By Tim Peterson
Love or hate the best of three game Wild Card Series in the first round of the baseball playoffs, you have to admit one thing. It’s definitely entertaining.
You hate it because the Houston Astros, who are despised by every baseball fan in America outside of Houston and finished below .500 in the regular season, have already advanced to the American League Division series with a two game sweep of the Minnesota Twins. But you love it because you hit the remote and switch over to Braves – Reds game that lasts 13 innings.
Eight playoff games in one day? That’s a baseball fan’s dream. They need to bring back the split screen on TV.
I, as everybody else I have talked to, hated seeing the Astros advance. I’m with Dodger reliever Joe Kelly on this one. Throw at them, mock them, make faces at them, everything is fair game. What they did was cheating at the highest level and to pour salt in the wounds, they got away with it. How was their 2017 World Series Championship not vacated?
That being said this is on the Twins. They simply didn’t show up. They lost four of their last five games to close out the regular season and it continued into the playoffs. The Twins scored two runs in two games. You’re not going to beat a team down at Millham Field with that offensive production. Did you know the Twins have now lost 18 consecutive playoff games overall? They never had a chance.
Alex Rodriguez, who did a little cheating of his own when he played, did make a good point however during the Braves-Reds marathon Wednesday. What happened to the sacrifice bunt? I understand chicks dig the long ball and everybody has that guy that can immediately turn a game around with a three-run bomb. But that doesn’t always happen. When you’re in a scoreless game in the 12th inning and the leadoff batter gets on you need to move that runner over. One run is the ballgame. Neither team ever laid one down to advance a runner late in the game. Both teams were hurt by it and it ultimately cost Cincinnati the game. The Reds left eight runners on base in the last three innings and lost 1-0. Bring back the sacrifice bunt! It’s a fundamental staple of the game.
I like the Dodgers in three over the Milwaukee Brewers in a series that gets underway Wednesday night. But the three game series is scary. Just ask the Twins. Walker Buehler goes in Game 1 which is the right move. If he can have a solid performance and pick up the win there the Dodgers will be in good shape. They need to close it out in Game 2 though. The pressure in an elimination game is always amped up and anything can happen. That being said I think it will go three. The Dodgers never make things easy and this year will be no different. They will avoid an early exit though and advance. But if they don’t the Dodgers have hit the most homeruns in baseball so they, as every other team in the league, won’t rely on the bunt. So you can blame it on that.
Is it time for the Angels to trade Mike Trout? Before you scream “SACRILEGE!” consider this. They haven’t won with him. Trout has spent nine years with the club and has played in three playoff games. Three! It’s not working with him so why not see what can happen without him? I love Trout but he would bring in a huge haul. The Angels need pitching, pitching and well…pitching. If they don’t shake things up soon it’s going to be the same thing year after year. Trout won’t be opposed to it either. He wants to win a title. It’s not happening in Anaheim. The Angels fired General Manager Mike Eppler, who was close to Trout, so the groundwork has been laid. The new GM needs to make a move, a blockbuster move, and that would mean dealing Trout.
**
No I didn’t forget the Lakers are in the NBA Finals. I just got caught up with eight playoff baseball games being played in one day. I’m not locked in on the NBA like I used to be but here we go. I like the Lakers in six. LeBron James and Anthony Davis are too much for anything the Miami Heat will bring. The only thing that concerns me, as it did in the earlier rounds, is that beyond Lebron and AD, the Lakers don’t have anything else. And the Heat has Jimmy Buckets and I really like Jimmy Buckets. If the Heat wins the series can I write the headline “The Butler Did It” ?
That’s my principle.
Tim can be reached at tim.midvalleysports@gmail.com or on Twitter @tspeterson40.
Fernando Tatis, Jr. could be the best really young position player in baseball since Robin Yount (“The Kid”) became the starting shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers in the 1970’s.
Having had Covid already sweep through the team and having Mattingly in the dugout every day makes it hard to understand how the Marlins were able to advance. A five game series will expose Mattingly for the bumbling idiot he is. Atlanta moves on. Agree though that Tatis ia the real deal, and better than his father was.
GO DODGERS!
Go Marlins!
The biggest long shot ever! Advances to play another series
regardless of the ultimate winner, the biggest winner will be Fernando Tatis Jr as the East Coast Press has ignored him and his outstanding play on both sides of the plate
Will the Dodgers 2020 World Championship feel the same? Although, I do think a sixty game half sounds good, a 120 game season? I know the $$$ says No Way.
Pete with Covid survivor. LOL.
All right; the Dodgers are off to a good start in the playoffs.
Walker Buehler didn’t get the win against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night, but only because he pitched four innings instead of the required five in L.A.’s 4-2 opening-game victory.
However, Julio Urias, who’s been a starting pitcher virtually all season, got credit for the win by throwing three scoreless innings in relief of Buehler.
And, yeah, Kenley Jansen got the save. (I hope that continues during the postseason.)
Other key factors for the Dodgers were the performances of right fielder Mookie Betts and shortstop Corey Seager, who are both deserving of the National League MVP award. Betts went 2-for-4 with an RBI double and a run scored, and Seager belted a solo home run.
Hopefully, Clayton Kershaw can exorcise his demons of postseasons past by pitching L.A. to a decisive Game 2 victory over the Brewers tonight.
I agree with Tim about the sacrifice bunt; it should’ve been a virtually automatic move in extra-inning games this season. From the top of the 10th inning on, teams have started, by rule, with a runner on second base and no outs.
Just bunt the man over to third. Then, he can score on a hit, error, sacrifice fly, wild pitch, passed ball, balk, or ground ball up the middle against a drawn-in infield.
It’s so much easier to score when you have a runner just 90 feet away from home with only one out.
It’s going to take more than the Butler to do it.