Wild finish in the National League this weekend

[whalersjets]

Very bad call by the ump and the Padres should have argued.

Tank you gotta feel better now, at least the Mets didn't blow it like that.

[JQK]

On second look, The plate was blocked, but it looks like Holliday's hand dragged the catchers foot over the plate....

It looks like the Rockies may have won legit....

[tp49]

So the Rox won, huh? Excellent - I'm not much of a Padres fan.

I'd like to know what you guys thought of Don Orsillo - us Red Sox fans get to hear him for 150 games or so on NESN every season, but I doubt a lot of the non-Red Sox fans know who he is.

He sounds like Sean Mcdonnough <sp>.

[NJTank]

Very bad call by the ump and the Padres should have argued.

Tank you gotta feel better now, at least the Mets didn't blow it like that.

Yes they did Whalerjets during the last two weeks the Mets blew leads almost every night.

[whalersjets]

Very bad call by the ump and the Padres should have argued.

Tank you gotta feel better now, at least the Mets didn't blow it like that.

Yes they did Whalerjets during the last two weeks the Mets blew leads almost every night.

Yeah, but at least by the end you knew they were going to blow it. But there you're at the highest of highs, and then at the lowest of lows.

[JQK]

Very bad call by the ump and the Padres should have argued.

Tank you gotta feel better now, at least the Mets didn't blow it like that.

Yes they did Whalerjets during the last two weeks the Mets blew leads almost every night.

Yeah, but at least by the end you knew they were going to blow it. But there you're at the highest of highs, and then at the lowest of lows.

True, it was a gradule decline into sucking.

[NJTank]

It was like Ground Hogs Day you wake up thinking today the Mets would win, you get a 5-0 lead in the 4th Inning then the radio comes on and its Sonny and Cher singing I'v Got You Babe and the next thing you know the Mets are losing 9-6

[CS85]

What a fun ballgame. I think what will doom the Rockies is having used 10 pitchers in this game. Philly is a hard hitting club and they will trouble the dreams of the Rockies pen.

[DEAD!]

Mets not making the playoffs, Kaz Matsui is.... just saying....

[JQK]

Mets not making the playoffs, Kaz Matsui is.... just saying....

BAM!

[NJTank]

Mets not making the playoffs, Kaz Matsui is.... just saying....

BAM!

Well Kaz is not the reason the Rockies are playing still far from it.

Heath Bell now that's who the Mets could have used

[Nick 1733]

Mets not making the playoffs, Kaz Matsui is.... just saying....

BAM!

Well Kaz is not the reason the Rockies are playing still far from it.

Heath Bell now that's who the Mets could have used

Actually Kaz was the lead off hitter agains Hoffman and he hit it until right center, which I think rattled Hoffman and begun the downfall of Hoffman in that inning.

[Audiodrama]

I'd like to know what you guys thought of Don Orsillo - us Red Sox fans get to hear him for 150 games or so on NESN every season, but I doubt a lot of the non-Red Sox fans know who he is.

Yeah I'd be curious to know as well. We're a bit spoiled with D.O. and the Remdawg, but it's nice to share them on national telecasts once in awhile.

[See Red]

Padres didn't get jobbed. If the umps hadn't blown any calls in the game, the game would've ended in nine innings on the strength of a Garrett Atkins home run. I haven't see too many replays of the final play but I've seen the replays described as "inconclusive". No games tomorrow so the Rockies bullpen gets a day off, so they'll be fine.

Definetely glad to see this run of theirs paid off in the form of a playoff birth. They absolutely deserved to get in the way they played in the second half and down the stretch.

I've got Trevor Hoffman in the no Hall of Fame category. When Hairston hit that Home Run I was very disappointed until I saw Trevor Hoffman in the bullpen. I know he's great and all but I thought that with the top of the lineup coming up... the Rockies could still win it... and they did. If you can't get the BIG saves... you're not that great a closer to me.

[NJTank]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=simmons/071001

Good Bill Simmons article

[uniguy22]

Padres didn't get jobbed. If the umps hadn't blown any calls in the game, the game would've ended in nine innings on the strength of a Garrett Atkins home run. I haven't see too many replays of the final play but I've seen the replays described as "inconclusive". No games tomorrow so the Rockies bullpen gets a day off, so they'll be fine.

