Weather for this weekend

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Got as far as onto a green line at lenfant on the way to waterfront before I got the word.

[bluestreak]

At that point I would have tried to enter the stadium.

[imref]

Saturday looks like it will be decent. Sunday...not so much.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

At that point I would have tried to enter the stadium.

I figured they would not have let me in. Also, I wanted to get home, eat, stay dry, but yes, if I went in, I could have grabbed one with my ticket and another with my extra ticket tonight. Plus I've got some RCR pick ups, so I've got to go back to the ballpark again at some point.

[Five Banners]

From team tweet:

Catch us at home one more time

#NATITUDE

(In the rain with 15 mile an hour winds and increased rain intensity forecast)

[imref]

Maybe they can just play the game on Xbox?

[imref]

Tonight’s game has been postponed. Traditional double header tomorrow at 4:05

[welch]

Tonight’s game has been postponed. Traditional double header tomorrow at 4:05

I have tickets for tomorrow night, the regular 7 pm game. Hmmm. Supposed to rain all day tomorrow, too. High about 50. Won't stop until Thursday. Congrats, MLB!

[welch]

NYC forecast is steady rain until about 9pm, then thunderstorms. If they cancel today's doubleheader, the logical thing -- using MLB logic -- is to play a tripleheader on Wednesday.

[Five Banners]

NYC forecast is steady rain until about 9pm, then thunderstorms. If they cancel today's doubleheader, the logical thing -- using MLB logic -- is to play a tripleheader on Wednesday.

Or just call the replay official in New York and award the Mets all three games

[Elvir Ovcina]

Or just call the replay official in New York and award the Mets all three games

Or call ESPN, which will install a "special play-in round" by which the Red Sox play the Yankees three times, and if they win one game out of three they are awarded a Wild Card, with the Rays moving to the NL bracket.

[Natsinpwc]

There is a day off Thursday before the wild card games to make up any necessary games.  Chances are the game(s) will not need to be made up. Atlanta’s magic number for the division is 1 as the Barves hold the tiebreaker. They won the season series.  They lost last night to help the Mets linger a little longer so it will be more crushing.

[Natsinpwc]

Or call ESPN, which will install a "special play-in round" by which the Red Sox play the Yankees three times, and if they win one game out of three they are awarded a Wild Card, with the Rays moving to the NL bracket.

And the Rays would replace the NL team with the least potential TV viewers.  What network will they put the Cleveland game on. Cooking channel?

[Five Banners]

They lost last night to help the Mets linger a little longer so it will be more crushing.

We’ll see; since he didn’t pitch last night in the shutout, isn’t Alcantara due another start?

[Elvir Ovcina]

And the Rays would replace the NL team with the least potential TV viewers.  What network will they put the Cleveland game on. Cooking channel?

They'd replace the Cardinals.  ESPN is unaware that the Central and Mountain time zones actually exist (they think Chicago is on ET, but it only has one baseball team).

[Natsinpwc]

We’ll see; since he didn’t pitch last night in the shutout, isn’t Alcantara due another start?

No. They already said he is shut down for the year.

[Natsinpwc]

They'd replace the Cardinals.  ESPN is unaware that the Central and Mountain time zones actually exist (they think Chicago is on ET, but it only has one baseball team).

How can you have playoffs without the team with the best fans in baseball?

[Elvir Ovcina]

How can you have playoffs without the team with the best fans in baseball?

The AAA playoffs just ended, but because the NL Central didn't get an entrant at the appropriate level they'll probably need to be redone.

[PowerBoater69]

NYC forecast is steady rain until about 9pm, then thunderstorms. If they cancel today's doubleheader, the logical thing -- using MLB logic -- is to play a tripleheader on Wednesday.

Last one was in 1920. They'd probably have to go with 7 inning games to make it work.

[nfotiu]

I didn't realize they got rid of all the one-game playoffs and went to tie-breakers for everything.   Boo... I always enjoyed the one game playoffs and hoping for chaos scenarios that led to multiple one game playoffs.

