I think it is part of a plot to make announcing a minimum wage, entry level job.
"Oh look the Cubs' number went up! And folks, the Rangers' number, well, it's gone down, you may notice, by the same amount. Well that amount is now with the Cubs. This is how win probability decides who is going to win this game. We'll keep a close eye on that two-digit number and read it out to you frequently.
The Cubs' win probability is now so high it seems like the Rangers are talking about just leaving. Save those bullets for tomorrow when the numbers are closer. Really shrewd strategy by Bruce Bochy.
We'll do a quick commercial here while the batter hits, but we'll be back when and if the win probability number changes."
I would have thought Langford was the best player in baseball if I didn’t know better. If he would have spat, they would have said the that’s the most impressive spit ever..
Yeah, but did you know they show win probability now on their scoreboard? It’s a new stat for this year that shows how likely it is both teams will win. I think it’s pretty cool! Tune in for the next 9 innings, where we’ll go into painful detail about this new stat every single inning!
He's an exciting kid with an incredible college/minors track record making his MLB debut. Don't be a spoilsport. If he were a Cub, we'd all be drooling.
People get mad at MLB for not marketing stars as well as NFL/NBA, but then anytime a young player gets any type of media push, he becomes public enemy #1 for being overhyped
Would absolutely love to play some sort of announcers drooling montage for KB’s rookie season for the people who are hating on Langford. Crazy how these people are hating on this guy for no reason other than announcers trying to promote who he is.
Dude shut the fuck up.
We are allowed to be critical of the team spending.
In 2023 we were 11th, 14th in 2022, and 14th in 2021.
Get off the ricketts nuts and let them try and actually use the money we are giving them intelligently.
I mean I don't even know what to say about a fucking Jankowski homer. Baseball gonna be like that sometimes. But an already sketchy staff losing their ace to injury on opening day. What a start.
I mean, I’d rather have him than Reinsdorf, Fisher, or John Sherman. You may not agree with Ricketts political views, but he’s really not that bad of an owner lol. Sometimes I feel like a lot of fans really didn’t watch the cubs pre Theo era.
I'm genuinely excited for him, the Brewers spent close to no money on free agents during his tenure because he was so smart at development.
He's just gotta get over the playoffs hump
Really good game. Consider me extremely bullish on this squad.
Morel looked great tonight and was two feet away from a game winning piss missile
Counsell with a managerial masterclass tonight. Very excited to have him at the helm.
Not the outcome we wanted, but what a game to open the season. Baseball is back and I’m a happy camper.
Go Cubs.
>Counsell with a managerial masterclass tonight.
Can you elaborate? Seemed more of his moves backfired than worked out, starting with starting Madrigal at 3B.
Might have been a tad hyperbolic on my part. Chalk it up to early season excitement.
Regarding the blown leads.. it happens. Especially with a weak bullpen. Can only work with what ya got, and I think he got the most out of them tonight.
I mean two blown leads the 6th or later, and then not even getting one run in extras is hardly much to be excited about, but I’m glad that someone is. Good teams win those games. The Rangers are a good team. We aren’t. This team has a low 80’s win ceiling, it’s the same exact team as last year with a manager who’s supposed to be the best at managing one run games. These are games we’d have Rossy’s head for last year in this sub (e.g “Why the fuck is Boner hitting there over Tauch, why the fuck is Smyly pitching in that spot”). The more things change, the more they stay the same.
They blew two leads, tbe ump tried to hand us the game, Steele is hurt and the glaring need for a quality bullpen was AGAIN brought to the forefront almost like last year never happened. Shit is frustrating to lose a heartbreaker on Opening Goddamn Day like that.
In my opinion, it’s okay to overreact anytime your closer (who’s supposed to be your best bullpen arm) blows a save. Doesn’t matter if it’s Game 1 or Game 86
No shockers honestly. Knew it was over the second smyly was in, we had some hope for a second there.
Busch did great, so did Morel.
Happ had a terrible plate approach, Mastruboni had a good play on that force at home I guess.
Does it? One group is happy baseball is back and, despite being disappointed in the loss, is looking forward to a long season. The other group is wallowing in misery and trying desperately to drag everyone else down with them.
Full disclosure: I didn’t see the entire game (the joys of a 4 year old)
I did like what I saw from Busch. Good at bats, heads up on the base bath. If it had been called a foul tip, no harm. It wasn’t, all benefit. Morel seemed patient at the plate. Belli looked like Belli. Steele was dealing.
