October 7:
In Atlanta, Mookie Betts was the man tonight with 2 doubles, a HR and 3 RBI as the Braves won a battle of aces with 22-game winner Mike Soroka coming out on top versus the Padres' Mackenzie Gore. Betts' solo HR in the 3rd got Atlanta on the board, and then a Jose Ramirez HR and 2-run double by Betts provided the margin of victory, breaking a 2-2 tie in the 6th.
In LA, another matchup of aces did not yield a low-scoring game as Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler each had their troubles although Flaherty hung in there better, going 6 1/3 and striking out 11 despite allowing 4 runs on a couple of homers. Cody Bellinger, who led MLB with 65 HR this season, had one of the Dodgers' 4 longballs in a losing effort while Paul Goldschmidt, Tommy Edman, and Paul DeJong each had a pair of ribbies for the Cards.
Well this is just wonderful:
Freaking Game 162 injuries! At least I got the news in time to re-add Daniel Lynch to the playoff roster, at the expense of TJ McFarland. I'd still rather not have to start Lynch at all, though, so it looks like Max Fried will get the Game 3 start in Seattle. Hopefully he can turn his recent fortunes around. These are the projected pitching matchups:
Game 1, at home: Noah Syndergaard vs Justus Sheffield
Game 2, at home: Tyler Glasnow vs Logan Gilbert
Game 3, at Seattle: Max Fried vs Nick Margevicius
Game 4, at Seattle (if necessary): TBD (Daniel Lynch or Chris Paddack) vs Touki Touissant
Game 5, at home (if necessary): Noah Syndergaard vs Justus Sheffield
This is based on what I'm seeing on the upcoming schedule, but I would think we'd see Touissant in Game 3 since he'd be on full rest then.
October 8:
Game 1 (ugh):
One of these damn years I'm going to get over the playoff hump. It might still be this year. But it's not looking too good after this painful extra-inning loss to the Mariners in Game 1 at home. Noah Syndergaard got the start and was not the playoff ace I acquired him to be. He went 7 9 5 5 3 4, and was in trouble most of the night after striking out a pair in a scoreless first. Things went bad with 2 walks in the 2nd, the first scoring on Sam Hilliard's 2-run HR and the second coming around to score on a Jarred Kelenic single. Thankfully Vidal Brujan got those 3 runs right back after Rylan Bannon's popup was misplayed into a single, Nick Schnell singled, and then Brujan took Justus Sheffield deep into the LF stands. Austin Meadows followed with a 2-out double and went to third on a wild pitch, but Devers flew out to end the inning. Then Syndergaard gave up a leadoff homer in the 5th to Mike Brosseau (of course) and another walk killed him in the 6th when Hilliard walked, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on a Braden Shewmake single. But the Rays tied it again when Brujan walked, Wander singled, and Meadows hit his 2nd double of the game to score them both. Jose Alvarado struck out the side in the 8th, but Will Smith gave up doubles to Shewmake and (you guessed it) Brousseau to make it 6-5 in the top of the 9th. But with two out and the game seemingly over, Wander drilled a HR into the RF stands off Wyatt Mills to dramatically tie it at 6. Nick Anderson had a solid 10th, and Jasseel De La Cruz likewise in the 11th. Seth Beer drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the 11th but Schnell hit into a double play, and then in the top of the 12th De La Cruz lost it after getting a strikeout to start the inning, walking the next two, giving up a Daulton Varsho single to give Seattle the lead, then wild pitching the runners to 2nd and 3rd for a Hilliard sac fly, and then Kyle Lewis singled in a 3rd run and the damage was done. The Rays did bring the tying run to the plate in bottom of the 12th against Carl Edwards Jr. when Meadows walked and with two out Keibert singled, but Alec Bohm hit one right back to Edwards to end the game. The goat on offense for the Rays today was Devers, who was 0-6 and left 3 men on base. Going to need a big game from Tyler Glasnow tomorrow, both in terms of evening the series and in terms of not having to use the bullpen much after today's 12 innings.
The other DS games:
October 9:
Game 2 (playoffs are stupid):
Last night it was Noah Syndergaard who couldn't come through when it mattered, tonight it was AL ERA leader Tyler Glasnow. 4.2 8 6 6 2 5 is just not going to cut it in any game at any time and this marks the 4th straight playoff loss for Glasnow after the 2021 Wild Card Game and Games 1 and 5 of the 2022 ALDS, although this is the worst he's pitched in any of them. After he gave up a 1st inning HR to (who else) Mike Brosseau, last night's offensive goat Rafael Devers drilled a 2-run HR off Logan Gilbert to give the Rays their first lead of the series, which lasted exactly 2 more innings before Seattle erupted for 4 runs in the 4th. A one-out walk to Yairo Munoz was costly, then an Evan White double put runners on 2nd and 3rd, a wild pitch scored Munoz to tie it, Tommy Pham singled in White, and then Daulton Varsho homered. Glasnow ran into more trouble in the 6th, giving up a Pham RBI double to make it 6-2 before Aaron Ashby came in and bailed him out (pitching well, 1 2/3 perfect with 3 Ks). Vidal Brujan homered in the bottom of the inning to make it 6-3, and Seth Beer did likewise in the 7th to cut it to 6-4, but Carl Edwards Jr., who had a 6.70 ERA in the regular season, shut them down again over the last 2 innings with a Devers single in the 8th bringing the tying run to the plate but Keibert hit into a double play to end the threat. The HRs were nice, but the offense only managed 6 hits on the night and we didn't have any of those multi-hit rallies the team has been known for this year. The bullpen pitched very well over the final 5 1/3 to keep them within striking distance, but it was little consolation. When "aces" like Syndergaard and Glasnow crap the bed, there's little you can do about it. Now barring a miracle recovery from Chris Paddack it will be up to Max Fried to keep the season alive in Seattle in two days' time. I'm now staring at a 3-9 record managing in the playoffs after being 408-240 in the regular season.
