Baez for the Dodgers was taking over a minute between pitches. I thought baseball was trying to speed things up. I was wanting the ump to award the hitter a ball it was so bad.

I had it on in the background at points and wondered why it was taking so damn long. The strike zone also seemed horribly inconsistent in favor of LAD all night which also made the game a tough watch.

A pitcher should not be allowed to do that to everyone in the stands and millions watching on TV in LA. This isnt his game. Pace of play is a real issue that needs to be addressed by MLB. The new generation or any generation for that matter dont want to see a pitcher walked around on the mound, walk off the mound after every pitch.

They fixed the issue with catchers bringing the game to a halt with endless visits to consult with their pitcher. The game didn't suffer. They need to do something about allowing one person to grind the game down to a snails pace.

Well, I couldn't make it past the 6th. Woke up to see they pulled it off.

Nice.

Need another 6 or 7 game win streak

I wouldn't hold my breath.

The Cards schedule going forward is brutal; really no chances to relax and regroup in there. And this rotation just isn't a 'winning streak' rotation because they don't have many guys that can go 7. As a consequence, even on good days, you're going to go through 3-4 relievers and invariably one of those guys will have an off night and lose games for you.

Hicks did his level best last night - he was a damn mess out there. Norris was only marginally better. The box score says he walked the leadoff man then struck out the side but he went to 3 ball counts on 3 of the 4 hitters he faced, his cutter was garbage and he simply didn't use his breaking ball. He was playing with fire that whole outing.

It's remarkable how well they've done with their margin for error being as small as it is. This pitching staff truly is held together with duct tape and any stumble (especially from Mikolas) could be all it takes to really snowball into a 2-4, 3-7 kind of stretch that just wrecks the season.

And frankly, there wouldn't be anyone to blame for it. This just isn't a championship caliber starting pitching staff at the moment.

For sure.

But it's about what they'd have to do to catch the Cubs. I'm thinking the WC is about best case scenario, even then, the teams they're running with are probably better.

I have had precisely zero buy-in with the Brewers even when they were like 9 games ahead of us. You can't win with a pitching staff like they have and butchers just about everywhere on the field defensively.

They're trying to 'slow pitch softball' their way into the playoffs and I just don't see it working out for them. Yelich and Cain are dynamic, well rounded players and the rest of them are just braindead sluggers.

That's a team that will run hot and cold and I suspect they'll run more cold than hot down the stretch, especially as their bullpen starts to get a little tired.

I'd imagine they'll finish around 85 wins and out of the post-season. And I can't buy into the Phillies AND Braves making it to the post-season either. So much youth on those squads that I think one of them stumbles. Beyond that, if there's a team with a tougher schedule than ours, it's AZ. They're leading the division right now but it wouldn't surprise me to see the Rockies overtake them.

Amazing - AMAZING - stat. The Rockies just finished a stretch of 46 consecutive games against teams over .500. In that period they went 30-16. There have only been 2 instances in baseball history of a team playing that many consecutive games against winning records and those 2 teams won 15 and 22 games respectively.

The Rockies are playing exceptional baseball right now and I expect they win the West when all is said and done. The D-Backs may end up undone by their scheduling and the Brewers/NLE team just don't seem likely to hold on.

The Cards may pull this off. Winning the next 2 series would obviously be huge but I'd be satisfied with a single W against Colorado. Mikolas, Gant, Gomber is a terrifying trio to send out to that stadium and with the young relievers struggling to K guys (and Hicks struggling to simply put the damn ball over the plate), I can see the Rockies putting up a couple of 10-12 run games if we're not careful. I mean uuuuuuugly outings.

So if the Rockies are world beaters, why did we make them look like shit? What did we do right? Can it be duplicated?

Small sample size

Cardinals are playing good ball as well.

And we didn't 'make them look like shit'. We walked them off twice including a game where we were dominated for most of the day. That series is two swings of the bat away from being a 1-3 beating instead of a 3-1 win. Both squads had 2 games that were relatively straightforward; the Cards simply found 2 more knocks than the Rockies did.

You expect that to happen in Colorado? I don't. That series could be a pretty ugly one.

Daniel Murphy claimed off trade waivers but we don't know who yet.

I defy anyone to find me a better available fit for our bench and/or give me a reason why we shouldn't have claimed this guy...

Someone also claimed Harper. LOL.

Murphy would be nice here though. Could play some 2nd, 3rd, 1st.

The only issue I have with adding someone at this point from outside the organization, someone in the clubhouse doesn't already know and vouch for is upsetting the team chemistry.

These guys having each others back and being on the same page is why we are seeing baseball that matters instead of that "meh" crap Matheny was running out there every day.

No way. Was hoping to win 2 in LA and then steal one in Colorado. 3-3 on this road trip would be winning to me.