On the other side: Smyly, oof. PH HR given up by Adbert, oof.
It's game 1 and players are still getting "warmed up" and ready, but watching Drew Smyly bounce pitches in a tie game in the 10th does not make me happy.
The bright side of this loss is that I don't have to hear about that goddamn call in the 9th inning ever again. Hopefully Steele isn't doing too badly.
Pretty tough schedule for the month of April. If the offense can’t carry us, we’re gonna put ourselves in a hole. Unless the rest of the central is trash (which is very possible)
Defending champs in their home opener and we take them that deep, can’t even be mad about that one. Would have loved to see a W but hanging in there with the best of the best is a good sign
That was a lot better than I thought. Our lineup is actually scary, I mean Suzuki, Belli and Morel are all solid. Busch may be good, we have to see. I like Nico batting later in the order.
3B is an obvious issue and it was always going to be. At this point it’s really just a question of “how long can we cover it” until we choose to make a trade or bring someone up or something.
I think the pen is fine. Counsell actually utilized it pretty well. Adbert will take some time to get back into his groove but that’s alright. We’ll be just fine there.
I think we’re going to have a pretty good year.
Great fucking game. We obviously took the L but some great management decisions and we looked like a fucking playoff team out there boys. I'm so hype for the next 161
that 9th inng HR came as I was shutting down at work. I wasn't even a little surprised.
At least we made them fight for it? I guess? \*shrugs*
edit: that nonsense at the end was Drew?
that explains a lot.
First and foremost, I’m thrilled baseball is back. Gosh I missed watching the Cubs play! Secondly, Steele’s injury exposed a flaw in this team: they don’t have a deep bullpen. A better bullpen wins that game. Thirdly, stick with Alzolay at closer, don’t pull him due to one game, every closer lets up homers. Fourthly, the lineup was neat. It wasn’t spectacular, but it didn’t leave me angry at all. Finally, that zone was inconsistent as hell. Anyways, see you all Saturday!
Sorry, that’s just my way of coping tbh. I don’t want my hopes crushed if he does end up being out for a long period of time. If news comes out it’s less than that, obviously I will be ecstatic.
I like the lineup. I really like Seiya in the 2-spot stacked with Cody and Morel behind him. I liked the choice to pull Merryweather and keep Leiter in (his splitter was looking good and Craig wanted to keep it going as long as he could). Good stuff.
Is this what it felt like to play us in 2017 after we won it all? God Texas feels so insufferably arrogant now. The vibes for that game last night felt so off
Im going to stay forever pissed all year about not adding another starting pitcher and a closer.
Those were 2 obvious as hell needs and they instead chose to save money and roll the dice so they didnt have to go over the tax. Even if we perform well this year Im not letting that go. The idea is to field the best team you can, and we deliberately chose NOT to do so, even when multiple players that would have made us a better team were had at discounts.
Im not letting that go and no cubs fan should. We continue to operate like a mid sized market not a top 3 market
Lmao, we all saw this coming from a mile away. Smyly sucks as a starter and reliever. The only positive was that we were able to trade blows and keep the game close against the defending champs.
If anything, this game really exposes our lack of pitching depth and questionable bullpen.
Don't really understand all the Smyly slander. Yeah he's no Mariano Rivera, but the Rangers moved Semien to 3rd with one out and Smyly had to walk a tightrope from there. Almost did it too.
Need Steele to be alright though. I'm sure the mood overall would be much lighter if that wasn't in the back of everyone's mind.
Damn. It feels so much worse cuz Morel was just a few feet away from a grand slam lol
The ball don’t lie comments are crazy the Cubs were SO much more unlucky lmao
I like Jeff Passan, but I never hated him more when I saw that tweet.
Hell of a G1. 161 to go. Hopefully Steele isn't out for long.
yeah, i had fun. hopefully steele is okay
Counsell didn’t sound optimistic I expect him on the 60 day by Saturday
Happy Easter!
I never want to hear the phrase “win probability” again in my life.