Even the 76-86 (make that 78-86) Twins can win a playoff game:
We interrupt these depressing playoffs to bring this news:
Congrats to Schmidt. Maybe he should have started one of the first two playoff games.
October 10:
Two incredible performances by Baez in these playoffs, the first in the WC game, the second now keeping the Padres alive. And Kershaw, who had a mediocre regular season, rolls back the years to put the Dodgers up 2-1.
October 11:
Game 3 (Playoffs are still stupid, but less so tonight):
All hail Max Fried, author of the best Rays postseason start since Blake Snell's 2-hit shutout of Houston in the 2020 ALDS. After being last year's playoff goat for letting a 4-run lead turn into a 9-4 deficit in the pivotal Game 4 in Toronto last season, Fried was magnificent, going 8 6 1 1 1 5. Will Smith gave up a leadoff single to Jarred Kelenic in the 9th but got a double play and a fly out to nail down postseason save #1 and the Rays stay alive for another game. As predicted they faced Tooki Toussaint instead of Nick Margevicius and they got to him for a couple of runs in the 2nd. First Rafael Devers hit a long and loud HR to deep center to lead the inning off, and then they actually strung a couple of hits together for a run when Keibert Ruiz doubled and Nick Schnell singled him home two outs later. They added a run in the 5th when Schnell walked, went to 2nd when Brujan was hit by a pitch, and then was singled home by Austin Meadows. Seattle scored their lone run in the 6th when Yairo Munoz doubled in Kelenic with two out, but Fried limited the damage by getting Tommy Pham to fly out. The Rays added an insurance run in the top of the 9th when Brandon Marsh doubled, advanced to third on a groundout, and then scored on a Wander infield single. Unless I find out Paddack is miraculously better tomorrow, Daniel Lynch will get the start against Margevicius, although Paddack may get thrown into action anyway since it will be all hands on deck in an elimination game. Also Seth Beer had to sit tonight with a stomach virus (we were all kind of sick to our stomachs after the first 2 games), so Triston Casas got the start at DH and went 1-4.
The other DS games:
The Dodgers march on in their bid to win 3 WS titles in 4 years, while the Padres force a game 5 back in Atlanta. The Angels go up 2-1.
October 12
Game 4: (maybe playoffs aren't that stupid after all)
We're going back to St. Pete! Well, we were always going back to St. Pete, the question was whether it would be to play another baseball game. And play we will as the Rays emphatically evened the series with a 17-1 crushing of the Mariners. The game was effectively over in the first inning when opener Robert Stephenson loaded the bases and Alec Bohm came through with a clutch 2-out, 2-run single. And then Yusniel Diaz took Nick Margevicius deep to make it 5-0. They added a run in the 2nd with the bases loaded again when Rafael Devers appeared to strike out but catcher's interference was called on Daulton Varsho. Then Vidal "Babe Ruth" Brujan muscled up once again and hit this 3rd HR of the series, a 3-run shot in the 3rd to make it 9-0, and Wander made the rubble bounce with a 3-run shot of his own in the 5th. The runs kept coming with a Meadows RBI double in the 6th, and Brujan made it a 5-RBI night with a 2-run double in the 9th in his 7th(!) plate appearance of the game. While the Rays were continually circling the basepaths, Daniel Lynch was flat-out brilliant for a guy who would have been left off the playoff roster had Chris Paddack not developed back spasms. He had pitched two fine games against these Mariners in August, both at least 6 IP with no more than 2 ER allowed, but he was even better tonight going 7 4 1 1 3 8. And in one of the signs of the apocalypse, Scott Barlow pitched 2 shutout innings to finish. For the night Brujan was 4-6 with the HR, 5 RBI and a walk, Wander was 4-7 with the HR and 4 RBI, and Rylan Bannon was 4-6 with 3 runs scored as the Rays totaled 21 hits with everyone in the lineup getting at least one. Now it's time for Game 5, with a Syndergaard vs Sheffield rematch. Thor will need to pitch much better obviously, and if only he were a lefty considering how Fried and Lynch shut down the Mariner offense.
Meanwhile, high drama in the other ALDS which is now also going to a Game 5:
The Angels were one out away from advancing to the ALCS, but JD Martinez's 2-run single off Jose Quijada kept the Twins alive and sends the series back to Anaheim. The Halos had come back from a 3-1 deficit on a 3-run blast by Mike Trout and took a 5-4 lead into the ninth before the Twins' heroics.