2021 Baseball Post-Season

[danfrank]

I suppose a 1-0 is offensively “anemic,” but another way to look at it is powerful in its pitching and defense, and incredibly exciting. I love a tight and low-scoring game personally, where any single pitch, any single stroke of the bat, or any single defensive maneuver can make or break the game.

It was a weird night at Dodger Stadium with very low humidity and very gusty winds. perfect conditions for starting and/or spreading wildfires, which is why California power companies intentionally shut off electricity to vulnerable parts of California yesterday. Scherzer looked shakey in the first (nearly blown off the mound at one point, reminiscent of Giant Attlee Hammaker getting blown off the mound at Candelstick during the 1983 All Star game) but then pitched beautifully through seven innings. His one run was via the home run of Evan Longoria, who had been in a miserable slump. Former Dodger pitcher Alex Wood also did very well against his former teammates. Gabe Kapler pulled him a bit earlier than I thought necessary. Kapler, though, seemed to have a master plan in which he used his bullpen much differently than he had during the regular season. The Giants pitched their second shutout against the offensively potent Dodgers in three games. Parenthetically Buster Posey has now caught 14 postseason shutouts (Yadi Molina is next on the all-time list with 8, followed by the 7 of Yogi Berra, who played in an era with fewer postseason opportunities).

Brandon Crawford’s leaping snag of Mookie Betts’ liner in the 7th was an absolute gem among several fine defensive plays in the game. Coming off the bat it looked like an absolute hit, which would have scored at least one run. The Dodgers looked like they might tie the game again in the bottom of the 9th with two out when Gavin Lux hit a long drive to left-center. On any other night that likely would have been out, but the wind gods were apparently favoring the Giants. A great game.

I am sorely disappointed that the Rays lost to the Red Sox. Ugh.

[Sonic Youth]

I guess I see a difference between a ball that, say, caroms off a first baseman and into the dugout or stands, and a ball that has already had contact with something else (the outfield wall) and bounces back to hit the fielder. It just seems to me that, at that point, it's a ball in play, not subject to arbitrary grounds-rules. But obviously the rule book differs.

Oh, don't get me wrong. The rule stinks. I guess I don't see it as arbitrary, though. A batted ball remains a batted ball until a fielder purposefully makes contact. It was followed correctly. I guess I'm a little surprised that this is what people are outraged over while completely forgetting how Schwerber deliberately interfered with Arozarena earlier in the game.

[Mister Tee]

Renfroe (unintentionally) acted as a fielder, had a bonehead result, yet somehow his team benefited from it. How is such a play different from a ball going into the dugout after a fielder's touched it? -- there, the offensive team is awarded 2 bases from the moment the play happens, not from when the batter leaves home plate. This seems like a rule that might bear re-examination over the winter.

Assuming the rule wasn't incorrectly applied in that case, the answer may be in your parenthesis. Did Fielder X act intentionally as a fielder when the ball went into the dugout? The only time I remember seeing such a thing happen was because of a poorly thrown ball. I don't remember seeing plays similar to the one from last night, where a ball gets knocked into the dugout by a hapless fielder.

I guess I see a difference between a ball that, say, caroms off a first baseman and into the dugout or stands, and a ball that has already had contact with something else (the outfield wall) and bounces back to hit the fielder. It just seems to me that, at that point, it's a ball in play, not subject to arbitrary grounds-rules. But obviously the rule book differs.

As for today -- it turned out to be only a three-game day, Chicago having apparently been hit with rain and/or tornados.

Atlanta/Milwaukee continued to be the austerity series -- only 9 runs scored in the entire three games, with the winning team's runs limited to a mere four innings over that span. The Brewers had appalling luck with 2nd & 3rd/no outs -- one line drive after another either fell just foul, or found a fielder's glove. The Braves, by contrast, put two men on and a home run accounted for all 3 runs in the 3-0 game. Braves can win it tomorrow.

