Well since I see 2 or 3 games a year in Houston , I’m all in on the Astro’s tonight . I think their task will be monumental though .

Read a report it's going to be 100 degrees in Los Angeles today and tomorrow. I love global warming.

APIAD wrote:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/dodgers-paying-almost-dollar100m-to-players-not-on-world-series-roster/ar-AAu0lX4?li=BBnbfcL

Just crazy

There was a great deal of twittering here in the Athens of America about Gonzalez being on vacation while his teammates are playing in the World Series. Along with the Popeye's Chicken contingent, Gonzalez is the poster child for the Red Sox collapse in 2011, after he told the media not making the playoffs was God's will or some sort of nonsense.
No one here takes into account anything any player does while on another team. Jack Clark's name is still a punchline in Boston.
 

APIAD wrote:

It is crazy him not being there with teammates but imo the dodgers have all but dfa him

He's owed $22 million next year. And the reports he's in Europe with his family are apparently erroneous. He's supposedly working for a television station in Los Angeles.
 

We had the Gonzalez discussion at work yesterday. Can’t imagine he’d be back next year. The Dodgers will probably eat the whole contract and move him anywhere.

I think I’ve figured out why I don’t like post-season baseball. It’s nothing like the regular season. The regular season is a day-to-day grind. The playoffs are all about specialization. Make the World Series 7 games in 7 days. Force teams to use their 5th starter and avoid situations like tonight where the Dodgers pull their starter after 4 innings after allowing only 1 run on 60 pitches. No chance the Dodgers burn their bullpen if they’re playing again tomorrow. If teams can play 19 games in 20 Days in August, why not in October?

And two other things about last night's game. Did you see when Roberts moved Barnes to second base when he brought in Grandal? So someone should probably tell Matheny the Cardinals' backup catcher doesn't always need to be placed in bubble wrap and put in a glass case with the lettering "only to be used in an emergency."
The other thing was the Astros having Maybin steal second in the 11th instead of advancing him with a bunt. I've been on this for years. If you're going to give up the first out, do it when you can advance a runner to third, not second.

All good points.

The problem with starting before 8 p.m. Eastern time is almost everyone in the Pacific time zone is either at work or heading home from work. And, as far as this year's WS is concerned, getting to Dodger Stadium by 7 p.m. local time is nightmare (trust me, I've done it). I can't imagine what traffic has been like with the 5 p.m. local time starts the past two nights.

This has been discussed since MLB went to an all-nighttime World Series, but I'd have at least one game on during a weekend afternoon, just so it's available to younger fans for an entire game. I'd go with Sunday, even though it's up against NFL football. Start the baseball at 4 p.m., when there are only 3-4 football games being played.

APIAD wrote:

If dodgers stadium sucks to drive to, that sounds like a dodgers issue. Should have built a stadium in a better location. Like outside of the state of California.

LOL. Fifty years ago when there were two million people living in Los Angeles the location was perfect - right at the confluence of three highways in the middle of the city. Now there are four million people in Los Angeles and almost 10 million in Los Angeles County.
We were staying in Hollywood, which is about six miles from Dodger Stadium. At 5:30, I asked the clerk at our hotel when I should leave for the ballpark if I wanted to make a 7 o'clock first pitch. He looked his watch and said "About a half-hour ago." It took me a half-hour to get from Hollywood Blvd. to the 101.
The last time I was in L.A., I had the bright idea of driving to San Diego to see the Padres play a 12:30 game and then driving back to Los Angeles for a night game at Dodger Stadium. Different hotel, but the clerk just looked at me and laughed.
 

artie_fufkin wrote:

"The playoffs are all about specialization. Make the World Series 7 games in 7 days. Force teams to use their 5th starter and avoid situations like tonight where the Dodgers pull their starter after 4 innings after allowing only 1 run on 60 pitches. No chance the Dodgers burn their bullpen if they’re playing again tomorrow. If teams can play 19 games in 20 Days in August, why not in October?"

Good question. I recall a couple of decades ago the network that covered the World Series (NBC?) wanted the series to start on a Saturday so they could get two weekends on the schedule. But baseball has pretty much ceded the fall weekends to football, and at this point the only people who tune in outside of the two cities involved are baseball fans who actually want to watch the World Series because they're baseball fans. Fox has given up the notion people are going to watch the World Series simply because it's the World Series.
Smoltz said something dumb about this last night. He's a good analyst, but he's not having a very good World Series. When Roberts took out Hill last night, Smoltz correctly explained it is because the Dodgers' are abiding by the analytics that indicate a starting pitcher's effectiveness declines the third time he faces a hitter. But then he said he isn't sure how much longer the Dodgers can keep taking out their starting pitcher after only four innings. My response, had I been sitting next to Smoltz, would have been "If it keeps working the way it has, only two more games." And, yes, I know the Dodgers' bullpen coughed up the game, but I think Roberts' mistake was taking out Maeda in the 6th. I know Watson came in and got McCann to hit into a double play, but it made him have to adjust how he used his bullpen the rest of the way.

Maybe, just maybe, Roberts overuse of his bullpen has come back to cost him.  Morrow was throwing batting practice.

I have never seen a strike zone that consistently wrong.

It was equally bad for both teams.  Neither was being favored.  I think the dodgers were more whiny about it

He was calling the inside pitch to righties, outside to lefties about 3 or 4 inches off the plate all night.  He was very consistent about it.  It wasnt just low or high.  It was up and down the whole zone.  The outside pitch to righties, inside to lefties was called correct.