We Shouldn't Be Here. Should We? NLCS EDITION

WOW! We shouldn't be here. Should we?

NLCS EDITION

Friday 11 October to Tuesday 15 October 2019

Sneaking into the playoffs the Nationals beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card game and went on to beat the 106 game winning Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS. To be painfully honest, the Nationals should NOT be in the position they wound up in. They started off the 2019 season dismally in what looked like it was going to be another sub par season. After 50 games and some early injuries always the injuries at inopportune times, they were a measly 19-31. Hardly a team that could make it to the playoffs. Then...

They started following skipper Dave Martinez's policy of going 1-0 every game. Don't worry about last night's loss, don't anticipate tomorrow's win just concentrate on the here and now one game at a time and "Stay in the Fight" and have fun. From mid May to the end of the season (and into the Playoffs) the Nationals got RED Hot and finished the regular season 93-69 and got the number one Wild Card spot with a 4 game lead ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Nats beat the Brewers in the Wild Card game 4-3 in a very unorthodox way with a Juan Soto bases clearing single with the help of a fielding error. They then beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best of 5 NLDS 3-2. Game 5 was saved by a Howie Kendrick Grand Slam in the top of the 10th inning. Now they face the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS, who beat the NL East Leading Atlanta Braves 3-2 in their NLDS (the 2 and 3 seeds). The Cardinals were 91-71 in the 2019 season 2 games worse than the Nats but in 7 regular season games they bested the Nats 5-2. Again the Nats are up against a team that had beat them not just in the regular season but in previous postseasons. The Cardinals stole the 2012 NLDS away from the Nats in a comeback game 5. The Cardinals had been down by 6 runs. In the 9th several times the Cardinals were down to their last strike and managed to gain a base, then tied it up and ended up winning 9-7.

Game 1: Friday 11 October 2019: Miles Mikolas vs Anibal Sanchez
Game one started off a bit slow, top of the first the Nats struck out swinging with a lone single by Anthony Rendon. The Cardinals strike out swinging, ground out and fly out during their half of the inning. Second Inning the Nats get things going. Howie Kendrick starts the inning off with a double, Ryan Zimmerman grounds out, Michael Taylor strikes out, Yan Gomes doubles Kendrick scores Nats on top 1-0. Anibal Sanchez grounds out. Then things settle down for a few innings. Top of 7th: Trea Turner lines out, Adam Eaton triples, Rendon intentionally walked. Two men on base. Pitching change Andrew Miller on mound Juan Soto strikes out swinging. Cardinals change pitchers again to John Brebbia, Kendrick singles Eaton scores Rendon to second. Score now 2-0 Nationals. Zimmerman walks bases are loaded. Taylor flies out. Bottom of the 8th pinch-hitter Jose Martinez gets the Cardinals their first and only hit of the game. Anibal Sanchez went 7.2 hit-less innings, Sean Doolittle came in and finished the game. Nationals win 2-0.

WIN: 2-0
SERIES: Nationals lead 1-0

Game 2: Saturday 12 October 2019: Adam Wainwright vs Max Scherzer
Game 2 an amazing Pitching match-up Adam Wianwright vs Max Scherzer. The scoring wouldn't get started until the top of the 3rd Michael A.Taylor hits a lead off homer to put the Nats on top 1-0. The game settled down to basically a pitching duel. The Nats got a couple of hits in the 5th and 6th innings but no runs. The Cardinals got their first hit bottom 7th. Then during the 8th some more action happens. With one out and men on 1st and 2nd  Adam Eaton doubles scoring Matt Adams and Trea Turner Score 3-0 Nationals.Bottom 8th Sean Doolittle comes in to pitch. Cardinals have 2 outs and a runner on first Jose Martinez hits a double scoring is Paul Delong. Score is 3-1 Nationals. Fort the 9th both teams change pitchers and get a 1,2,3 inning. Nationals win 3-1 Wow Nationals take the first two games of the series on the road.

