NL Wild Card Series 2020, Game Three

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The early game is between the Marlins and the Cubs originally scheduled for yesterday before the rains came.

Marlins at Cubs, 11:08 AM PDT, TV: ABC

The pitchers remain Darvish for the Cubs and Sanchez for the Marlins, as previewed below.

The Cubs have frequently been in action on October 2. The Marlins have rarely made news on that date.

The later game is a result of the Padres’ furious late-inning comeback in Game Two, in which they scored nine runs after the fifth inning and held on to win 11-9.

Cardinals at Padres, 4:08 PM PDT, TV: ESPN

The Cardinals send RHP Jack Flaherty to the mound in this elimination game; the Padres haven’t yet announced their starter as of 11:00 AM PDT. Flaherty finished 2019 strong but had an uneven 2020, going 4-3 with a 4.91 ERA in just 40 innings. His longest stretch of the season was 7 innings in his first start of the season; he only made it to the 6th once after that.

Here’s some of the Cardinals’ history on October 2. The Padres haven’t done as much on this date.

25 thoughts on “NL Wild Card Series 2020, Game Three”

  6. Interesting DS rounds coming up – all inter-divisional matchups. And we already know that the LCS will definitely be East vs West.

  9. The Fish and the Cachorros are setting new standards for offensive futility – at least since the Rojos/Barves series.

  11. From The Athletic:

    In his final regular-season start, his shortest of 2020, Clayton Kershaw noticed a slight change in how his slider played against the Angels. The pitches that most major leaguers had been missing this season, they were fouling off. The pitches that most major leaguers had been fouling off, they were taking or putting into play.

    His velocity and movement were down, not by a lot but by enough to make a difference. He pinned down the difference to a deficiency in arm speed.

    “It’s a small margin of error,” he said. “But I can see it with my eye for sure.”

    So, Kershaw said, he changed his between-starts routine. With six days until he took the ball for the second game of the Dodgers’ wild-card series, he did more arm-care exercises than usual, focusing on recovery.

    At 32, the man who once insisted on following a precise routine before every start changed his routine on the fly. And it worked. Kershaw’s velocity was up from his first pitch to the Brewers on Thursday at Dodger Stadium. Two of his first four sliders elicited missed swings.

  13. Padres’ starting pitcher:

    After Thursday’s slugfest Jayce Tingler admitted to having “no idea” who would start Friday’s Game 3, having burned through eight relievers, including Garrett Richards and Adrian Morejon — the two most likely options. Turns out, it’s veteran right-hander Craig Stammen, who hasn’t made a start since 2010. Stammen pitched an inning in Game 1 but wasn’t used in Game 2. It’s hard to envision him working more than two innings. Stammen posted a 5.63 ERA during the regular season (but notched a 3.36 FIP).

    “We’re going to go with Craig, get the ball in his hand at the beginning and get as many outs as we can possible,” Tingler said. “From there, we’re going to have to put it together.”