What you missed over the weekend

Did you know that there is a 100% correlation between watching football and death? Really, every single person who has ever watched a football game has either died or will, without question, die in the future. Stop the dying, people. Stop watching football. It’s for your own good.

In case you haven’t decided to turn your life around and drop the demon pigskin, here’s what you missed this past weekend on HBT. First, the playoff action:

The Cardinals stunned the Nationals in the ninth inning late Friday night.
But don’t worry, the Nats will be OK long term.
Still, OK or not, until they win a World Series, their legacy will always be that of the team that tempted fate and paid the price.
Meanwhile, the Giants watched and waited on the tarmac.
The series may have already started, but our ALCS preview and NLCS preview are still worth your time.
Over in the ALCS, Raul Ibanez played the hero again, but it wasn’t enough.
And losing the game wasn’t even the worst part of it. And the playoffs won’t be the same without Captain Jetes.
For the Tigers, their closer’s ninth inning meltdown was a blessing in disguise.
Stay classy, Washington: rooting for the Cardinals gets a Washington Wizards player threatened.
All the talk about Alex Rodriguez struggling when, actually, Robinson Cano has been worse.
And the umpiring has been even worse than Robinson Cano. And Joe Girardi is all over it.
Not Jose Valverde comes through.
The Cardinals beat the Giants, and it’s all on Madison Bumgarner.

Meanwhile, in non-playoffs news:

Jaime Garcia needs surgery.
Mixed signal theater: Bud Selig wants more instant replay. Yet his deputy, Joe Torre dismissed the botched Omar Infante call yesterday as just one of them things that happen. Get it together, baseball.
Oh, and Joe Torre is probably not gonna manage again. If he did, I presume that he’d change his tune about replay.
Jason Giambi a serious candidate to manage the Rockies? OK.
Tragedy struck the Carlos Corporan family.
The Dodgers dumped their hitting coach.
The Mets are going to talk to David Wright about a contract soon.

Wow. This time next week we’re gonna know who’s in the World Series. Nifty.

A day after throwing an immaculate inning — getting through an inning on three consecutive strikeouts with nine pitches — against the Mariners, Dodgers reliever Zac Rosscup was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a left calf strain. The move made room on the 25-man roster for Kenley Jansen, who is back after missing some time due to an irregular heartbeat.

Rosscup pitched the ninth inning of Sunday’s 12-1 win over the Mariners. He struck out Kyle Seager, Ryon Healy, and Cameron Maybin on three pitches each. Rosscup is the fourth pitcher to throw an immaculate inning this season, joining Kevin Gausman, Max Scherzer, and German Marquez. 2018’s four immaculate innings is still far behind 2017’s record of eight.

Rosscup has pitched only 6 2/3 innings in the majors this year. He has yielded five runs (all earned) on seven hits and a walk with 10 strikeouts. He missed a significant amount of time earlier this season due to a blister on his left middle finger.

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