Houston clinched, Oakland is close, the Dodgers still need 8 but Seattle and Arizona are almost out of the hunt.

Yuli Gurriel smacked 2 home runs and George Spinger nabbed one as the Astros powered their way into the playoffs with a 11-3 victory over the Angels Friday. Not far behind though are the Athletics who won in the 10th on Khris Davis’ 2nd home run of the day and 45th of the year. The win coupled with Seattle’s loss to Texas put the Mariners in jeopardy of falling out of the playoff picture all together. An Oakland win or a Seattle loss means the Mariners are done for the year. Tampa Bay is still in the mix but Oakland is still sitting at a magic number of 3 for making the post season.

In the National League, the Dodgers fell to the Padres 5-3 as Hunter Renfroe and Freddy Glavis went deep in LA to push San Diego to their 62nd win. One more and they are guaranteed to have fewer than 100 losses this year which would be an accomplishment. Colorado took advantage of the stumble to pick up a game and move to 1.5 games back by beating Arizona 6-2. German Marquez picked up 11 strike outs in the effort as Arizona fell to 6 games behind LA and St. Louis for the playoffs and as it stands, it looks like it’s a 3 team race and Arizona is gonna be watching from home. Another team that’ll be home in October is San Francisco who lost to St. Louis 5-3.

Pitcher of the Day: German Marquez, COL – 7 INN, 11 K, 2 ER
Player of the Day: Yuli Gurriel, HOU – 3-4, 2 R, 7 RBI, 2 HR

Sports – West Coast Baseball – Teams Are Clinching

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I was watching a nice game where my Angels who had been losing just threw up 5 runs in the 8th to take a 5–1 lead. I was glad to see my team was gonna stop their losing streak and put up a respectful showing and head into the series finale in Houston tied 1–1. That enjoyment didn’t last long though as the Astros pieced together 3 walks, 5 singles, an error, and a home run into a 9 run inning. With the 10–5 win, Houston cut their magic number for winning the AL West down to 5 games of the Athletics. And with games like this I wouldn’t be surprised if Mike Scioscia decides to call it quits after this season.

So the Astros won again and the Athletics reduced their magic playoff number to 1 with a walk-off win against Minnesota. And everyone else in the AL West are just waiting for the season to be over…at least Texas is as Seattle stomped all over them 13–0. Robinson Cano went 3–4 with 4 RBIs and was a triple shy of the cycle for the Mariners but they’re just looking at next season at this point.

In the National League, things are much tighter. The Dodgers remain on the top of the NL West as they beat the Padres 7–2. They stayed 1.5 games ahead of Colorado who pretty much ended Arizona’s hunt for post season play. The 5–1 loss to the Rockies was their 7th in the last 8 games and with a 5–15 record in September, the team is gonna be glad once the month is over. The final game featuring the NL West saw San Francisco help St. Louis remain in control in the wildcard race. Their 4–5 loss let the Cardinals remain 1.5 games ahead of the Rockies for the last NL wildcard spot.

Pitcher of the Day: Marco Gonzales SEA – 6 INN, 3 K, 0 ER, 1 H
Player of the Day: Robinson Cano, SEA – 3–4, 4 RBI, 2B, HR

Sports – West Coast Baseball – One Week To Go

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Both leaders won and Colorado kept pace as Oakland still gained a game in the wildcard hunt even though they lost to Minnesota.

Houston maintained their dominance over the Angels and reduced their magic number to 3 to win the West with a 6–2 victory. Framber Valdez struck out 9 in 6 inning of relief and Evan Gattis went 3 for 3 in the game.

In LA, the Dodgers improved to 14–5 against the last place Padres with a dominant 14–0 outing. Hyun-Jin Ryu excelled on both sides of the scoring as he went 6 innings and struck out 8 while going 3 for 3 with 2 runs scored at the plate.

Colorado ended Arizona’s post season hope as Kyle Freeland threw 7 strong innings and struck out out 6. The Rockies handed the D-Backs their 16th loss of the month 2–0 and slammed the door in their face. The Rockies are still looking to see if the can play in October as they’re still looking up at the Dodgers and Cardinals.

