Cleveland Guardians 1 vs Tampa Bay Rays 0 – 15 innings
What a game…what a series. I know most do not like pitching duels, but a total of 4 runs scored in 24 innings, is outstanding pitching, and something I enjoy. After Shane Bieber and Shane McClanahan went toe to toe in Game 1, Tyler Glasnow and Triston McKenzie matched up pitch for pitch.
The Guardians’ McKenzie started and pitched 6 scoreless innings. He allowed 2 hits and issued 2 free passes while recording 8 strikeouts. The first 6 Cleveland relievers allowed 1 hit combined, and 3 walks in 6.0 scoreless innings. Sam Hentges pitched the final three scoreless innings.
For the Rays, Glasnow went the first 5.0 IP and allowed 2 singles and recorded 5 strikeouts. The Rays’ first 6 relievers pitched 7.1 scoreless innings allowing 2 singles and issuing 3 base on balls. In the 13th inning, Corey Kluber entered with a runner on first and one out. He got the final two outs in the 13th inning, and then retired the side in order in the 14th. In the 15th inning, the first batter Kluber faced was rookie RF Óscar González who slugged a 1-0 pitch over the centerfield wall to win the game and to close out the series. The game went 0-0 into the bottom of the 15th before the walk off HR.
Tampa Bay’s pitching was outstanding. However, Cleveland’s was simply better. It was Cleveland’s 2 HRs against Tampa Bay’s 1 HR. Both teams were in the bottom half of the key offensive metrics, while Tampa Bay was in the bottom 3rd. But both were top 6 in the pitching department.
Cleveland will be facing NYY in one ALDS series.
Seattle Mariners 10 vs Toronto Blue Jays 9
This game started out all Blue Jays. Toronto was ahead 8-1 and Kevin Gausman was pitching well through 5.0. In the 6th, Gausman gave up 3 successive singles and then retired the next two batters without allowing a run. After 95 pitches, the Manager John Schneider decided to turn the game over to Tim Mayza. Mayza unleashed a wild pitch to allow 1 run to score, but then offered up a 3-run HR to Carlos Santana.
Toronto pushed across another run in the 7th inning. But in the 8th, with Anthony Bass on the bump, the first three Mariner batters doubled, singled, and singled. Jordan Romano was summoned and gave up a single to the first batter to load the bases. J.P Crawford hit a pop fly in short center field that dropped amongst three Blue Jay Players with SS Bo Bichette colliding with CF George Springer. All three Mariners baserunners scored to tie the score at 9-9, and Springer was carted off the field.
In the 9th, Cal Raleigh doubled and Adam Frazier doubled him home for the go-ahead run.
It was the biggest road comeback win in playoff history and baseball’s largest comeback victory to clinch a postseason series. So in their 21st year since last appearing in a playoff series, they sweep Toronto 2 games to 0 and will now move on to face the Astros in the second ALDS.
Philadelphia Phillies 2 vs St. Louis Cardinals 0
Philadelphia sent out their Ace, Aaron Nola, to try and finish this series. The Cardinals countered with Miles Mikolas. Bryce Harper crushed a HR in the 2nd inning for a 1-0 lead. In the 5th, Alec Bohm hit a double to lead off. He was sacrificed to 3rd with one out. After a HBP, Jordan Montgomery was asked to come in and get out of the inning. However after a walk he gave up a sac fly to Kyle Schwarber for a 2-0 lead.
On the other side, Aaron Nola was dominant for 6.2 IP. He gave up 4 singles, a walk, to go with 6 Ks. Nola threw 101 pitches, 70 strikes before giving way to José Alvarado. Alvarado walked a batter in the 8th and Seranthony Dominguez came in to face Albert Pujols as the tying run. Pujols managed a single, and with 2 runners on, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado were due up Dominguez coolly strikes out both Goldschmidt and Arenado to end the threat.
Zach Eflin came in to close the game in the 9th. He gave up 2 hits to keep the Cardinals hopes up, but Eflin got Tommy Edman to pop up to end the game and the season for the Cardinals.
The Phillies will open against the Braves on Tuesday and will go with either Kyle Gibson or Ranger Suarez.
New York Mets 7 vs San Diego Padres 3
Jacob deGrom took the hill in a must win game for NYM. The announcers reminded us all about Game 5 in the 2016 NLDS against Zack Greinke and the Dodgers. deGrom started out in trouble in that game but settled down to turn it over to Noah Syndergaard and Jeurys Familia. Same thing in Game 2 of the Wild Card. He gave up 2 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks. He completed 6.0 innings and threw 99 pitches. And then turned it over to Edwin Díaz and Adam Ottavino.
