2022 Baseball Post-Season

[Mister Tee]

Any comments on the extra inning rule?

Hate it.

Ditto.

[danfrank]

Any comments on the extra inning rule?

Hate it.

[Okri]

Any comments on the extra inning rule?

[danfrank]

Yep, it was ridiculous to consider anyone but Judge for the MVP after THAT season. It was well beyond well-deserved.

As for his free agency the Giants say that they’re all in (though they would need to add some other parts to protect him), but it’s hard to imagine the Yankees letting him go, and hard to imagine Judge not wanting to stay after his great success with the storied franchise that is the Yankees. You never know, though.

[Mister Tee]

Well, one postscript: Aaron Judge won a much-deserved MVP prize on Thursday. ESPN and the baseball powers-that-be tried to promote "it's so close/how can you decide?" between him and Ohtani, but only two LA beat writers fell for that, and Judge romped. (No diminution of Ohtani's remarkable stature, but, had he won this year vs. one of the greatest seasons of our lifetimes, it would have been conceding him the prize as long as he does his unique double act.)

Now, the agonizing suspense over whether Judge remains a Yankee. I can't believe Hal Steinbrenner could be myopic enough to let him go under any circumstance, but, till it happens, I'll live in trembling fear.

[Mister Tee]

Well, that's done.

The Phillies had a moment of hope, when Kyle Schwarber hit a 6th inning home run that broke a scoreless tie. It didn't take long for the team to be set straight: in the bottom of that same inning, Zach Wheeler, who'd been pitching exceedingly well, hit the leadoff man; it was followed by a ground ball that was close to a double play, but just eluded the shortstop, setting up 1st and 3rd; and then, the coup de grace, a 3-run shot from Alvarez. In Warner Wolf's old phrase, You could have turned your sets off there.

I didn't really stick around for the end. myself; started watching a DVR-d movie, content to follow the dreary end moments on the ESPN web site. The Cheaters win. I guess I can be grateful they were denied till a full season after their scandal -- though it's hard to think of them as having ever really been punished.

The other bright side is, at least at the end of this pretty-crazy post-season, one of the better teams in baseball won. (That's the real shame of the Astros: they were a very good team, who didn't need to cheat to win.) Had the 87-win Phillies prevailed, in the wake of the similarly inferior Nationals and Braves in recent seasons, the World Championship would have begun to feel like a random thing. The '16 Cubs and '18 Red Sox are the only winners of recent vintage to be actually the best team in the sport. But, in a year when a 111-win team fell in the first round, and two other 101-win teams were also knocked out early, the Astros 105 wins are a signal that the better teams aren't completely at the whim of fate.

As for Dusty Baker...he seems like a good guy, and I'd like to be happy for him. But I can't help feeling hiring him was using that reputation to put lipstick on the pig of the scandal, and I find it a bit disheartening the move succeeded.

When does Spring training start?

[danfrank]

I care only to the extent that this means that Dusty Baker will now likely get that ever-elusive World Series title. He came oh-so-close in 2002, when the Giants, in game 6, were 9 outs away from clinching the title with a 5-run lead. They infamously imploded and lost that game, and game 7 to boot.

I’m not a fan of the Astros, but will feel good for Dusty. If the Astros implode and lose the final two at home, then we’ll know for sure that Dusty is cursed beyond redemption.

[Mister Tee]

Quick update prior to possibly the last baseball game of the year:

The two teams played a tight game Thursday night. The Astros led 2-1 by middle innings; extended it to 3-1 in the 8th, so a Phillies bottom of the 8th score brought it to only 3-2 (Astro reliever Pressley got a key strikeout with a man at 3rd and only 1 out). In the bottom of the 9th, Realmuto hit what looked like possibly the game-tying home run, at minimum a double, but centerfielder McCormick made a leaping catch at the top of the wall. With 2 outs, Pressley clearly wasn't giving Harper anything to hit -- he ended up hitting him on the foot, right about where all his other out-of-the-zone pitches were aimed -- and settled for getting Castellanos for the final out.

Some people care about all this.

[Mister Tee]

A no-hitter ought to be exciting news; one in post-season -- a super-rarity -- ought to be that much more. But I can't get worked up over a no-hitter that used 4 pitchers to bring itself about. Christian Javier was untouchable, two walks his only base runners through 6 innings. But he was at 97 pitches, and that was that: the standard parade of Houston relievers finished off the game.