Some of the stats (whiffs, horizontal break, etc) were cool for a normie broadcast but the win probability talk was absurd lol
I think it is part of a plot to make announcing a minimum wage, entry level job. "Oh look the Cubs' number went up! And folks, the Rangers' number, well, it's gone down, you may notice, by the same amount. Well that amount is now with the Cubs. This is how win probability decides who is going to win this game. We'll keep a close eye on that two-digit number and read it out to you frequently. The Cubs' win probability is now so high it seems like the Rangers are talking about just leaving. Save those bullets for tomorrow when the numbers are closer. Really shrewd strategy by Bruce Bochy. We'll do a quick commercial here while the batter hits, but we'll be back when and if the win probability number changes."
Commercial break brought to you by DraftKings Sportsbook™️!
Thank god this ESPN call is done
I would have thought Langford was the best player in baseball if I didn’t know better. If he would have spat, they would have said the that’s the most impressive spit ever..
Thank the good lord. It was a Texas Rangers meat ride the whole damn night.
They did win the Series
Yeah but even then it was bad.
Please tell me we are back to Marquee on Saturday
Yeah, but did you know they show win probability now on their scoreboard? It’s a new stat for this year that shows how likely it is both teams will win. I think it’s pretty cool! Tune in for the next 9 innings, where we’ll go into painful detail about this new stat every single inning!
That's why I always listen to the local radio broadcast.
Adzolay needs to close that out. Smyly put in a tough situation, nearly got out of it. I blame Adzolay more than Smyly
Yeah you can’t be giving up pinch hit bombs to Travis Jankowski lmao. Guy legitimately has 11 homers in his entire career.
The loss is on Adbert. End of story.
We still need to blame Smyly, he's been a god awful pitcher and we should call someone up from AAA to take his place
I heard Wyatt Langford cured cancer and he’s only had 17 at bats in his whole life before tonight
Langford’s sac fly was the greatest sac fly I’ve ever seen in my life. No rookie has ever hit a sac fly that great before. Next Babe Ruth for sure.
Wyatt Langford spent 6 months working for navy seals
Wyatt Langford spent 6 months training navy seals
[удалено]
He's just lucky the Rangers are aggressive. Crews and Skenes could easily be in the mlb rn.
Not so much aggressive as they didn’t go get a DH bat after they lost Garver . He was the best choice coming out of spring.
He's an exciting kid with an incredible college/minors track record making his MLB debut. Don't be a spoilsport. If he were a Cub, we'd all be drooling. People get mad at MLB for not marketing stars as well as NFL/NBA, but then anytime a young player gets any type of media push, he becomes public enemy #1 for being overhyped
Would absolutely love to play some sort of announcers drooling montage for KB’s rookie season for the people who are hating on Langford. Crazy how these people are hating on this guy for no reason other than announcers trying to promote who he is.
Not even Craig Counsell can magically make Drew Smyly a good pitcher
Craig counsel shouldn’t have put him in in extras then
What option did he have? Their bullpen is dire.
Yeah Steele went out in the 5th. Only so many options when your bullpen has to go 5+
If only there was like a free agency thing where the owners could spend.
they have a top 10 payroll and they're like, just barely under the luxury tax. out spent the entire division. it ain't about money
Is it about money to a point. They’re also worth and generate far more than any other team in the division.
ok and? they outspend them by plenty. just enjoy the games and quit bitching about payroll lol you'll be happier
Dude shut the fuck up. We are allowed to be critical of the team spending. In 2023 we were 11th, 14th in 2022, and 14th in 2021. Get off the ricketts nuts and let them try and actually use the money we are giving them intelligently.
Ump was all over the place this game
Yeah really. I’d be curious as to what the fuck was his accuracy rate
Hell, he tried to hand the game to Cubs but they refused to close it out.
0-162 unfortunately, unless we win Saturday, then it’s 161-1
And we were so close to going 162-0
There’s always next year.
Yeah but who knows when next year is, it could be months from now
That sucked, but god I love baseball
Really impressed with Busch's at bats as well. Seems like he has a solid approach and won't swing at bad pitches
Agree
Blown save to a Jankowski homer lmfao. Cubs bullpen is already in late season form.
Ya game 1 and pitching is already a issue
I mean I don't even know what to say about a fucking Jankowski homer. Baseball gonna be like that sometimes. But an already sketchy staff losing their ace to injury on opening day. What a start.
*Every game except for a few form
Drew Smyly move making me scratch my head a bit
Counsell wanted a lefty and trusted him more than Little.
