2023 Baseball Post-Season

[Mister Tee]

So...yesterday was the day the 2023 post-season came to full life. Two games with late rallies that elated and crushed fans, depending on allegiance. An assurance that each Championship Series will go at least 6 games, a massive relief after the blink-or-you'll-miss-them earlier rounds. Bad blood/clubhouse poster material emerging from both series. The baseball that's been largely missing from October till now.

Two things I'll say in preface:

1) Enthusiasm for these developments varies widely. From my own perspective, one of yesterday's outcomes was thrilling, the other validated my "life is a theatre where all the worst people get the best seats". (I don't think I'm alone in that latter feeling, which I'll get to later.)

2) This was a day I was largely otherwise engaged -- going to see a friend's one-woman show in midtown. So I missed most of the first game, including all the reversals, and only joined the second in mid-innings.

I can't say I minded being AWOL for the grisly events of Game 1; even reading a recap was pretty devastating. From what I can reconstruct: the Astros took a 1st inning lead on a Bregman homer. The score stood at 1-0 till the bottom of the 5th, when Lowe hit a tying shot. The Astros retook the lead in the top of the 6th, but the Rangers more than offset that with a 3-run shot from Garcia off Verlander.

The 4-2 score held through the 7th and 8th, but a few things happened, in each half of the 8th, that, in retrospect, feel like they set up the finale. Chapman, relegated to set-up man these days, got the first two outs in the top, but then surrendered a double to Tucker. Bochy, presumable aware of Chapman's many post-season stumbles, quickly pulled him in favor of closer LeClerq, asking him for a 4-out save. LeClerq got Texas out of the inning with no issue.

In the bottom of the inning, after a walk, Abreu hit Garcia squarely. Given that Abreu's control is normally pretty good, Abreu -- and his teammates -- took this as payback for his earlier homer. Again, I didn't witness this, but, what I glean from reports, this led to a pretty extended on-field brouhaha. In the end, the Rangers didn't score in the inning (wasting a sac fly opportunity with a Jung strikeout); but LeClerq sat on the bench a long time -- something that's long been the bane of pitchers, relievers especially -- and, for many, it explains the ensuing event, one that could have been predicted by any fatalistic Yankee fan: a 3-run Altuve homer that crushed the Texas crowd/team and provided a 1-run lead.

Just to rub salt in the wound, the Rangers put their first two men on in the 9th, but their big boppers failed to come through -- though Semien, who's having a fairly dismal post-season, put a charge into one that had the ill fortune to land in the back-up shortstop's glove.

Reaction to the game broke along previously-established lines: Houston fans were all over Twitter waving their dicks around (including a few who think we should forgive and forget the buzzer, and lionize Altuve); while those who will always view the Astros as unpunished cheaters questioned anew whether there truly is a god. Everyone knows I'm in that second category, and I find I'm in rather broad company: a survey asking state residents which team they're rooting for found Texas denizens choosing Houston and all 49 others going with the Rangers. I'm not sure baseball is aware just how unpopular the Astro franchise is; how unhappy much of the fanbase will be if they repeat as champions this year. Granted, baseball did well enough during all those years the hated Yankees dominated the sport, but, there, the hatred sprang chiefly from the fact the team won too damn often, not because they were seen as crooked.

Anyway, a reminder, the series isn't over. It well COULD be, and, should Texas go quietly from here on, the take will no doubt be that the Astros crushed their spirit. But I can recall other devastating blows -- like the 2008 Rays blowing a 7-run lead in a potential clincher -- from which teams rebounded. We'll just have to see what happens.

The NLCS evening match-up seemed doomed to be an afterthought to the afternoon game, but the Diamondbacks had other ideas. As I said, I missed much of this game, as well, but to reconstruct from the box score: The Diamondbacks ran off to an early 2-0 lead, saw the game tied by the 5th, and surrendered the lead by 2 in the 6th on sloppy infield play. The teams traded runs in the 7th, meaning the Phillies entered the bottom of the 8th with a 5-3 lead. Aging Craig Kimbrel, who'd lost the previous day's game, gave up an instant double to Gurriel, and was lucky to survive a bullet to left off Longoria that found an outfielder's glove. He wasn't as fortunate with the next batter, as pinch-hitter Alek Thomas hit one into the pool beyond the centerfield wall. Rob Thomson left Kimbrel in despite the tie, and he did get two outs -- but, after a hit batsman put two on, he switched to Jose Alvarado. Moreno hit a solid single in the left field gap, and the Diamondbacks were in front. Paul Sewald allowed a double to Schwarber that got the Arizona crowd nervous, but otherwise struck out the side -- leaving Harper in the on-deck circle, to the home team's relief.

