From our other sites
The story
The Dodgers blew a late lead and fell 7-4 to the Brewers in Game 2 of the NL Championship Series, dropping to 0-2 in the series. Starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto was pulled early after just 3 innings (75 pitches), allowing 4 hits and 3 runs — his shortest outing of the season. Shohei Ohtani, batting cleanup as DH, went 0-for-4, while Roki Sasaki threw a scoreless, hitless inning in relief and hit a season-best 101 mph. On the forum, discussion centered on manager Dave Roberts’ bullpen management for not getting Sasaki in earlier for a longer outing, the team’s struggles against a Brewers roster with a payroll less than a third of the Dodgers’, and speculation that Ohtani might heat up again from Game 4 onward just like he did last year.
◆MLB NL Championship Series Game 2: Brewers 7, Dodgers 4 (Oct. 12, American Family Field, Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
On October 12 (October 13 in Japan), the NL West champion Dodgers dropped a back-and-forth road battle against the Brewers in Game 2 of the NLCS, falling to 0-2 in the series.
Starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto (28) was pulled partway through the 3rd inning after throwing 75 pitches, allowing 4 hits and 3 runs — his shortest outing this season. He had won five straight postseason starts dating back to last year, but the streak came to an end here. Shohei Ohtani (32), starting at cleanup as DH, couldn’t produce a solid hit, going 0-for-4. Roki Sasaki (24) came on as the third pitcher in the 4th inning with the team down by one run, threw a scoreless, hitless inning, and hit a season-best 101.0 mph.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
This is a short series, man.
They don't actually want to win.
Ohtani's basically a handicap at this point.
Feels like the usual pattern when Yamamoto falls apart.
Sharp read — the home plate ump was squeezing him, and Smith never called for an ABS challenge.
Why do soccer reporters never start threads about soccer matches,
but always start baseball ones?
Yeah, and they never start threads bashing soccer either.
Nah, even today, every time 'Ohtani-san' made an out,
the daytime TV shows kept cutting in with breaking news alerts.
I feel like coverage dropped even during the first half when he was playing great this year.
The talk shows were covering Rikuryu instead of Ohtani.
The Brewers' young pitchers looked rattled too, throwing wild pitches all over the place.
That's how the runs leaked out — runners advancing and scoring on sac flies to add up to those 4 runs.
Yeah, back-to-back titles really were thanks to Ohtani.
Ohtani barely hit in Games 1-3 of the NLCS last year either.
Then he exploded in Game 4 and hit 3 home runs in the World Series, so he'll probably wake up starting Game 4 again this year.
After Murakami, now Ohtani and Yamamoto have fallen too.
It's over.
I wonder if NHK will even broadcast the World Series if there's no Japanese player in it.
It's his knee.
Today he was walking slowly, favoring his leg.
The Dodgers are just weak against strong teams.
#2 Dodgers — $316,596,048
#19 Brewers — $124,145,696
LUXURY TAX PAYROLL
#1 Dodgers — $433M
#19 Brewers — $154M
Almost 3x the difference. Actually, the Dodgers' luxury tax bill alone this year is $183M — that's enough to cover the Brewers' entire payroll and still have change left over.
Pitchers can call for ABS too, but the rule requires it to be done immediately (probably to prevent sign-stealing).
A lot of the time, by the point the pitcher confirms the catcher isn't going to challenge and taps his own head, it's already too late.
Even after Yamamoto left, the Dodgers only had the lead thanks to the other team's mistakes.
Either way, there's no winning with the Dodgers' lineup managing just 3 hits.
Background and Key Talking Points
The NLCS is a best-of-seven series, and with the Dodgers chasing back-to-back titles, dropping two straight to a Brewers team with a far smaller payroll has put them in a must-win situation. Thread opinion was split over the bullpen management: some argued Sasaki should have been brought in earlier for a longer outing, while others felt the manager still doesn’t fully trust him yet. There was also technical discussion of the ABS (Automated Ball-Strike challenge system) — since a pitcher needs the catcher to immediately tap his helmet to challenge a call, delays in confirming whether the catcher will challenge often mean it’s already too late, which came up as context for the string of close calls. As for Ohtani, while many voiced frustration over his slump this season, there’s also strong hope he’ll repeat last year’s pattern of struggling early in the series before homering heavily from Game 4 onward. Sasaki’s season-best 101 mph fastball was seen as one bright spot.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Baseball] Dodgers suffer painful back-to-back comeback losses, Yamamoto Yoshinobu KO’d after shortest outing of the season in the 3rd, Ohtani Shohei hitless… 110 plate appearances without a homer.”
Leave a Reply