GDT NLWC-Cubs (Arrieta) @ Pirates (Cole) 7:08 CDT

[Jocephus]

"DOWN GOES COOLER ! DOWN GOES COOLER!"

X-Pac has got to calm down

break it down!

[Jmodene]

I said it before and I'll say it again: the story will be how dominant Arrieta was but he was hit extremely hard tonight by the Pirates. Random luck definitely favored the Cubs tonight.

Right. Stats and [expletive] go out the window in these games. It's one game. Home Field is BS. No baseball team is winning enough at home that the pendulum swings to make that a massive advantage when it's baseball.

As I recall, the home field advantage, while there, is far less in MLB than in any other sport. College BB and the NBA are the worst, I think the study showed (due in large part to referee intimidation by the home crowd), on the order of 75-80%, and I think college FB and the NFL were around 60-65% home field advantage. MLB is something like 54%, which is really no advantage at all.

[Jocephus]

this is hwo they do it on the north side

will someone please think of the children?

[Jocephus]

[go birds]

those bros are in full bro-mode

[Jocephus]

FF - you gonna write up the AL game threads? id rather the toronto one be the primetime one, but whatever

[ZigZagCardsFan]

He better tuck that chin. Had Gatorade countered with a hard right he would've been down for the count.

[jim]

I agree that Arrieta was hittable from the 6th inning on, but by the time Arrieta looked human the score was 4-0. Arrieta poured in first pitch strike after first pitch strike for the first 5 innings, while Cole struggled some and found himself in bad counts. First inning he starts the first 3 hitters off with a ball, got into bad counts, and the Cubs turned it into a run. In the third he gets ahead of Fowler 0-1 but then goes to 2-1 before Fowler singles. Then he gets behind AGAIN 2-0 to Schwarber .. and then it's 3-0. He has Fowler 0-2 and can't put him away ... boom. 4-0.

No luck involved. Arrieta simply outpitching Cole by a landslide.

I agree that from the 6th Arrieta was anything but the guy in the first 5 innings, and the Cubs were fortunately to not give anything up. But you have to give the Cubs credit, they outplayed the Pirates because their guy pitched better, and their hitters took advantage.

[Donnie Ebert]

Kyle Schwarber appears to be the product of an experiment involving Matt Stairs' DNA.

[Freed Roger]

"DOWN GOES COOLER ! DOWN GOES COOLER!"

"...Aaaand..., cooler is OK."

"Winnah and still the undisputed champion---COOLER!!"