Look at that goddamn hair. So impressive. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)
New York Mets vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, Mets win series 3-2
Game 5: Jacob deGrom (NYM) vs. Zack Greinke (LAD) – New York 3, Los Angeles 2
To everyone’s relief, I’m sure, the Mets squeaked one out over the Dodgers last night, erasing any chance of L.A. riding Chase Utley’s cleat spikes to a World Series. Instead, Jacob deGrom invited his teammates to jump on his back, spread his mighty wings of hair, and flapped like his life depended on it.
Not really. Instead, Daniel Murphy (of all people) continued his torrid postseason pace by contributing to each of New York’s 3 runs. He started in the top of the 1st with a double to drive Curtis Granderson in from first base despite Zack Greinke otherwise striking out the side.
Unfortunately, deGrom looked pretty sloppy in his first inning of work, giving up 4 consecutive 1-out singles to put the Dodgers in front 2-1.
Also, quick sidenote: this has already been pointed out by people who are better and quicker on the uptake than I am, but Jacob deGrom and Taran Killam (from Saturday Night Live) have basically the same face.
Just thought I’d let you know. Anyway, now down 2-1, the Mets went in order until Murphy singled on the first pitch of the 4th inning and, in a move I haven’t seen since Little League, stole third on a walk when third base was left uncovered on the shift the Dodgers had on for Lucas Duda.
After a few tense if uneventful innings (playoff baseball at its best!), Murphy came to the plate again with 1 out in the 6th. He didn’t disappoint.
From there on, the Mets did more threatening to score than the Dodgers did – in fact, only Adrian Gonzalez reached base for Los Angeles on a 2-out, 7th inning walk drawn off newly minted reliever Noah Syndergaard.
It probably made victory a little sweeter for Mets fans when Chase Utley lined out against Jeurys Familia to start the 9th inning.
The playoffs are so fucking great.
League Championship Series
Toronto Blue Jays vs. Kansas City Royals
Tonight, Friday, 8:07 ET, in Kansas City. Marco Estrada (TOR) vs. Edinson Volquez (KC)
Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets
Tomorrow, Saturday, 8:07 ET, in New York. Jon Lester (CHC) vs. Matt Harvey (NYM)
Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals, Cubs win series 3-1
Game 4: Jason Hammel (CHC) vs. John Lackey (STL) – Chicago 6, St. Louis 4
Jason Hammel was immediately hittable in the 1st inning, giving up a single and a home run to start the game and put the Cubs in a 2-0 hole.
He ended up only giving Chicago 3+ innings of work, but he was scoreless from then on and proved to be the biggest offensive difference-maker of the night. A career .134 hitter, Hammel came to the plate with 2 on and 2 out in the 2nd, still down 2-0. He took the first pitch from John Lackey and sent it back up the middle for a run-scoring base hit.
This brought up Javier Baez (from the 9-hole!), who only hit a 3-run homer to give Chicago a 4-2 lead.
Lackey just didn’t have his Game 1 stuff, and he too was pulled after just 3 innings. He was taken out in favor of Adam Wainwright, who retired 6 consecutive batters.
In the meantime, the Cardinals got to Travis Wood and Trevor Cahill (mostly Cahill) in the 6th, but Jorge Soler prevented the Cardinals from taking the lead, holding them to a 2-run inning with a great throw home from right field. 4-4.
Wainwright was replaced in the bottom of the 6th by Kevin Siegrist, who was great in the regular season but less so in the playoffs (to the tune of a 9.00 ERA). He gave up two solo home runs – one by Anthony Rizzo with 2 outs in the 6th:
And an absolute moonshot by Kyle Schwarber to lead off the 7th:
That ball is still on top of the scoreboard. I’m serious. Cubs win! Cubs win!
New York Mets vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, series tied 2-2
Game 4: Steven Matz (NYM) vs. Clayton Kershaw (LAD) – Los Angeles 3, New York 1
Clayton Kershaw went 7 innings for only the second time in his postseason career in a shutdown effort against the Mets to keep LA’s World Series hopes alive. He did this on 3 days’ rest. The Mets, however, chose to bring out Steven Matz, who is a promising young starter but is not Jacob deGrom. We’ll find out tomorrow night whether New York made the right decision in saving deGrom for Game 5.
The Dodgers’ damage came all at once, and, like the Cubs-Cardinals game, was brought on by a single by a pitcher. With 1 out in the 3rd, Kershaw singled, and he was later forced out at second for what might’ve been the third out of the inning if Matz had taken care of business against a .153 career hitter. Instead, Matz gave up two more singles and a double with 2 outs, and the Dodgers grabbed a 3-0 lead.
Daniel Murphy hit a solo home run off Clayton Kershaw for the second time in this series in the 4th inning to give New York a little bit of life. It was also the Mets’ first hit of the game.
But it wasn’t enough, and the Mets offense only mustered two singles and two walks the rest of the way. Mets lose! Mets lose!
Next game: Tomorrow, Thursday, 8:07 ET, in Los Angeles. Jacob deGrom (NYM) vs. Zack Greinke (LAD)
Today’s slate:
Texas Rangers vs. Toronto Blue Jays, series tied 2-2
4:07 ET, in Toronto. Cole Hamels (TEX) vs. Marcus Stroman (TOR) – Live right now!
Houston Astros vs. Kansas City Royals, series tied 2-2
8:07 ET, in Kansas City. Collin McHugh (HOU) vs. Johnny Cueto (KC)
Arrieta vs. Wacha, Harvey vs. Anderson, and the Royals and Blue Jays both playing for their seasons. What a day.
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)
The one-game playoff will do this to a man. (ESPN Photo)
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.
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.
