5-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=7903","title":{"rendered":"ALDS Game 5 thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wainwright<\/a>

Wainwright shows why he’s an “Ace.” Photo: talksportsphilly.com<\/p><\/div>\n

As much as it pained me and most sentimental baseball fans, I called St. Louis’ NLDS game five victory last night. \u00a0Gerrit Cole<\/strong> pitched well, but nothing beats a complete game shutdown performance from an Ace like\u00a0Adam Wainwright<\/strong>. \u00a0 \u00a0The Cards continue to get clutch hitting<\/a> when they need it and remain a difficult out. \u00a0I honestly wanted the Cardinals to lose as penance for putting\u00a0Shelby Miller<\/strong> in the bullpen, so that I could use the same line that others have used against the Nats for an entire year. \u00a0But the Cards gutted out wins in two straight elimination games and now get LA in the NLCS.<\/p>\n

With last night’s correct prediction, I’m now 14 for 18 now in per-game predictions this post-season. \u00a0Lets put it on the line for another pretty tough game to predict.<\/p>\n

ALDS Game 5: Detroit at Oakland. \u00a0Verlander<\/strong> versus\u00a0Gray<\/strong>. \u00a0 A rematch of game 2’s starters.<\/p>\n

Verlander just destroyed Oakland in Game 2; 7 innings, 4 hits, 11 K’s. \u00a0No real reason not to think that may happen again. \u00a0His big problem was pitch count; he was at 117 pitches through 7 because Oakland sees a ton of pitches. \u00a0Billy Beane<\/strong> in action, Oakland walks at the 3rd highest rate in the game. \u00a0 But, Gray was better; going 8 shutout innings and allowing just 5 baserunners. \u00a0Gray was more efficient and probably could have gone another inning; instead\u00a0Bob Melvin<\/strong> brought on his closer in a tie game late and was rewarded with a bottom of the 9th walk-off win….<\/p>\n

Quick Tangent: see\u00a0Fredi Gonzalez<\/strong>; isn’t it nice when you use your best reliever to help win games, instead of managing to the stupid save category and watching a lesser reliever give up the game-winning bomb while\u00a0Kimbrel<\/strong> sits in the bullpen with his hands on his hips?? \u00a0You deserved to lose that game, and its karmic that the Braves are now out after all the whining, the showmanship, and the beanball wars they brought on the league this year.<\/p>\n

Anyway. \u00a0On tonight’s game something tells me the A’s are going to get to Verlander slightly more than the Tigers get to Gray. \u00a0 Oakland’s bullpen is in tatters, but Detroit’s isn’t much better. \u00a0If Gray can hand the ball directly to\u00a0Balfour<\/strong> again, and if Oakland can squeeze Verlander out of the game after 7 innings again … I think Oakland hangs on for the win.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As much as it pained me and most sentimental baseball fans, I called St. Louis’ NLDS game five victory last night. \u00a0Gerrit Cole pitched well, but nothing beats a complete game shutdown performance from an Ace like\u00a0Adam Wainwright. \u00a0 \u00a0The Cards continue to get clutch hitting when they need it and remain a difficult out. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2036],"tags":[346,212,1175,961,968,1221,2050,44,1333,2028],"class_list":["post-7903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post-season","tag-adam-wainwright","tag-billy-beane","tag-bob-melvin","tag-craig-kimbrel","tag-fredi-gonzalez","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-grant-balfour","tag-justin-verlander","tag-shelby-miller","tag-sonny-gray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7903"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7905,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7903\/revisions\/7905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}