I enjoyed this one thoroughly -- first, because it ensures an interesting, drawn-out series, but also because Phillies fans have been feeling their oats a bit in excess of their achievements. (Some players were quoted as planning to clinch the series in AZ and jump into the pool to celebrate.) Yes, they got to the Series last year, and seemed headed there again -- but that doesn't fully wipe out finishing 14 games out of the division lead both years. They can use a touch of humility, and Arizona provided it, at least for two days.

A maximum of 10 more games this season. Hoping for a few more like these before it's all over.

[Mister Tee]

I've been remiss at keeping this current. Two days have passed since last update. In the interim, the two Texas teams played games in Arlington that each began with early Astro uprisings (3-0 in the first both Wednesday and yesterday). Both times, the Rangers hitters tried their best to make them into games regardless, but their bullpen let them down.

On Wednesday, wounded Max Scherzer turned out as iffy an idea as most had suspected, and Houston was off to a 5-0 lead before Cristian Javier gave up his first hit, in the 6th. However, that hit -- a Longoria single -- was instantly followed up with a Jung home run, so the stadium came a bit to life...only to be deflated when Texas relievers gave up 2 more runs in the 7th. Texas kept trying -- Jung hit another 2-run shot in the bottom of the 7th, the team scored another in the 8th, and they put the lead runner on in the 9th. But Jung couldn't be a hero three times over: he hit into a double play that ended the game 8-5.

Yesterday seemed like more of the same: Houston ran off to that 3-0 lead off Andrew Heaney (finally, a former Yankee I'm not sorry was let go), but Texas tied it by the 3rd, knocking out Houston starter Urquidy...only to give up a squelching 4 more runs in the 4th. That game was never competitive subsequently.

Texas, of course, never really felt like they should rampage past the defending champions -- even when they were up 2-0, I was reminded of a Roger Angell line after the '65 Twins took a similar lead in the World Series, that the 2-0 left them only slightly behind. (The Koufax/Drysdale Dodgers won that Series in 7.) So now it's best of 3 for a shot at the Series.

In between these two disappointing contests came, finally, an excellent game. The Phillies had come strutting into Arizona -- much of the press having dubbed them a team of destiny -- but couldn't do anything with Diamondback starter (and Spell-check demon) Pfaadt, who held them to 2 hits and no runs over 5 2/3 innings. There was much second-guessing when Torey Lovullo pulled Pfaadt after only 70 pitches, about which I'm ambivalent: yes, it was the old "two times only through the line-up" thing, but, on the other hand, Pfaadt is a rookie whose ERA on the year was 5.72, so maybe Lovullo felt they were pushing their luck as it was. Especially since Ranger Suarez had been having roughly the same results against the Arizona line-up, meaning the game was scoreless.

Those second=guessers screamed in vindication when Pfaadt's successors surrendered the game's first run in the 7th -- though it was hardly a blistering rally (walk, infield single, double play, wild pitch). And the D'backs quickly returned the favor in the bottom of the frame, on a Gurriel Jr. double. Arizona should have gone ahead there: Gurriel advanced to 3rd on a single with still no outs. But Emmanuel Rivera somehow managed to hit into a double-play with the infield in that also kept the runner at 3rd. This seemed an ill omen for the Diamondbacks.

Especially when Rivera came up in roughly the same prime situation in the 9th -- 2nd & 3rd, no outs -- and again failed to deliver: grounding the ball to 3rd, allowing the Phillies to nail Gurriel at the plate. Worse, the runner stayed at 2nd, meaning the sac fly opportunity was gone. Or would have been gone, had not Phillies pitcher Kimbrel walked the next batter, putting the game on the line again. Moot point, perhaps, as Marte looped a single to center that sent the home crowd away happy.

So, at least, after the dreariness of the early rounds, we have two series where both teams have shown up. Whether this leads to some ultimate truly-exciting games/showdowns is something we'll find out over the next several days.