Ottavino got into a little trouble in the 9th and was due to face Josh Bell with the bases loaded, representing the tying run. Instead Buck Showalter brought in Seth Lugo who induced Bell to hit into a 3-1 ground out to end the game.
The Mets put the game away with 4 in the 7th. With no outs recorded, Adrián Morejón gave up a single to Francisco Lindor and the loaded the bases with 2 walks. With the infield up, Jeff McNeil hit a ground ball double into right center to score two runs. Pierce Johnson was brought in to face Eduardo Escobar and with infield up Escobar punches it through into left field to score another run and move a runner to 3rd with nobody out. Dan Vogelbach hit a sacrifice fly for the 4th run in the inning and 7th of the game.
The game went as best as it could go for the Dodgers. There will be a Game 3 on Sunday which will pit NYM’s Chris Bassitt against San Diego’s Joe Musgrove. Blake Snell threw 90 pitches (only 47 strikes) in 3.1 IP, while deGrom threw 99 pitches. Game 3 starts at 4:07 so a cross country flight might be a factor (probably not, but who knows).
The Mets and Padres is the only Wild Card Game 3 to be played on Sunday.
The Cardinals surprised me. Good for the Mariners. Cleveland winning was expected. And a 15 inning game today would be fine with me.
It was a full day yesterday. The Bruins are for real and SC is rounding into shape. Today the Rams take on Dallas, ooh I hates the Cowboys, and the Lakers…. never mind.
St. Louis, a top echelon offense against bottom half pitching, only scores two runs in 18 innings. Big series, big moment and Goldschmidt and Arenado strikeout for their last PA in 2022. Goldy goes 0-8 with a walk, while Arenado goes 1-8 with a walk. 1-11 WRISP. They scored 2 runs, both on a PH 2-run HR by Juan Yepez as he attacked the first pitch he saw.
I do expect Cleveland’s pitching to be a concern for the NYY batters. I just do not think Cleveland has enough offense to put up a fight. I know it is not the 2004 Red Sox, but I am pulling for Terry Francona to beat the Yankees again in a playoff series.
Great story for Seattle, but I cannot see them beating Houston.
Yes we are getting closer and closer to the end of the baseball season. We just need for the Dodgers to win 11 games.
Good analysis. My initial take – after a full season it only takes going flat for a few innings to bring it all to a stop. Assume nothing.
Them is wise words, my friend. Something we all need to remember going into Tuesday.
Pitching and defense especially in a short series produces wins more often than does the long ball and weak defense. We should see a little of both in all of the series.
Most everyone I know is really mad at USC and UCLA for destroying the PAC 12 Conference. Some will even pull for Notre Dame against USC. I won’t go that far. Money keeps dominating everything.
UCLA had to do the deal because their sports programs were going broke. USC was the driving force behind the PAC 12 previous TV deals, but the other Universities did not want to give them a bigger slice. Now they are both gone and the Universities are going to get a lot less. It is possible that the PAC 12 will cease to exist if and when Oregon, Stanford, Cal, and Washington are gobbled up.
Oregon will have a tougher sell because as you said, money is dominating everything, and no Power 5 conference cares if they dominate the Oregon market. Seattle and the NW is a different story. That is a plausible takeover. Stanford and Cal are a natural tie and their Bay Area TV deals will go with them.
The Big 10 conference saw the value of the LA TV market and went after them. It was a no-brainer for both UCLA and USC. If the PAC 12 valued the LA market appropriately and rewarded the two LA universities, both UCLA and USC might not have been so eager. That is why the Big 10 went after Rutgers and Maryland; the NE TV market.
It is no secret that the Big10 would very much like Notre Dame. They are an obvious addition. But ND is not about to give up their independent Football only status and share their uber lucrative national TV deal with any other university. ND is part of the ACC for every other sport but football. So if any USC fan is going to pull for ND because SC left the PAC 12 for money, then what does that make ND if they refuse to join a football conference so they can keep all their TV money without sharing? Most SC alums/fans wanted USC to go independent like ND. They have wanted out of the conference for a loooooong time.
