Ten-Four

At the close of the regular season last Sunday, we said farewell to 20 teams whose 2019 campaigns had come to an end. And, as happens every year, the postseason field of 10 was very quickly cut to four as six more teams found their seasons "over and out".

Jump to: NL Wild Card | AL Wild Card | Astros/Rays | Nats/Dodgers | Cards/Braves | Yanks/Twins


Trouble Brewing

It's one of those hypothetical debates you see in baseball circles all the time: If your season came down to one game, who would you want on the mound? You can't go wrong answering Max Scherzer to that question, and fortunately for the Nationals-- who were faced with this conundrum in the Wild Card game on Tuesday-- he's on their team.

Unfortunately for Scherzer, not every game can be perfect. A six-pitch walk to Trent Grisham to start the game isn't ideal, but it's not a huge deal yet. Until Yasmani Grandal smacks the very next pitch into the seats in right. It was the fifth 1st-inning homer in Brewers postseason history, the first on the road, and the first time their second batter of the game hit a 2-run bomb. (The other 1st-inning homers were by Christian Yelich, Corey Hart, and Ryan Braun twice.) And even a 2-0 deficit isn't too bad given that it's early, but then Eric Thames leads off the 2nd inning with another homer. Since coming to the Nationals in 2015, Scherzer had never before had a game where he gave up longballs in both the 1st and 2nd innings, and the Brewers had only hit them once before in postseason history. That was 2011 NLCS 6 against the Cardinals when Hart, Rickie Weeks, and Jonathan Lucroy all went yard.

Scherzer finally settled down and got through 5 innings without any more damage, and Trea Turner got 1 run back with a solo homer in the 3rd. Stephen Strasburg would enter in the 6th and give up a line-drive single on the very first pitch he ever threw in a major-league relief appearance, but then Thames grounded into a double play. Still the Nationals couldn't break through... until they got some help in the bottom of the 8th. After Josh Hader struck out two batters, but also gave up a single, a walk, and a hit batter to load the bases, before Juan Soto stepped to the plate.

You know the play. The one where Soto dumps a single into right and Grisham is too anxious to gun down the tying run at the plate, that he misses the ball and the Nationals score not just the tying run, but the go-ahead one as well. Soto only gets credit for tying the game (the last run scores on the error), but he still became the youngest player in postseason history to have a multi-run hit in the 8th inning or later. The old record, which he broke by over a year, was "only" held by Mickey Mantle, who hit a 2-run homer in Game 2 of the 1953 World Series. It was also the Nationals' first bases-loaded single where all three runners scored (regardless of how) since Felipe Lopez also hit one against the Brewers on September 17, 2006. When Milwaukee failed to mount a comeback in the 9th, Hader would join Jeremy Jeffress (NLCS 2 last year) and Bob McClure (1982 WS 7) as the only Brewers pitchers to get a blown save and a loss in the same postseason game. And it was the first time in the Brewers' fairly-brief postseason history that they'd been eliminated via a 1-run loss.


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Rays Of Hope

Just in case Tuesday's NL Wild Card game didn't get off to a fast-enough start for you, might we introduce Yandy Diaz. It's okay if you've never met him before; he played less than 90 games for Cleveland in the previous two seasons before getting caught up in the three-team trade that sent Carlos Santana to Cleveland, Edwin Encarnacion to Seattle, and Jake Bauers from Tampa Bay to Cleveland. But Diaz got the nod as the Rays' leadoff batter in Wednesday's winner-take-all game, and five pitches later, he had put the Rays on top 1-0 with the first leadoff homer in their postseason history. It was the second one ever hit in a postseason game at Oakland Coliseum, and that includes the A's (who don't have any). Pete Rose took Catfish Hunter deep to start Game 5 of the 1972 World Series, which the Reds won to send the series back to Cincinnati.

Diaz's homer was also just the second leadoff homer the Rays had ever hit at Oakland Coliseum, and the other belonged to someone who was also part of this year's AL playoffs-- as a manager. Rocco Baldelli took Dan Haren deep on August 11, 2006. But similar to the Brewers jumping out early on Tuesday, the Rays-- and Diaz-- weren't done. After Matt Duffy led off the 2nd with a single, Avisail Garcia launched a 2-run shot to make it 3-0. And then Diaz came up again to start the 3rd, still just the Rays' 10th batter of the game, and homered again for a 4-0 lead and the abrupt departure of Sean Manaea. Diaz joined B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria, both in the 2008 ALDS against the White Sox, as the only Rays players to homer in their first two plate appearances of a postseason game. Tampa Bay hadn't had a road game where they homered in each of the first 3 innings since Steven Souza and Kevin Kiermaier did it at Yankee Stadium on September 8, 2016. And Manaea's claim to fame? Well, he was the first A's starter to allow 3 homers while getting no more than 6 outs in a home game since the great Todd Van Poppel did it against the Angels on May 1, 1996.

Ramon Laureano did get 1 run back in the bottom of the 3rd (sound familiar?) after a 3-base error by Michael Brosseau. But unlike the NL game, there would be no further game- and season-altering errors in the late innings; Diego Castillo, Nick Anderson, and Emilio Pagán held the A's to just 3 baserunners in the final 4 frames. Tommy Pham added another solo homer to make this the Rays' second-ever game where they clubbed four dingers at Oakland Coliseum; the other was May 29, 2018, and included a back-to-back-to-back off Daniel Gossett. The 5-1 final gave the Athletics their first postseason game where they scored only 1 run and it came on a sac fly.