It did, of course, tie the Series at 2 games, which is important. But the game was, like last night's, lacking in drama. Aaron Nola was an improvement over Game 1 -- holding the Astros scoreless for 4 innings -- but, when he gave up hits to the first 3 hitters in the 5th, manager Rob Thompson replaced him with Alvarado. This turned out out a colossal miscalculation, as Alvarado not only let all 3 runners score, he tossed in 2 more of his own in that one inning. The 5 runs were the only action from Houston all night, but more than enough when the Phillies just couldn't reach base.

Best of 3, now, with the (on-paper) better team having the chance to win, back in their home park. The last game of the year in Philly tomorrow night..

[Mister Tee]

Not much of a game tonight. Bryce Harper hit a 2-run homer in the first, and it was just one of 5 home runs the Phillies hit off Lance McCullers Jr. by the 5th inning. Meantime, Ranger Suarez -- last seen as one of the bullpen pieces who helped the Phils win Game 1 -- held the Astros scoreless for 5 innings. His successors did the same over the last 4 innings, and the Phils won in a blowout, 7-0...the Astros' worst defeat this post-season.

The Phillies' offense has just been on fire since the regular season ended, and, for the moment, it doesn't appear to matter how good the opposition pitching is.

[danfrank]

I have a friend from Philadelphia who’s excited, but other than that, very little buzz. Apparently the ratings are up slightly, but it’s been a very low bar in recent years. I know the Phillies diaspora is pretty large and wide: tons of their obnoxious fans show up in SF when the Phillies are in town. Houston has a huge population. But, other than their own fans I think there is a lot of shrugging of shoulders.

[Mister Tee]

Before the series resumes tonight, a quick word on Game 2:

Once again, the Astros came out swinging. Zach Wheeler seemed off-balance to start, surrendering several ringing doubles before getting an out, and ended the first inning down 3-0. (It should only have been 2-0, but the Phillies botched a potential inning-ending groundout.) He settled down for a while, but, in the 5th, Bregman hit one out that brought the score to 5-0, same as the lead from Friday night.

The Phils did a decent job of driving up Framber Valdez's pitch count, knocking him from the mound with 1 out in the 7th, and, as the night before, managed some traffic against the Houston bullpen. This time, though, the rallies were cut short --the 2 runs they put across weren't enough to offset the early Astro advantage.

So, the series moves to Philadelphia tied at 1. Are there people truly following this with interest? No one I talk to (and I have non-Yankee-fan friends) seems to give a damn.

[Mister Tee]

Since the baseball season I most care about is over, I was more interested in starting to drain my DVR last night than following the game...but I looked in at sporadic intervals. When, in the early going, I managed to catch both of Tucker's home runs -- the second of which moved the Astros to that 5-run lead -- I congratulated myself on not giving my full attention.

I must admit, though, it amused me to hear John Smoltz gush over the greatness of Jason Verlander, just as Verlander was about to throw away all of that lead. The Phillies have, for some reason, turned into an offensive juggernaut in post-season, and, as dan documents, they tied the game in what felt like the blink of an eye.

The Phillie bullpen was a major team drawback in regular season -- back in May, they lost a game to the Mets after taking a 7-run lead into the 9th -- but, as dan says, on this night, they held Houston down, pushing the game to the 10th inning, where Realmuto hit what turned into the game-winning home run.

Two things, in response to dan's commentary:

David Robertson was dubbed Houdini back in his Yankee days, for his uncanny ability to work his way out of jams he'd created himself. So, it didn't exactly surprise me me made it scary, nor that he escaped in the end.

I was flabbergasted to hear the dugout interview after the home run. I can't imagine the players like it one bit -- the game is still in the balance; save the self-back-pat for after the final out. I guess these are the things networks think enhance interest among The Youths. We're lucky we haven't yet seen in-game congratulatory tweets scrawling across the bottom of the screen.

This is only one game, and the Astros can certainly still win the series, even comfortably. But it feels like they might be set back on their heels by this. We'll see.

If the 87-win Phillies take home the trophy, I think it might be time to ponder if the expanded playoffs are a poor fit for the sport, if the goal is to truly identify the best team. The Phils would be the 3rd team in 4 years to have barely qualified for the playoffs by regular season record, and then gone on to hold the trophy aloft. The 2018 Red Sox and 2016 Cubs are the only recent championship winners that truly felt like they were the best team out there, and many teams with great records haven't even made it to the Series. The NBA's home-field advantage generally seems to aid the better teams in the playoffs, and even the NFL doesn't have the consistent trend of lower-tier teams winning the Super Bowl.

