Let’s dive right into what happened over the weekend in the MLB playoffs.

ALDS

Texas Rangers vs. Toronto Blue Jays, Rangers lead series 2-1

Game 2: Cole Hamels (TEX) vs. Marcus Stroman (TOR) – Texas 6, Toronto 4 (14 innings)

Both pitchers gave up 4 runs through 7 innings on Friday, and the game went another 7 innings before the Rangers got to LaTroy Hawkins with a barrage of singles in the 14th to take a 2-0 series lead.

Game 3: Martín Pérez (TEX) vs. Marco Estrada (TOR) – Toronto 5, Texas 1

Troy Tulowitzki, who’d had a notably quiet postseason through two games, walked with the bases loaded in the 4th inning to give the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead on Sunday night.

With the score still 2-0 in the 6th, Tulo came up again with 2 out and 2 on. At this point, he was still 0-11 in the series. He amended that with a 3-run home run off Chi Chi Gonzalez to bust the game open and drive Toronto to its first win of the playoffs.

Next game: Today, Monday, 4:07 ET, in Texas. Derek Holland (TEX) vs. R.A. Dickey (TOR)

Houston Astros vs. Kansas City Royals, Astros lead series 2-1

Game 2: Scott Kazmir (HOU) vs. Johnny Cueto (KC) – Kansas City 5, Houston 4

The Astros, and especially Colby Rasmus, jumped on Cueto early. Rasmus drove in George Springer with a double in the 1st to give Houston a 1-0 lead.

Rasmus also hit a solo shot in the 3rd to bump the Astros’ lead to 3-1.

But the Royals eventually got to both Kazmir and the Astros’ bullpen, and Ben Zobrist drove in the game-winning run on a single in the 7th off Will Harris (he of the 1.90 regular season ERA).

Game 3: Dallas Keuchel (HOU) vs. Edinson Vólquez (KC) – Houston 4, Kansas City 2

Dallas Keuchel did Dallas Keuchel things against the Royals on Sunday afternoon, holding the Royals to a single run (on a Lorenzo Cain solo home run) over 7 innings.

Houston’s offense meanwhile, just did a better job of capitalizing on its baserunners than Kansas City. A 5th inning, 2-run single by catcher Jason Castro (in the 9-hole) gave the Astros a 2-1 lead, and they never looked back.

Next game: Today, Monday, 1:07 ET, in Houston. Lance McCullers (HOU) vs. Yordano Ventura (KC)

NLDS

Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals, series tied 1-1

Game 1: Jon Lester (CHC) vs. John Lackey (STL) – St. Louis 4, Chicago 0

Chicago mustered 3 hits (all singles) the entire game, and two of them were by Kyle Schwarber. After Lackey left (with 7.1 shutout innings under his belt), Kevin Siegrist and Trevor Rosenthal got each of the final five outs by way of the K.

The Cardinals manufactured a run early before getting to Lester in the 8th inning. Thomas Pham (5 home runs in 153 regular season at-bats) hit a solo shot to make it 2-0.

Lester walked Matt Carpenter before giving way to Pedro Strop, who didn’t exactly put out the fire – he gave up a two-run shot of his own to Stephen Piscotty, and that was all she wrote.

Game 2: Kyle Hendricks (CHC) vs. Jaime García (STL) – Chicago 6, St. Louis 3

Kyle Hendricks gave up a solo shot to Matt Carpenter in the 1st inning to start things off on a sour note for Chicago.

But he settled down for a few innings while, in the meantime, Jaime Garcia came completely unraveled for St. Louis. A would-be double play became a fielder’s choice and an error, and Garcia was looking at men on the corners with 1 out when Kyle Hendricks laid down a sacrifice bunt. It did not go well for the Cardinals.

It turns out that García had stomach problems that had started a couple nights before. I don’t blame him for playing poorly with poop in his pants, but it was pretty poor form to only tell Matheny about it an hour before the game started. Seeing the way the previous play had gone, Addison Russell also laid down a squeeze bunt with a runner at third, scoring another run. 2-1, Cubs.

An infield single later, Jorge Soler hit a 2-run home run to center to put Chicago up 5-1.

Hendricks, for his part, was fairly sharp, giving up only 4 hits. But 3 of those 4 hits were home runs, and when he gave up back-to-back shots in the 5th (to Wong and Grichuk), he got the early hook. Joe Maddon turned it over to former starters Travis Wood and Trevor Cahill to carry the Cubs to Hector Rondón in the 9th.