[Mister Tee]

I didn't add anything after last night's game because I'm close to terminally bored by the entire post-season. Last night's final score -- 10-0 Phillies -- makes it look like the D'backs weren't even in the game, but that's being unfair to Arizona starter Kelly. He did, like his predecessor the night before, allow a 1st inning homer, and another in the 3rd, but he was still nursing just a 2-0 deficit going into the 6th. He allowed a 3rd homer there, and left with a man on base, but it was the Arizona relievers who let the game get out of hand: 8 Philadelphia runs scored in the 6th and 7th. It didn't make much difference, since Arizona couldn't make much happen at the plate, managing only 4 hits on the night, 3 of them singles.

A lot of people in the sporting press seem to be buying into Philadelphia-team of destiny-Bryce Harper is a god. There's no doubt the Phillie line-up is on a hot roll right now, but they can slow down as quickly as they emerge. Let's see what happens when the Diamondbacks return home.

[Mister Tee]

Two exceedingly similar games, as both leagues played today. In each, one team got off to an early start, scoring in the 1st, building up a decent lead by middle innings; also in each, the trailing team seemed less and less dead as the game wore on, bringing the game close by the end. But, also in each, the leading team's closer nailed the win down in the 9th.

The primary difference is, in one case -- the AL -- it was the visiting team that got ahead early to stay. The Rangers put across 4 runs in the top of the 1st, added one more later, and watched as, first Nate Eovaldi, then the Texas relievers let Houston crawl back in...though only so far. Eovaldi, in fact, probably saved the game in the 5th, when an infield error loaded the bases with no outs -- striking out Diaz and Altuve, and getting Bregman on a groundout to end the threat. Chapman gave up a home run to Alvarez in the 8th (a home run any Yankee fan could have predicted), meaning LeClerc had to manage a 4-out save. He had his issues in the 8th, walking two before getting the last out, but he got through the top of the Astro order in the 9th with no problem.

Houston thus travels to Arlington down 0-2, which may not be as dire as it sounds: the Astros, oddly, were a much better road team this year (they were several games below .500 at home, almost 20 games over on the road). But you'd certainly rather be Texas.

The Phillies looked like they were still riding the magic dust from the Division Series, starting the game off with home runs from its first two hitters (Schwarber and Harper); adding another from the unquenchable Castellanos; running to a 5-0 lead after 5, with Arizona held to just one 1st inning hit. A 2-run shot from Perdomo in the 6th awakened the visitors, and a walk plus Phillie infield error brought the tying run to the plate...but all the D'backs could get out of that was 1 on a sac fly. They did bring the tying run to the plate in the 9th, but a double play ended the game at 5-3.

It's hard to draw any long-term conclusions from this: once Arizona decided to show up, they looked perfectly equal to playing with the Philly squad. We'll just have to see how this one plays out.

[Mister Tee]

Well, at least the AL opener in the Championship series provided stalwart pitching, a memorable play, and, oh yeah, the Astros losing. If those things can keep happening, perhaps this post-season isn't beyond redemption.

The stalwart pitching was two-sided, actually. Verlander pitching creditably is at this point no surprise. He was touched up for a run in the 2nd, and surrendered a solo homer in the 5th, but he lasted into the 7th with just that, and did nothing to undercut his big-game-pitcher reputation. Tonight, though, he was opposed by Jordan Montgomery (please excuse Yankee fans sighing sadly), who didn't quite match him in length (lasting 1 out fewer) but topped him in result, holding the Astros scoreless the whole way. His biggest test was the 5th, when the Astros loaded the bases with two out, but he squelched that threat with a strikeout of Maldonado.

The play for the memory book came in the 8th, and was vaguely similar to the highlight-play from the Atlanta/Philly series. Texas pitcher Sborz had walked Altuve to start the frame, and Bochy brought in Chapman in relief (which got rather a different reaction from Yankee fans: expect-the-worst nervousness). Chapman served up a pitch to Bregman that looked to a whole lot of us like a game-tying home run. It was caught just at the wall by Ranger outfielder Carter. Altuve didn't replicate Harper's error from last week: he hustled back to 1st and got there in time. Unfortunately for him, the Rangers threw to second, and -- after a replay challenge -- it was determined that Altuve hadn't quite re-touched that base when beginning his retreat...so, he was every bit as doubled off as Harper had been. This play didn't end the game, but the remaining 4 outs seemed mere bookkeeping after such a blunder.

