Biggest Takeaways from Friday's ALDS, NLDS Postseason Action
Regardless of where your rooting interests lie, Friday is a great day to be a baseball fan. With all four Division Series matchups in action and the start times spread out, it is literally an entire day of postseason baseball.
Below is a box-score look at how each game shook out, followed by the two biggest takeaways from each game in the slides to come.
ALDS: Baltimore Orioles 7, Detroit Tigers 6; Orioles lead series 2-0
WP: Brad Brach (1-0)
LP: Joakim Soria (0-1)
SV: Zach Britton (1)
HR: BAL—Markakis (1); DET—J.Martinez (2), Castellanos (1)
The Tigers bullpen struggled once again, and pinch hitter Delmon Young came through with a three-run double in the bottom of the eighth to give the Orioles a comeback win and a 2-0 series lead.
NLDS: San Francisco Giants 3, Washington Nationals 2; Nationals lead series 1-0
WP: Jake Peavy (1-0)
LP: Stephen Strasburg (0-1)
SV: Santiago Casilla (1)
HR: SF—None; WAS—Bryce Harper (1), Asdrubal Cabrera (1)
Jake Peavy threw 5.2 shutout innings, and the Giants bullpen held on despite allowing a pair of solo home runs in the bottom of the seventh, as the Giants took Game 1 on the road.
NLDS: St. Louis Cardinals 10, Los Angeles Dodgers 9; Cardinals lead series 1-0
WP: Marco Gonzales (1-0)
LP: Clayton Kershaw (0-1)
SV: Trevor Rosenthal (1)
HR: STL—Grichuk (1), Carpenter (1), Holliday (1); LAD—Gonzalez (1), Ellis (1)
The pitcher's duel between Clayton Kershaw and Adam Wainwright never materialized, as both pitchers were hit hard, and the Cardinals came from behind thanks to an eight-run seventh inning to pull out the win.
ALDS: Kansas City Royals 4, Los Angeles Angels 1; Royals lead series 2-0
WP: Brandon Finnegan (1-0)
LP: Kevin Jepsen (0-1)
SV: Greg Holland (2)
HR: KC—Hosmer (1); LAA—None
Rookie starters Yordano Ventura and Matt Shoemaker both pitched well, but it again boiled down to extra-inning heroics, and an Eric Hosmer home run in the top of the 11th gave the Royals their third extra-inning win in a row.
The Tigers Bullpen Is Bad...Really, Really Bad
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For the Detroit Tigers, relief pitching has been an ongoing struggle all season. They finished the year ranked 27th in MLB with a 4.29 bullpen ERA, by far the worst of any postseason team.
That weakness has only been magnified through the first two games of their ALDS matchup with the Baltimore Orioles, and it cost them a win in Game 2.
Quickly looking back to Game 1, starter Max Scherzer was charged with five earned runs in 7.1 innings of work to take the loss, but it was a disastrous performance by the bullpen that wound up being the story.
Detroit needed Joakim Soria, Joba Chamberlain and Phil Coke to get the final two outs of the eighth, as they combined to allow five hits, two walks and seven runs (six earned) in what wound up being an eight-run inning.
In Friday's game, the Tigers gave starter Justin Verlander a quick hook after five innings and three runs allowed, handing the ball to starter-turned-reliever Anibal Sanchez.
Sanchez gave them two scoreless innings as the Tigers carried a 6-3 lead into the eighth inning, where manager Brad Ausmus opted to go with "setup man" Joba Chamberlain.
"We thought 35 [pitches] was pushing it, so sending him back out would have been tough," Ausmus said of Sanchez (via MLB.com). "It's more about him not being stretched out. ... Asking him to throw really anything more than 30 pitches is a stretch."
With the team forced to turn to its shaky relief corps after Sanchez, the results were strikingly similar to Game 1.
Chamberlain got a quick out to start the eighth but followed that up with a hit batter and back-to-back singles. He departed with two men on and the Tigers clinging to a two-run lead.
Soria walked the first batter he faced to load the bases and then watched as pinch-hitter Delmon Young emptied them with a double. Just like that, it was a 7-6 game in Baltimore's favor.
So to summarize, the two-game totals for the Detroit bullpen (not including starter Anibal Sanchez): 1.2 IP, 8 H, 11 R, 10 ER, 3 BB, 0 K.
Delmon Young Might Be a Flop, But He Shines in October
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When the Tampa Bay Rays made Delmon Young the No. 1 pick in the 2003 draft, expectations were sky-high, with him pegged as a can't-miss future superstar and a legitimate five-tool threat.
After a 30-game audition as a 20-year-old in 2006, he took over as the team's everyday right fielder in 2007 and hit .288/.316/.408 with 13 home runs and 93 RBI to finish second in AL Rookie of the Year voting.
A good first season, but Young simply didn't get any better from there. The Rays traded him to the Minnesota Twins for Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett the following offseason, and after three-plus seasons Minnesota dealt Young to the Detroit Tigers.