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Ten-Five

Alas, the Rays got only a brief moment to enjoy their Wild Card victory, because their next task was the buzzsaw that is the Houston Astros. In response to that "which pitcher would you want" question at the start of our post, A.J. Hinch doesn't have one choice, he has three. And some would argue, don't throw your best pitcher(s) out there early, save them on the chance that you lose the first or second game and need an ace or two to get you back into the series.

But here we are with the predictable Astros lineup of Justin Verlander in 1, Gerrit Cole in 2, and Zack Greinke in 3. If we told you in advance that one of the four Division Series would be a sweep, you'd bet on this one. But Tyler Glasnow came out matching Verlander early in Game 1, despite the latter not allowing a hit until the 5th inning-- something he's done in three straight postseasons now. Glasnow escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 3rd but a 2-run homer by Jose Altuve in the 5th spelled his departure after 76 pitches. Only George Springer (2017 WS 4) and Jeff Kent (2004 NLCS 5) have homered for Houston in the 5th or later to break up a scoreless tie in a postseason game. (That Kent game will pop up several more times.) Brendan McKay didn't fare much better, allowing 2 hits but then watching the right side of his defense have a failure to communicate resulting in a 4-0 Astros lead. After Yordan Alvarez and Yuli Gurriel hit back-to-back doubles to make it 6-0 in the 7th, Verlander finally departed, becoming the second Houston pitcher to throw 7+ innings and allow only 1 hit in a postseason game. The other was Brandon Backe, who kept that 2004 NLCS Game 5 scoreless so that Kent could hit the walkoff. The Rays escaped the shutout with 2 runs off Ryan Pressly but ultimately gave Verlander his eighth win in a "Division Series" game, passing John Smoltz and Andy Pettitte for the most in that round since it was added in 1995.

With Cole starting in Game 2, it was more of the same; in fact, of the 10 total postseason games played between Tuesday and Saturday, the only two that did not have a run in the first inning were the ones in this series. It would be the 4th until Alex Bregman finally connected against Ian Snell; Bregman also hit a go-ahead homer in ALDS Game 1 in each of the previous two postseasons and is the first Houstonian to hit three such dingers at home. Ah, but look a little closer at those previous two homers. The 2017 one, against Boston, broke a scoreless tie, albeit in the 1st inning. That game was on October 5. The 2018 homer? Broke a scorelss tie against Cleveland, this time in the 4th inning. Date of that game? October 5. Guess what Saturday was. October 5. Only two other players in postseason history have homered on the same date in three straight calendar years, and Bregman is the first whose homers all gave his team the lead. Francisco Lindor did it for Cleveland in 2016-17-18 (October 4), and Albert Pujols did it in NLCS play with the Cardinals on October 17 of 2004-05-06. Seven other players have hit postseason homers on the same date in three different years; Pujols is on that list as well, along with Steve Garvey, Mickey Mantle, David Ortiz, Frank Robinson, Alex Rodriguez, and Bernie Williams.

Cole, meanwhile, has already struck out seven Rays batters by the time Bregman goes yard, and it turns out he's not even halfway done. He promptly fans the side in the 5th, all swinging, and temporarily breaks his own Astros postseason record with 13 strikeouts against 0 walks when Ji-Man Choi whiffs in the 7th. The offense adds a second, unearned, run in the 7th, and finally in the 8th Cole runs out of gas. Travis d'Arnaud needs 10 pitches to strike out, after which Kevin Kiermaier laces a first-pitch double off the wall in right, and with it still being only 2-0, it's time for Cole to go. On the way out, he walks his final batter (Willy Adames, which is why that other record was temporary), but still finishes with his second 15-strikeout game of the season (September 8 vs Mariners). Only J.R. Richard in 1979 and Don Wilson in 1968 have had two in a year for the Astros, and combined with Verlander's 15-K effort against the Brewers on June 12, the Astros are the first team with three such games out of their pitching staff, including the postseason, since the famous "Curt & Randy" duo of the 2002 Diamondbacks. When Roberto Osuna gets the final out of the 8th to strand Kiermaier and Adames, Cole has become the fourth pitcher in major-league history to strike out 15+ and allow 0 runs in a postseason game. Roger Clemens did it for the Yankees in the 2000 ALCS, while Kevin Brown of the Padres had 16 K's in the first game of the 1998 playoffs, and Bob Gibson opened the 1968 World Series with a 17-K game against the Tigers. And while the Rays did get 1 run back off Osuna in the 9th to avoid the shutout, Game 2 was the sixth contest in their history where they scored 1 run (or 0) and struck out 17+ times; the previous being against Danny Duffy of the Royals on August 1, 2016.

For Game 3 it is back to St Petersburg and its warm-and-inviting dome, now with less tarp covering the upper deck! Zack Greinke, pitching for the first time in 12 days, definitely looked like it, and not in a good way. Facing the wrong end of a series sweep, and already staring down that broom handle after Jose Altuve homered in the 1st, the Rays unloaded on Greinke for 6 runs, starting with Kiermaier's lead-flipping 3-run bomb in the 2nd. The only other 3- or 4-run homer the Rays had ever hit in a postseason game at Tropicana was by Evan Longoria off Clay Buchholz in the 2013 ALDS, and they'd only had one previous lead-flipping homer at all (home or road, any number of runs) in their postseason history. That came off the bat of Akinori Iwamura in the Rays' first postseason appearance, the 2008 ALDS (Game 2 off Mark Buehrle). By the time Ji-Man Choi added a solo shot in the 2nd, Greinke had made postseason history as the first pitcher ever to give up multiple homers with four different teams-- doing it with the Brewers in 2011, the Dodgers in 2015, and the Diamondbacks in 2017. And when Brandon Lowe finally knocked him out of the game with another homer in the 4th, Greinke left as the first pitcher in Astros postseason history to give up three taters.