The Rays began as if they'd given up on their season, surrendering a five-spot in the 3rd...but they crept back, bit by bit, and tied it in the 8th. But even as they tied it, they lost it: they had it to 5-all with a man on 2nd, no outs -- yet couldn't get that go-ahead run across. And Boston, as yesterday, had the home team's advantage in sudden-death situations -- they scored the series-winning run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 9th. Run differential says the Rays are 13 games better than Boston, but they're going home, and the Sox move on. Proving the post-season is a capricious thing -- sometimes determining who's luckier rather than who's best.

Giants/Dodgers was another anemic-offense affair. It's hard to say who outpitched who -- Scherzer allowed 1 run (on a Longoria homer) but went 7 full innings. Wood, by contrast, was gone before the end of the 5th, but kept the Dodgers off the scoreboard, and his successors managed the same. There were a lot of great defensive plays, none more important than Brandon Crawford's leaping grab on Mookie Betts' liner with two on in the 7th -- when it left the bat, my thought was, That ties it, but Crawford held on, and the last real Dodger threat was past. Newbie Doval got the last six outs -- the final one got the announcers all excited, but it died before the warning track.

So...the best the Dodgers can hope for is to go back to SF, a scenario the Giants hope to abort tomorrow. I thank the Giants for giving at least one of my rooting interests a win (the way things were going, I counted myself grateful the White Sox were rained out). Three more games tomorrow, all of which could psell an end to a series. Onward.

[Sonic Youth]

Renfroe (unintentionally) acted as a fielder, had a bonehead result, yet somehow his team benefited from it. How is such a play different from a ball going into the dugout after a fielder's touched it? -- there, the offensive team is awarded 2 bases from the moment the play happens, not from when the batter leaves home plate. This seems like a rule that might bear re-examination over the winter.

Assuming the rule wasn't incorrectly applied in that case, the answer may be in your parenthesis. Did Fielder X act intentionally as a fielder when the ball went into the dugout? The only time I remember seeing such a thing happen was because of a poorly thrown ball. I don't remember seeing plays similar to the one from last night, where a ball gets knocked into the dugout by a hapless fielder.

[Mister Tee]

Thanks to teams avoiding sweeps, today will be another four-games days -- though I wonder if, taken together, they'll feel as long as yesterday's two AL matches. After the austerity of the Brewers/Braves series, it was startling to watch the AL play loud, boisterous matches, often flexing offensive muscle and turning on wildly controversial umpire rulings. The two games together ran somewhere from 9 to 10 hours. It's almost as if the two leagues play a different brand of baseball.

The Rays/Red Sox match-up started low-key enough, with the Sox taking a 4-2 lead fairly early, and holding it till the 8th. The Rays tied it with a home run and then a clutch 2-out Arozarena single (just after the previous batter had struck out with the key run on 3rd). This took us to extra innings, and it was refreshing to see such games played without the runner-at-2nd Manfred-ball rules. There were close plays in the 10th and 11th -- JD Martinez seemed to have won it with a blast to left-center, but the deepest part of the park foiled him; Margot had what seemed a clean stolen base, but overslid the bag and was tagged out in a replay-special.

This led to the first Official Lunatic Play of the post-season: with Yandy Diaz on 1st and 2 out, Kiermaier smashed a ball to right-center. It hit off the bottom of the fence, caromed back to hit Renfroe, then caromed off him, over the short wall. It seemed at first that Diaz had scored the long-sought go-ahead run -- but umpires, backed up by a rule I'm surprised was even on the books (what previous incident had led to its inclusion?), ruled it was a grounds-rule double, which sent Diaz back to 3rd. This seemed -- to the Rays, to many observers -- a ridiculous ruling: once Renfroe's body came in contact with the ball, it changed everything and should have been in-play. How could this be viewed the same as a ball that simply bounced off the grass into the stands? Renfroe (unintentionally) acted as a fielder, had a bonehead result, yet somehow his team benefited from it. How is such a play different from a ball going into the dugout after a fielder's touched it? -- there, the offensive team is awarded 2 bases from the moment the play happens, not from when the batter leaves home plate. This seems like a rule that might bear re-examination over the winter.