The other wildcard hopeful, Oakland, faltered but still gained In their magic number as Seattle lost as well. They were put down by Texas who may very well have seen the last home game by Adrian Beltre at Global Life Park.

Finally, San Francisco let the Cardinals keep their push for the playoffs ahead of the Rockies as they lost 2–9 to St. Louis.

Sports – West Coast Baseball – Arizona’s Hope Is Ended<_font><_p>

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I had a post put together covering yesterday’s games but I hated it as I spent way to long at the dentist today. Oh well the bottom line is…Houston won and moved closer to the AL West title. Oakland won and guaranteed they are in the playoffs. The Dodgers moved closer to clinching the NL West and Colorado held on to their hope as they won and St. Louis lost.

Good Days

Here are some of the good player performances for Monday:

David Freese, LAD – 3–4, HR, 2 RBI
Ketel Marte, ARI – 3–4, HR, 3B, 3 RBI
Gerrardo Parra, COL 3–4, 2 R, 1 RBI
Jonathan Lucroy, OAK – 2–3, 2 R, RBI, HR

And the Pitcher of the Day goes to Bryan Mitchell of the Padres who almost threw a complete game shutout. As it was, he threw 8 2/3 innings giving up 7 hits and striking out 7 and the Padres beat San Francisco 5–0.

Sports – West Coast Baseball – Disliked My Post at the Dentist

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3 of the 6 games the Western teams played in on Tuesday resulted in pinch-hit, walk-off wins and I think we can probably call it a year of walk-offs. I mentioned about a month ago that this year featured the most walk-off home runs in baseball history and things haven’t slowed down in the time since. Just Tuesday, in the West, there were 2 walk-off HRs and a walk-off single. It was truly a day to stick around at the park until the end.

Walk-Offs

The first walk-off wasn’t a home run but it may have been the strangest as Madison Bumgarner was called upon to pinch hit for the Giants in the 12th. They had already used 21 players when Bumgarner came to the plate and smacked a one-strike pitch to left to score Gorkys Hernandez…San Francisco wins 5-4 over the Padres. The next walk-off was in the 9th inning for Arizona, and this one was a home run. Eduardo Escobar who came into the game in the 7th to pinch hit and then stayed at 3rd base stepped up with no outs in the 9th and drilled a 3-2 pitch over the right field wall to score the winning run to beat the Dodgers 4-3. Finally, in Seattle, the Athletics and Mariners were fighting tooth and nail and found themselves locked in an 8-8 tie heading into the bottom of the 11th. Robinson Cano flies out and Ben Gamel walks to set up a pinch-hit situation for Chris Herrmann. He knocked a one-strike pitch over the fence in right center to win the game 10-8.

As far as the playoffs go, Houston won their 100th game and earned the AL West Division Championship on Tuesday. The Dodgers lost ground to Colorado who also picked up a game on St. Louis. As of this morning, the Rockies were sitting half a game behind the Dodgers for the NL West lead and were ahead of St. Louis by half a game in the wildcard race.

Pitcher of the Day: Madison Bumgarner, SF – no pitching but hit the walk-off singel to lead the Giants to victory
Player of the Day: Freddy Glavis, SD 4–5, 2 2B, BB

Sports – West Coast Baseball – Pinch-Hit-Walk-Off-Palooza

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The season may be winding down but the playoff race is continuing to be red hot. Oakland’s win against Seattle may not have helped with their pursuit of the AL West title, which is over, but it did move them closer to the Yankees and the first spot in the AL wildcard race. Right now, New York is a game and a half up on the Athletics for home field in the one game wildcard match. 4 Athletics homered in the game including Matt Olson who hit a grand slam and Khris Davis who smacked his MLB leading 47th.

In the NL, there was a huge mixup as Colorado won and took over the NL West lead from the Dodgers who lost to Arizona. St. Louis also lost so…they’re a full game behind LA in the NL wildcard race. Meanwhile in a non-West twist, Milwaukee is now only half a game behind the Cubs for the NL Central division. So much going on. Colorado’s German Marquez tied a MLB record as he struck out the first 8 Phillies he faced. 4 home runs powered the 14 run outburst and with their 6th victory in a row, Colorado looks legit.