Meanwhile, in stark contrast to Verlander and Cole the previous games, it would be Rays "starter" Charlie Morton who racked up the strikeouts, tallying nine of them but still needing 93 pitches to get through 5 innings. Only Matt Garza, in the pennant-clinching game of the 2008 ALCS, had struck out 9+ for the Rays in the postseason; and when the Rays rolled on to an easy 10-3 victory, barely finishing those 5 innings got Morton his fourth career pitching win when his team was facing postseason elimination. One was in last week's Wild Card game, but the others were two seasons ago-- in the opposite dugout while pitching for the Astros. He's the sixth pitcher in postseason history to have 4 wins in those situations (no one's had 5), joining Reds reliever Clay Carroll in the 1970s, plus Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, John Smoltz, and Justin Verlander.

Ah yes, Justin Verlander again. With a 2-1 series lead, A.J. Hinch opted against the "bullpen day" strategy, opting to throw JV out there for Game 4 on 3 days' rest. The only other time he started on short rest was in the 2011 ALDS when Game 1 got suspended by rain in the 2nd inning, Verlander threw only 25 pitches, and was easily able to come back and win Game 3. This time, mmm, not so much. The Rays unloaded for 4 hits and 3 runs in the 1st inning, with Tommy Pham's solo homer being just the third one Verlander had ever allowed in the 1st inning of a postseason game. Pablo Sandoval and Coco Crisp hit the others in 2012 when JV was with Detroit. It was also his first postseason start allowing 3 runs in the 1st, something Verlander did just once in the regular season this year (June 18 vs Reds).

Those 3 runs would actually be all the Rays needed; they stuck to their season-long approach of running Diego Castillo out there as an "opener" for 5 outs and following with a parade of relievers for anywhere from 2 to 7 outs each. The Astros managed just 6 hits and only broke the shutout on a solo homer by Robinson Chirinos in the 8th, just the second such homer in Houston postseason history. Their other shutout-breaking homer in the 8th or later was (we warned you!) Jeff Kent in the 2004 NLCS again.

Ji-Man Choi would finish Game 4 with 3 walks, a first in Rays postseason history, and although all of them were singles, Avisail Garcia joined Carl Crawford and Willie Aybar as the only Tampa Bay players with 4 hits in a postseason game. Those two did it in the same game, a 13-4 win at Fenway in 2008 ALCS 4.

The Rays are by now no stranger to elimination games; having gone down 0-2 in the series, they played four of them in this postseason out of just six games total. Alas that's all they will play, and the fourth time wasn't a charm, with Gerrit Cole back on the mound for Game 5 and, unlike Verlander, on normal rest because of the travel day back to Houston. While he didn't blow away 15 Rays via strikeout, he was his fairly normal self, with the only blemish being a solo homer by Eric Sogard in the 2nd. It was the fifth homer in Rays postseason history when they trailed by 4 or more, and Tampa Bay still ended up losing all of those games.

Meanwhile, the Astros wasted no time at giving Cole some breathing room that allowed him to be even more effective with all his pitches. George Springer, who also led off Game 7 of both the ALCS and WS in 2017 with hits, became the first player in postseason history to do so in three winner-take-all games. And leading to plenty of theories about the Astros stealing signs or Tyler Glasnow tipping pitches (edit: he later confirmed this), Michael Brantley and Jose Altuve also singled immediately afterwards, and before we could even look that up, Alex Bregman doubled to make it 3-0. The last team to begin a postseason game with four straight hits was the 2002 Angels, who did it in Game 2 of that year's World Series against the Giants. Cole would finish with 10 strikeouts and only 2 hits allowed, his sixth such game this season to tie Verlander for the team record. He joined Nolan Ryan (1981 NLDS 1) as the only Astros pitchers to throw 8 innings, allow no more than 2 hits, and get a win in a postseason game; two others posted that line but had the bullpen blow the win for them.

And of course, no Astros series is really ever complete until Jose Altuve hits back-to-back homers with someone. This time it was Michael Brantley, off Emilio Pagán in the 8th; of the five sets of B2B homers in Astros postseason history, Altuve's been part of four of them. The Game 5 shot, providing the final margin of 6-1, was also his 11th postseason homer, tying Springer for the most in team history. When Roberto Osuna had a 1-2-3 9th, the Rays became just the second team to be held to 2 hits in a winner-take-all game... but in mid-celebration, the Astros might be saying "been there done that". Because they were the other team to do it-- in Game 5 of their own ALDS in 2015 against the Royals.


