NFL/World Series Aftermath Open Thread

On NFL news, the situation in Minnesota is getting pretty ugly. I really didn’t like O’Connell sending a very injured Carson Wentz out to take a pounding, ending his season and very possibly his career. I know Wentz can be a bit of a ninny but that’s a lousy way to treat a dedicated veteran. The larger problem is that O’Connell is plainly very reluctant to play J.J. McCarthy, who has looked very good for one quarter and very bad the rest of the time. Even worse, of course, is that the Vikings had both Daniel Jones (1st in EPA/play) and Sam Darnold (5th) on his roster, and got outbid by modest offers for both because he preferred McCarthy. He’s a good coach — he deserves credit for Jones and Darnold achieving results few thought possible — but he’d better be right.

On last night, that was an incredible game and at some point in the 2030s I will be able to enjoy it as such. There’s never any reason that a team loses a game. The (atypical) inability of the Blue Jays to cash multiple runners in scoring position with less than two outs began to look ominous, especially after the Muncy homer. The Jays’ closer got too cute with the Dodgers #9 hitter and got burned. (It must be noted that Rojas did take a 2-2 pitch that was pretty close to the zone to set up the homer, while in the same position Julio Rodriguez flailed at three pitches that were nowhere near the strike zone to end the previous series.)

Still, because as usual Smoltz failed to convey what happened, it’s worth discussing a series of unforced errors that cost Toronto the World Series:

AAAIYDSRR&YSUACFVDYXGWU:PE(F:EG&U*OBJ

[image or embed]— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) Nov 1, 2025 at 8:38 PM

Watching this in real time, it was surprising that the pinch runner didn’t score — when a second baseman double clutches on a contact play, they rarely get the out. And then replay revealed that the throw had thrown Smith off the bag, making IKF’s failure to score even more surprising. (For a second I thought that Smith got his foot down late, but he got the bad a split second before the runner got there.)

Which makes this very painful for anyone cheering for Toronto:

That is just amateur hour (especially with a weak-hitting lefthander at the plate!) My guess is while the lack of a secondary lead is on IKF the also-too-small initial lead is on the Blue Jays coaching staff fighting the last war after how Game 6 ended. This would be really dumb even if you think that Barger made a major mistake, which I don’t think he did. An infield grounder is far more likely than a line drive right to the third baseman. At any rate, it’s unacceptable to be that far from the plate on contact.

What I do blame IKF for — in addition to his getting a bad jump even given that lead — is this:

teach your kids not to slide into home on a force play

[image or embed]— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger.bsky.social) Nov 1, 2025 at 9:24 PM

If IKF just runs through the plate — which needless to say he should on a force play at home — the Blue Jays win the World Series. And as a reader on Bluesky observed, if Schneider was going to subject Blue Jays fans to the horror of noncompetitive extra innings at bats from Myles Straw again, he should have used him as the pinch runner — he’s faster than IKF and probably would have scored. Multiple errors, completely self-inflicted, that cost a team a championship. Brutal.

…IKF was asked about it, and indeed the Toronto coaching staff massively fucked up. Apparently it wasn’t about Barger, just terrible risk management overall:

Kiner-Falefa needed just a few more inches to slide safely home. He might have been closer to that walk-off slide if he had taken a larger lead off third base. According to Statcast, his primary lead off the base, 7.8 feet, ranked 357 of 381 primary leads in the World Series. It was 3.8 feet shorter than Mookie Betts’ lead off third base in the following inning, when the Dodgers faced a similar bases-loaded opportunity.

Betts took an 11.6-foot lead off third on that play, although he also was forced out at home.

After receiving hateful messages following the game, Kiner-Falefa told reporters that his short lead was due to being instructed by coaches to stay close to the base in that situation. Other Blue Jays leads at third base throughout the World Series are consistent with that explanation. In the sixth inning of Game 1, Varsho’s primary lead at third base was 8.5 feet. Ernie Clement’s lead off third, in that same Game 1 inning, was just 5.7 feet.