WIN: 3-1
SERIES: Nationals lead 2-0

Game 3: Monday 14 October 2019: Stephen Strasburg vs Jack Flarhety
Series moves to DC Stephen Strasburg starts on the mound. The scoring fun starts bottom of 3rd. Victor Robles gets a lead off single, Stephen Strasburg sacrifices Robles to 2nd, Trea Turner strikes out swinging, Adam Eaton singles Robles scores 1-0 Nats. Anthony "Two Bags" Rendon doubles sending Eaton home score now 2-0. Juan Soto draws a walk, Howie Kendrick up to bat a wild pitch puts Rendon on 3rd and Soto on 2nd, Kendrick doubles Rendon and Soto score 4-0 Nationals. Ryan Zimmerman grounds out to end inning. 4th inning Cardinals make some noise with back to back two out singles but next batter flies out. Bottom 4th Kurt Suzuki singles but only gets as far as 2nd base on a Strasburg sacrifice. Bottom 5th Eaton grounds out, Rendon singles, Soto flies out, Kendrick doubles Rendon Scores 5-0 Nationals. Zimmerman doubles Kendrick scores 6-0 Nationals. Suzuki pops out ends inning. Bottom 6th Robles lead off homer Nats up 7-0. Strike out, ground out and fly out ends inning. 7th inning Cardinals make a little more louder noise, 2 singles a swinging strike out, followed by another single, runners advance bases loaded Jose Martinez scores on Juan Soto throwing error. Score now 7-1 Nats. Cards strike out two more times. Bottom 7th Kendrick doubles with two outs, Zimmerman singles Kendrick scores 8-1 Nationals, a Suzuki strike out ends the inning. A quick 1,2,3 top of the 8th, only a walk in the bottom of the 8th and another 1,2,3 top of the inning (the 9th) ends it. Final score 8-1 Nationals win now lead 3-0.

WIN: 8-1
SERIES: Nationals lead 3-0

Game 4: Tuesday 15 October 2019: Patrick Corbin vs Dakota Hudson. 

First inning Cardinals top of the inning complete strike out. Bottom of the 1st Nationals: Trea Turner lead off single, Adam Eaton doubles Turner to 3rd, Anthony Rendon sack fly Turner scores 1-0 Nationals, Juan Soto doubles Eaton scores 2-0, Howie Kendrick intentionally walked, Ryan Zimmerman reaches 1st on a fielding error Soto to 3rd Kendrick to 2nd bases loaded, Victor Robles singles Soto scores, Kendrick to 3rd Zimmerman to 2nd, score 3-0, Yan Gomes singles Kendrick and Zimmerman score Robles to 2nd, score 5-0, Patrick Corbin sacrifices Robles to 3rd Gomes to 2nd, Turner singles Robles and Gomes score 7-0 Nationals, Eaton lines out ending inning. Top 4th Yadlier Molina gets two out homer score 7-1 Nats. Top of the 5th Cardinals make more noise Lead off walk from Harrison Bader, followed by a Kolten Wong single moving Bader to 3rd. Dexter Fowler walks loading the bases, Tommy Edman grounds out, Bader scores, Wong to 3rd Fowler to 2nd, Score 7-2, Jose Martinez doubles, scoring Wong and Fowler.Score now 7-4 Nats still on top. Cardinals strike out swinging two more times to end inning. Bottom of the 6th baby shark appearance Geraldo Parra pinch hits and singles, no runs scored. Nats get another hit in the 7th the Cardinals hit in the 8th. No more runs scored. Nationals win 7-4 to win and SWEEP the Series.

WIN: 7-4
SERIES: NATIONALS WIN 4-0

The NATIONALS WIN THE NLCS!

We are the NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS! Nationals WIN FIRST NL PENNANT in team and franchise history! The last time a DC baseball team won a Pennant was 1933 Senators in the American League. They lost the World Series though to the New York Giants.

NLCS MVP: Howie Kendrick

So it is on to THE WORLD SERIES. Next Opponent Houston Astros.