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Washington Gridlock

Back in the other league, the Nationals were coming off that thrilling 3-run play in the 8th against Milwaukee and had only one day to regroup before meeting the Dodgers in their Division Series. Unfortunately for them, they appeared to take an extra day off against Walker Buehler (see what we did there?) in Game 1 of the series on Thursday. At least Juan Soto got us out of no-hitter watch with a single in the 2nd inning, but he was retired on a double play, and aside from a bizarre sequence of walking the bases loaded in the 4th, Washington didn't have another baserunner in Buehler's 6 innings. Or in the 7th and 8th against Kenta Maeda. Just as we're readying the 1-hitter notes, Trea Turner blows those up with a leadoff double in the 9th off Joe Kelly, which would turn out to not be the most interesting hit he surrendered in the series. And it turns out 2 hits is much less noteworthy than 1, even in the postseason, but it still wound up being just the fifth game in Nats/Expos history where they were shut out on 2 hits and struck out 13 times, the previous being a meaningless 2015 season finale at Citi Field.

And the weird thing is, Buehler wasn't the pitcher who had us on no-hitter watch. That was Patrick Corbin, who had his own bizarre sequence of walks-- four of them around two strikeouts in the 1st inning to literally walk in a run. A.J. Pollock became the fourth Dodger to get a free pass as the team's first batter of a postseason series, joining Davey Lopes (1977), Maury Wills (1966), and Dixie Walker (1941). Only twice before (1981 WS 6 and 1966 WS 1) had the Dodgers received four walks in any postseason inning. Max Muncy finally led off the 4th with a base knock, and would end up being weirdly involved in 4 of the 6 Dodgers runs. He was the recipient of that fourth walk in the 1st; in the 5th he rolled a ground ball to Howie Kendrick which was booted, Bill Buckner-style, to score another run; and he then hit a bases-loaded single in the 7th. James Loney, in Game 3 of the 2006 NLDS against the Mets, is the only other Dodgers batter with a bases-loaded hit and a bases-loaded walk in the same postseason game. Corbin's strange pitching day ended up with 5 walks, but also 9 strikeouts and only 1 earned run allowed. He also did that in Atlanta on September 6, joining Mark Langston (1989) and Bill Stoneman (1971) as the franchise's only pitchers to do it twice in a season. Gavin Lux and Joc Pederson would add two more solo homers in the 8th, the third set of Dodgers teammates to go yard in the same inning that late in a postseason contest. Pedro Guerrero and Mike Scioscia did it in the opener of the 1981 NLCS against the same Nats/Expos franchise, while Luis Olmo and Roy Campanella hit them against the Yankees in Game 3 of the 1949 World Series.

It was Game 2 between the Nats and Dodgers that featured the marquee pitching matchup, or at least what would have been that 3 or 4 years ago. Stephen Strasburg and Clayton Kershaw have both still got it, but aren't quite as dominating as they once were. Kershaw's postseason escapades are especially well-documented. (WAIT FOR IT.) So it wasn't a huge shock when he allowed a double to Trea Turner on the first pitch of the game (he later scored), then started the 2nd by hitting Victor Robles, letting him score on a 2-out single by Adam Eaton, and then giving up another RBI double to Anthony Rendon. And those 3 runs would prove to be plenty, with the Strasburg of old retiring the first 14 Dodgers in order, eight of them via strikeout. That gave him sole possession of third place on the Nationals' longest postseason no-hitter list; it turns out he also owns second place after throwing 5⅔ against the Cubs 2 years ago. (The top spot belongs to Max Scherzer, who got to 6⅓ against those same Cubs later in the series.) And combined with Corbin's start in Game 1, it was the second time in Dodgers postseason history that they'd been no-hit through 3 innings in consecutive games; the other time was in the 1956 World Series against the Yankees. Duke Snider got their first hit off Tom Sturdivant in the 4th inning of Game 4, and then in Game 5 against Don Larsen, well,....

Strasburg did allow 2 more hits and lose the shutout in the 6th, and Max Muncy homered off Sean Doolittle in the 7th to bring the Dodgers within striking distance, but Daniel Hudson escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 9th for the 4-2 win. Corey Seager, who made the final out, was the second player in Dodgers postseason history to end a game with a bases-loaded strikeout; the other-- Brian Dozier, who did it last year against Milwaukee-- got to watch this one from the Nationals' dugout. Seager's game-ender was the Dodgers' 17th strikeout of the game against just 5 hits; they'd only done that once before in the live-ball era in any 9-inning game, and that was also against the Nationals (and Scherzer, June 6, 2017).

Game 3 brought the Dodgers to the nation's capital, and this one also looked promising for the Nats when Juan Soto hit a 2-run homer in the 1st. Anibal Sanchez, who used to give us no-hitter scares in Detroit, would strike out 9 and allow only 1 run on a solo homer by good old Max Muncy in the 5th. After Corbin and Strasburg, that made the Nats the third team in postseason history whose starting pitcher fanned 9+ in three straight games, and Sanchez was part of one of the other trios-- as was now- and then-teammate Max Scherzer. They, plus Justin Verlander, did it for the Tigers in the 2013 ALCS; the other group was Tom Seaver, Jon Matlack, and Jerry Koosman for the 1973 Mets.

Unfortunately that 2-1 lead would go way out the window, metaphorically clearing the Anacostia River, when Davey Martinez went back to his strategy of having his starters throw their bullpen sessions as relievers in the actual game. Game 3 was Patrick Corbin's turn, and maybe he should have stopped after 18 pitches and 2 strikeouts. David Freese singled, and then Russell Martin hit the third lead-flipping double in Dodgers postseason history, joining Billy Cox in 1953, and the famous walkoff by Cookie Lavagetto in 1947 that also broke up Bill Bevens' no-hitter. After a walk to Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernandez made it 5-2 with another two-run double, the second time the Dodgers have hit two of them in the same postseason inning. In the game before Lavagetto's walkoff in 1947, Eddie Stanky and Carl Furillo did it in a 9-8 win against the Yankees. Now Corbin gets removed, but Wander Suero found his first few pitches wandering around the plate, and then a fan in left-center found one wandering off the bat of Justin Turner for a 3-run homer. That closed Corbin's line with 6 runs on only 2 outs, the first Nats/Expos reliever to do that either in the postseason, or against the Dodgers in any game.