Of course, after the Harper/Castellanos turn-the-tables action in the Division Series, one hesitates to make sweeping pronouncements. Let's just say the Rangers got the series off to a good start, and will pick it up tomorrow afternoon.

[Mister Tee]

As forecast, I was unable to get aboard while out of town. I missed the finish of all Division Series contests, but not, honestly, much drama. The press did its best to turn the Atlanta/Philly clubhouse thing into old school rivalry -- and, to be fair, Harper/Castellanos, the sneered-at goats of Game 2, did end up being the comeback stars of Games 3-4 -- but it was pretty low-boil stuff by historical standards.

Meantime, the games were mostly without drama -- the Twins got to within 1 run late in their elimination game, but failed to put base runners aboard in the last two innings; the Dodgers managed a 7th inning rally in their finale to bring it to 4-2, but were quiet from there; the Braves, the most successful, got to 1st & 3rd/no out in the 9th, but neither runner budged from there.

Worse is the view from 30,000 feet. 5 of 6 division winners are gone prior to the Championship series; all 5 teams that won more than 90 games (a somewhat different 5) are also gone. That first group of losers went 2-14 in this round (one of the wins going to the team with its league's worst qualifying total); the second went 1-13. The only generally successful team that seems to be able to keep plowing through this current environment is the Astros -- which rather undercuts the old saw about Cheaters never prosper. And even they had a worse regular season than is their standard.

As dan notes, people are offering various explanations for all this, the "long layoffs hurt" theory getting the most credence just now. I think it's more a matter of, the more teams you let in, the greater the chance of upsets. And David vs. Goliath stops being an interesting story when David wins 60-70% of the time.

Those whose teams have made it through, naturally, see this different -- proclaiming their squads full of intestinal fortitude, and all that Knute Rockne stuff. You can't take away from them that they're winning. But it's starting to feel like one might just as well have drawn the playoff qualifiers' names out of hats, if regular season records are going to mean so little. The current system can only appeal to those who've long thought baseball needed to be more like hockey.

[danfrank]

I was at an event last night so wasn’t able to watch the final division series game this year. The Phillies just hit a bunch of homers this series, and that was that. Their free agent signings paid off for them in a big way.

The Phillies trailed the Braves by 14 games in the regular season and beat them in the playoffs. The Diamondbacks trailed the Dodgers by 16 games in the regular season and swept them. Of course the Phillies did the same thing to the Braves last year. Why are these seemingly lesser teams shining in the postseason? One theory is that the wild card teams have to play to win up through the end of the season, while division leaders with sizable leads become complacent and therefore aren’t in “game shape” come the postseason. I think there’s perhaps some truth to that, but perhaps a better answer is “that’s baseball.”

I suppose I will root for the Diamondbacks in the NLCS but with little enthusiasm. I wouldn’t bet on them, but who knows? We’re decidedly in an anyone-can-win era, which is both baffling and not very gratifying.

[danfrank]

So, the ALCS is now set. To my dismay, it’s two teams from Texas. Houston’s pitchers gave up just 3 hits tonight, and provided just enough offense to clinch it. The Astros and Rangers are managed by Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy, respectively, both among the top ten winningest managers of all time, both having their longest tenures with my Giants. I think Bochy is the better manager of the two, but of course the players have to produce. I’ll hold my nose and root for the Rangers partly for my love of “Boch” and partly because the Astros continue to need to be punished for their cheating ways. These two teams are division rivals with no love lost between them, so let’s hope for an intense series.

Not much to say about the Braves/Phillies game except that the Braves got spanked offensively. It’s difficult to overcome a 6-run inning, especially on the road, and the Braves weren’t up for it. I’ll hold out hope that the Braves can win the last two games and move on.

