ALCS
Royals 14 Blue Jays 2, Royals lead Series 3-1
The Royals put a quick four on the board in the top of the first off of Blue Jays’ knuckleballer R.A. Dickey:
After going quiet for the middle third of the game, the Royals offense came back to life, and they just. kept. coming. They scored 14 runs on 15 hits — only two of which went for extra bases. You’re good at math so you know that means KC hit 13 singles, and they also drew 5 walks. That’s a whole lot of “keeping the line moving.”
Royals’ starter Chris Young went only 4.2 innings and allowed two runs, but that was enough given the strength and depth of their bullpen. Four relievers combined for 4.1 innings of shutout ball, topped off by old friend Franklin Morales in the 9th.
Kansas City has a chance to secure their second consecutive trip to the World Series starting this afternoon at 4 on FS1. Endison Volquez vs. Marco Estrada. This didn’t work out too well for Toronto the first time around.
NLCS
Mets 5 Cubs 2, Mets lead Series 3-0
This one was a little more exciting than the ALCS game. The Mets jumped on Cubs’ starter Kyle Hendricks right away thanks to a David Wright single and a Yoenis Cespedes double.
In the bottom of the first, the Cubbies evened things up on this opposite field job by Kyle Schwarber, which also set the Cubs franchise record for home runs in a single postseason.
That pitch is legitimately 10″ off the plate and up. Incredible display of power by the 22 year old.
Speaking of records and incredible, have you heard about this guy Daniel Murphy?
In the bottom of the 3rd he goes yard, giving the Mets a 2-1 lead and ties Carlos Beltran’s record of homering in five straight postseason games. He has six homers in eight postseason games.
Bottom 4 with the Cubs now trailing by a run, Jorge Soler absolutely cranks a 3-1 Jacob deGrom fastball out to right-center.
He must’ve been sitting middle-away because that is an absolutely gorgeous swing on a ball on the outer half. 2-2 ballgame.
deGrom had a similar outing to his Game 5 start against the Dodgers — a little shaky early but composed himself and turned in an impressive performance.
| PITCHERS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| deGrom (W, 1-0) | 7.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 2.57 |
In the top of the 6th, Cespedes hit a leadoff single, Duda sacrificed him over to second, d’Arnaud grounds out, but not before Cespedes swiped third with relative ease. This left Yoenis at third with two outs and Michael Conforto batting. Cubs’ pitcher Trevor Cahill struck him out on a nasty breaking ball in the dirt. Maybe a little too nasty:
New York would add a couple of insurance runs in the 7th, and guess who was in the middle of it all?
The poor Cubs. Obviously some of this damage was self-inflicted, but there were a couple of bad breaks mixed in there as well.
The Mets will go for the series sweep tonight at 8PM on TBS. Steven Matz vs. Jason Hammel. I’d say this one is a toss-up simply because the Cubs will use anyone and everyone out of the bullpen if Hammel gets into trouble.
The Mets will really want to take care of business in this game, because they could be looking at Lester in Game 5, Arrieta in Game 6, and be forced to play a Game 7, which is always a crapshoot.