Martin would add a 2-run homer in the 9th for the final margin of 10-4; he joined Steve Yeager in 1977 as the only Dodgers to have 4 RBIs in a postseason game while batting 8th or 9th. He and Turner were the first Dodgers teammates to homer and double in the same postseason game, and the second ever to do it at Nationals Park, after Andre Ethier and James Loney on August 27, 2008. And the team's 10 runs were their second-most ever on South Capitol Street, joining a 14-2 win over Livan Hernandez on September 22, 2009.

But tomorrow is another day, and Scherzer is back for Game 4 against the still-recovering-from-injury Rich Hill who didn't get out of the 3rd inning before being rescued from a bases-loaded jam by Kenta Maeda. You could say the Dodgers could afford a "bullpen day" with the 2-1 series lead, but Julio Urias and Pedro Baez were the ones who ended up on the wrong end of that idea. Anthony Rendon gave Washington the lead with an RBI single in the 5th, and Urias gave up another single to Howie Kendrick before departing. Baez's second pitch then got poked for a 3-run homer by Ryan Zimmerman to basically put the game out of reach, especially when Scherzer would end up going 7 innings and allowing only 1 run. It was Zim's 16th homer of the 3- or 4-run variety at Nationals Park, exactly tying Rendon for the most in its 12-year history, and it was only the third such homer the franchise had ever hit in a potential elimination game. The others were both by Michael Taylor, 2 years ago when the Nats won Game 4 but lost Game 5 of the NLDS against the Cubs.

In addition to that single in the 5th, Rendon bookended the Nats' scoring with sac flies to drive in the first run against Hill in the 3rd and the last run against Ross Stripling in the 6th. He also had a 2-SF game on September 24 against the Phillies; the only other player in franchise history with two such games in a season was Darrin Fletcher in 1994. That also meant Rendon and Zim each had 3 of the Nats' 6 RBIs, the franchise's first teammates ever to do that in a postseason game.

So we have another series that goes back across the country for a winner-take-all showdown, and you might have noticed the first four games really didn't have any late-inning thrills such as in the Nats' Wild Card win. No worries, Game 5 has you covered. The incessant organ notes of "Let's-Go-Dodg-ers" (seriously, why must EVERY little riff or song snippet they play end with some weird transition into this?) were in full force right from the start when Joc Pederson sent a fly ball through the bullpen door in left-center. Although initially ruled a home run by LF umpire Ted Barrett, the Dodger faithful didn't have to wait long for an actual home run, because Max Muncy clobbered one of those just 5 pitches later. The only other Dodgers batter to hit a 2-run homer as the team's second batter of a postseason game was Matt Kemp in the 2009 NLCS opener against the Cardinals. And when Enrique Hernandez also homered in the 2nd, just the second time the Dodgers homered twice in any winner-take-all game (much less in the first 2 innings), you couldn't help but wonder (a) how long Stephen Strasburg's day would last, and (b) whether the Nationals were again doomed to lose in the first round. Especially when Walker Buehler was not taking this day off, allowing just 2 hits in the first 5 innings and getting a double play in the 6th to escape a two-on, nobody-out situation with only 1 run scoring.

Of course, this is Baseball In 2019, and "the metrics" say that once Buehler gives up a walk in the 7th, it's time to get him out of there. Taking a page from Davey Martinez's book, Dave Roberts opts to let Clayton Kershaw-- he of the 3 runs in 2 innings in Game 2-- have his bullpen session on the field. And it looked a bit more like batting practice. Kershaw struck out Adam Eaton to get out of the 7th, but then, on back-to-back pitches, gave up back-to-back homers by Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto to stun the crowd (and even that pesky organ) at Dodger Stadium. Kershaw had allowed just 1 homer in his limited number of career relief appearances, to Shane Victorino in the 2009 NLCS. Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche (2012 NLDS) had hit the only other back-to-back homers by the Nationals in the postseason, and they had just two other sets in franchise history at Dodger Stadium: Mike Morse & Justin Maxwell in 2010, and Ron Fairly & Rusty Staub in 1970.

But we're not done. Those homers only made it 3-3, and Joe Kelly and Daniel Hudson matched wits in the 9th, creating the 13th winner-take-all game in postseason history to go to extra innings. With closer Kenley Jansen-- who had plenty of his own issues last season-- watching from the bullpen, Kelly trots back out for the 10th, walks Eaton, and gives up a double to Rendon. That was Rendon's third extra-base hit of the game, a first in Nats/Expos postseason history, and joining Ron LeFlore (June 18, 1980) as the team's only players to do it at Dodger Stadium. Juan Soto gets a free pass to bring up former Dodger Howie Kendrick. And once again the Nats have their dramatic ending. The franchise had never hit any postseason home run in extra innings, much less a grand slam; in fact there'd been only one other extra-inning slam in postseason history. That was Nelson Cruz's walkoff to win Game 2 of the 2011 ALCS. Gerardo Parra (May 11), Jerry Hairston (2011), Chris Widger (1998), and Rondell White (1996) are the other Nats/Expos players to hit a grand slam at Dodger Stadium, and Kelly-- who faced 4 batters without retiring any of them in Game 3-- joined Roger Craig (1956) as the only Dodgers relievers to give up 4+ runs in a potential elimination game. Craig, however, was already trailing and just made the score worse.