He split last season between Philadelphia and Tampa Bay before agreeing to a one-year, $1 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles this past offseason, carrying a 1.7 career WAR into 2014.
While there is no question he's failed to live up to the hype and could certainly be pegged as a bust, along the way he's also made his mark in the playoffs time and again.
In 33 career playoff games entering this year, he had an .859 OPS with nine home runs and 18 RBI in just 117 at-bats. That included ALCS MVP honors in 2012, when he hit two huge home runs to help the Tigers eliminate the Yankees.
He was at it again Friday.
One of the best pinch hitters in baseball during the regular season at 10-for-20 with a 1.365 OPS, Young stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth with the Orioles trailing 6-4.
Hacking at the first pitch he saw, Young doubled to the wall in left field. J.J. Hardy came around to score from first on the play, sliding in just ahead of the tag for the go-ahead and eventual game-winning run.
For a first-round bust who has fallen well short of expectations, Delmon Young will undoubtedly have the legacy of a postseason hero once his career ends.
Jake Peavy Was the Pickup of the July Trade Deadline
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Few pitchers if any bring as much intensity to the mound as veteran right-hander Jake Peavy, and after a rough start to the season in Boston, he has been an absolute stud for the Giants.
In 20 starts with the Red Sox, the 33-year-old went just 1-9 with a 4.72 ERA (4.80 FIP), but there were still a number of teams interested in his services at the trade deadline.
The Giants wound up shipping out a pair of promising pitching prospects in Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree to land him, and two months later that looks like the deal of the deadline.
Not the Detroit Tigers picking up David Price, not the Oakland A's landing Jon Lester, but Jake Peavy to the Giants.
The right-hander was 6-4 with a 2.17 ERA and 1.042 WHIP in 12 starts after joining the Giants, and following a gem from ace Madison Bumgarner in the Wild Card Round, he was handed the ball for Game 1 of the NLDS.
Peavy threw 5.2 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and three walks, before departing with a pitch count of 104 and a 2-0 lead.
The Giants added an insurance run in the top of the seventh, before the Nationals made it close with a pair of solo home runs in the bottom of the inning, but the Giants held on and Peavy earned the win.
Perhaps the biggest drawback of playing in the Wild Card Round is having to throw your ace before the Division Series even starts, and that was the case with the Giants and Bumgarner.
With Ryan Vogelsong and Tim Hudson both turning in an inconsistent second half, the team needed Peavy to step up and pitch like an ace in Game 1. It wasn't a gem, but it was good enough, and that July trade just looks that much better.
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Despite a Down Season, Bryce Harper Could Still Make a Huge Impact
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It's fair to say the 2014 season did not go according to plan for Washington Nationals star outfielder Bryce Harper, but that doesn't mean he won't make his mark on October.
After missing time with knee and hip injuries in 2013 and being limited to 118 games, he again spent significant time on the sidelines this season, missing 57 games with a thumb injury that required surgery.
All told, he finished the season with a .273/.344/.423 with 13 home runs and 32 RBI in 100 games, numbers well short of what was expected from the budding star.
On top of his disappointing regular season, Harper also came up small the last time the Nationals were in the playoffs, going just 3-for-23 in the team's loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2012 NLDS.
That gave him plenty of motivation to turn in a NLDS performance this time around, and while the Nationals dropped Game 1, he had a solid individual performance.
He finished the night 2-for-4, including a towering home run off of hard-throwing Giants reliever Hunter Strickland into the upper deck in right field.
The Nationals' offense was held to just six hits on Friday, and they will need to pick up their offensive attack if they want to avoid going down 2-0 at home tomorrow.
A hot Bryce Harper could be the key to that, and he got off to a nice start in Game 1.
The Postseason Is an Entirely Different Ballgame, Even for the Best of Them
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Clayton Kershaw vs. Adam Wainwright, two of the best pitchers of this generation. All the ingredients for a classic pitcher's duel, right?
Not so much.
Wainwright, 20-9 with a 2.38 ERA during the regular season, never really found his groove on the mound.
He needed a ton of pitches to get through two scoreless innings to open the game, then allowed two runs in the third and fourth before being chased with one out in the fifth.
His final line: 4.1 IP, 11 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
At that point the Dodgers were up 6-1, and Kershaw looked to be rolling, striking out five straight at one point between the fourth and fifth innings.
He allowed a solo home run to Matt Carpenter in the sixth to cut the lead to 6-2, but still looked to be in control. That is until things came completely unraveled in the seventh.
The left-hander allowed five singles to open the inning, getting just one out in the process, and the Dodgers lead had been cut to 6-4 when manager Don Mattingly made his way out to the mound.
He opted to leave Kershaw in the game, and after he struck out pinch-hitter Oscar Taveras, it was Carpenter that got to him again with a bases-clearing double to put the Cardinals on top.
That chased Kershaw, with his final line at: 6.2 IP, 8 H, 8 ER, 0 BB, 10 K
And just like that, a game that had all the makings of a 1-0 or 2-1 pitcher's duel had turned into a shootout.
It just goes to show, the postseason is a different animal entirely, and even the best pitchers can struggle on the biggest stage.
