☆ 2016 ALCS ☆ Toronto Blue Jays vs CLEVELAND INDIANS ☆
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My happy ass will be downtown on Saturday with a 90% chance on the forecast of being hammered drunk.
Fuck Toronto, we'll go through them again on the way to another championship.
My happy ass will be downtown on Saturday with a 90% chance on the forecast of being hammered drunk.
Fuck Toronto, we'll go through them again on the way to another championship.
A friend who I went to Cleveland with last year text me to say how much he wished we were going to be there this weekend. Place should be be rocking.
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ALCS GAME 1 LINES (vegasinsider.com)
10/14 8:05 PM
901 Toronto open +135 consensus now +125
902 Cleveland open -145 consensus now -135 - the home team favorite
Total open 8 consensus now 7' low number with Kluber pitching
Pitchers: (TOR) Marco Estrada
(CLE) Corey Kluber TV: TBS | FAIR, WIND OUT TO LEFT 5-10. GAME TEMP 56, RH 50%
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Kluber pitches lights out. Tribe romps 4-0. Kluber goes 8 then the pen flips the shutout switch.
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It's a beautiful fall evening. Light breezes and mild
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Ended up with tickets to tomorrow's game
Anybody else going?
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Woohoo!! Great game Tribe!
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Early on the Blue Jays kept getting two runners on base so to shut them out was great. Same again tonight please
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Can someone explain something to an uneducated Englishman please
In the first inning the Blue Jays had a double play but when the fielder at second caught the ball he wasn't standing on the bag so why was the runner out? He then threw it to first where the fielder was on the bag and both runners were out
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Can someone explain something to an uneducated Englishman please
In the first inning the Blue Jays had a double play but when the fielder at second caught the ball he wasn't standing on the bag so why was the runner out? He then threw it to first where the fielder was on the bag and both runners were out
You merely need to tap the base while holding the ball. Happens fast. A toe drag as your in the process of throwing is all it takes.Can someone explain something to an uneducated Englishman please
In the first inning the Blue Jays had a double play but when the fielder at second caught the ball he wasn't standing on the bag so why was the runner out? He then threw it to first where the fielder was on the bag and both runners were out
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Maybe it was the layoff or the law of averages or the Laz Diaz strike zone or, you know, good pitching in big spots from Corey Kluber and Co. But the Blue Jays' bountiful bats of the American League Wild Card Game and the AL Division Series rounds were not in attendance for Game 1 of the AL Championship Series, and Toronto is counting on them to return in Game 2 today (4 p.m. ET on TBS, as well as Sportsnet and RDS in Canada).
"This game is not easy," Toronto slugger Edwin Encarnacion said. "We try to do the best we can do, especially when you've got runners in scoring position. You want to bring them in, but sometimes it doesn't happen. We're just going to try to get them [saturday]."
It's who the Blue Jays are going to go against that has become an interesting Game 2 storyline.
You'll remember, of course, that the way the Indians were initially constructed called for a Carlos Carrasco or, failing that, a Danny Salazar sighting in an October Game 2. But that was before Carrasco got hit in the right hand and Salazar suffered a right flexor strain, ravaging a once-great rotation.
Plan C was Trevor Bauer, but his drone hobby got the best of him in advance of Game 1, when he lacerated his right pinkie finger repairing his unmanned aircraft, necessitating 10 stitches and a bump back to Monday night's Game 3.
So, enter Josh Tomlin, whose rise up the ranks in the Tribe's rotation has been a rapid one that now pits him against 20-game winner J.A. Happ at a time when the Indians are trying to build a commanding edge that they can take with them through customs.
"It really doesn't affect me at all," Tomlin said. "It will be on my fifth day, I'll be on normal rest. When I found out I was going [saturday], I stuck to the game plan that I was going to do Monday and go out there and compete and win a game."
The pressure is on the Blue Jays to win this one, because while 18 of 46 Game 1 losers in the ALCS have gone on to win it, only three teams in 25 tries have fallen in an 0-2 hole and come back.
If we add in the National League component, it's just five teams in 46 tries in the LCS.
Toronto stranded seven runners in the first six innings Friday night, before Francisco Lindor broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the sixth. The Blue Jays relied on the home run to produce 46 percent of their offense in 2016, so it's no secret that they can thrive via the long ball. They'll need it to even things up in Game 2, and the good news is they will be facing Tomlin on the heels of the highest homer rate (1.9 per nine innings) of his career.
That said, Tomlin pitched in a tough Fenway environment of Game 3 of the ALDS and turned in five strong innings in which he allowed two runs on four hits, none of which cleared the wall. Happ, meanwhile, pitched around traffic in his Game 2 ALDS start against the Rangers, giving up nine hits and walking a batter, but only allowing one run in five innings.
Neither of these guys is going to light up the radar gun. Happ and Tomlin are a study in solid results with less-than-scintillating stuff.
"You learn how to pitch with whatever you have," Happ said.
The Indians are making the best of what they have left on their pitching staff, and that's why winning Game 1 with their ace -- indeed, their only truly bankable rotation weapon -- was so vital for them. In Game 2, all eyes will again be on their use (or lack thereof) of Andrew Miller out of the bullpen after his 31-pitch effort in Game 1 and with an off-day looming. Cleveland manager Terry Francona has deployed Miller as a cure-all, and that puts all the more emphasis on the need for Toronto to get good hacks off Tomlin early.
The Blue Jays will have a big extra hand on deck in their 'pen, with Francisco Liriano having served his mandatory time nursing the concussion suffered in the ALDS. At the same time, they were unsure of the status of second baseman Devon Travis, whose continued right knee issues prompted an early exit from Game 1 and an MRI exam.
For all the storylines that pervade a series, right now the only one that truly matters is whether Toronto will have better luck finding the big hit that evaded the club against Kluber. Tomlin is stingy on the walk front, but that also means he's in and around the zone, and the Blue Jays need to pounce on any and all mistakes.
"That's what playoff baseball comes down to," Toronto center fielder Kevin Pillar said. "Who is going to get the big hit?"
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10/15 4:05 PM - The Money Lines on today's game (vegasinsider.com)
905 Toronto open - 125 now concensus -126 - the road favorite today, close game
906 Cleveland open +115 now consensus +115
TOTAL RUNS - 8½ OVER/ UNDER, no Kluber today
Pitchers: (TOR) J.A. Happ (L) (CLE) Josh Tomlin
Overnight Pitching Change: Cleveland - J. Tomlin for T. Bauer | TV: TBS | PARTLY CLOUDY, WIND OUT TO CENTER 11-16, GUSTY. GAME TEMP 72, RH 57% HEAT INDEX 73 - A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN CLEVELAND!
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