MLB Playoffs 2014: TV Schedule, Live Stream, Latest Bracket Predictions

The 2014 MLB postseason inches its way closer to the Fall Classic at the end of the work week.

Both Division Series were over seemingly before they began. The Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles both swept their opponents in the American League Division Series, while the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants both won in four games in the National League Division Series.

As a result, fans must put up with what feels like an interminable wait until the League Championship Series get underway. Wendy Thurm was unlikely the only person going through withdrawal after what's been an enthralling October of baseball:

Thankfully, Friday is only a day away. The American League Championship Series begins Friday, with the National League Championship Series kicking off Saturday.

Game	Date	Matchup	Time (ET)	TV Info	Live Stream
ALCS
1	Fri., Oct. 10	KC at BAL	8 p.m.	TBS	TBS.com
2	Sat., Oct. 11	KC at BAL	4 p.m.	TBS	TBS.com
3	Mon., Oct. 13	BAL at KC	8 p.m.	TBS	TBS.com
4	Tues., Oct. 14	BAL at KC	8 p.m.	TBS	TBS.com
5*	Wed., Oct. 15	BAL at KC	4 p.m.	TBS	TBS.com
6*	Fri., Oct. 17	KC at BAL	8 p.m.	TBS	TBS.com
7*	Sat., Oct. 18	KC at BAL	4 p.m.	TBS	TBS.com
NLCS
1	Sat., Oct. 11	SF at STL	8 p.m.	FOX	FOX Sports Go
2	Sun., Oct. 12	SF at STL	8 p.m.	FS1	FOX Sports Go
3	Tues., Oct. 14	STL at SF	4 p.m.	FS1	FOX Sports Go
4	Wed., Oct. 15	STL at SF	8 p.m.	FS1	FOX Sports Go
5*	Thurs., Oct. 16	STL at SF	8 p.m.	FS1	FOX Sports Go
6*	Sat., Oct. 18	SF at STL	4 p.m.	FOX	FOX Sports Go
7*	Sun., Oct. 19	SF at STL	7:30 p.m.	FS1	FOX Sports Go

Note: All MLB postseason games are available to live stream at Postseason.TV.

ALCS

It's difficult to talk about the Royals without veering off into patronizing ("They're just so gosh darn plucky," "They do it their way") or needlessly sentimental ("The Royals are so special," "They're a team of destiny") territory.

Kansas City does utilize strategies largely cast aside after the rise of advanced statistics and sabermetrics. The Royals' increased emphasis on defense and speed sets them apart from the rest of the league. In addition, their aversion to hitting for power and walks makes their success all the more improbable.

Here's how they stack up with the rest of the remaining playoff teams in a few different statistical categories, courtesy of FanGraphs.

Team	AVG	BB	HR	wRC+	ISO	SB	UZR	UZR/150
Royals	.263 (4)	380 (30)	95 (30)	94 (T17)	.113 (30)	153 (1)	61.1 (1)	9.0 (2)
Orioles	.256 (9)	401 (26)	211 (1)	104 (6)	.166 (2)	44 (30)	54.8 (2)	10.9 (1)
Giants	.255 (10)	427 (21)	132 (17)	101 (T9)	.133 (17)	56 (29)	2.9 (15)	0.5 (14)
Cardinals	.253 (14)	471 (15)	105 (29)	95 (16)	.116 (28)	57 (28)	28.5 (6)	3.0 (T6)

Grantland's Rany Jazayerli countered on his Royals blog that while Kansas City shunned home runs during the regular season, the team has found plenty of power in the postseason:

"

For all the talk about the Royals turning back the tide of 30 years of sabermetrics by winning with speed and defense, let’s not forget something kinda important here: the Royals won Game 1 on an extra-inning home run. They won Game 2 on an extra-inning home run. They won Game 3, 8-3, and their first six runs came on a bases-clearing double, a two-run homer, and a solo homer.

"

Most encouraging for the Royals is the emergence of Eric Hosmer. In the ALDS, the first baseman went 4-for-10 with two home runs and four runs batted in.

Some fans might forget that he's only 24 years old—Hosmer's MLB debut came on May 6, 2011—so the 2013 Gold Glove winner is just beginning to hit his prime. Legendary baseball writer Peter Gammons believes we're only now beginning to see Hosmer emerge as the player many expected him to become years ago:

Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan was impressed with how well Hosmer was hitting the ball to the deepest part of the park:

His Game 3 homer is a prime example of his ability to wait on a pitch for a split second longer without sacrificing any power.

Hosmer will undoubtedly be a tone-setter in the Kansas City lineup. One only needs to look at Mike Trout in the ALDS to see how much one hitter's struggles can seemingly rub off on the entire team.

As great as the Royals have been, you wonder if their bubble is about to burst. Some of the matchup advantages they owned against the Angels are nonexistent against the Orioles.

You can see in the above table that Baltimore is at the very least Kansas City's equal defensively. Both were among the cream of the crop in that facet of the game.

The Orioles also have a comparable bullpen. While they don't boast a trio like Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland, they have just as much strength from top to bottom. Below is a comparison between the two teams, courtesy of FanGraphs.