Ed Brinkman

 Ed Brinkman - (2, 38) 11
Senators 1961 - 1970

I have a confession to make even though as a kid I was a Senators fan, I didn't follow the team or baseball too closely in the way that sports fans usually do, or that I do today. I was more into football to be honest.  Even then not really until I was 6 or 7. Another big factor was I was only 6 when the Senators (2.0) left DC for Texas. I was a kid I didn't know the number of home runs any of the players had hit, or what their batting percentages were, or how many games a pitcher had won during a season. I still don't know those things by heart, but I do keep up with whatever is current for the Nationals. So the only thing I knew about Mr. Brinkman back then was that he was a player for the Washington Senators that was good enough for me (and that was probably only because I had a card or two of his). Had I known how good a defense man he was I probably would have paid more attention maybe. Then again I was a little kid and things like baseball stats mean very little to some kids.

As usual I try not to ramble on and on about any one player during these posts, just enough to get some interest and maybe give me some time to figure out which cards to show. So here are the cards.

I'll start things off with one of the first few Senators cards I remember owning that is also one of the cards I think of automatically when I hear his name. 1968  Topps 49A Ed Brinkman Senators (Team Name in White, I need the yellow team name variant 49B) .

1968 Topps Baseball 49 Ed Brinkman Senators

Team name in white letters

Bonus Card: When I think of the 1968 Topps set the main card I think of and associate with that particular set just happens to be the card that numerically follows Mr. Brinkman's card. Number 50 Willie Mays Giants. This card I think was also among some of my first cards I ever owned, and for a long time the only Willie Mays card I owned until the 1972 Topps Mays came along that year. I also think that this card had originally been my brother's.

 1968 Topps Baseball 50 Willie Mays Giants

There doesn't seem to be many of Ed's cards that I did own back in the late 60s early 70s. I'm not even sure if  I had this 1970 Topps card back then or not.

1970 Topps Baseball: 711 Ed Brinkman Senators

On one of my sportlots splurges that included some of the Ed Brinkman cards I needed including the 1966 Topps #251 for .35¢ of course then I found I already had it, Duh its even in my logo picture for this blog. D'oh! I didn't think I had it because I had not recorded it in my Zistle collection. That was before the Beckett buy-out of Zistle.

1966 Topps Baseball: 251 Ed Brinkman Senators

Here are some more of Ed's Senators cards:

1963 Topps Baseball: 479 Ed Brinkman RC Senators

1967 Topps Baseball: 311 Ed Brinkman Senators

1969 Topps Baseball: 153 Ed Brinkman Senators

Some of Ed's Post-Senators cards I didn't have back in the day, or don't remember having them back then. I do admit there was one time as a kid where I did a huge purge of cards. I think most of them were cards I had defaced with a HUGE black magic markered "K" to identify it was my card and not my brother's card, or miscut cards. Stupid stupid stupid. Marking the card AND tossing cards back then. I don't know how many cards I tossed back then in that one time purge I just recall sitting on the floor of the dinning room near the border of the dinning room/living room with a black (or very dark green) garbage bag. I also recall many many 1970 Topps Baseball cards going in there.

1971 Topps Baseball: 389 Ed Brinkman Tigers

I also have the Topps 1974, 1975 and 1975 mini Ed Brinkman cards from his years with the Tigers, but I didn't scan those. I have shown my 1971 Topps Coin of Ed here. I also have Ed's photo from a lot of 8 photos circa 1970 portrait picture that is a the top of this post. It seems to be from the 12 photos 1970 Team issued Picture Pack. Their photos match those but as I described in the earlier post my copies are yellowed newspaper print paper not regular photo stock that I think those would have been issued on. Thus they remain on my Mystery to Me static page.

Ed Brinkman Baseball Reference

On Deck: Ryan Church - (38), 19

In The Hole: Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez - 7

Nats Win 3rd Division Title Within 5 Years: With 3 Different Managers

The Nats are going back to the playoffs!

On Saturday 24 September 2016 The Washington Nationals notched their 90 win of the season by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates. They were not quite in the playoffs yet, their magic number was down to 1, but only for about a half-hour. The 2nd place team the New York Mets last year's NL East Division Champs were still playing their game with the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets were behind but were rallying for a comeback. They didn't succeed and so the Nationals celebrated their Division Championship Clinch, in the visitors locker room at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

Hard to believe someone got them to stand still long enough for a group photo.

One again Bryce Harper wears interesting headgear for the celebrating. This year it was a Katie Ledecky USA Olympics Swim cap.