Dodgers Offense Is Still Rolling, Cardinals Might Be Hitting Their Stride
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Struggles from two of the best starting pitchers in the game will obviously be the story of Game 1 of this NLDS matchup, but on the other end of that are two offense that were firing on all cylinders Friday night.
The Dodgers wrapped up the night with nine runs on 16 hits, while the Cardinals tallied 10 runs on 10 hits, and there were no shortage of offensive fireworks.
That comes as no surprise on the Dodgers side, as they led all of baseball with 6.24 runs per game over the final month of the season. Sluggers Adrian Gonzalez and Matt Kemp led the way, catching fire down the stretch, and they were at it again on Friday.
Kemp had a three-hit game and Gonzalez hit a home run, but they were not the only standouts, as catcher and .191-hitter A.J. Ellis went 4-for-5 and launched his second career postseason home run.
Lead-off hitter Dee Gordon turned in an 0-for-5 night, and Hanley Ramirez left five runners on base, but overall the Dodgers have to be awfully happy with how their offense looks right now.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals scored just 3.77 runs per game in September and finished the year ranked last in the National League with just 105 home runs on the year, but they looked like an awful lot like last year's team on Friday.
The "Runs Matted In" gang was out in full force, as Matt Carpenter (2-for-5, 2B, HR, 4 RBI, 2 R), Matt Holliday (2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R) and Matt Adams (1-for-4, RBI, R) all had big nights.
At their best last season, the Cardinals were a team that could string together hits and come through with runners in scoring position.
The three home runs they hit were nice, but seeing them pile up base hits and come through in the clutch was an even more promising sign looking ahead to the rest of October.
There is no question Game 1 was an emotionally draining one for both sides, and it will be interesting to see how both teams respond tomorrow. One thing is for sure, the offense will play a major role in the remainder of this series.
Rookies...Maybe They Just Don't Know Any Better
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After all the hype surrounding the Clayton Kershaw vs. Adam Wainwright matchup on the NLDS side of things, it wound up being a pair of rookies that provided the pitcher’s duel on Friday night.
Matt Shoemaker (16-4, 3.04 ERA) and Yordano Ventura (14-10, 3.20 ERA) both turned in terrific rookie seasons, and they proved to be more than up to the task of toeing the rubber in October.
Ventura, you may remember, came on in relief in the Royals’ Wild Card Round game and promptly gave up a go-ahead three-run home run to Brandon Moss.
Luckily his teammates bailed him out, and he got another chance to pitch here in 2014. Things went much better this time around, as the flame-throwing righty went seven innings and allowed just five hits and one run, an RBI single from Albert Pujols in the sixth.
With the phenomenal bullpen the Royals have at their disposal, seven innings of one-run ball is all you can as for out of a 23-year-old making his first postseason start.
For the Angels, Shoemaker was making his first start since suffering a strained oblique on Sept. 16, and he turned in a terrific start of his own.
The 28-year-old lasted six innings and 82 pitches, allowing five hits and one unearned run in the top of the second inning. He settled in nicely from there, and turned things over to Jason Grilli and the bullpen after the sixth inning with things knotted up at 1-1.
To put it simply, there is no predicting October baseball, and there may have been no better example of that than the two very different pitching matchups that took place in Los Angeles on Friday night.
The 2014 Royals: Speed, Defense, Relief Pitching and a Flare for the Dramatics
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It hasn't always been pretty, but the Kansas City Royals have pulled out three straight victories to start their first postseason run in 29 years.
An Eric Hosmer home run in the 11th inning was the game-winner on Friday, but the play of the game belongs to defensive replacement Jarrod Dyson.
The speedy center fielder came up huge shortly after entering the game in the bottom of the eighth, nailing pinch-runner Collin Cowgill at third base trying to tag up. Just like that a runner in scoring position with no one out turned into no one on and two outs.
Outfield defense has been a staple of the Royals success this season, and it has played a pivotal role already in their ALDS matchup with the Angels.
They also continue to wreak havoc on the bases, stealing three more bases on Friday to bring their three-game total to 11, and they have been caught just once over that span.
Then there's the bullpen, a group that was pegged as perhaps the biggest strength of this team heading into the postseason, and one that has lived up to that billing so far.
Not counting the two runs allowed by starter Yordano Ventura in relief of James Shields in the Wild Card Round game, Royals relievers have combined for the following: 15.2 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 9 BB, 16 K.
For those of you without a calculator handy, that's a 1.15 ERA from a relief corps that is averaging over five innings per game and consistently pitching with the game on the line.
When all is said and done, though, it's their flare for late-inning heroics that this Royals team will likely be best remembered for.
- The Jarrod Dyson steal of third in the Wild Card game to set up the tying run in the bottom of the ninth.
- The Salvador Perez single in the 12th to win it.
- The Mike Moustakas home run in the 11th to win Game 1.
- The Eric Hosmer home run in the 11th on Friday to win Game 2.
All instant classic moments in Royals' franchise history, and this team is just getting started.
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