Definetely glad to see this run of theirs paid off in the form of a playoff birth. They absolutely deserved to get in the way they played in the second half and down the stretch.

I've got Trevor Hoffman in the no Hall of Fame category. When Hairston hit that Home Run I was very disappointed until I saw Trevor Hoffman in the bullpen. I know he's great and all but I thought that with the top of the lineup coming up... the Rockies could still win it... and they did. If you can't get the BIG saves... you're not that great a closer to me.

Hoffman is a no doubt HOFer. He has the most career saves, and plenty of those have been big saves.

[VandyDelphia Mike]

What a fun ballgame. I think what will doom the Rockies is having used 10 pitchers in this game. Philly is a hard hitting club and they will trouble the dreams of the Rockies pen.

This strengthens the Phils' chances in the NLDS against the Rox, since playoff rosters are going to require the Rockies to no longer have 23 pitchers on the active roster ...

Phils' announcers griped about that when Colorado came into town earlier in September. Such are the rules though, when rosters expand.

The winner of this series goes to the World Series - sorry Cub or D-Back fans.

[See Red]

What a fun ballgame. I think what will doom the Rockies is having used 10 pitchers in this game. Philly is a hard hitting club and they will trouble the dreams of the Rockies pen.

This strengthens the Phils' chances in the NLDS against the Rox, since playoff rosters are going to require the Rockies to no longer have 23 pitchers on the active roster ...

Phils' announcers griped about that when Colorado came into town earlier in September. Such are the rules though, when rosters expand.

The winner of this series goes to the World Series - sorry Cub or D-Back fans.

Fatigue shouldn't be an issue with a day off.

So the Phillies announcers were griping that the Rockies were able to pitch guys who weren't good enough to make a 27 man roster? Phillies should've been licking their chops when the September callups came into the game.

Corpas, Fuentes, and Hawkins only pitched an inning each and Affeldt only pitched a third of an inning. Julio, who's been decent as a Rockie, only through 11 pitches -- all of them were bad, though. And actually, if you look at the pitch counts, the Rockies pitchers worked quick and none of the relievers aside from Herges threw very many pitches... so bullpen fatigue certainly won't be an issue.

[Swiss]

What a proper finish: a wild card berth by a playoff game finishing wildly the NL season.

Go baseball!!!

[jkrdevil]

Padres didn't get jobbed. If the umps hadn't blown any calls in the game, the game would've ended in nine innings on the strength of a Garrett Atkins home run. I haven't see too many replays of the final play but I've seen the replays described as "inconclusive". No games tomorrow so the Rockies bullpen gets a day off, so they'll be fine.

Definetely glad to see this run of theirs paid off in the form of a playoff birth. They absolutely deserved to get in the way they played in the second half and down the stretch.

I've got Trevor Hoffman in the no Hall of Fame category. When Hairston hit that Home Run I was very disappointed until I saw Trevor Hoffman in the bullpen. I know he's great and all but I thought that with the top of the lineup coming up... the Rockies could still win it... and they did. If you can't get the BIG saves... you're not that great a closer to me.

Hoffman is a no doubt HOFer. He has the most career saves, and plenty of those have been big saves.

Well considering the guy he passed for all-time saves leader isn't in the Hall of Fame I would say being the all-time saves leader is not an automatic ticket. On top of that he doesn't have that big save. Now granted he hasn't always had the chances but when he has been brought in in the big spot he has blown in. Don't get me wrong he's not Armando Benitiez but he's not on I have confidence in come playoff time. Let's take a look at his biggest save opportunities. In the 1998 World Series Scott Brosius hot a ball 400+ feet off of him which ended any chance of San Diego making that a series. The All-Star game last year he blew the NL's chances at getting Home Field advantage. And now this year twice in the final weekend he has needed to get the save for the Padres to clinch and blew it twice. He's a very good closer not a Hall of Famer.

Having that "big game" doesn't automatically include or exclude you from the HOF. He will be in, and rightfully so, for his numbers.

It is when your job is to save the big game. That's why there is the closer role to hold on and close out big games and post season game not random July games against last place teams.