Sort of a repeat of the 2014 Division Clinch in Atlanta.

Harper's Headgear of choice was a Fire Fighter's Helmet.

The 2012 Celebration started an odd even year tradition in the Nation's Capital. Harper went with the standard backwards commemorative "Playoffs" hat like the rest of the team. He hadn't started his unique stylized trend yet.

When they won the division in 2012 it was the first time since 1933 a Washington Baseball team had been to the playoffs. The Nationals have won the NL East Division three times in the last five years.That is a mighty impressive achievement, although what makes it even more impressive is that they have done it with three different skippers at the helm. Davey Johnson, Matt Williams and Dusty Baker. Both Johnson and Williams won NL Manager of the Year the year they took the Nats into the Playoffs.

 2012 the salty dog Davey Johnson led the Nats to the stromy NLDS seas:

1975 Topps Baseball 57 Dave Johnson Braves

2014 saw the good ship Nationals sail into the rough seas of the playoffs with Matt Williams:

 1995 Fleer Ultra Baseball 247 Matt Williams Giants

This year 2016 the Captain at the helm is Dusty Baker:

 1981 Fleer Baseball 115 Dusty Baker Dodgers

The Nats need to start playing like they want to go deep into the playoffs. As of this posting there are four games left in the regular season and the Nats are only at 92-66. In 2012 they went 98-64 in the regular season and lost the NLDS 3-2 vs The Cardinals. 2014 they went 96-66 regular season and fell in the NLDS 3-1 vs The Giants.

This year even though they have the division they seem to have spun around and are backing into the playoffs. NOT GOOD. At least the other two times they seemed to be going forward into the post season.

Related Links:
CSN MidAtlantic - WASHINGTON NATIONALS CELEBRATE NL EAST TITLE

ESPN - Nationals clinch NL East -- now comes the hard part

ESPN (another blog post) - Another even year, another NL East title for Nationals
MLB - Nats jump on Bucs, wait out Mets, clinch NL East

USA Today - Nationals clinch NL East title with win and Mets loss

Washington Post - Nationals clinch third NL East title with win over Pirates, Mets’ loss to Phillies

Nats First Triple Play

WOW! What a play!

On Friday 29 July, 2016 in San Francisco against the Giants The Nationals made their first Triple Play in Team History*

THE SETUP: It is the bottom of the 8th The Nationals are ahead 4-1. Oliver Perez Pitching. Lead off batter Denard Span (Was with the Nationals last year) hits a single to third. Second batter Angel Pegan hits a single to center. Buster Posey at bat, Nats switch pitchers to Blake Teinen, Posey Walks. Bases loaded Span at 3rd, Pegan at 2nd and Posey at 1st.

The Nationals make a rare Triple Switch, they bring in Sammy Solis to pitch, Danny Espinosa to Shortstop and Ryan Zimmerman to First Base. Brandon Crawford comes up to bat.

THE PLAY: With one strike against him Brandon Crawford hits the next pitch. A line drive directly at first baseman Ryan Zimmerman. He catches it for out number 1, Runs to first base steps on the bag for out number 2 and launches the ball to third base.

Third baseman Anthony Rendon catches the ball and steps on third for out number 3. Base runner Buster Posey (at first) has too large a lead to get back to first base, he is still a little stunned. Denard Span base runner at third races toward home on contact, as Zimmerman is fielding the ball. Span would later say he thought the ball had one hopped before getting to Zimmerman.

I think Denard had the same expression Friday Night after the Triple Play.

The Nationals get their first Triple Play and end up winning the game with the same score of 4-1. It is also a historic play as it is the first 3-3-5 Triple Play in MLB History. Sadly the Nationals would lose Saturday's and Sunday's Afternoon Games allowing the Giants to split the four game series 2-2.

* Well since they have been in DC the Montreal Expos had made many Triple Plays in their history. At least 10 times with the last one being in 2002 vs. The Phillies.