Other games in the West included the Angels winning their 3rd in a row and sweeping Texas, 3–2. The Padres beat up on San Francisco and Houston took a break to lose to Toronto – not that this really has any bearing on the playoffs.

Player of the Day: Matt Olson, 1–5, HR, 4 RBI, grand slam
Pitcher of the Day: German Marquez, COL – 7 INN, 0 ER, 2 H, 11 K

Sports – West Coast Baseball – Colorado Takes Control<_font><_p>

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On a day where there were only 3 games scheduled that involved the West, there wasn’t a lot of movement in the standings or playoff situation. Houston already is in, and they already won the AL West title but they got a nice day off as their game against Baltimore was postponed. Houston may have the best record in the AL West but Boston has had the luxury of playing 19 games against the worst team in baseball and they actually lost 3 of them. It’s an easy way to pad you’re record when you get to face off against a team that’s not even won 3 outta every 10 games. In any case, neither of these team played on Thursday.

The one team that played that has an impact on the playoff situation was Colorado and they’re currently on fire.

The Rockies picked up win number 89 on the season by taking their 7th in a row. They beat the Phillies5–3 behind homers by Story, Dahl, and Parra. For Dahl, it was his 4th home run in as many games and Trevor Story smashed his 35th of the year. The win gave the Rockies a little bit of breathing room as they picked up half a game on the idle Dodgers and Cardinals. Wade Davis picked up his franchise-record 42nd save as Colorado is close to punching their ticket to the playoffs. As things stand right now, their magic number for the NL West is 3 (over the Dodgers) but for the playoffs in general, another win by the Rockies and a loss by St. Louis will guarantee them a spot. That means they could be in as soon as today.

In the other game Thursday, Texas threw a shutout against the Mariners 2–0. Ariel Jurado threw 6 innings of 2 hit ball and Jose Leclerc pitched another shutout inning to close out the game, it was his 21st scoreless inning in a row.

Pitcher of the Day: Ariel Jurado, TEX – 6 INN, 2 H, 3 K, 0 ER
Player of the Day: David Dahl, COL – 2–4, HR, 3B, 2 RBI

Sports – West Coast Baseball – Colorado Wins Again

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With 3 days left in the season there are still playoff spots that haven’t been claimed and the West has the upper hand. At least for the final NL playoff spot. In the NL, the Rockies are already guaranteed a spot and they are looking like they will probably be the NL West Division Champs. With their 8th win in a row, a 5–2 victory over Washington, the Rockies ensure that they will be in the playoffs. David Dahl hit a home run in his 5th game in a row and Kyle Freeland improved to 17–7 with a minuscule 2.85 ERA for a pitcher that plays half his games in Colorado. This team is definitely hot at the right time of the season.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers picked up a win against the Giants, 3–1. Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched 6 strong innings of 1-run ball and Justin Turner smacked a 2-run home run to break a 1–1 tie in the 5th to drop LA’s magic number to 1 for a postseason berth. Enrique Hernandez added a 3–4 night as the Dodgers stayed a game and a half in front of St. Louis for the final wild card spot.

Things are more certain in the AL where Oakland’s 8–5 loss to the Angels ensured that they would end up as the 2nd wildcard spot. This means they’ll head to New York on Wednesday to face the Yankees in the one game wildcard playoff. At the same time, my Angels team has put together a nice little win streak. They’ve picked up 4 in a row and have an outside chance of ending the season at .500. They still have a couple of games against Oakland but the Athletics will probably be thinking about Wednesday more than this weekend.

In other games, Arizona lost to San Diego 3–2, Houston notched victory 101 with a win over Baltimore, and Texas dropped number 93 against Seattle 12–6.

Pitcher of the Day: Eric Lauer, SD – 6.1 INN, 0 ER, 6 K
Player of the Day: Ohtani, LAA – 3–3, 1 R, 2 RBI,

Sports – West Coast Baseball – Not Decided Yet

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The Dodgers got into the playoffs with a win over San Francisco, 10–6 but they also forced a decisive game 162 as the Rockies fell to Washington, 12–2. Kershaw did not have his best stuff but the offense came through and carried the team to victory. Meanwhile, the Rockies were dominated by the Nationals and their 8 game win streak was snapped.

