Walk-Off Finish and an Ortiz Show

Hey! It's my 100th post on this blog. Thanks to everyone who has been reading it all the way through. If this is your first time reading, feel free to look at other posts like this in the tabs on your right. Once again, thanks for keeping up, and there will be much more on its way!

I’ll be honest. When I saw that a rookie by the name of Sonnie Gray was going up against Justin Verlander, I thought it was going to be rough. After seeing the Tigers ram past Bartolo Colon in the first inning last night, I thought this would be much worse.

Turns out I was dead wrong, which I am glad about. We got to see one of the best pitching duels in postseason baseball. Justin Verlander was back to the Justin Verlander that we were used to seeing. After going just 13-12 with a 3.46 ERA (which isn’t terrible but it’s not Justin Verlander worthy. He still put up a solid 4.6 WAR), Verlander was magic, getting out of tough situations and striking out 11, the fourth time he’s done that in the postseason, tying Randy Johnson in that number. 

He was pumped, too. After getting out of a tough jam in the 7^th inning, which would be the last inning he pitched, Verlander was more pumped than I’ve ever seen him. He wanted to win that game bad.

Unfortunately for him, the rookie was much better. Great move by Bob Melvin and the coaching staff to start Gray in Game 2. Gray, 23, went 5-3 with a 2.67 ERA in 10 starts this year for Oakland, striking out 67. Although he threw only 65 strikes in 111 pitches, Gray was able to give up only four hits while walking two and striking out nine in eight innings pitched. 

He, like Verlander, was magic. 

Both bullpens did pretty well, too. Al Alburquerque would end up getting the lost after giving up two hits and intentionally walking Josh Reddick to load the bases with no outs. But he struck out two batters in the 8^th inning to get out of a jam. Grant Balfour, the closer for the A’s, got the win after pitching a scoreless 9^th. 

Nothing was sparking with the Tigers offense. Austin Jackson, the lead-off man, struck out all four times last night. Miguel Cabrera would get one hit, and the heart of the order would wind up going 1-for-16. The A’s offense was not much better. They left 10 runners on base, and went 1-for-8 with RISP. 

Steven Vogt, the rookie catcher, had three chances to take the lead, but decided that he would wait until the 9^th to do that. With the bases loaded, Vogt lines one just past SS Jose Iglesias to win the game. After what would be like a rough night for Vogt, he kept going and won the game.

The Series is now tied 1-1, and Game 3 will be on Monday in Detroit. It will be Jarrod Parker (12-8, 3.97 ERA) facing Cy Young candidate Anibal Sanchez (14-8, 2.57 ERA). 

If you missed the Oakland-Detroit game, please tell me you watched the Red Sox-Rays game, right? This was another great game that the Red Sox had from the start. This was not a pitching duel whatsoever, as the final score ended up being 7-4, but it was an offensive show by both teams that was great to watch.

The big hitter was David Ortiz, who cracked two home runs off David Price, hist first multi homer game in the postseason, including one that he crushed down the first-base line that everybody knew was out. 

David Price and John Lackey have seen better days. For some reason, and I can’t figure this out, David Price went seven innings, including starting off the 8^th, before getting pulled. He gave up seven runs on nine hits. I guess Joe Maddon wanted to keep hit bullpen for Game 3, but they have such a great bullpen anyways so it shouldn’t be that difficult to put them in.

Lackey was better, but still gave up four runs on seven hits in five-and-a-third innings pitched. It was the bullpen that got it done for the Red Sox. Craig Breslow and Junichi Tazawa both got out of jams by forcing double-plays, and Koji Uehara was one strike away from a perfect nine-pitch 9^th, but Wil Myers somehow got a piece of the ball and would ground out. Uehara struck out two in 11 pitches, all strikes, to save the game (best reliever this year? Come on, that’s not even a question anymore). 

Hi fives for all in Boston!

 The Red Sox wound up with seven runs on eleven hits and no errors, while the Rays finished with four runs on eight hits and two errors. Boston is now up 2-0, and it looks like they will be able to sweep in Tampa Bay. It will be Clay Buchholz (12-1, 1.74 ERA) against Alex Cobb (11-3, 2.76 ERA). Both have had their injuries this year, but since returning from those injuries, they have put up great numbers.

Later today, the Pirates and the Cardinals will square off for Game 3 in Pittsburgh, and tonight will be Game 3 for Atlanta and Los Angeles (Dodgers). Both series are tied 1-1. For the Cards and Bucs, it’ll be Joe Kelly (10-5, 2.69 ERA) against Francisco Liriano (16-8, 3.02 ERA). Though both are great pitchers, I have a feeling that will be an offensive powered game, and I’ll take the Pirates winning Game 3. 