The Diamondbacks have surprised almost everybody and swept the Dodgers. We knew that the Dodgers’ starting pitchers were vulnerable after their starting staff was decimated, and indeed it proved to be the team’s Achilles heel. Almost unbelievably the three starters had a combined 4 and 2/3 innings among them. The most intriguing part of this game was the third inning. With the game scoreless, three Dbacks hit 3 solo home runs. The TV announcers mentioned that no team had ever hit 4 home runs in one inning in the postseason. With that cue Gabriel Moreno hit a long fly that went over the fence near the right field pole. The right field umpire, there in the postseason specifically to make these types of calls, called it fair. Moreno rounded the bases but had to return to bat as the call was overturned. Moreno then hit the next pitch for a no doubter that broke that record. The Dodgers made it interesting by scoring a couple runs in the 7th, but that mighty offense came up short once again. I’m not sure what to say about the Dodgers except that they seem to believe in their own postseason curse.

It’s another weird postseason, where seemingly anyone can win.

[Mister Tee]

Chairman Yogi's pronouncement, "It gets late early there," was all too true in terms of today's games. For one hopeful team, it also meant a most unexpected end to their season.

You rarely can say "The game was over in the first inning," but, after the Astros' top of the first today, it pretty much was. Altuve led off with a single. After a Bregman strikeout, Alvarez hit what could have been the inning-ending double play -- only Twin first baseman Kirilloff butchered the ball, leaving both runners safe, on 2nd and 3rd. A subsequent single only got one run home, but an Abreu home run silenced the home crowd but good.

The Twins, of course, could have got back into it, and they had their chances, putting multiple runners on in the 1st, 3rd and 5th. The problem was, all but one of those runners got on via walks or hit batsmen -- Houston pitcher Cristian Javier was obviously having control issues. When it came to getting hits (or even deep fly balls) to plate those runners, however, Twins batters failed miserably. As a fan, these are the sort of games that drive me wild -- the runs are right there to be picked up, if batters can just get one bloody hit at the right time. I think Javier might have been what's known as effectively wild: the same lack of control that put the runners on makes it hard for batters to time the pitcher well enough to put the ball in play. The result: along with the 5 walks and hit batsman, Javier surrendered only 1 hit over 5 innings, and 9 strikeouts helped keep all those runners stranded. Minnesota didn't do much better against the Astro bullpen -- though they did manage one face-saving run. Houston, meanwhile, tacked on, turning the game into a total laugher with a 3-run 9th that led to a 9-1 final.

So, Minnesota finds itself facing elimination tomorrow -- a situation Baltimore confronted today, and pretty much crumbled in the face of. For the second straight day, Texas put up a 5-spot in the 2nd inning (in this case adding to the single run Seager's 1st inning homer had provided), pretty much ending Oriole hopes for the season. One shouldn't overlook Nate Eovaldi, who threw 7 innings of 1-run ball and never let the Orioles get a whiff of comeback hope. Aroldis Chapman made things semi-interesting in the 8th by loading the bases (I don't care how hard Chapman throws: I'm happy to be rid of him), but Aaron Hicks failed to repeat his long-ball heroics from Monday, and the last Baltimore threat of the year went by the boards. Final: Texas 7, Baltimore 1.

Three AL East teams made the playoffs, and, among them, they won not a single game. Proving something or other.

Note: I'm departing tomorrow for a celebration of my mother's 95th birthday, which will keep me on the road till Sunday. I'll do my best to keep reporting in, but I may be more intermittent over this stretch just ahead.

AMENDING JUST ABOVE: I'm afraid I won't be able to post at all the remainder of this week. I don't lug my computer up to my parents', and whatever that glitch was (last Spring, or whenever) where we couldn't sign in using our time-honored passwords is apparently still affecting my Amazon Fire. I don't have the time to figure out how to fix it, so you'll have to do without my thoughts about the remainder of the Division Series.

[danfrank]

That play by Riley to get the double play really was phenomenal. I didn’t mind watching Bryce Harper, a heckuva player but not my favorite human being, do the walk of shame. Between that play and his go-ahead blast in the 8th Riley was the clear MVP of the game, overshadowing Wheeler’s terrific outing. Nice to have a truly exciting game. That game should pump up the Braves as they head to Philly.

And uh-oh, the Dodgers are in trouble. I said in an earlier post that the Diamondbacks have a good offense. What they really have is a few good hitters with overall so-so offense, and not particularly good pitching. They’re a terrific defensive team, but what they really have going for them is their ability to punch above their weight. They were in first place for a good stretch at the start of the season. Everybody said that they weren’t talented enough to stay at that pace, and indeed they did falter, but they did well enough at the end of the season to grab that wild card spot. Now they’ve won their first four games of the postseason and are poised to slay the behemoth Dodgers. I don’t see them going much further but if they could win two series, including beating the Dodgers, that would be a great season for them indeed.

