disarcina

saw the posts re Maldonado at catcher for us -- he's actually been one of the real pleasant surprises for us this year. He's played well behind the plate and hit better than expected. And, YES, I think he's caught more games than any other AL catcher this season and probably number 2 or 3 in MLB behind YADIER and perhaps one more, Normally, Sal Perez and YADIER would be 1-2 but Salvadore Perez has spent about a month plus on the DL this season. Maldonado - being pinch hit for now -- has played well for the Halos all season and made a marginal rotation perform a little bit better IMO.

Cleveland also has Francona in the dugout..... here comes Joe Smith -- geez he's a pen guy who could have helped us........oh wait........

Houston/ Cleveland ought to be a pretty good ALCS. Who's in NL? Two hottest teams ? Nats and D-Backs? Dodgers 'best of all time" according to Sporting News -- is playing about .400 ball since that cover article. Probably out first round. Cleveland is pretty good, good rotation, deep pen, solid line up, strong with Lindor/ Kipnis up the middle (Kipmis been on the DL a lot this season) -- lot of depth - very good team. we knew this series was going to be tough...........really demonstrates the playoff teams and then, well, our Halos.

Valbuena costs us another run with his defensive smarts ! GEEZ. well, good thing for Valbuena is our pen here will make his mistake academic.......

yep -- just tag the guy or bag at third -- although -- that base hit probably would have scored the run perhaps .........oh well.

cue up Leon Russell's "Tightrope" for this entire game -- with Nolasco or any of our pen guys pitching. last inning may just be a preview of what's to come each inning.

whew -- thought Valbuena was going to either throw it away or the runner would beat a weak toss to first.

now he's behind 2-0 with bases loaded.......

i have a sinking / bad feeling here.......

well, then just double the guy home ---- who is this guy? Cleveland's roster is just stocked with good players.

sort of dodged that one -- now a sac fly won't bring home the go ahead run - at least.

Valbuena pretty much had to take evasive action to avoid tagging Bruce (the runner coming right at him) huh?

how about tagging Bruce running right at you ?

YEP. probably can't even put a wager on that in Vegas any more.

GIDP comin on ??

Halos F/O as in front office.....typo city here.

after last night's arson show (not exactly a fireman), Bud Norris may not get the few more relief appearances he needs for the bonus. another one on the 'bonus' bubble is Nolasco -- may already be too late for him now with where his start stats are -- but if he made a certain number of starts with a specified number of IP over a two year period (something like that) he got an additional bonus and perhaps a club option turned into a player 'his' option. Not sure. His start/ IP projections were running short of the magic numbers about a month ago and I assume he's fallen so off the pace now, he can't catch up. Hey, if I were the Halos F/A and could save some bonus money on players who are probably F/A and gone from the Halos at the end of the year -- I'd pitch the AA and AAA call up guys instead of the bonus guys.

well, the good news is that dropped pitch and insurance run not quite as important now.........we're down 4. anyone else think Cron or someone should have caught that foul ball down the RF line down behind 1B ? The one before the two run single. Oh well.

good night Irene. this Bud's not for you.

no i obviously didn't realize Maldonado wasn't in the game -- have sound off -- half watching. that explains that dropped pitch that allowed the runner to advance and eventually score that important insurance run off Norris. Norris now in a real jam.

Houston/ Cleveland ALCS will produce the W/S champ. I'd have to go with Cleveland. does the W/C team(s) have a shot in this format? at this rate, the second W/C team in the AL will have some real tired rotation/ pen guys by the time of the one game play in game and then more pitching issues if they get past that game.

Colon is pitching for Minnesota tomorrow, I think. no, not in the old timers game, he's starting vs. Detroit.

well we must be close to that because we have only gained one game on them in the past ten days....... they seem to win when we win and when the Halos put together that streak -- Minnesota (well, they were playing the White Sox) just kept winning. we lose this one, we remain one back in race for second W/C.

now that's terrible - gave 'em the insurance run. that stolen base (dropped ball by Maldonado -- who, really , has played so well this year for us) didn't help.

Geez -- this crowd here is tough. ragging on Trout -- best player in MLB -- hey, guys, we're playing Cleveland - they're pretty good. right now Cleveland and perhaps Arizona D-Backs, hottest teams in baseball. Dodgers trying hard to lose best record to Nats and/or Inidians. Twins can't seem to lose right now either.........