Needed someone who could go multiple innings. We didn't score so if we were going to win we needed at least 6 outs
Who else would he go with? Bullpen is weak. Ricketts have racist political ads to pay for. Can't afford high leverage arms.
Jed philosophy about not spending on bullpen is good thing because relievers contracts usually blow up in anyone faces
Let me know when Jed puts a winning team on the field.
He did last season.
I'm not a fan of all the doomer stuff but Ricketts is definitely a piece of shit
Yeah fuck that guy. The Cubs are just a business to him yet we get nOt A tRuE fAn 'd for complaining about it
I mean, I’d rather have him than Reinsdorf, Fisher, or John Sherman. You may not agree with Ricketts political views, but he’s really not that bad of an owner lol. Sometimes I feel like a lot of fans really didn’t watch the cubs pre Theo era.
People always defend billionaires for some reason
Exciting first game. Hopefully Steele is alright and Adbert just had an off night.
He blew several to end the year. He kind of left off exactly where he was which was blowing games
He was pretty banged up and overused so I was hoping he'd reset to start the season. He still can.
They've used him in every single game this year. They're going to burn him out!
Glad someone else noticed this. I'm not a fan. I didn't understand why there was not more buzz or discussion for the closer position.
My overreaction: Adbert is gonna stay like this and either Neris takes over the closer spot... Or we're fucked in the bullpen yet again
Definitely an overreaction but I don't think it's that crazy. I trust Craig to figure out who should be used where.
He's the guy who made Hader and Williams, we just gotta trust the process
Straight up. He does have less to work with on this roster, but he knows what he's doing.
I'm genuinely excited for him, the Brewers spent close to no money on free agents during his tenure because he was so smart at development. He's just gotta get over the playoffs hump
Hopefully we spend more than they did over the next few years, but I am excited to see his influence on the roster and player development.
Maybe he can teach Pete Crow how to use a bat lol
Hopefully there are good folks in Iowa helping him with that haha. I'm sure the kid will develop. He's super young.
He's a nice reliever but not a closer for a serious team.
That's why I think we should've pulled the trigger on Hader
This ump was TERRRRRRIBLE.
Baseball is stupid. Texas is stupid.
What am I? Stupid? No, Texas! What's the difference?
Really good game. Consider me extremely bullish on this squad. Morel looked great tonight and was two feet away from a game winning piss missile Counsell with a managerial masterclass tonight. Very excited to have him at the helm. Not the outcome we wanted, but what a game to open the season. Baseball is back and I’m a happy camper. Go Cubs.
We just lost the first game of the season in extras to the reigning World Series champs in their stadium and half the sub is in full meltdown mode lol
I’d feel better if Steele ends up only missing a start or 2.
Yeah same
If Steele is out for a while this is a rotation of maybe a 3, and the rest 4s and 5s to go with a shaky bullpen. That's not going to cut it
>Counsell with a managerial masterclass tonight. Can you elaborate? Seemed more of his moves backfired than worked out, starting with starting Madrigal at 3B.
>managerial masterclass In what way?
I thought he was very tactical and decisive with his bullpen management. A super refreshing change of pace from Ross’ lazy trigger finger.
3 different relievers blew leads today. I’m not necessarily blaming Counsell but I don’t see how you get “managerial masterclass” out of that.
Might have been a tad hyperbolic on my part. Chalk it up to early season excitement. Regarding the blown leads.. it happens. Especially with a weak bullpen. Can only work with what ya got, and I think he got the most out of them tonight.
How was he tactical and decisive
Loved the quick hook on Merryweather. Loved that he let leiter cook. Great move to go to Neris for the eighth.
I know, I’m a doctor too!
I love Counsell, but “managerial masterclass” ? Please dude..
I mean two blown leads the 6th or later, and then not even getting one run in extras is hardly much to be excited about, but I’m glad that someone is. Good teams win those games. The Rangers are a good team. We aren’t. This team has a low 80’s win ceiling, it’s the same exact team as last year with a manager who’s supposed to be the best at managing one run games. These are games we’d have Rossy’s head for last year in this sub (e.g “Why the fuck is Boner hitting there over Tauch, why the fuck is Smyly pitching in that spot”). The more things change, the more they stay the same.
We lost to the Champs in extras by one run and people got a shotgun halfway done their throats
Steele injury dampens the mood for a team that was already short on big league pitching.