[skippy1999]

I didn't realize they got rid of all the one-game playoffs and went to tie-breakers for everything.   Boo... I always enjoyed the one game playoffs and hoping for chaos scenarios that led to multiple one game playoffs.

Me either, that sucks

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I didn't know quite where to put a link to this article.  It discusses the Nats - Phillies game last FRiday to illustrate how hard it is to keep mental focus throughout a season.  To make the point, it kind of points out the series of mental mistakes by the Nats in the game, including the bad handling of the running game both offensively and defensively, as well as bad throws.  It also shows some hard effort, and kind of salvages it by pointing out how few similar lackluster day off games the Nats had when they have been completely out of it.  Ben Clemens - https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cant-we-all-just-go-home/

Not pretty, but:

We marvel at the physical prowess of players all the time, but I’m interested in their mental fortitude. It’s hard to keep grinding day in and day out for half a year. It’s harder still when there’s no postseason carrot dangled in front of you.
...
Hold these two thoughts in your mind at once: players who are out of the race don’t perform worse than projected, either at the plate or on the mound, but teams that are out of the race perform worse than projected. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? I don’t exactly understand it either. Maybe my tests of individual player performance aren’t sensitive enough. Maybe I’m doing a bad job defining expected performance. Or maybe, just maybe, pitching and hitting aren’t the right places to look.

Why bring this up? I tuned into the early game of a doubleheader between the Phillies and Nationals last Friday, and I have some evidence to show you. A word of warning: if you’re a Nationals fan, you might think I’m making fun of the team. I’m definitely not. The Nationals made a ton of bad plays in this game. That doesn’t mean they’re awful, though relative to other major league teams, they’ve been pretty bad this year. Instead, think of it this way: every day that you watch a game, players are locked in on every little detail. If they weren’t, something like this game might happen.
...

If you were prone to hot takes, you could say that this was a team mailing it in, but I think this game mostly proves the opposite point. The Nationals had a poor game, no argument about that. They’ve been every bit as out of the race for months, though, without any similar slips. This is what happens if you stop doing some of the background minutiae of the game that every team is required to do every day. Every team is constantly looking for little edges, and if you don’t counter them by trying to find your own edges or mess with their ploys, it will all add up.

This is what happens to the Nationals when they have a low-effort day. This almost never happens to the Nationals. Ergo, they almost never have a low-effort day. That’s impressive; it took a hurricane-soaked game rescheduled to a weekday afternoon at the last second to see any cracks. And it’s not like they were dead to rights against Philadelphia after that; after the night game was postponed due to rain, the Nats came back the next day and won in a runaway, 14–3.

Baseball is so hard it’s almost incomprehensible. The pitchers all throw 100. The hitters all hit missiles. If that weren’t enough, you also have to remember an arcane combination of base coverages, best behavior against opposing base stealers, balk rules… the list goes on. Quite simply, it’s easy to be exposed in a major league game. The other team is full of world class athletes, every single day, and they all want to win, too. One look at what happens when things aren’t perfectly right, and it becomes clear (to me, at least) that most every player, on most every day, is handling the little things at a high level.

[Five Banners]

I didn't realize they got rid of all the one-game playoffs and went to tie-breakers for everything.   Boo... I always enjoyed the one game playoffs and hoping for chaos scenarios that led to multiple one game playoffs.

It’s the little things that arguably shred history on the way to purveying the piece of metal that seem to keep cropping up

[Slateman]

I didn't realize they got rid of all the one-game playoffs and went to tie-breakers for everything.   Boo... I always enjoyed the one game playoffs and hoping for chaos scenarios that led to multiple one game playoffs.

Yea, I agree. I like the expanded playoffs, but I also liked the one game play in atmosphere

[Natsinpwc]

Other sports use tiebreakers to determine playoffs. They are just joining the crowd.