Regardless, it was 2nd &3rd/2outs, and a Zunino strikeout ended the threat. The Red Sox, unsurprisingly, used the reprieve to walk it off with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the inning. Some are going to say, well, 2 runs beats 1, they'd have won anyway -- but this overlooks the long-time baseball fact that the smallest element of a game affects all that follows...that one can never assume everything that follows would have come out the same. The post-game interviews certainly reflected this -- Vasquez, who hit that walk-off, was barely in the conversation; everyone was talking about the Kiermaier play. (It brought back memories of 1996, Joe Torre trying to get the press to note Bernie Williams' walk-off, when all anyone wanted to discuss was the Jeffrey Maier play.)

I think the Rays are a way better team than the Red Sox, but, as we see, strange things can happen in post-season -- the more games/rounds, the lower the chance the actual best team goes all the way.

The White Sox began their day as if they were anxious for their season to be mercifully ended -- they trailed Houston 5-1 after the top of the 3rd. But a 5-run bottom of the 3rd startled their fans (and the Astros) and put them in the lead. A short-lived lead -- Houston tied it immediately, top of 4th -- and one was envisioning another eventual Houston rout. But the Sox immediately took the lead again, on what appeared a bad umpire's call -- Grandal running WAY out of the baseline, causing a throw home to go astray -- and coming away with a 9-6 lead. At this point, people were taking bets on the final score -- 16-14 Houston, something in that range -- but, surprisingly, the Chicago bullpen went into lockdown mode, allowing not a single hit past that 4th inning, and, for good measure, scoring 3 put-away runs in the 8th. The game ended -- gloriously, for some of us -- with final batter Altuve serenaded "Cheater cheater!" by the full Chicago crowd.

Unless my memory fails, the White Sox rally from a 4 run deficit in an elimination game is not far off the record -- which danfrank could probably recall in agony, as it was his Giants' blowing a 5-run lead in Game 6 of the 2002 Series.

I'd guess this was just a stay of execution for the White Sox, but I did remember last night that the Houston manager is Dusty Baker, who has found an extraordinary number of painful ways to lose in post-season series. So, stay tuned.

[Mister Tee]

NL combatants brought each of the two series to a 1-1 tie -- fun for those who just want an interesting post-season, agony for those with a rooting interest.

The Braves/Brewers series remains pitching-dominated -- only 6 runs total in two games -- and today it was the Brewers' turn to run off to a 2-0 lead (augmented to 3 late)...plenty for Max Fried, who tossed 6 shutout innings. Atlanta relievers made it interesting -- the Brewers brought the tying run to the plate in each of the last three innings -- but the game ended 3-0, as the series moves back to Atlanta.

The Giants violated a prime Sabremetrics directive in the 2nd inning, intentionally walking the number 8 hitter to get to the pitcher, and they paid, with not only Urias but follow-up batter Mookie Betts driving in runs. The Giants responded with a sac fly in the bottom of the inning, and the score held at 2-1 until the 6th, when the Dodgers drove Gausman from the game, and rudely greeted replacement Leone with a walk and two doubles, good for a 6-1 lead. The Giants tried to rally, and did score a run in the bottom of the frame, but they were victimized by one great Dodger play, and then their own ineptitude, as Wilmer Flores ran into a third out at 3td base. Possibly no matter, as the Dodgers feasted on the Giants' bullpen in the 8th, making the game a 9-2 blowout in the end. No one truly expected this series to be easy -- though some, no doubt, hoped.

Today, we see if the White Sox have anything in them to make their series even respectable, and if the Rays can assert themselves as the powerhouse of the AL East, after their embarrassing showing the other night.

[Mister Tee]

My dad grew up in Illinois and was a big Cubs fan (though for some reason he worshipped Cardinal Stan Musial)

I don't think he was alone in that. Musial was one of the most widely-admired athletes of mid-century America. I've long heard stories that, when he played in Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds, fans of NY teams would cheer for him even as he was demolishing their teams on the field. He just seems to have been one of those rare "such a good guy and so talented I can't not root for him" people.