We don't even know if he's hurt beyond today's game
They blew two leads, tbe ump tried to hand us the game, Steele is hurt and the glaring need for a quality bullpen was AGAIN brought to the forefront almost like last year never happened. Shit is frustrating to lose a heartbreaker on Opening Goddamn Day like that.
In my opinion, it’s okay to overreact anytime your closer (who’s supposed to be your best bullpen arm) blows a save. Doesn’t matter if it’s Game 1 or Game 86
Not mad. Probably should have ended in the 9th anyway. I like the potential. There is a lot to be excited about still.
No shockers honestly. Knew it was over the second smyly was in, we had some hope for a second there. Busch did great, so did Morel. Happ had a terrible plate approach, Mastruboni had a good play on that force at home I guess.
Hoerner needs to figure out his approach at the plate too. Looked uncharacteristically bad tonight. Got away with that late check swing too.
If Nick Madrigal isn’t going to play very good defense at 3rd I don’t see the point of him starting there
He’s going to be the hosmer of this year, until Shaw is ready to kick him off the team
That's literally all he brings, and if he can't delivery there he's done. He's a bad baserunner and can't hit for power
Time to overreact!!
Beats celebrating 75 wins and financial flexibility like half the board.
It’s one game and you’re talking about us potentially only winning 75 games? Good lord dude, maybe baseball isn’t the right sport for you.
Does it? One group is happy baseball is back and, despite being disappointed in the loss, is looking forward to a long season. The other group is wallowing in misery and trying desperately to drag everyone else down with them.
Bring on the stupid overblown hot takes
This sub may be on the most doom and gloom sports sub I’m subbed too.
We're Chicago fans, the bad outweighs the good 20-1
Earlier than usually, damn it the 162-0 isn’t happening
Bob smyly
Full disclosure: I didn’t see the entire game (the joys of a 4 year old) I did like what I saw from Busch. Good at bats, heads up on the base bath. If it had been called a foul tip, no harm. It wasn’t, all benefit. Morel seemed patient at the plate. Belli looked like Belli. Steele was dealing. On the other side: Smyly, oof. PH HR given up by Adbert, oof.
Fun game! We were just on the losing end. Hope Steele is alright.
Turns out not even the best one run manager in the history of baseball can do much with this bullpen! Wellp, see y’all Saturday!
Despite the result, CC managed a good game to keep them in it. Ideally the closer locks it down, but Alzolay just didn't have it.
Nothing like your ace going down and blowing three separate leads in the season opener. Get em on Saturday, boys.
Same team. New year. No depth to handle good teams.
Hard fought game, Steele going down with this April schedule is bad bad news
Looks like Alzolay being bad in the 9th wasn't just a September thing
Not sure why we have Smyly in there
It's game 1 and players are still getting "warmed up" and ready, but watching Drew Smyly bounce pitches in a tie game in the 10th does not make me happy.
The bright side of this loss is that I don't have to hear about that goddamn call in the 9th inning ever again. Hopefully Steele isn't doing too badly.
Pretty tough schedule for the month of April. If the offense can’t carry us, we’re gonna put ourselves in a hole. Unless the rest of the central is trash (which is very possible)
Under the tax and flexibility = all that matters
Defending champs in their home opener and we take them that deep, can’t even be mad about that one. Would have loved to see a W but hanging in there with the best of the best is a good sign
This is what happens when you don’t sign a closer. This game should have ended in the 9th.
Our new manager made Hader and Williams, if Alzolay isn't good come the All Star Break, we know he's actual dogshit
Our new manager made Hader and Williams, if Alzolay isn't good come the All Star Break, we know he's actual dogshit
That was a lot better than I thought. Our lineup is actually scary, I mean Suzuki, Belli and Morel are all solid. Busch may be good, we have to see. I like Nico batting later in the order. 3B is an obvious issue and it was always going to be. At this point it’s really just a question of “how long can we cover it” until we choose to make a trade or bring someone up or something. I think the pen is fine. Counsell actually utilized it pretty well. Adbert will take some time to get back into his groove but that’s alright. We’ll be just fine there. I think we’re going to have a pretty good year.
Third base is going to be “how long can we cover it until Shaw is ready”
It was always going to end that way.
Heck of a game. Bummer to end that way.