And all this, of course, means that the Dodgers have been in the postseason for seven straight years and have yet to win it all. In the past four years their final loss was by 4 runs or more, the first team in MLB history to have that happen (the Pirates did it in three straight from 2013-15). And at least they can say that an opponent won't hoist the World Series trophy on their lawn again this year, as the Red Sox and Astros did previously. But the Dodgers are the fourth team to be eliminated at home in three straight years, joining the Indians (2016-18), Braves (2000-04), and Tigers (1907-09).


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13 Suited Cards

Although the Cardinals never quite lost the NL Central lead after August 23, they also knew a little something about winning late, watching the Cubs lose nine straight down the stretch and then barely holding off a charge on the final weekend of the season when the Brewers got swept by the Rockies. That earned them a trip to Atlanta to start the Division Series, where they also got off to a fairly late start in Game 1. After Miles Mikolas and Dallas Keuchel traded single runs through 5 innings, it was Dansby Swanson who came up with a bases-loaded single in the 6th to put the Braves up 3-1. That was Atlanta's first go-ahead hit with bases loaded in a postseason game since Adam LaRoche hit a grand slam in the 3rd inning of 2005 NLDS 4. Shane Greene and Max Fried shut down the Cardinals for two more innings before Matt Carpenter delivered a game-tying single on which Kolten Wong, carrying the go-ahead run, was out at home to end the inning. J.D. Drew (2000), Brian Harper (1985), and Ken O'Dea (walkoff in 1944) had the Cardinals' only other tying or go-ahead pinch hits in the 8th or later of a postseason game.

It was up to Mark Melancon-- who had already blown the save by allowing that Carpenter hit-- to keep things tied and give the Braves a chance, and, well, uh... no. Melancon gave up two singles, a walk, and then a double to Marcell Ozuna, the second-ever go-ahead bases-loaded hit in the 9th inning in Cardinals postseason history. Terry Pendleton doubled off Charlie Liebrandt of the Royals to win Game 2 of the 1985 World Series. After an intentional walk, Kolten Wong hit another bases-loaded double, the fourth time St Louis has scored 4 runs in the 9th inning of a postseason road game.

Just when it's 7-3, it turns out the Cardinals would need all four of those runs. Carlos Martinez, also entrusted with getting the final 4 outs, finally did, but not before giving up a 2-run homer to Ronald Acuña, who would be the second batter in Braves postseason history to go single-double-homer in a loss. Andruw Jones in the 2004 NLDS against Houston is the other. Acuña was also the first leadoff batter to do it in any Braves home loss since Rafael Furcal on July 10, 2005. And when Freddie Freeman added a solo shot for the final margin of 7-6, Martinez escaped as the first Cardinals reliever to give up 3 runs, 2 homers, and still get a win since Juan Acevedo did it in Montréal on May 2, 1999.

Game 2 would not feature a 9th-inning Cardinals rally; in fact, it would feature no Cardinals rallies at all against Mike Foltynewicz. Folty gave up just 3 singles in 7 innings, plus one extra runner when Paul DeJong reached on an error in the 2nd. The only other Braves pitchers to throw 7+ scoreless innings with no more than 4 baserunners in the postseason are Tom Glavine (twice) and Warren Spahn (1958). This one wasn't really decided, however, until Adam Duvall, hitting in Folty's spot in the 7th, launched a 2-run homer, the second pinch-hit dinger in Braves postseason history. Eric Hinske hit the other one against the Giants' Sergio Romo in 2010 NLDS 3. Melancon would work the 9th yet again, and while he gave up 2 hits in this game as well, they were both singles and he came away with the save. Only John Smoltz (twice) and Mark Wohlers had earned postseason saves for Atlanta despite allowing multiple hits. And the 3-0 final, with only 6 singles, marked the second time this year that the Cardinals had been shut out at SunTrust Park and failed to record an extra-base hit (May 15 against Mike Soroka). The Cardinals had never done that in Atlanta twice in a season since the Braves moved there in 1966.

Off to St Louis we go for Game 3, and this series seems to have something about the road team making a late rally. After Marcell Ozuna's leadoff double in the 2nd, we sat on a 1-0 score while Mike Soroka and Adam Wainwright mowed down batters until the 8th. They combined for just 6 hits and no walks until Waino sputtered and threw just 3 of his final 11 pitches for strikes before being pulled. Andrew Miller got out of that bases-loaded jam and it certainly seemed as though Soroka was on track to gave up 2 hits and lose.

Ah, but apparently 2 pitches was too many for Miller, who couldn't be sent back out there for the 9th. Instead we find Carlos Martinez, who gave up those two Braves homers in Game 1 but still escaped with a win, on the mound, and he wouldn't do that again, would he? Well, not quite. But he did give up a leadoff double to Josh Donaldson, and then with 2 outs, a tying double to Dansby Swanson. That was the fourth tying or go-ahead hit in Braves postseason history when down to their final out; the others were by Luis Polonia (1995 NLDS 3), Otis Nixon (1992 WS 6), and Francisco Cabrera (1992 NLCS 7, which you probably remember as The Sid Bream Slide). It was also Dansby's second double of the night; he joined the now-retired Brian McCann (September 12, 2009) as the only Braves hitters with 3 hits including 2 doubles in a game at the current Busch Stadium.