I said in my initial post, I was deeply shocked the Cub front office dissolved the team with its players still in prime years. I honestly don't know what they were thinking.

[FilmFan720]

I too am happy to see these wonderful players all succeed in the post-season (and one reason I am rooting for the Giants is merely my family's love of Kris Bryant). But man, what a brutal season. My love for the Ricketts is close to non-existent as it is, but the way that this team went from a strong first-place run in the early summer to the most brutal gutting of a team I remember in a matter of weeks hurt a lot. By the end, I lost most any interest in the team; even seeing some new players rise up to the challenge wasn't enough to keep me interested in what was done to the team.

[danfrank]

I know the Cubs were devastated this year. The Cubs are my second team so I was sad about it, too. My dad grew up in Illinois and was a big Cubs fan (though for some reason he worshipped Cardinal Stan Musial) and I lived a few blocks from Wrigley Field when I was in grad school. For me it’s good to see the former Cubs doing well. It adds a punctuation mark to that magical 2016 season. Besides the postseason success, all three of the Cubs superstars traded at the deadline hit homers in their first games with their new clubs. I truly hope that the Cubs won’t revert to “lovable losers” status for another century or even for several years. Smart teams are rebuilding faster than ever these days.

[FilmFan720]

By the way, Kris Bryant joins Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber in having hit home runs so far in the post-season. I presume the Cubs front office is taking pride in this.

Thanks for rubbing it in! Just the icing on the cake of a devastating season to be a Cubs fan....

[danfrank]

Off to a great start. Tee, remember the name Logan Webb. He’s only 24 and has all the appearances of becoming one of the great pitchers of his era. After a slightly shakey start this season he put up some of the best stats in the NL since about mid-May. He’s proven himself to be a big game pitcher as well: Besides last night’s gem (10 strikeouts, no walks, no runs against the potent Dodgers lineup) he also pitched game 162, which the Giants needed to clinch the Western division title. In addition to pitching great he hit a home run and scored 3 runs. No such offensive prowess last night but all we needed was for him to shut down the Dodgers, which he did with aplomb.

A few home runs was enough offensive production to do the trick. Posey, who gifted Webb with two early runs, almost became the first right-handed Giants batter to hit a home run directly into the bay. The two errors in the box score look bad for a team that prides itself on good defense, but this gem of a double play made up for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj4BvDcStH0

[Mister Tee]

I guess I've fallen down on the job a bit. I've been telling people the early Yankee exit has removed from me the burden of caring this year, but that of course has a double edge -- my interest in the first set of Division Series without my team since 2016 has left me in an unfamiliar, apathetic place. Thursday night, I grabbed the free Dune ticket with no concern over missing a key game. Today, I took at least an occasional look at all four (!) games. Brief summary:

I said upfront I was rooting futilely for the White Sox, and that's pretty much borne out. Lance Lynn had a good regular season, but, as I noted in my first post, much of the White Sox schedule was against lesser opposition, and the Astros had him gone in just a few innings. Things looked a bit more favorable for the Sox today -- they actually managed a 4-2 lead early on -- but the Astros disposed of their other top pitcher, Giolito, after only four innings, and unleashed a ton of firepower against the bullpen, running off to a 9-4 win and a 2-0 series lead.

The Tampa/Boston series began much the same, the Rays knocking out the first two Red Sox starters in the 3rd and 2nd innings, respectively. But, while the Rays held on for a 6-1 win in the first, their own pitching fell apart tonight, leading Boston to a 12-6 win. On paper, the Rays are WAY better than the Sox, and that may yet prove out, but tonight brought a sign that unexpected things can occasionally happen in post-season.

The best game of the day was played between the Braves and Brewers. Charlie Morton pitched one of his best post-season games, striking out 9 over 6 scoreless 3-hit innings. Unhappily for him, his opposite number, Corbin Burnes (not a familiar name, to me) was matching him zero for zero. Morton was removed from the game after hitting a batter in the 7th, and his replacement served up a 2-run homer to Tellez that ultimately won the game -- though Joc Pederson hit a solo shot and the Braves put two men on in the 9th, getting the tying run to 3rd before the final out was secured.