[Mister Tee]

Foillow-up: the Dodgers did not, indeed, rally. They left two men on in the 5th; left them loaded in the 6th (though they did score 1 there, on an infield single). They got base runners in the 7th and 8th, but both were erased in double plays. The D'backs were pretty quiet after the 1st, adding only 1 more. But that was plenty. The Dodgers went down quietly in the 9th, and will head to Arizona down 0-2. For the second year in a row, they face the prospect of falling to a team that trailed them by double digits in their own division.

Back to the AL tomorrow.

[Mister Tee]

Interim post to note that we finally got a game worthy of the post-season in Atlanta this afternoon/evening.

I'm not sure what to-do list the Braves drew up as a way to bounce back from their Game 1 loss, but I daresay "Be no-hit by Zach Wheeler into the 6th" wasn't on it. The Phillies weren't exactly an offensive powerhouse themselves -- they had ten base runners in just 4 innings against a laboring Max Fried, yet somehow only scored 3 runs -- but it didn't seem that'd matter, as the Atlanta scoreless streak stretch to 14 innings. Even their first activity, in the 6th, wasn't much of a confidence booster: Acuna Jr. walked, and scored on Albies' no-hitter-breaking single only because the Phillies outfield botched the play in multiple ways.

That did, though, seem to open the floodgates, as, in the 7th, the Braves scored 2 on a d'Arnaud home run, and, in the 8th, Austin Riley somehow one-handed a pitch out of the park for a 2-run shot that put Atlanta ahead. It was the first time in 7 Division Series games that a lead changed hands beyond the 2nd inning.

There was a final treat on offer: Harper led off the 9th with a walk. After a flyout, Castellanos hit a ball deep to center, on which Harris made a fine though not exactly super-human catch. Harper, however, apparently assuming the ball would fall in, had already rounded 2nd, and couldn't get back to first in time to avoid the game-ending double-play. Thank you, baseball gods, for finally giving us a memorable one.

Right this moment, the Dodgers trail 3-1 in the 5th, the Diamondbacks scoring their 3 in the very first inning. LA looks like it might be rallying. A fuller report on that later.

ADDENDUM: Having traversed the Internet, I've discovered the Atlanta/Phillies finish was even better than I described. Harris' throw back in actually eluded the shortstop and second baseman, but 3rd baseman Riley -- the hero two times over -- swooped in a la 2001 Jeter in Oakland and made the play to 1st. My excuse for missing this in real time: I got a phone call just as the Castellanos at bat was beginning, so had the TV muted and didn't catch all the details.

[Mister Tee]

The Division Series scenario -- "Get ahead early, and hold on" -- played out once again in the two AL games that were today's offerings.

If the Orioles were surprised by their 1-run loss yesterday, they had to be knocked flat by what the Rangers did to them today. The day actually began well for them, with Aaron Hicks performing former-Yankee-on-former-Yankee violence by knocking in two runs in the 1st off Jordan Montgomery. But good feeling didn't last long, as Texas countered with 5 in the 2nd on a blistering sequence of singles and doubles, then switched to an all-at-once strategy in the 3rd with a Mitch Garver grand slam. 9-2 made it pretty much a laugher, though the O's made Montgomery throw a lot of pitches early and knocked him out in the 5th, and the questionable Ranger bullpen had to pick up the slack. Baltimore managed a 3-run homer in the 9th (Hicks, again), but by then Texas had an 11-5 lead, so the game ended about as you'd have expected if you'd checked out after the 3rd.

I presume Baltimore is happy to have an off-day -- a chance to get their equilibrium back after this unexpected pasting. You can't discount a 101-win team's chances of coming back...but winning 3 straight (2 in Texas) looks at this point like a mountain to climb.

The other series has greater potential to be interesting, as the Twins evened the series with a 6-2 win. Kyle Farmer's 2nd inning 2-run homer came between Carlos Correa's first inning RBI double and his 5th inning 2-run single, the latter of which pretty much iced things, as Pablo Lopez delivered the kind of start we don't see often these post-season days: 7 innings of shutout ball. The Astros, like the O's earlier in the day, got a late homer that made the score more respectable but didn't seriously threaten the outcome. This is definitely a series now, and I wouldn't give either team the upper hand.

