Brooklyn Citizens (82-80, .506) @ Montreal Impact (90-72, .556)
Montreal’s trading acumen should never be questioned after the 2075 campaign – they made moves, power moves, and took over the NL East after the deadline. Outside of taking your boy Rad Taylor (and Sammie Fregoso – who we miss) off our hands, everything else they did turned into gold. The result are magnificent – 1st in Runs Against, Starters ERA, FIP, and Pitching WAR, and 2nd in Bullpen ERA & Strikeouts – the Impact have a collection of arms to rival anything this league has ever seen. Their offense is solid, if unspectacular. They don’t have a lot to talk about here – they get it done though and take full advantage of their pitching strength. They finished the season at 11-5 versus the Citizens – often blowing them out in the wins, and playing them tight in the losses… We have no reason to believe this will be any different.
Game 1 (10/8): Josh Allen (7-18, 4.13) @ John Aivazian (12-16, 3.59)
Montreal wins a close one here, by a score of 6-5, on a dramatic come from behind 4-run bottom of the 9th – essentially they ripped Brooklyn’s heart right out of their chest. MTL 1B Jayden Russel gets the hit of a lifetime – A walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th to seal a game one walk-off win. SP Josh Allen goes 7 with 1 earned – did all you could have wanted for Brooklyn – and Aivazian gets away with a terrible game one performance where he only lasted 4.2 innings and gave up 5 earned. The Impact will need him to be better.
AL Round 2, Game 2’s:
Jacksonville Jaguars @ Green Bay Packers
Joseph Thompson (13-14, 5.04) @ EJ Powers (14-15, 3.78)
A couple of inning-eaters on the bump in this one… Green Bay evens it up, beats the Jags, 4-3. Powers is solid over 7, but the real story here is GBP C Jack Ashall’s 2 for 3 day & 2 RBI – he sealed the deal for the Cheeseheads…
Chicago Fire @ Seattle Sounders
Trev Anderson (9-10, 3.92) @ David Arney (13-9, 2.88)
Lots of offense – 15 total runs scored – but Seattle prevails, takes a commanding 2-0 lead over Chicago by a score of 8-7. Austin Rollins went 4 for 5 with a HR, 2 RBI, and 3 Runs in the victory. Both starters get worked – Anderson got jobbed (errors lead to 3 runs while he’s in the game) – Arney was, well, not very good – only went 5.1 with 6 getting across.
St. Louis Rams (81-81, .500) @ Los Angeles Lakers (85-67, .586)
The Rams have a good offense – 5th in Runs Scored – and a solid bullpen – 5th in Bullpen ERA – everywhere else they sort of just fade into the crowd. Conversely, we finished 1st in Batting War, 2nd in HR’s, and 3rd in OPS on offense – Otto’s 35 HR helped, but we had two other guys hit 21 (Ethan & Ruben). Our pitching was no joke either – 2nd in Starters ERA & Runs Against, and 1st in Bullpen ERA. On the season, we finished 6-1 against St. Louis, a small sample-size but thorough shellacking, nonetheless. This includes a 4-game sweep over them in our last meeting waaaaay back in June. So, we haven’t seen these guys for a while, things change, teams evolve, and, regardless of our regular season dominance over the Rams, this will be a tough test.
Game 1: AJ Hinson (6-12, 4.71) @ Michael Brisk (14-10, 3.68)
Otto hits a solo homer in the bottom of the 1st on the second pitch he sees in the 2075 Playoffs – setting the tone – and Newman hits a run-scoring double in the bottom of the 3rd to kick off a 3-run inning for the La La’s. An auspicious start for us in this one – and a nice game 1 victory – Lakers win 6-3. Brisk has solid command for 7 innings, but started to unravel a bit in the 8th, and Kawka, while good in relief, watches one plate after we get too comfortable and commit back-to-back errors (Mullins in an errant throw from RF, and Daniels on an inexcusable flub at 2B. 2 RBI’s for Cooke, 2 hits for Daniels & Newman, and the bomb from Otto – not a bad way to spend a Tuesday evening.
Seattle’s Austin Rollins is the SportsCenter hero today – 4 for 5, with a HR, 2 RBI, and 3 runs in the Sounders rousing 8-7 game 2 victory.
