nlcs Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Charts: How Do You Build A Championship Baseball Team?
This season, the A's, Rays, and Pirates used front office wiles to build playoff-bound squads despite having minimal financial resources. Even with these feel-good stories eliminated, though, the four remaining teams still demonstrate that there are many good ways to build a competitive organization...

The Basepaths Are Where Nick Punto's Scrappiness Goes To Die
Last night, Nick Punto killed the last shot the Dodgers had at rallying back for a Game 4 win when he got caught leaning and was picked off at second base the seventh inning. It was precisely the kind of blunder that a veteran player like Punto is supposed to be immune to, and so the weight of his m...

Why Don't The St. Louis Cardinals Respect The Game?
After last night's loss to the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NLCS, a few Cardinals players expressed dismay at some of the exuberance that was displayed by a few Dodgers players. "Mickey Mouse stuff," one called it. We at Deadspin share the Cardinals' concern for the soul of baseball. We want to see the ...

Yadier Molina Is Transfixed By The Dancing Bear
If there isn't a Gary Wright song running through Yadier Molina's head at this moment, then he is truly dead inside. ...

Yasiel Puig Flips Bat After Home Run—<i>Oh Shit, It's Staying In The Park</i>
Yasiel Puig thought he connected on a two-run home run, awesomely flipped his bat and broke into his home-run trot only to realize the ball might not actually leave the park. So then he dialed the awesome up a notch....

Carlos Beltran Beats The Dodgers, Takes One Game Lead In NLCS
This is your signature play of the NLCS, if there can be a signature play one game in. It's got everything though, athleticism, grit and the human element. All combined for a fascinating play that resulted in just one crummy out....

The Los Angeles Dodgers Are Just A Group Of Hard-Nosed Overachievers
Without characters and storylines, baseball is just a bunch of idiots running around wielding sticks, so of course baseball writers were going to contrive a narrative for a seven-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals that doesn’t really feature a natural one. You co...

Glum Pittsburgh Pirates Fans Still Grateful For Not-Awful Season
The Pittsburgh Pirates got bounced Wednesday from their first postseason trip in approximately forever, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals by a score of who gives a flying crap to you knew they'd find a way to piss this one away. Not like the Cardinals have won two World Series in the past seven year...

The Pirates Are Five Wins Away From The World Series
This single from Pedro Alvarez in the bottom of the eighth gave the Pirates a 4-3 lead in Game 3 of the NLDS and proved to be the game-winning run. Pittsburgh is now one win away from the NLCS. Four wins there would get them to the World Series for the first time since 1979. ...

The Giants' Pennant Run Ended Right As Rain
How many LCS clinchers, not involving your team, do you actually remember? Carlos Beltran standing stock-still, Aaron Boone going deep, Sid Bream's slide, Chris Chambliss's homer...and that's probably about it. It's probably fair to add last night's Giants win, a 9-0 drubbing that was decided by th...

"3 words... FIRE MIKE MATHENY": The Best Fans In Baseball Are Having A Major Meltdown
Cardinals fans are known the world over as the best fans in baseball. This is, of course, indisputable but it makes what has to be a fandom-wide psychotic break after watching their beloved Cardinals get shellacked by the Giants in Game 7 of the NLCS troubling indeed....

The San Francisco Giants Are Going To The World Series
The Giants trounced the Cardinals by a score of 9-0, completing an impressive comeback from a 3-1 series deficit and managing to kill the previously immortal St. Louis Cardinals. Even a team as resilient as this Cardinals team can only be carried so far by the likes of Daniel Descalso, Pete Kozma, ...

Hunter Pence Had Three Hits On One Swing
OK, so technically that's impossible, but look at this thing! In the bottom of the third, as Hunter Pence's bat explodes in his hands, the ball makes its way down the barrel of the bat, hopping all the way like some kind of concussed bouncing Mickey Mouse head in a Sing-Along Song. Pence wound up w...

Your NLCS Game 7 Open Thread
There are not many words to describe a Game 7. "Awesome" would be a good place to start and finish. The Cardinals jumped out to a 3-1 series lead, riding whatever Tony LaRussa magic potion/moonshine he left in the office but the Giants have battled back to force this decisive game. Joe Buck and Tim...

Fox Needs To Update Their St. Louis Stock Footage, As Last Night's NLCS Closing Shot Featured A "Go Pujols" Sign
As Fox ended its broadcast of a much-delayed ending to last night's NLCS Game 3, a curious thing seemed to scroll across the gaudy videoboard atop the Lumière Place casino: "GO PUJOLS." While it's possible the person in charge of such messages never learned of the slugger's exit from the Cardinals ...

Your Cardinals-Giants Open Thread
Game 2 of the NLCS is tonight, and this is the spot to talk about the game with all of your internet friends while the action unfolds. The Cardinals took Game 1 after jumping out to an early lead against an out-of-sync Madison Bumgarner, and they look to take control of the series tonight with Chri...

Your Brewers-Cardinals NLCS Game Six Open Thread
Edwin Jackson et al for St. Louis. Shaun Marcum for Milwaukee. They met in Game Two. St. Louis won 12-3. Cardinals win this time, and they're World Series bound. Cardinals lose, and they're bound for a Carpenter vs. Gallardo deciding seventh game....

The Theme Of Last Night's NLCS Game Was Set When Jerry Hairston Got Bucknered At Third
Your morning roundup for Oct. 15, the day we totally realized that Tums commercial with a randy corn dog is really a work of dong-involved artistry. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

Your Brewers-Cardinals, Weather-Permitting Game Three Open Thread
Tonight, Yovani Gallardo of the Brewers will face off against fake-ass Chris Carpenter of the Cardinals in a NLCS tied at one a piece. Gallardo isn't very good against the Cardinals, per a St. Louis newspaper and numbers. Meanwhile, Carpenter "has had hiccups" against the Brewers, per a Milwaukee n...

Your Cardinals-Brewers NLCS Game Two Open Thread
At least baseball had a rainout excuse when it came to the unfortunate-for-ratings start time of this afternoon's Tigers-Rangers affair. It has nowhere to hide when it comes to tonight's next installment of the NLCS, which will attempt to compete directly for eyeballs with Monday Night Football—and...