Back to the NL tomorrow; we'll see if underdogs -- who've now won 5 of the first 6 matches -- can continue to roll.

[danfrank]

Kershaw and the Dodgers team as a whole seem to run on a parallel track: great in the regular season, iffy at best in the postseason. The Dbacks have a terrific offense, so unless the Dodgers’ pitching sharpens considerably, we could have a big upset in the NLDS. I wouldn’t bet money on that, though.

[Mister Tee]

A full day of games kicking off the Division Series.

Not exactly a scintillating day. In each of the four contests, the winning team ran off to a pretty early lead (in one case, shockingly early), and, though some trailing teams got closer than others, none caught up...which makes for less than thrilling sport. Nonetheless, a few notes:

There's long been argument (especially once sabremetricians got into the act) over how to view teams that do well in close, particularly 1-run games. The old school view is that it demonstrates grit; is the sign of a winning team. (Since a team that does extremely well in such contests often wins, at least for one season, it's something of a tautology.) The cold view of analytics is that it's more a matter of luck, apt to be reversed at some point, possibly the very next year. Or, maybe, the playoffs.

The Orioles had a staggering 30-16 record in 1-run games; part of the reason why the numbers say they significantly over-achieved in getting to their 101-win record. I can imagine many of the Camden Yard faithful sitting there all afternoon, as they trailed 2-1 and then 3-2, thinking they had the Rangers right where they wanted them; expecting the late-inning lightning that had marked their season. Instead, Texas was the one that snagged the 1-run victory, and snatched home-field advantage away from Baltimore. Seeing the O's had started their best, while the Rangers -- depleted by the Wild Card round -- had gone with Andrew Heaney (no one's idea of an ace), this might put the AL East winner in a hole.

Justin Verlander started for the Astros, and looked shaky at the start -- putting on multiple runners, throwing way too many pitches over the first two innings. That he 1) managed to keep any of those runners from scoring and 2) subsequently settled down and pitched 6 scoreless, will have a generation of AL opponents moaning about deja vu. I can't believe the guy still manages this same routine at his age. The fact that he led 3-0 after 3, and 5-0 after 5, may have made it easier on him; it certainly persuaded me to do other things for a while. As it happens, the Twins showed some feistiness, scoring 4 sudden runs in the 7th on home runs. It didn't portend a winning rally -- the Astros added one more, and prevailed 6-4. But it might suggest Minnesota has enough fight in it to make the upcoming games, with the better Twins starters, more interesting.

Houston was the only home team to notch a victory today, as, just like last year, the NL behemoth Braves and Dodgers found themselves facing unexpectedly strong opposition. Phillies manager Rob Thompson pulled his starter Suarez after fewer than 4 innings, but neither Suarez nor the line-up of relievers who succeeded him let the vaunted Atlanta offense put a run across the plate. The Braves had their chances -- failing in bases-loaded or 1st-and-3rd situations multiple times. (To judge by the number of failures this past week, the sacrifice fly must be the most difficult part of baseball.) The Phillies didn't exactly mash, either -- a Harper home run the only big blow; their final run actually came on catchers' interference with the bases loaded, despite replay not loudly backing the call. But it was enough for a 3-0 win.

The events at Chavez Ravine were the most shocking on the day. We all know Clayton Kershaw has had an at-best spotty post-season record. Tonight, though, he seemed determined to give up the game from the get-go -- giving up 5 very loud hits (and 5 runs) to Arizona hitters before recording an out. When, after that out, he walked the 7th place hitter and watched Evan Longoria drive him in with a double, it became imperative (if not humane) for manager Roberts to pull him from the game. His successor Sheehan got out of that inning without further damage, but added 3 runs of his own in the second...from which point the game was a laugher, causing great numbers of Dodger fans to vacate for other activities. They missed seeing the Dodgers score 2 meaningless runs in the 8th, the only blemish for the Diamondback pitchers in an 11-2 final.

All of these series could, of course, change direction at any moment. But it's best of 5, so, in Yogi's indelible phrase, it can get late early. The NL teams, at least, get a breather tomorrow, as only the AL teams play (wouldn't want to interfere too much with football). More on those games tomorrow.