But once again it's Adam Duvall who comes through, four pitches later, with a 2-run single to give the Braves a 3-1 lead in the game and a 2-1 lead in the series. Although Martinez got the win in Game 1 because the Cardinals scored 4 while he gave up 3, he would get the blown save and the loss in Game 3. He's the second Cards pitcher to give up 3+ runs in back-to-back postseason appearances. Bob Forsch did it in 1987, and those were in different series (last game of NLCS and first game of WS).

Game 4 would feature the Cardinals both early and late, with a whole lot of nothing in between. With Keuchel back on the mound, Paul Goldschmidt and Marcell Ozuna raked him for back-to-back homers in the 1st inning, the first time the Cards have done that at home since Randal Grichuk and Matt Holliday in September 2014, and the first postseason game in team history where they hit a pair of 1st-inning homers at all. And staked to an early-- though small-- lead, Daniel Hudson got knocked out of the game by a Carpenter fielding error and then a 2-run homer by Ozzie Albies, the fourth lead-flipping longball in Braves history in a postseason road game. The others belong to Brian Jordan (1999), Michael Tucker (1998), and Orlando Cepeda (1969).

After one of the newest Cardinals, Paul Goldschmidt, doubles in the 8th, why not have the third-longest-serving Cardinal in team history, Yadier Molina, smoke a line drive off a leaping Freddie Freeman to tie the game in the 8th. Molina, who passed Ozzie Smith earlier this year with more games in a Cardinals uniform (and now trails only Lou Brock and Stan Musial), was also playing in his 93rd postseason game to tie Chipper Jones' National League record. The next time up, in the bottom of the 10th, it was Kolten Wong's turn to have hit a leadoff double, and two batters later, Molina gets to drive him in for the thrilling play that is a walkoff sacrifice fly. The only other Cardinals batter with a tying RBI in regulation and then a walkoff RBI in extras was The David Freese Game in the 2011 World Series. Those two games, plus Jim Edmonds' homer in 2004 NLCS 6 against Houston, are the only walkoffs in Cardinals postseason history when facing elimination. And the only other time the Cardinals walked off in a postseason game against the Braves was in Game 2 of the 1982 NLCS when a Ken Oberkfell single scored David Green.

That walkoff forced the series back to Atlanta for Game 5, and you might be aware there's no late drama in this one. There was only early drama, and that came in the form of seeing just how many runs the Cardinals would score. Foltynewicz, on 3 days' rest, will now have about 130 days off after the first eight batters of the game combined for 3 hits, 3 walks, a sac bunt, and Freddie Freeman booting a ground ball at first. Folty is the first starter in postseason history to give up 7 runs while getting no more than 1 out; the prior "record" had been a 6-run start by Oakland's Gil Heredia in the 2000 Division Series. And it had been a full century since a Braves pitcher allowed 7 runs on only 3 hits while also getting just 1 out; Larry Cheney did it in Brooklyn on July 5, 1919.

Enter Max Fried to finish off Folty's 7-run pitching line with a bases-loaded walk to Jack Flaherty, the second ever drawn by a Cardnials pitcher in a postseason game. Bob Gibson got one in Game 4 of the 1968 World Series (that's not the game where he struck out 17; that was Game 1). Back-to-back doubles by Dexter Fowler and Kolten Wong made it 9-0, and the final nail was driven home when Marcell Ozuna struck out but the ball got away from Brian McCann, allowing Wong to scamper home with the 10th run. All told the Cardinals sent 14 batters to the plate and recorded just the fourth 10-run frame in postseason history. The others were by the 2002 Angels, 1968 Tigers, and 1929 Athletics, though none of those was in a 1st inning. It turns out 1929 was also the last time the Cardinals posted a 10-run 1st inning in a road game; they did that on July 6 of that year in Philadelphia en route to (still) the only 28-6 victory in major-league history.

Tommy Edman would triple and score an 11th run in the top of the 2nd, becoming the first player in postseason history to have a double and a triple by the end of the 2nd inning. He was also the first Cardinals batter to have both hits IN Atlanta, at any point in the game, since Tino Martinez did it on August 3, 2002. And of course St Louis rolled to a 13-1 win, matching its largest victory and setting the Braves' largest defeat in any postseason game. That "1" at least belonged to Josh Donaldson, who connected for a solo homer in the 4th inning. He's only the third player in postseason history to homer when trailing by 13 or more, and the first who didn't do it against Tom Gordon. Flash gave up two homers, to Cleveland's Wil Cordero and Scott Brosius of the Yankees, in different rounds of the 1999 playoffs.


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Swept Under The Rug

There's another old sports saying that goes, "offense wins games, defense wins championships". So you know how everyone spent the entire season fawning over the Twins hitting 5 or 6 homers a game, followed not too long thereafter by the Yankees doing likewise? The race to see which team would set the record for homers in a season literally came down to the last day, ending with the Twins hitting 307 and the Yankees 306. And to boot, neither team is blessed with a true overpowering strikeout ace the likes of a Schezer or Verlander or Cole or Flaherty. So when these two hooked up in the final Division Series, you weren't wrong to expect a bunch of 13-12 games with 9 homers and 12 pitching changes and 4-hour game times.