Atlanta-Los Angeles will be a rookie game, as the Braves are putting up rookie pitcher Julio Teheran (14-8, 3.20 ERA) against Hyun-Jin Ryu (14-8, 3.00 ERA). That will be a great one to watch as well.

Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com for any questions/comments/concerns.

-Evan Boyd

A Recap and a Look to Tonight

Yesterday, we saw two teams get rocked. We also saw two teams dominate. Two days ago, we saw the Rays win their third win-or-go home game in a row, and now they finally have some breathing room. Unfortunately for them, they have to play arguably the best team in baseball, the Boston Red Sox. 

The Pirates in their first NLDS series in over twenty years got off to a rocky start. I’ll be honest, I did not watch this game (I’ve had some family issues, which is why I did not write yesterday). But what I can tell you is that I was checking the score on my phone, and when all of the sudden the game went from no score to 7-0 Cardinals, I was quite surprised. 

The St. Louis Cardinals showed, once again, how they are a dominant team in the playoffs. Carlos Beltran tied Babe Ruth (yes, Babe Ruth) with his 15^th home run in the postseason. His three run home run started the rally (which was after an Adam Wainwright single that started the inning) in the bottom of the third, as the Cardinals would score four more in the inning. 

Top performers for the Cardinals were Beltran, Matt Holliday, David Freese, and Adam Wainwright. Freese got on base every single time (one reached on an error), making him reach on base for every single home game that he’s had in the postseason. Wow. 

Adam Wainwright completely outdueled the entire Pirates rotation. A.J. Burnett only survived two innings, giving up those seven earned and walking four. He threw 72 pitches, and only 38 were strikes. He now has a 31.50 ERA in the postseason. Wainwright, however, was masterful, as he only gave up three hits and one run in seven innings, striking out nine and walking none. 

Russell Martin, who was the player of the game in the wild card game against the Reds, came up with nothing, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout. Pedro Alvarez provided the only run with a solo home run. St Louis would go on winning 9-1. 

I’m surprised how big of a blowout the game was, but not surprised that the Cardinals won. I see them winning the series in four games.

On to the Dodgers/Braves came. This was more of a “what happens when an unstoppable force meets with an immovable object” question, because you had the Braves, who went 56-25 at home this year, host Game 1 against the dominant and soon-to-be two time Cy Young winner, Clayton Kershaw.

Let’s just say Kershaw won the battle. He, like Wainwright, just outdueled the opponent, as he went seven innings, throwing 124 pitches, giving up one run on only three hits while striking out 12 and walking 3. Kris Medlen, the starter for the Braves, gave up five runs on nine hits and striking out four. Brian Wilson (Fear the beard!!!) pitched the 8^th, and Kenley Jansen closed it out. 

With a series of only five, it’s tough to see if a team that had just lost a game at home can make a rebound to win. I say the Braves can do that. After Kershaw, starting pitching slowly dives from there. Yes, they have Zack Greinke, but he will make his first start in the postseason, and he is no Kershaw. He’s great, don’t get me wrong, but he still has to deal with the Braves on their home turf. I hope the Braves win at least one game so I can see Craig Kimbrel pitch. 

I still have the Braves winning this series. You can call me out after, but I have them winning. 

Tampa Bay, as I mentioned before, will have to take on their division opponents tonight. It’ll be Jon Lester (15-8, 3.75 ERA) against Matt Moore (17-4, 3.29 ERA). I like the Red Sox in this series. A lot of people think that the Sox will blow them out completely, but I think it'll be closer than you think. 

If you put these two teams in the ALDS last year, the Rays would sweep, but they are two different teams, especially the Sox. They now have the advantage in pitching (barely), hitting (by far), and in relief (Uehara has been the best reliever in baseball, and Rodney wishes it was still last year). I have the Red Sox winning in four.
 

Don’t forget about the Tigers/Athletics game too, as game one of that series will be a great duel: Max Scherzer (21-3, 2.90 ERA) taking on Bartolo Colon (18-6, 2.65 ERA). That will be the game to watch. Both teams are dynamic, and of course I love the low-budget but get wins motto for the A's. Josh Donaldson might have a better chance of winning the MVP award than Miguel Cabrera now, so that matchup will be closely watched this series. 

I think the question here is how Cabrera will do. Remember, as well as Verlander did, last year's ALCS and ALDS was not because of Cabrera or Prince Fielder, but much of the offense came from Delmon Young (who is on the Rays now). In the postseason, it's whomever steps up, not whoever was the best in the regular season. Remember that.

I like the Tigers in this series in five games, but they are going to have to earn it. I think their pitching talent is too much for this Athletics team, especially one that plays in a heavily pitching-favorite stadium. But it might just be the best series to watch.