Those were the only 2 games that held any relevance for the post season situation as everything else is pretty set as far as the West goes. In the NL Central, Milwaukee and Chicago are tied atop the division and one will be the division winner and the other will host the wildcard game.

The other game in the NL West saw Arizona beat the Padres 5–4 on the power of Ildemaro Vargas who hit his first home run of his career while going 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs.

In the AL West, Edwin Diaz tied Bobby Thigpen for the 2nd most saves in a season at 57. The only player to save more games in a year was Francisco Rodriguez with 62 in 2008 for the Angels. Unfortunately, the Mariners only won 31 games where he didn’t get the save and fell short of the playoffs. The save locked up the Mariners’ 4–1 victory over Texas.

Oakland picked up a win over the Angels 5–2, dashing LA’s hopes for a .500 season but with so many injuries throughout the year it was surprising they got close to the 50/50 mark anyway. The Athletics prepare to head to New York for Wednesday’s wildcard matchup with the Yankees.

Finally, Houston picked up a couple of victories in Baltimore as they put things on cruise control for the double header. Verlander did pick up 10 strike outs even though he didn’t get the win in one of the games. They’ll enter the final day of the season with a chance to pick up their 104th win.

*****UPDATE Sunday @ 2pm******

Wow! It looks like there might be a couple of games tomorrow as the NL have 2 divisions that are tied and all 4 teams are winning!

Sports – West Coast Baseball – Headed to a Decisive Game 162

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162 games and we still don’t know which teams are the best in the NL Central and the NL West. With a 15–0 games and a 12–0 game, LA and Colorado put a pair of exclamation points on the end of the season and emphatically declared they want to be division champs. But at 91–71 each, they’re gonna have play game #163 to figure out who is gonna win the West. Chicago and Milwaukee also need a 163rd game to determine the Central. Regardless, each of these 4 teams will play further into October as the playoffs get into full swing.

Featuring 3 home runs by Barnes, Muncy, and Dozier, and a 3 for 3 game by Kemp, the Dodgers wanted there to be no question they deserved to fight for the Western crown. They put together 16 hits while Rich Hill and the bullpen held the Giants to only 2.

Not to be outdone, Colorado shutout the Nationals and Charlie Blackmon put on a show, hitting for the cycle, scoring 3 runs and knocking in 3. Arenado hit a couple of HRs while Story picked up his 36th and Dahl smashed his 6th in the last 7 games.

Today’s 163rd game is at 1:09 Pacific Time in LA and features 23 year old German Marquez (14–10, 3.76 ERA) against 24 year old Walker Buehler (7–5, 2.76).

The Rest

The rest of the West wasn’t as exciting. The Angels staged a walk-off victory at home against the Athletics, 5-4. The Padres had a walk-off as well against the D-Backs in their 10th inning 4-3 victory. Houston was shutout by Baltimore but they had playoffs on their minds and were taking things easy on Sunday. And finally, Texas only managed a single run against Seattle on lost 3-1.

162 games for most and the playoffs start on Tuesday…but for a few, there’s no rest and a 163rd game is required.

Sports – West Coast Baseball – Game 163 is Today for 4 Teams

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It took 163 games but there is finally a NL Western Division Champion and it’s the same one we’ve had for the past 6 seasons. In a one game playoff, the Dodgers dominated the Rockies for 8 innings and then gave up a couple of home runs when it was too late for Colorado to come back. Max Muncy and Cory Bellinger each hit 2-run home runs that produced more than enough runs for Walker Buehler to pick up his 8th win of the season (yeah, this game is considered a regular season game). Buehler was great, allowing 4 Rockies to get on base and only one by a hit over 6 2/3 innings. He also picked up an RBI – his first of the year (and of his career) when he singled in the 6th inning to drive in Enrique Hernandez. Muncy was my player of the day as he went 2 for 4 with the home run, 2 RBIs, and 2 runs scored. But fir the most part, the Dodgers clearly were in control for the whole game.

German Marquez tried his best, striking out 9 but a passed ball in the 4th allowed Muncy to get to first base on a strike out. Given 4 outs in the inning, the Dodgers capitalized on the mistake and after what would have been the 3rd out of the inning, Bellinger smacked a home run to center scoring Muncy. 2 unearned runs and the Dodgers didn’t look back. David Dahl who’d been on a tear with 6 HRs in the past 7 games was held hitless and while Charlie Blackmon got on base 3 times there was no one who could knock him in.