Related Links:
Nationals Turn First 3-3-5 Triple Playin Major League History- CNSNews.com
Nats slay Giant threat with historic triple play - MLB.com
Nationals Unique Triple Play vs. Giants Was Historic For Many Reasons- nesn.com
Nationals turn first-of-its-kind  triple play to win against Giants- Yahoo.com

The Amazing Schneider-Man: Brian Schneider

BRIAN SCHNEIDER - (39) 23

Expos to Nationals transition catcher
Expos 2000 - 2004 / Nationals 2005 - 2007

photo by Getty Images - 29 April 2004 Expos in San Diego.

I'm trying to get this semi-regular player scheme going again. The biggest problem I've had with it is deciding which 5 (or 6 maybe) cards of an individual SeNator to feature, make sure I have the backs scanned (I didn't use to scan card backs for the longest time) and to hunt for photos to decide which if any to show along with the cards, and then to plan who will be featured next. The basic criteria for me to feature a player is for me to hopefully have more than just one or two of a player's cards; the player must have been on one of the DC Club incarnations so guys like Gary Carter and Vladimir Guerrero will not be mentioned in this series. I may blog about them from time to time since they were Expos, but neither actually played in DC on the home team. The closest Vlad got was playing in Baltimore for the Orioles.

OK so onto this post's Curly W Player Brian "Schneider-man" Schneider. Brian was the Expos main catcher when the team moved over to DC to become The Nationals. He caught the inaugural first pitch President Bush tossed in 2005. At the time he was my fave currently playing catcher. During his tenure as a National, Brian was an Amazing catcher (at least to me) and had a pretty decent arm for catching base stealers. He was one of the "take the lead" team mentors for younger players and worked well with the pitchers as their "quarterback".

Photo by Getty Images?

During the off season in the winter of 2007 News of him being traded to the New York Mets along with Outfielder Ryan Church (another fave Nat) for Lastings Milledge really ticked me. Probably because it was the first trade I recall that involved some of my faves that I heard about when it happened. I blogged my Gut Reaction to it on my regular blog in a post titled Nats + Mets Trade = UH OH. At the time I didn't have a card blog yet so all my card posts and sports-news posts were made there. It took me a couple of years to get over the trade, by that time Lastings Milledge was traded to the Pirates and Brian was still with the Mets about to move to the Phillies. Brian's last playing season was 2012 with the Phillies he announced his retirement on 29 January 2013 a day after, fellow Expo to National, Nick Johnson (last with the Orioles) announced his retirement.

Lookie what I found. "Final?" Play at the Plate between Ex-Teammates.

Photo via Associated Press from 09 June 2012 Game Phillies at Baltimore

Baseball Historian fans may recall that Brian was the Catcher at the plate in the 2007 "Chasing the Record" Circus game vs. The Giants in San Fran. where Barry Bonds hit homer number 756 off of Mike Bacsik -  freezing the game for an hour or two.

photo via Getty Images - 7 August 2007 Bonds his #756 at home vs. Nationals.

OK it was only about 35-45 minutes but it seemed about an hour too long. Yes I know it was baseball history and it was a big thing at the time, but halting the game for more than 10 minutes was uncalled for. 15 minutes tops would be acceptable for anything of this nature. 

Now lets get on with the Card Show:

 2002 Fleer Baseball 84 Brian Schneider Expos

 2004 MLB Showdown Card Game 014 Brian Schneider Expos

(Front and Back)

 

 2005 Topps Total Baseball 17 (WAS7) Brian Schneider Nationals

(Front and Back)

 2006 Topps Heritage Baseball 357 Brian Schneider Nationals

(Front and Back)

 2007 Topps Heritage Baseball 114 Brian Schneider Nationals

(Front and Back)

 2008 Topps Heritage Baseball 616 Brian Schneider Mets

(Front and Back)

Oddly Brian sort of bears a slight resemblance to this 1960s Senators Catcher. I noticed the resemblance when I first got this card from sportlots (I think).

1963 Topps Baseball 94 Bob Schmidt Senators

Senators/Nationals mentioned in this post:
Mike Bacsik
Ryan Church
Nick Johnson
Lastings Milledge
Bob Schmidt
Brian Schneider

Other Noteable "Franchise" players mentioned in this post:
Gary Carter
Vladimir Guerrero

Brian Schneider Baseball Reference

On Deck: Ed Brinkman - (2, 38) 11

In The Hole: Ryan Church - (38), 19