I'll be honest, there's no team that I think has no shot of winning it all. That's what I love about this year. All eight teams in right now have a strong chance of making it. Sure, there are favorites, but these teams are all strongly talented. I can't wait to see who pulls out on top.

Happy Friday. Check in with me tomorrow and I’ll look over the team that I think has performed the best so far. Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com with any questions/comments/concerns.

-Evan Boyd

Playoff Watch: Pittsburgh Pirates

How can you not love the Pirates? I have family that are big Red fans -  and it’s really fun to watch Cincinnati too – but this Pirates team is just amazing to watch. They’re pumped, the fans are pumped, and I’m pumped.

The Pirates have been the best story in baseball this year. I have talked about them since day one, and, to be honest, I didn’t expect them to be in the playoffs. To be honest, I expected the Nationals to do much better, and the Pirates would be the runner up to them and the Reds. I expected them to have an above .500 record, but they have made some great acquisitions and managing decisions to get to here. Clint Hurdle should be the Manager of the Year, but I’ll talk about that another time. 

They have went 21 years before seeing any playoff games. One sign last night said “I’ve waited my whole life for this” – literally. And what a night back it was. 

The Pirates were all over in this game. The team was calm, and everyone did their fair share, while the fans took the job of rattling the Reds. 

I want to start at the very beginning of this game, the first at-bat with Shin-Soo Choo and Francisco Liriano. Liriano dominated this duel. Pitch after pitch, he was throwing devastating changeups and sliders that made batters just look bad. The Reds did not get a single ball out of the infield until the fourth inning. 

In the second inning, after pitcher Johnny Cueto gave up a home run to Marlon Byrd (who came to the Pirates this year in an acquisition), the fans started cheering “Cueeeeetto… Cueeeeeeeetto,” and it got into his head. The very next batter, Cueto drops the ball when trying to get in stance, and two batters later, Russell Martin hits one out.

Cueto looked bad. He only went 3.1 innings, giving up four runs, and he could not bring the ball down. He left some high breaking balls that the Pirates were just taking advantage of. Mat Latos was scheduled to start, but he’s been secretly injured since June, so Cueto got the ball. Looks like he shouldn’t have kept that a secret after all. 

 

Russel Martin, however, looked great. His homer in the second inning was just the first of two home runs that he had in the game. Hurdle said that he wanted Martin, who is in his first year with the Pirates, in the lineup for his defensive capabilities, but he was showing his offensive power last night. 

He is the first catcher to hit a home run on three different teams in the postseason. I talked about Martin two months ago and how he’s the most important catcher in baseball – I’d just like to reinforce that :) 

The Reds hitting struggled, with a few bright spots here and there. Ryan Ludwick and Todd Frazier looked good, Ludwick going 3-for-4 with 2 doubles and Frazier having an amazing catch in foul territory to end what looked like a jam for Cueto. He also almost hit a ball out that would have made the Reds go up 4-3, but it just barely went foul. He ended up striking out that at-bat, and would finish 1-for-4 with an RBI on the night. 

The Pirates were getting it done offensively and defensively. Clint Barmes had an underrated night, as he snagged some tough plays at short to get out of innings. Pedro Alvarez, who committed 27 errors at third base this year, played perfect defense tonight. Andrew McCutchen, the MVP candidate, almost had an amazing catch to what would look like it would be a sure double, and, of course, the bullpen got it done. Liriano went seven innings, giving up one run, and striking out five. Jason Grilli would close it out.

The Pirates would go on to win 6 to 2. They had 13 hits, and each player, except for Alvarez, who would have a sacrifice fly anyways, would have one, even Liriano. 

If the Pirates keep playing like that in the postseason, they won’t be stopped. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will happen. I really want this team to go far because they’ve been so fun to watch, but they have a tough matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals coming up. It’s all about pitching for the Pirates, as they had the 3^rd best ERA in the MLB (3.26), and the 2^nd best BAA (.238). 

The first game will be Adam Wainwright against A.J. Burnett tomorrow. Wainwright was amazing this season, going back to his pre-Tommy John surgery years. He went 19-9 with a 2.94 ERA and an amazing 6.26 K/BB ratio. That’s no 10.2 that Cliff Lee had three years ago, but it’s still the 40^th best ratio of all time, which is actually quite an accomplishment. 

AJ Burnett has been quite a story too. At 36 years old, Burnett went 10-11 with a 3.30 ERA, striking out 209, and having an NL best 9.8 k/9 ratio. Don’t let that record fool you- he’s had a lot of games where the offense would just not support him. 

It should be an amazing game, and it’ll be a battle of the NL Central. This season, the Pirates have the advantage, but not by much. When the Pirates took four of five in a series against the Cardinals, St. Louis came back and swept them later in the season. 

