I feel bad for Pirates fans, they lost a WC game last year to the SF Giants. This year now again getting shut out by another Ace in a WC game.
<iframe src="https://vid.me/e/NlR3" width="854" height="458" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen scrolling="no"></iframe> Spoiler Pirates kid enjoying himself Batting/Pitching <iframe src="https://vid.me/e/ROC9" width="854" height="458" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen scrolling="no"></iframe>
Yankees & Pirates go quietly into the offseason. Combined 7-0 shutout. _________________________ <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">For the first time ever, it'll be <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/STLCards?src=hash">#STLCards</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cubs?src=hash">#Cubs</a> meeting in the postseason. Game 1 on Friday. Lackey vs. Lester. Bring your fried chicken.</p>— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/LangoschMLB/status/651954289032753152">October 8, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Pirates?src=hash">#Pirates</a> outscored, 12-0, in last two NL Wild Card Games -- both at home.</p>— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/651954655438598144">October 8, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I'm happy our game didn't turn into that mess. That's ridiculous. Let's hope this **** doesn't happen in this Royals series. We all know what has happened during the year. Things might get interesting.
[Never post under these conditions] Very drunk and very dejected. Congrats to Arrieta and the Cubs. No excuses; nothing negative to say other than the Wild Card system f***ing blows. Both of these teams are good enough to potentially win the World Series. It sucks that one of them has to go home due to a broken playoff system. Congrats to the Cubs. A surprisingly very likeable and well-coached team. I'll be rooting for you guys against the friggin Cards.
The Pirates were a great team all season, and I think we really dodged a bullet in the 6th. I was ready to say "here we go again with a choke job". I'm a proponent of having best out of 3 in the WC game as well because I don't think one game can tell you if the better team won or not. This division is going to be tough for many years, and I'm just hoping they change this for that reason alone. Nonetheless, great atmosphere at PNC. Hope for many more battles in the future in the postseason, hopefully further in than just the WC game.
Really sucks for the Bucs and Cubs considering how good they were, but this year was an anomaly having the 3 best records in the same division.
What's your solution? Petition to move back to the NL East and go back to two divisions and no wild cards? Get out of any division where the Cardinals are involved? I know the Pirates have no problems voting to kick other teams out of their division due to supposed "competitive imbalance" issues. At least they had a chance to play in a playoff game... I still remember the 103 win Giants team (1993) that didn't even get that shot due to no wild card and the Braves having 104 wins.
Personally, I favor the idea of a best-of-three Wild Card series. It won't happen, though. And, yeah, I get: the single-elimination play-in game is better than nothing at all. The "broken" statement was a knee-jerk thing on my part, but I can't lie when I say it feels a bit unfair. Fortunately, for you Astros fans, you guys took care of business and don't have to experience this for yourselves. Maybe one of these days we'll win the division to avoid this colossal tease.
Or maybe just avoid the home game! Presuming you have an ace pitcher... there just seems to be a lot less pressure on the visiting team to come in and "steal" a game in these 1-game scenarios. Usually, I'd say its pretty random... but its now 6 out of 8 games (with more than half of them being shutouts/dominant performance by the opposing team starting pitcher) which is a decent enough trend for there to have to be some intrinsic reasons as to why road teams are having this much success. The downside of the 3 game series is the waiting time that would be passed on to the next team (and in baseball, the "break" isn't as valuable as "rest" as it is in other sports). Theo Epstein did float an idea of having a double header wild-card game on day #1... with an additional game the following day if needed... but that was rejected by most teams.
Honestly since 5 teams get into the playoffs now, I think they should go back to 2 divisions. The winners get in, and then let the next 3 best records in, with the top team avoiding the play in game. It would lessen the chance of a gross imbalance, or a lousy division winner. As long as you have divisions of any kind, there is always the chance of a great team getting hosed, or an undeserving team getting in.