At least you got the 4-hour game times. The series that should have had all the fireworks ended up being mostly a dud, especially on the Minnesota side of things. Oh sure, it looked promising-- and like it would live up to the homer hype-- for the first couple innings when Jorge Polanco and Nelson Cruz both took James Paxton deep. But ultimately it wouldn't be the Yankees' homer machine that steamrolled the Twins in Game 1, it would be their unheralded doubles machine. While the Yankees were busy becoming just the second team in the past 55 years to collect more four-baggers than two-baggers, their total of 290 was good enough for 14th place in their 117-season history, and it especially helps when they hit three of them with runners in scoring position. Which Edwin Encarnacion did to open the scoring in the 3rd, before yet another wacky run-scoring error, this one when C.J. Cron dropped an inning-ending double play (yes, you actually CAN assume it if the error is on the catch) and the ball got far enough away for two runs to score.

Oh sure, Polanco briefly tied it back up with am RBI single in the 5th, but then up steps the clear (unofficial) MVP of the series, Gleyber Torres, to unleash the game's first bases-loaded double, and the fourth in Yankees history to take the lead in the 5th or later of a postseason contest. Derek Jeter (2004), Don Mattingly (1995), and Johnny Lindell (1947) had the others. When DJ LeMahieu also hit a bases-loaded double in the 7th to provide the final 10-4 margin, it was the first postseason game in Yankees history where they'd done it twice. LeMahieu had also hit a solo homer in the 6th, joining Johnny Damon (2007) and Hank Bauer (1958) as the only Yankees leadoff batters with 3 hits and 4 RBIs in a postseason game. "DJLM" also had three such games during the regular season and is the first player in Yankees history to do it four times in a year.

Those two early homers paved the way for Paxton to have an early exit, getting yanked one out shy of that magical (and completely arbitrary, can-we-get-rid-of-this-rule-please) 5-inning requirement to qualify for the win. His 86 pitches did include 8 strikeouts, eerily similar to his start at Fenway on July 26 where he struck out 8, gave up 2 homers, and didn't finish the 5th. He's the first pitcher in Yankees history to have two such starts, in the same season or otherwise. And there was one bright note for the "Bomba Squad" when Miguel Sano went yard in the 6th. While not off Paxton, that was the Twins' third homer of the day. And would you believe that was the first time in Twins/Senators postseason history that they'd hit 3 homers in a game? You could look it up. Since the Blue Jays did it in the 2015 ALDS, the Twins had been the last remaining active franchise never to have such a game. The 15th of the "original 16" teams to get off the list had been the White Sox in 2005.

There are many managerial strategies at play in the postseason, sometimes throwing right out the window what has worked all year, and whether you stick with the starters or try one of these "bullpen days" has certainly produced mixed results in this post so far. Enter Randy Dobnak, the undrafted free agent who signed with the Twins in 2017 and only made his major-league debut on August 9. A double play helped him work around a leadoff double by LeMahieu, the first one the Yankees had hit in the postseason since Derek Jeter off Baltimore's Rocky Coppinger in 1996. But there would be no double plays in the 3rd. In fact there wouldn't even be one out as Dobnak started the frame with two singles and a walk before being replaced by Tyler Duffey. Who not only allowed all three of Dobnak's runs to score, he reloaded the bases himself before Didi Gregorius settled this game with a grand slam to make it 7-0. It was the 12th slam in Yankees postseason history (previous by Robinson Cano in 2011 ALDS), but it was also the third of "Sir Didi"'s career against the Twins. The only other Yankees ever to hit three slams against the Twins/Senators franchise are Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig (six).

That 7-run 3rd marked the 13th game this season where the Yankees had a 6-run inning (or more), topping Arizona for most in the majors. It also allowed them to cruise to an 8-2 win and a 2-0 series lead, with Dobnak and Duffey responsible for all eight of those runs. They are the first teammates in Twins/Sens postseason history to each give up 4 runs while getting no more than 6 outs in the same game, and Dobnak is the team's first starter to do that at Yankee Stadium since Glen Perkins on May 18, 2009.

At least Game 3 isn't at Yankee Stadium. It's back at Target Field, the first postseason game there since its inaugural season, and 9 years later to the day. Even the opponent is the same. Unfortunately so is the result, a 16th straight postseason loss to extend the Twins' own MLB record and match the 1970s Chicago Blackhawks for the longest postseason losing streak in any of the four major U.S. sports. Unlike the other series, this one ended without any drama, with the Yankees taking the "bullpen" approach and needing six pitchers to only give up 1 run. (Chad Green, the "winner", only got 4 outs.) The offensive side was led by Gleyber Torres, who started the scoring with a solo homer in the 2nd, then doubled and scored in both the 7th and 9th for the final score of 5-1. At not-quite-23, he's the youngest Yankees batter with 3 extra-base hits and a stolen base in a game since Joe DiMaggio on July 18, 1937, and the first of any age to do it in Minnesota (any stadium). Tack on the 3 runs scored, and only four players in postseason history have done that in a game: Carl Crawford (2008), Len Dykstra (1993), and Pirates Hall-Of-Famer Max Carey (1925).



And by the way, if it seems like you've been watching baseball every night, it's because you have. We didn't count the regular seasons that have extended into October, but given that the League Championship Series must both go at least 4 games, there will be at least one postseason game every night from October 1 through and including the 16th. And that's only happened three other times in MLB history: 2003 and 2011 had their first October off-day on the 17th, while the 2013 campaign extended that streak 3 more days before its first break on the 20th. Play on!