The series is honestly a toss-up. I want the Pirates, but I probably have to say the Cardinals are going to win, particularly because of their amazing ability to perform in the playoffs, and their ability to hit with runners-in-scoring-position. This series will be a battle between players, but also between managers. Clint Hurdle and Mike Matheny have arguably done the best job with their teams in the NL, and it’ll all come down to this season.

One team will move on, and one team will pack their bags. It’ll all start Thursday. Remember that the Rays-Indians game is on tonight too, and I’ll be talking about the winner tomorrow.

Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com for any questions/comments/concerns.

-Evan Boyd

October Is Here!

The Playoffs are here. It is October 1^st, and it is now time for the best month of the year (March is pretty good too). But we are lucky! We got to see the start of the playoffs in September!

Last night’s game was a beauty. David Price tossed a gem that might have been the most important game in his career. Though it definitely wasn’t his best, the reigning Cy Young winner pitched a complete game, giving up seven hits and two runs, striking out four and walking one. 

He also picked off two runners, including one against Ian Kinsler, who just hit an RBI single off of him. The last time a pitcher went the distance in a play-in game was, my favorite, Randy Johnson in 1994. Martin Perez, the opponent, gave up three earned runs on four hits and struck out five in 5.1 innings. 

Three things to take out of this game: David Price, Evan Longoria, and Nelson Cruz. Price, as I just mentioned before, had a surprising outing, based on his stats before. In his four previous starts at Rangers Ballpark, Price compiled a 10.26 ERA, going 1-2. Against Texas entering Monday, he was 1-7 with a 6.62 ERA in 11 starts. He looked good though, and he was pumped. From pitch one to pitch 118, he did not give up, even after almost giving up a 2-run blast to Alex Rios. Giving the ball to Price was a great move by Joe Maddon, as he dominated the lefty-lefty battle. 

Evan Longoria is just amazing in the last game. Remember two years ago, when he hit that miraculous walk-off home run that knocked the Red Sox out of the playoffs? It’s just one of those weird stats that he has. He is hitting .579 (11-for-19) in finales, with SEVEN homers and 10 RBI’s. Last night, he had three hits, including a two run shot that broke the game open. If only he could do that for the other 161 games. 

Nelson Cruz returned from his 50-game suspension from steroids, which kind of annoyed me. How can you suspend someone for cheating, but then let them play in the playoffs? Maybe it was just bad timing. I wish that everyone did what Melky Cabrera did last year, and be honest and choose not to play in the playoffs. But Cruz didn’t, and he paid the price for it.

He went 0-for-4 with a strikeout, and ended the game with a groundout. I really wish he struck out to end it, but oh well. 

There was lots of questioning about the calls made last night. The home plate umpire, who has a little larger strike zone than usual, had a few calls that were questionable, but overall he was correct and the Rangers fans were just getting heated. 

The big play, however, was a call made in the seventh. The Rays had runners at first and second with two outs when Delmon Young, who scored the first run of the game, hit a soft fly ball that center fielder Leonys Martin dove to try and catch. The umpires ruled the play a catch and Young out, but replays show that it wasn’t even close, and the ball clearly hopped. 

It kind of reminds you of the game back in April 8^th against these two teams, when Ben Zobrist was called out on a pitch low and outside. Ironically, that game notched Joe Nathan’s 300^th save. Luckily for the Rays, they still got the last laugh. 

MLB does intend to use expanded video review next year. 

The final score was 5-2, and the Rays led the way the entire time. The Rangers had to use six pitchers to get through nine innings. Ron Washington came out saying “I’m disappointed. We didn’t get it done. I’ve got no excuse for that.” The Rays ended the Rangers’ seven game winning streak.

The Rangers have already looked into next year. 

Game one is done, but now comes the wild card games. Tonight, it’s the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Cincinnati Reds. The Pirates are in the playoffs for the first time since 1992, and the Reds won the wild card last year. The game will be played in Pittsburgh. It’ll be Francisco Liriano (16-8, 3.02 ERA) against Johnny Cueto (5-2, 2.82 ERA). This has been Liriano’s best year since his 12-3 year in 2006, and has shown a miraculous comeback in his work. Cueto, who dominated last year with a 19-9 record and a 2.78 ERA, was hurt for most of this season, but has still looked pretty sharp. 

This game is going to be great. I have the Pirates winning, not just because I’ve loved watching them this year, but because I like the lefty matchup with Liriano going against a lefty-dominated team. But the Reds have lots of talent and experience. It should be a game to remember. You can catch it tonight at 7:00 PM CT.

Email me at statsbuddy42@gmail.com for any questions/comments/concerns.

-Evan Boyd