NLDS Games One, 2019

Here’s what happened on this date in baseball history. There were several bad things for the Dodgers (Bobby Thomson), but also a couple of good ones.

Both games are on the TBS cable channel.

The early game: Cardinals at Braves, 2:02 PM PDT

RHP Miles Mikolas goes for the Cards, while Dallas Keuchel goes for the Braves. This will be Mikolas’ first postseason appearance; it will be Keuchel’s 11th. Here’s MLB’s position-by-position comparison of the two teams. The net result? A very slight edge to the Braves. USA Today goes the other way and picks the Cardinals in five games.

Cardinals’ lineup:

Braves’ lineup:

The late game: Nationals at Dodgers, 5:37 PM PDT

LHP Patrick Corbin makes the first postseason start of his career, but he’s not unfamiliar with the Dodgers. He’s made 21 lifetime appearances (19 starts) against them including a seven-inning scoreless outing in May and has a 3.36 ERA to show for it. RHP Walker Buehler has made four postseason starts, all last year. He started Game Seven of the NLCS against the Brewers and then went seven scoreless innings against the Red Sox in Game Three of the World Series.

Here’s MLB’s position-by-position analysis of the two teams. MLB gives the Dodgers a slight edge. USA Today agrees, picking the Dodgers in four games.

Nationals’ lineup:

Dodgers’ lineup:

386 thoughts on “NLDS Games One, 2019

  1. I thought Gomes was a potential Dodger last off-season, but he started out poorly this year. He was very good when Suzuki went down with an injury, though, as the Nats took charge in the mild card race.

    • It will be interesting to see what the Dodgers do this off season. I guess there is some starting pitching to figure out and can always tinker with the pen.

  2. I’m hoping this year that the movie (postseason) is as good as the book (regular season). The last 6 years the book has been much better.

  3. Apparently the Nats are going to “come back and play tomorrow” according to the tv colour guy.

  4. You can dress him up in a different uniform and put him on the other side of the country, but Hunter Strickland is still Hunter Strickland.

    • Unfortunately, even with those options, I still think I’m going to watch on delay.

  5. For what it’s worth, Link, the Barves’ starter is Keuchel (as in Reuss), but he doesn’t give it the proper German pronunciation.

  6. I think the Nationals, with their starting pitchers are going to be tough to beat. We will need to pick on their bullpen to have success.

    • Their bullpen can be shaky but, also, their rotation is out of synch for this series. Strasburg going on short rest, and Scherzer unlikely to pitch more than one game.

  7. Asdrubal Cabrera’s name reminds me of that Cuban player the Dodgers had with the really long last name.

  8. As sharp as his fastballs have been, his mastery of the off speed stuff has been the most impressive part

  9. WPDave: I’d love to see a photo of father and son wearing those T-shirts….I have been nervously pacing in front of my TV, so I haven’t posted before.

    • I won’t second-guess sending Taylor, one of the Dodgers’ fastest players. Eaton made a perfect throw.

    • If only Seager had doubled down the line in the first inning… then we might only need to ask for 3 or 4 runs here!

  10. They probably told him if he did not start to throw strikes they were going to make him bunt again.

  11. With Buehler pitching, the pitch locator on game day looks like a kaleidoscope for each batter.

  12. Scoop – don’t know where you are at tonight. Just wanted to let you know that my son and I are wearing 2 very special Dodger t-shirts while watching the game.

  13. I did hold my breathe there for a second. I thought it was going to be a Joc special – but not so special in this case.

  14. The pictures here keep blacking out from time to time, I hope that doesn’t last

    • It was perfect, and it really surprised me – Duvall’s no Gold Glover. Wong’s a pretty fast runner, and the fly ball was up in the air a long time.

  15. Doc saying that Klayton to throw game 2 so that he might be available to relieve in game 5, if it goes that far.

        • For me, the staff writers have always been the allure of SI. As a weekly, writing has to be strong to get people to read about a game they saw last week.

          • Yeah, and I let my sub lapse a couple of years ago because it was now two weeks behind. I was getting World Series issues Thanksgiving week.

            That’s partly my location, I’m sure. Nonetheless, it’s a publishing institution which deserves better than what’s happening to it, and its people are getting the shaft.