Next game: Tonight, Monday, 6:07 ET, in Chicago. Jake Arrieta (CHC) vs. Michael Wacha (STL)

New York Mets vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, series tied 1-1

Game 1: Jacob DeGrom (NYM) vs. Clayton Kershaw (LAD) – New York 3, Los Angeles 1

Clayton Kershaw continued his career legacy of being only okay in the playoffs, losing to New York to fall to 1-6 in his postseason career. He was cruising until he gave up a no-doubter solo home run to David Murphy in the 4th inning to break a scoreless tie.

But things really went downhill in the 7th, when he walked three batters and got pulled for righty reliever Pedro Báez. There were 2 outs at this point, and even though Kershaw was losing control, it feels like Mattingly made the wrong move. Because Pedro Báez is not as good as Clayton Kershaw, and Pedro Báez gave up a 2-run single to make it 3-0. Game, blouses.

Game 2: Noah Syndergaard (NYM) vs. Zack Greinke (LAD) – Los Angeles 5, New York 2

You’ve likely heard about this game by now because of the slide heard ’round the world. But before that, the Mets went up 2-0 in the 2nd inning on a pair of solo home runs off Zack Greinke.

Consecutive Dodger doubles to lead off the 4th inning cut the lead to 2-1. But the shit hit the fan for the Mets when Syndergaard (four walks on the night) walked Enrique Hernández with 1 out. He stole second and advanced to third on a single by Chase Utley (pinch-hitting for Greinke). Bartolo Colón came in to face Howie Kendrick, and you’re probably familiar with what happened next.

Not only did the tying run score, but the umpires eventually SOMEHOW awarded Chase Utley second base. He came around to score on an Adrian Gonzalez double, serving as the go-ahead run. The Mets did not recover. I think it’s pretty obvious that the umpiring crew got this about as wrong as they could’ve got it, and nobody paid the price worse than Ruben Tejada – Chase Utley broke his fibula on the play. What a scumbag. Not that I wanted to be his friend too much before, but I definitely don’t want to now. I’ll leave that to Mac.

Next game: Tonight, Monday, 8:37 ET, in New York. Matt Harvey (NYM) vs. Brett Anderson (LAD)

In what pretty much amounted to a replica of the previous night’s game, the Chicago Cubs pretty easily defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates last night, 4-0, to advance into the NLDS. They’ll play the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

Jake Arrieta was as unstoppable as ever. His game score (90) was his 3rd highest score of 2015, a year in which he has the lowest 2nd half ERA of all time.

PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Arrieta	9.0	4	0	0	0	11	0	0.00

His ERA since the All-Star break, including last night’s game, is now 0.70.

Kyle Schwarber and Dexter Fowler did all the necessary offensive damage. Fowler singled and stole second in the first before Schwarber singled him home. 1-0.

Fowler singled again in the 3rd, and Schwarber took Gerrit Cole out of the park to put the Cubs up 3-0 early.

And finally, Fowler hit a solo shot in his next at-bat in the 5th inning.

The Bucs only really made some noise against Arrieta in the bottom of the 6th. A leadoff single, a hit batsman, and an error by Addison Russell loaded the bases with 1 out. But Arrieta got Starling Marte to ground into a double play (started by Russell) to end the inning and the only Pittsburgh scoring threat of the game.

With 2 outs in the top of the 7th, Tony Watson plunked Arrieta on the butt with his first pitch to the Cubs starter. It was apparently in retaliation for Arrieta’s two hit batsmen earlier in the game (and perhaps for Chris Coghlan’s September slide into Jung Ho Kang at second base, ending Kang’s season). Watson pretty much owned up to it being intentional after the game. Anyway, tempers flared, as tempers do.

Sean Rodriguez took out his frustration on a Gatorade cooler in the dugout after getting into it with former Red Sox great and self-appointed Jon Lester mentor David Ross.

And that was pretty much it.

Red Sox spin: Apart from David Ross getting Rodriguez all riled up, former Red Sox stiff Mark Melancon continued to be one of the most reliable relievers in baseball with a 1-2-3 inning for the Pirates. Technically the last out was a hit by Russell, who got caught stretching for second, but whatever.

Jon Lester will take the mound against the Cardinals’ John Lackey in Game 1 on Friday night.

Today:

Texas Rangers (88-74) at Toronto Blue Jays (93-69) – 3:37 ET, Fox Sports One: Yovani Gallardo vs. David Price. Advantage, Toronto.

Houston Astros (86-76) at Kansas City Royals (95-67) – 7:37 ET, Fox Sports One: Collin McHugh vs. Yordano Ventura. I’m going with the Astros.