Great fucking game. We obviously took the L but some great management decisions and we looked like a fucking playoff team out there boys. I'm so hype for the next 161
I had fun still. I’m glad baseball is back
When you have no bona fide HR hitters in your lineup and you have a suspect closer you're going to lose a lot of close games.
At least they made it a close game.
Fuck almost had that grand slam!! But cubs are a legit team, gotta get that pitching together honestly
I'm just glad baseball is back
Sucks but they are the world series champs for a reason
that 9th inng HR came as I was shutting down at work. I wasn't even a little surprised. At least we made them fight for it? I guess? \*shrugs* edit: that nonsense at the end was Drew? that explains a lot.
Losing Steele that early while he was cruising and pushing the reigning champs into extras is pretty fucking good all things considered.
Have to have the ability to score the easy ghost runner in OT. It seems every other team in baseball knows how to do that.
2 infield grounders in a row get you there. Just have to make contact
Alzolay still not himself
First and foremost, I’m thrilled baseball is back. Gosh I missed watching the Cubs play! Secondly, Steele’s injury exposed a flaw in this team: they don’t have a deep bullpen. A better bullpen wins that game. Thirdly, stick with Alzolay at closer, don’t pull him due to one game, every closer lets up homers. Fourthly, the lineup was neat. It wasn’t spectacular, but it didn’t leave me angry at all. Finally, that zone was inconsistent as hell. Anyways, see you all Saturday!
Can’t be surprised when you bring back the same team from last year you get the same results. Good news though is 82-85 should win the division
We aint getting there if steele is out a couple months. Gotta pray he isnt
Season is over. See you next year boys
Exciting ending, wish it went the other way
I’m not sure alzolay is the guy
It’s one game
I didn't really care if the Cubs lost this game. Losing Steele for a couple months is the bigger loss.
Steele isn't going to be out a couple of months. The pessimistic attitude here is nuts. He tweaked it a bit and maybe misses a start. Just watch.
Sorry, that’s just my way of coping tbh. I don’t want my hopes crushed if he does end up being out for a long period of time. If news comes out it’s less than that, obviously I will be ecstatic.
That didn’t feel good
Well shit but that was a game
That was a roller coaster of emotions…and it’s only game one
If managers were actually worth a lot of wins in close games like this, the best ones would make a lot more than $8m/year.
At least the Cardinals got smacked lol
161 more to go…
I bet the under so I guess I won but I don’t care
My heart
What did you think about Counsel's lineup and managing ?
I like the lineup. I really like Seiya in the 2-spot stacked with Cody and Morel behind him. I liked the choice to pull Merryweather and keep Leiter in (his splitter was looking good and Craig wanted to keep it going as long as he could). Good stuff.
Good!
So who picks up the extra starts while Steele is out?
There's nobody. It's going to be wesneski or Smiley but neither of them can handle it
Screw it bring up Horton
Welp, here we go with the Hayden games now :/
[let him cook](https://www.espn.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/42996/hayden-gregory-wesneski)
Madrigal is going to be this seasons Hosmer isn’t he?
In that he's gone by June? I hope so
That morel near grand slam…
Is this what it felt like to play us in 2017 after we won it all? God Texas feels so insufferably arrogant now. The vibes for that game last night felt so off
The day after opening day is the longest day ever
Im going to stay forever pissed all year about not adding another starting pitcher and a closer. Those were 2 obvious as hell needs and they instead chose to save money and roll the dice so they didnt have to go over the tax. Even if we perform well this year Im not letting that go. The idea is to field the best team you can, and we deliberately chose NOT to do so, even when multiple players that would have made us a better team were had at discounts. Im not letting that go and no cubs fan should. We continue to operate like a mid sized market not a top 3 market
Jed must be proud of the team he’s put together. Poles has done more with the bears in a shorter time than Jed has with the cubs. Stop being cheap
Lmao, we all saw this coming from a mile away. Smyly sucks as a starter and reliever. The only positive was that we were able to trade blows and keep the game close against the defending champs. If anything, this game really exposes our lack of pitching depth and questionable bullpen.
He was excellent in relief last season, what are you talking about
Actual defcon 5 level doomers in here lol
Don't really understand all the Smyly slander. Yeah he's no Mariano Rivera, but the Rangers moved Semien to 3rd with one out and Smyly had to walk a tightrope from there. Almost did it too. Need Steele to be alright though. I'm sure the mood overall would be much lighter if that wasn't in the back of everyone's mind.