MLB (Non Phillies) News and Discussion 2025 Season

[Philsmania]

Mets are sputtering but also lucky that neither the Reds nor Giants can take advantage with a sustained hot streak of their own. Diamondbacks are now the closest contender at 1.5 games back. Interestingly, we play them this weekend. Whoever grabs this 3rd NL WC will--on paper--look like the weakest team in the Postseason field. Mets are only on an 83 win pace at this point. Might we see a .500 team in the field?

[bkox]

Ohtani's 5 no hit innings made me realize that there have been 0 no-hitters this year. if there are none in the next 10 days, would be the first season since 2005 without a no hitter.

[zambonir]

There was one in seven innings in spring training, which obviously doesn't count for several reasons. The Dodgers lost two in the ninth inning recently. Maybe we'll get one in the playoffs (hopefully by one of our pitchers, not our line-up).

The year of no no-nos? This MLB season’s no-hitter drought is rare and random

[phillychuck]

Not all that surprising. So few pitchers go nine innings now they will be moving into uncharted territory if they pitch the 8th or 9th with a no hitter going on. It wouldn’t be strange if they were less effective than when pitchers regularly pitched longer with more pitches. What did Lorenzen throw in his no-no for the Phils? 138 pitches? And he usually was pulled around 100. I was shocked when he made it through and not surprised when he stunk afterwards...

[zambonir]

124 pitches. But you're right, even the seventh is uncharted territory for most pitchers. Ohtani was scripted to go 5 last night. The bullpen script probably didn't have them doing that.

[zambonir]

Brandon Pfaadt with nine innings of 1-hit ball against the Giants but Verlander was almost as good. Dbacks loaded the bases in bottom of 9th against reliever but couldn't score. 0-0 heading into the 10th.

[zambonir]

MLB drops plan for London games in 2026, says nearing TV deals with NBC, ESPN,...

[Philsmania]

Future HOFer Clayton Kershaw announced his retirement after the season ends today. If the Phillies face and knockout the Dodgers in the Postseason, that will offer a little bit of a repeat of history. In 2008, when the Phillies knocked off the Dodgers, they sent future HOFer Greg Maddux off into retirement.

[EastFallowfield]

And they knocked around the rookie Kershaw a little that year in the LCS too.

Pretty sweet story they told about Kershaw the other night, getting that Phils fan family tickets to the game and onto the field and getting Chase Utley around to meet them.

[Philsmania]

They knocked him around in 2009 as well. As great as Kershaw's career has been, he's generally stunk in October.

All of this also reminds me of the time in September of 2008 when the Dodgers hosted the Diamondbacks and Greg Maddux was supposed to face off against Randy Johnson in a battle of future HOFers. Both were scratched and fans with tickets to the game had to settle for Max Scherzer vs. Clayton Kershaw.

https://www.mlb.com/news/the-night-clayton-kershaw-and-max-scherzer-faced-off

[zambonir]

That's more a matter of randomness as not stepping up. Like a lot of hitters with bad playoff careers, he eventually delivered one series that was good enough. Conversely someone like Cliff Lee was great almost every time but not when it mattered most.

More remarkable to me that he actually had this successful comeback season.

[EastFallowfield]

Braves officially eliminated from the postseason. What a shame.

most consecutive seasons reaching postseason:

1991-2005 Braves: 14
2013-25 Dodgers: 13 *active
1995-2007 Yankees: 13
2017-24 Astros: 8 *active
2018-24 Braves: 7

[phillychuck]

Braves officially eliminated from the postseason. What a shame.

most consecutive seasons reaching postseason:
1991-2005 Braves: 14
2013-25 Dodgers: 13 *active
1995-2007 Yankees: 13
2017-24 Astros: 8 *active
2018-24 Braves: 7

Gotta appreciate their consistency, but the injuries and lingering effect of last year’s injuries sunk them pretty deep this year. They have drafted and developed players better than almost any organization in this century, and handled free agency well.

[BostonRoss]

And yet only one championship in each of those long runs

[zambonir]

Only two for the all the other teams listed besides Yankees, who went cold from 2001-2007 (I guess they missed in '08 completely?). Dodgers needed COVID season to get their first. Even before this WC era it was hard, and hard to build for (versus building teams that can make it).

[Philsmania]

These Postseason runs are less impressive now with expanded Postseason fields. The Braves' first one was all division titles with nary a wild card.

[zambonir]

Yeah but it was three divisions. The '93 Phillies, they did it the hard way!

Anyway the Braves' 2018-2023 was no less impressive. All NL East titles. But the Nats won just as many rings.

[EastFallowfield]

The Nats took 2 of 3 from the Mets, Jacob Young made an incredibly unbelievable 'hacky sack' catch, then in the 9th robbed the Mets of a tying home run. One of those that they say 'never seen that before' and it's actually true.

https://www.mlb.com/news/jacob-young-makes-incredible-catch-off-of-kick

[Philsmania]

And the Reds won. The #3 NLWC race is now tied.

[zambonir]

Too bad we seem eager to help the third team.

Also Reds hold tiebreaker over Mets.