It's not as if similar upsets never happened in baseball's tighter-qualifying years: the '54 Giants topped the 111-win Cleveland team; the '73 Mets bumped the vastly superior Reds for the NL pennant; the '88 Dodgers shouldn't have beat either the Mets or A's that year. But it seems like multiple rounds of playoffs have created a system beyond parity -- to the point where season-record is barely relevant; where each series is strictly a coin-flip. I'm not sure that's good for the sport in the long run.

[danfrank]

Like Tee, I’m not intrigued by this World Series matchup. It’s hard to argue, however, that last night’s inaugural was not an intriguing game.

The Astros started out convincingly playing the part of the heavy favorite on their home turf: 5 runs in the first two innings, potential Cy Young winner Justin Verlander on the mound pitching perfectly through the first three. But then the Phillies, who barely squeaked into the postseason, went off script, getting to Verlander in the 4th and 5th and tying up the game.

It was entirely a bullpen game after that, and the Phillies relievers somehow held ground with the mighty Astros pen, and it stayed tied through nine. The Phillies, having gotten past the Astros most daunting relievers, had a chance in the 10th and cashed in with a right field blast by JT Realmundo (side note: I can’t believe that they’re allowing TV crews to interview an ACTIVE player in the dugout during the friggin game!) The Astros made it tense in the bottom of the 10th, getting runners on 2nd and 3rd, but reliever David Robertson somehow escaped, and the underdog Phillies prevailed.

So, it’s looking like the Phillies could be yet another wild card team to win a World Series. I wouldn’t count out the Astros, however. They’re too good a team to lie down, I’m fairly sure. They may, though, carry the curse of Dusty Baker, the winningest manager in MLB history without a World Series win. All will be revealed.

[Mister Tee]

So, yeah...this season has lost all its zing for me. The cheaters will now play the worst qualifying team in the NL. I'll probably break down at some point and look in, but I can't remember the last time my interest in a World Series was this low -- maybe 2013, Red Sox vs. the won-too-often Cardinals.

The League Championship series didn't exactly tee things up, as both ended way too quickly, in 5 and 4 games, respectively.

The Padres looked as if they were going to push to a Game 6, taking a lead into the 8th with their prime relievers lined up to finish out the match. But Bryce Harper shocked Suarez with a 2-run homer. The Phillies' David Robertson tried to make the 9th interesting, walking two batters (he's lucky it wasn't 3, as the lead-off guy was called out on a questionable 3-2 pitch). With 2 on/1 out, the Phillies inexplicably bunted the runners over -- the batter claimed to be bunting for a hit, but, even so, a low-percentage play in that situation. The Padre Nola brother then flew out on his first pitch, and the Phillies had their 8th NL pennant. (Which is rather few over 120 or so years, so, props to them, I guess.)

After the 3-hit embarrassment of Game 3, the Yankees came out swinging last night, scoring 3 runs in the first two innings. Unfortunately, stalwart Nestor Cortes yielded a game-tying homer, and then had to be pulled with a groin injury right after. The Astros, in fact, went ahead 4-3, but the Yankees showed some grit: tying the game on a Rizzo hit, then going ahead on yet another home run from still-new-Yankee Harrison Bader. The team had their prime relievers ready to throw two-plus innings apiece to nail down the win.

Which only made the reversal that much more cruel. Altuve was said to reach on a play at first that could as easily have been called an out, and that was, basically, the game and series -- since, rather than just going for the third out with Pena's subsequent ground ball, Gleyber threw to shortstop IKF to start the double play, and it got past him (the throw wasn't great, but a top-notch shortstop -- which, fans have been screaming for months, IKF is not -- at least gets one out). Both runners were safe, and, inevitably, two singles then drove in the tying and go-ahead runs -- the score by which the Astros were victorious.

A four-game sweep always looks like a annihilation, and, as a Yankee fan, I'm viewed as untrustworthy on the issue...but I'll always believe this series was considerably closer than the won-loss result suggests. A single, tissue-thin change in both Games 2 and 4, and it's a 2-2 series. I'll also always believe this team deserved better from its exciting season than this flat finale. (Something the Dodgers, Mets and Braves no doubt also feel.) But this is the baseball world in which we live, and, unlike, say, a Republican candidate, I'm forced to accept the outcome, no matter how little I like it.