I am sure there will be some traditionalists who are angry at both universities and will even pull for ND. But I have not yet run into any SC alum or fan who will ever pull for ND over SC and I can count on 1 hand the number of alums/fans who are upset about SC leaving the PAC 12 for the BIG 10. Larry Scott destroyed the conference with his PAC 12 Network TV deal, and upsetting the two major TV draws by ignoring their importance to the conference. The BIG 10 recognized the LA market and took advantage. I could go on about the incompetence of Larry Scott as a Major Conference Commissioner, but I will get off my bandbox for now.
Well said.
What I was about to say was the Pac 8-10-12-10-8 did this to themselves. You articulated how in detail. I’m a Pac 12 guy but I completely understand why these two schools did what they did. others will follow. They’ll all recruit more successfully nationally now.
USC is a private school so there is that. I don’t know why UCLA has financial issues but it might be less about revenue and more about cost.
USC fans are going to be more supportive of this move than the fans of the other PAC schools. I hope USC told the Conference what they would do if revenues were not distributed differently.
It is revenues. More specifically…sports revenues. Football and to a lesser degree Men’s Basketball, fund the other sports. Sports is also a booster driven entity. SC may have more wealthy boosters than UCLA, but not Stanford. But SC has the national football draw that conferences want.
UCLA also has a tougher time in LA going up against SC. They would have been hurt big time if they did not go along with SC to the Big 10. Not in games mind you, but on revenue production. This part was UCLA driven as they knew what larger TV revenues could do for their programs. They did not ask for permission from the Board of Regents which got a lot of powerful people upset. The University did this on their own.
UCLA had 42K in attendance at the Rose Bowl against nationally ranked Utah. USC had 67K at the Coliseum against a pesky but unranked Washington State. UCLA was playing at a prime time, while SC drew the late game. UCLA is not the draw and would be hurt tremendously if SC beat them that badly in revenues.
Sports revenues…specifically Football TV deals drive NCAA sports. The new Big 10 contract runs for 7 years and for $7 Billion. The PAC 12 just scrubbed their TV negotiations with Fox and ESPN. The conference could only negotiate with the current carriers. It is being spun that the Conference wanted to open the negotiations to other carriers. PAC 12 and ESPN were hundreds of millions apart when negotiations broke off. Don’t be surprised to see Amazon and Apple streaming services be a part of the PAC 12 deal. It may give the conference short term revenue boost, but it will hurt the image of the Conference. How many are going to watch Amazon and Apple telecasts? Who here wants to see the WS on Apple?
Great recap! Still don’t like that even though I subscribe for the Dodger games on MLB, I don’t get them in the post season!
I agree, but those national TV network dollars are a must. How else can owners keep paying these $300MM deals? 😏
Lets GO PADRES the one and only time you will ever hear me say that.
I am not sure how many caught the Dodgers news on the last day of the season. I was wondering why Jake Amaya was not playing the last several games for OKC, but apparently he was injured. On the final day of the regular season, Amaya was recalled and placed on the 60 day IL. That made room for an addition to the 40 man, and the Dodgers added 26 year old RHP Beau Burrows. Burrows is a former first round pick (22 overall) by Detroit in 2015. That would mean that Burrows was selected before Walker Buehler, Mike Soroka and Triston McKenzie and position players Ke’Bryan Hayes and Austin Riley. Of course the same could be said about Phil Bickford and Carson Fulmer who were taken before Burrows. I know this happens every draft, but it is still fun to go back and look at what might have been.
Click on Beau Burrows for his MiLB stats. October 5 was the last day any player could be placed on the 60 day IL. The move presumably was made so Burrows could be DFAd if another 60 man IL player needs to be activated for the playoff roster. That would give the Dodgers some breathing room not requiring them to DFA a player they do not want to lose.
Burrows must feel like someone being led up the steps to the gallows. I wonder if they asked him if he wanted a blindfold.
He had to know it was coming. A 1.82 WHIP in 100 innings. The Dodgers can’t use that from a 26 year old.
Rams appear to be in trouble. Can’t block and secondary tackling kinda sucks. With this line the Rams need a qb that can scramble. That ain’t Stafford.
Can’t remember which broadcast I heard it on, but someone the other day mentioned that pitcher spin rates have come back almost to where they were before the crackdown. How could that be?
Take a look at this video.
Tacky balls.
Tacky chest protector
Tacky balls is funnier.
It’s always a delight when a New York team is eliminated.
“always a delight” – talk to me after the next series and I’ll let you know if I agree with that.
The Mets did look rather easily beatable didn’t they.