Finally -- and I hope danfrank's patience has not been taxed by my delay -- the Giants met the Dodgers tonight and the Giants continued their late season way of coming out on top. A 2-run home run from Buster Posey was all the scoring through the first 6, as pitcher Logan Webb (another name new to me) shut the Dodgers down. Late additional homers by Kris Bryant and Brandon Crawford made it an almost comfortable win in the end. Most people expect this series to be tight all the way, but the Giants have been confounding expectation all season, so who knows what to expect?

By the way, Kris Bryant joins Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber in having hit home runs so far in the post-season. I presume the Cubs front office is taking pride in this.

[Sabin]

This past year, I moved to Echo Park. I got my first place. It's on the other side of the Dodger Stadium. I mean this very close to literally. It's this tiny street heading up to the main road entrance. Dodger fans walk up my street to the game and stagger back drunk afterwards. I don't love it but there are a thousand other things that I love about where I live. It's hard to find an inspiring place to live in this city as housing prices shoot through the stratosphere.

There's a total Dodger bar across the street from me called The Douglas. I stopped in last night because they have a cheeseburger I can't stop thinking about and I had a stressful day. I went in and the game was playing. I opted to watch it because why not. I was filled in on the Wild Card game and what the Dodgers were up against. I had fun watching but at some point in the eighth or ninth inning it dawned on me: if they win, then the games are going to keep happening and Dodger fans are going to continue to storm my street. In that moment when everyone was cheering for the Dodgers, I bit my tongue, thinking to myself "Maybe they don't have to win! Maybe they can lose and I can stop checking my app every day to see if it's a home game." And then Chris Taylor pulled out the two run walk-off and that was it. The bar played "I Love L.A." on the loud-speakers, Dodger fans stormed the bar, and I watched the parade of boozy human traffic for a little while longer before going home.

Anyway, so that's my life now. After going forty years somehow managing to avoid sports like the plague, baseball has forcibly collided with my life. But to the point of my post, even though I am right in the middle of Dodger fandom I couldn't tell you anything about Dodger fandom. I'm not convinced these people wouldn't be just as happy getting drunk and doing something else. Maybe it’s because it’s a commuter stadium and not centralized.

Los Angeles just doesn't feel like a baseball town to me.

[danfrank]

Yes, I was aware of those two tiebreakers,another of which came close to occurring again this year. Since the stats count as part of the regular season I don’t consider them “playoff” games, but your point is well taken.

As far as hitters’ stats falling off, I know the advanced chemistry “sticky stuff” is a partial culprit, though that was allegedly remedied. Other factors must be in play. For Bellinger specifically his bat speed is just way off following shoulder surgery. He’s gone from one of the most feared hitters in the game to someone whose batting average is below a lot of pitchers. Even though he’s a Dodger, it’s sad.

[Mister Tee]

Bellinger, the recent MVP, batted a pathetic .165 this season. The Dodgers have kept him in the lineup despite being consistently bad for what, his defense (which is undeniably great)?

An untold story of this season is the number of players who seemed like superstars in recent seasons and dropped dramatically this year. I'm curious how many of them bounce back fully next year. My pulled-out-of-my-butt theory is that the weirdness of 2020 -- aborted Spring training, hurry-up start in August, short season -- affected some players' rhythms more seriously than others, and there could well have been carryover. I wouldn't make final judgments on anyone based on this 2-year stretch.

The Giants won the season series 10-9. This is a great rivalry going back well over a century. They have never played in the postseason, which of course wasn’t possible until the wild card era.

Of course, if you stretch "postseason" to include playoffs series when the teams end up tied, the teams have met twice like that, in 1951 and 1962. Remarkably, in both, the Giants came from behind in the 9th inning of a decisive game, which ought to be a good omen for you.

I'd say the results of the teams' September meetings (when a lot of folk expected the Giants to crumble, but they held firm) also bode well. But then I note that the Yankees swept two September series from the Red Sox, and we see how much that meant.