ARI 4, PHI 2; Diamondbacks advance

...My god, that was grim. Maybe more so because the pool is now a blast radius, but that was really unfun to watch, and I have so little interest in watching a D-backs/Rangers Series, too. I know it's uncool to bag on other people's teams -- I, a voting adult who still follows the goddamned Mets, understand this well, and 95% of the time I'm happy to watch any baseball, even garbage-time teams I don't follow. But for some reason this World Series is not compelling to me at all.

I might feel different by Friday. As for what the F happened to Philadelphia, well, what I don't know is a lot, but if I had to guess, that Kimbrel/bullpen trash fire the other night put a lot of mental pressure on the hitters, some of whom had started to cool down a bit anyway, to really mash and give the pen huge leads to work with; it didn't really work, and Arizona was able to play better enough. That's how it goes sometimes.

And this is how it goes sometimes with the BPP. Sometimes it's just a handful of people zombie-ing to the finish line. One year, back in the aughts, it was one person.

Let's wrap up the points and see who's left.

Carroll 3

Castellanos 0
Harper 0
Schwarber 2
Stott 2
Turner 0

The italics mean those picks are out. LVP here is pretty clearly Castellanos, who had not notched a base in over a week. MVP is Schwarber, with Ketel Marte making his case for the Victorino in 2023.

...If you've read this far, thank you/sorry and here's the money after the LCSes.

104 Wonsetler
100 Crase
98 YOLO Joe

78 SDB 2 and Fell
72 SDB 1

69 (not so nice) Yuhan

52 Bingham

44 MArbour 1

39 Cayenne 2 and LyonCorn
32 MArbour 2 and Tormey

25 O'Reilly

As noted, not a great outcome for the pool in terms of keeping things interesting, but hey, all Carroll needs to do is hit [checks calculator] 13 home runs and Tormey's RIGHT back in this thing! 

...Okay, seriously: if your name is in italics and you aren't in the money as of this writing, your slate is toast, and you won't appear in future updates. I'm sorry about that; thanks for playing, step into the comments anytime, and better luck in 2024! 

The standings as currently constituted probably won't change a TON, whatever happens, but we'll let it play out.

(FWIW, I did start a "ghost" spreadsheet and randomly assigned everyone another pick before this series; I'll try to do it again before the Classic and see how that affects things, maybe write up a little report on the off day.)

Again, my condolences to the Phillies-heavy slates. Check my math, thanks for playing, and I'll see you back here at week's end!