	K/9	BB/9	HR/9	LOB%	ERA	FIP	xFIP
Orioles	7.84 (24)	2.80 (6)	0.74 (13)	76.0% (8)	3.10 (6)	3.55 (15)	3.54 (T10)
Royals	8.65 (14)	3.30 (15)	0.62 (6)	73.7% (17)	3.30 (10)	3.29 (6)	3.54 (T10)

The key for Baltimore will be roughing up Kansas City's starting pitchers early in the game and getting into the bullpen before the seventh inning. Royals manager Ned Yost has been rigid with his relievers in the past, and he might be loathe to bring in Herrera in the sixth or earlier in the ALCS.

The Orioles boasted one of the best offenses in baseball during the regular season, in particular excelling in many power categories, which you can see in the second table.

As established earlier, power was the antithesis of Kansas City's game in the regular season. Only three Royals hit double digits in home runs, compared to seven for the Orioles.

Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter ranked Baltimore's offense as second best in the postseason before play began. He highlighted Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz but also felt that the balance of the Orioles lineup was their biggest reason for the team's success:

"

They finished the year with an MLB-high 211 home runs, behind AL home run leader Nelson Cruz (40) and Adam Jones (29), but it's the unexpected contributors that have really made this lineup go.

Alejandro De Aza was a fantastic pickup off waivers, Steve Pearce was good for 6.0 WAR, per Baseball-Reference, in a career year and rookie Caleb Joseph has more than held his own in replacing Wieters behind the dish.

"

The Royals' offensive flaws will be exposed in the ALCS against a Baltimore pitching staff that hasn't received the praise it deserves. The Orioles offense should also chip away at the Kansas City starting rotation and test Yost's managerial acumen.

In the event this series does become a battle of wits between the two managers, are you going to bet against Buck Showalter?

Prediction: Orioles in 7

NLCS

Talk about two teams starved for postseason success, per ESPN's Buster Olney:

For the fifth year in a row, the National League will be won by either the Giants or Cardinals. San Francisco won in 2010 and 2012 en route to World Series titles, while St. Louis had the last laugh in 2011 and 2013, going all the way in '11.

Familiarity breeds contempt, and that's obvious with how indifferently some fans are approaching this series:

From a neutral perspective, it would be nice to see different teams in the LCS from time to time. In terms of quality, however, you can't hope for much better than Giants vs. Cardinals.

One of San Francisco's top objectives will be taking the bat away from Matt Carpenter. The Cardinals third baseman was a constant thorn in the side of Los Angeles Dodgers pitching, going 6-for-16 in the NLDS with three home runs and seven runs batted in.

"This is when it matters. This is when it’s fun," Carpenter said, per The Associated Press, via CBS St. Louis. "I told somebody the other day, I would take this season I had this year and do what I’m doing in the postseason 10 out of 10. That’s why you play. Hopefully we can keep riding this out."

Carpenter has established himself as a potent postseason hitter over the last three years. Although his .253 playoff batting average is 40 points lower than his career regular-season average, his slugging percentage is 32 points better in the postseason (.465 vs. .433).

In addition, he's averaging a little fewer than 0.036 home runs and 0.127 RBIs per plate appearance during the postseason. If you averaged that out over his 2014 regular season—with an NL-leading 709 plate appearances—Carpenter would've had roughly 25 home runs and 90 RBIs.

Carpenter's timely hitting has lifted up what wasn't a spectacular lineup during the regular season.

The numbers in the second table illustrate that neither team relied on a stellar offense to get this far. The Giants were particularly hamstrung in the NLDS without Angel Pagan and Michael Morse. At least with Morse, it may not be a problem much longer, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle:

"

Manager Bruce Bochy said that Michael Morse is in Arizona getting at-bats in the instructional league. He will play in a couple of games, as late as Friday morning, then join the team in St. Louis for the NLCS.

'If all goes well, I anticipate Morse being on the roster,' manager Bruce Bochy said.

Starting in left field? That is another question that Bochy would not answer, although he will consider it.

"

The biggest question mark for San Francisco is whether its starting rotation can hold up. Numbers-wise, neither team owns a decided edge one way or the other, according to FanGraphs.

	K/9	BB/9	HR/9	LOB%	ERA	FIP	xFIP
Cardinals	7.37 (16)	2.88 (20)	0.76 (3)	74.9% (7)	3.44 (6)	3.67 (10)	3.80 (T17)
Giants	7.59 (13)	2.38 (4)	0.90 (16)	71.6% (19)	3.74 (16)	3.65 (T8)	3.58 (5)

Adam Wainwright and Madison Bumgarner cancel one another out, as do Lance Lynn and Jake Peavy. The NLCS could be decided by Tim Hudson, Ryan Vogelsong, Shelby Miller and John Lackey.

Lackey has a much more refined postseason pedigree than Vogelsong. He's won two World Series titles and gone 7-5 with a 2.92 ERA over 111.0 innings in the playoffs. Of course, Vogelsong has failed to give up more than one run in any of his five postseason starts, per ESPN Stats & Info:

Despite playing 16 years in the league, Hudson's never once appeared in an LCS before this year, so he's untested at this stage of the season. Miller didn't fare well in his lone LCS appearance, giving up 2 earned runs in 3.1 innings against the Giants in 2012.

Hudson had the better numbers in 2014, and with his overall body of work, you'd favor him in a head-to-head matchup over Miller.

As long as the back end of the Giants rotation does its job and the pitching staff cools off Carpenter's bat, San Francisco could continue the even-year trend.

Prediction: Giants in 6