October 11:
ALDS Game 1:
Here we go again.
A couple of unlikely homers did in the Rays in Game 1 of the ALDS. It was quite the duel between Nick Margevicius (a lefty, natch) and Walker Buehler that went scoreless until the bottom of the 7th when Rafael Devers led off with a home run. The Rays put a couple of more men on in the inning and couldn't bring them home. That proved to be costly as the Mariners got to Buehler in the 8th when Kyle Lewis had an infield single and the immortal Keegan McGovern took Buehler deep into the RF stands to make it 2-1 Mariners. But the Rays fought back in the bottom of the inning when Brandon Marsh walked against Seattle closer Taylor Guilbeau, Wander Franco singled, and with two out Devers singled Marsh home to tie the game at 2. Buehler left with an excellent 8 4 2 2 0 10 line despite the homer. With lefty Jarred Kelenic leading off and a couple of righties after him, I opted for Jose Alvarado, explicitly thinking "at least Alvarado won't give up a homer to one of the righty bats since he allowed only 1 the entire season". Well I was right, he didn't give up a homer to one of the righties. Instead he let the lefty Kelenic take him yard to make it 3-2. It looked like the Rays might rally again when Alec Bohm led off the 9th with a double against Guilbeau but Torkelson, Hiura and Marsh stranded him there and the Rays find themselves down in yet another postseason series (The only time they've won a Game 1 in my tenure was the World Series last season). Tyler Glasnow will go against Julio Urias, whom the Dodgers released and the Mariners picked up a few days ago, probably expressly because he's a lefty, in tomorrow's Game 2 which really is a must-win because we can't count on coming back from 0-2 for a second straight year.
In the other ALDS game:
The Astros jumped all over young Detroit ace Kumar Rocker for 5 runs in 1 1/3 innings on homers from Carlos Correa, Eli White and former Rays farmhand Jesus Sanchez to ride to victory. Forrest Whitley was excellent, going 6.1 2 2 2 1 6.
October 12:
Here we don't go again:
Another tight, tense game that was no fun until it was over as the Rays just got by Seattle 2-1 to even their ALDS at a game apiece. Tyler Glasnow turned in perhaps his best career postseason start, going 6 3 1 1 3 9 on 102 pitches. He was running out of gas at the end, giving up some hard-hit outs and a HR to Yairo Munoz in the 6th, so he gave way to Jose Alvarado in the 7th with five straight lefties due up. Well Alvarado put two of them on base, setting up a rematch with Jarred Kelenic who took him deep in Game 1 to win it for Seattle. Round 2 went to Alvarado as he got a lazy fly ball to left to end the threat. Nick Anderson put a man on who stole second but got through his inning, and then Jasseel De La Cruz was set the face the same gauntlet of lefties Alvarado did in the 7th. He gave up a leadoff single to Braden Shewmake but Seattle did us a favor by giving away an out to bunt him over, and De La Cruz got the next two including Michael Siani swinging to end the game and allow the Tampa Bay region to let out a collective sigh of relief. Once again runs were tough to come by. Seattle started Touki Touissant instead of the originally announced Julio Urias and my move to make Spencer Torkelson the DH against righties paid off when Tork took Touissant deep with Nick Schnell aboard in the 4th to provide the only Rays runs. This came an inning after Brandon Marsh singled and Vidal Brujan doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out yet Wander, Meadows and Devers failed to bring either of them home. Matt Manning will take the mound in two days' time for Game 3 in Seattle looking to put the Rays ahead in a series for a change.
The rest of the division series games from today:
Detroit struck back to even the series. Starter Casey Mize had to leave after 2 innings with a hamstring, so Gerson Bautista came to the rescue for the Tigers, going 3.2 2 0 0 0 5 while his teammates jumped on Lance McCullers Jr. for 7 runs in the 4th and 5th with Yasmani Grandal driving in 3 of them. The Mets grabbed a 1-0 lead in their NLDS in a matchup of former Rays as Blake Snell got the better of Max Fried with the latter allowing 5 runs on 8 hits in 4.2 innings, and the Cardinals went up 1-0 on Arizona when Nick Senzel hit a 2-run triple in the bottom of the ninth off Andrew Gross to win it 5-4. Jack Flaherty went 6 5 2 1 1 7 for St. Louis before his bullpen let him down but they won anyway.
October 13:
All four division series are tied at 1 now after today's games. The Dodgers struck back behind Mitchell White, who threw 6 innings of 1-hit ball, only allowing a 2-run Michael Conforto HR, and Cody Bellinger, who missed about 3/4 of the season but just was activated, was 2-4 with 2 RBI. The Diamondbacks jumped all over Noah Syndergaard, one of last year's playoff heroes for the Rays, for 6 runs in 1 2/3 innings including a Max Muncy 2-run HR.