With the win, the Dodgers take their 6th NL West Division title in as many years and host Atlanta on Thursday. Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu will start at home against the Braves while Buehler will get the start in game 3 at Atlanta.

For the Rockies, they head to Chicago to face the Cubs who lost to Milwaukee on Monday 3–1. Kyle Freeland (17–7, 2.85 ERA) faces off against Jon Lester (18–6, 3.32 ERA) in the NL Wild Card Game today.

Sports – West Coast Baseball – After 163 Games We Have a Division Champ

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The normal high powered Rockies took 13 innings to break through the solid pitching of the Cubs to pull off the win in the NL Wild Card game 2–1.

There were no home runs and not even extra base hits in the 13th…the game was won on a few singles. The 8th pitcher of the night for Chicago just didn’t have his best stuff. Kyle Hendricks, who’s usually a starter, gave up 3 singles in a row. To Trevor Story, Gerardo Parra, and Tony Wolters. Story scored to break the tie game and Scott Oberg struck out the side in the Cubs’ 13th.

Both starters, Jon Lester and Kyle Freeland both pitched like they belonged on the mound in the playoffs. Freeland threw 6 2/3 innings, struck out 6 and gave up 4 hits. Lester on the other hand struck out 9 over 6 innings though he gave up a single run. Regardless of their great starts I have to give my Pitcher of the Game to Oberg who struck out all 4 Cubs he faced to pick up the win.

Story gets my Player of the Game for going 3 for 6 and scoring the winning run.

It’s kinda a bummer the Wild Card winner is determined by a single game but that’s how things are set up right now. And the Rockies won that single game and they head to Milwaukee next to continue their pursuit of the World Series.

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I’m not really sure why the Athletics put Liam Hendricks on the mound to start their one and only playoff game this season but whatever the plan was, it failed miserably.

I am pretty sure that 2018 will go down as the year of unorthodox pitching strategies. We had the bullpen game and we had the “opener” game, and for many teams they only allowed the starter to pitch through the opposing lineup twice fearing the latest research that the third time is the charm.

The unusual has become the new normal so much that a team who made it to the playoffs decided it was their best hope in the one and only game they would play in the post season. Of course it would be their only game if they lost, and that’s what happened.

Opener/starter Liam Hendricks was completely overmatched in the first inning and setup the Yankees to dominate Oakland 7–2.

With the strategy Oakland basically handed their one chance at moving on in the playoffs to a pitcher who was 0–1 with a 4.13 ERA. Sure he may have pitched well in September but is this the guy you want starting your most important game of the season? I certainly wouldn’t want this, but then, it appears Billy Beane wanted to leave his team’s fate to relief pitchers. He had 11 pitchers on the post season roster and all but 1 was a reliever. Granted, they could mix things up if they won and moved to the next round but obviously that didn’t work out.

For the Yankees, they went with the traditional starter – Luis Severino. He only pitched 4 innings but he struck out 7 and gave up no runs. He went out and pitched his heart out, just as though he were a dedicated reliever and he left nothing in the tank. This is the playoffs after all and while in the regular season it may seem like a good idea to have an opener who’s gonna go out and throw his hardest knowing he’s only gonna pitch an inning, in the playoffs all pitchers know they might only pitch an inning or two. So you should put your best pitcher on the mound and those are usually starters.

There’s a different mentality in the playoffs. Pitchers are gonna get pulled, and early, if they are ineffective since there’s no margin for error. So starters go out with the same live or die attitude that a reliever would have during the regular season. Severino saw himself as the only thing standing between his team and elimination from the playoffs, so he pitched like it. He was invested.

Hendricks was just an “opener”. He went out there knowing he was only gonna pitch one inning and he was done. He had no investment in the game beyond that. So if he made a mistake or two, other relievers would pick him up. The only problem was, this was the playoffs and every run means so much more.

The bottom line is that the experiment failed. It may work as a gimmick in the regular season but in the playoffs where a team needs the win you’re better off letting a starter go 3 or 4 innings and then relieve him.

On the offensive side of things, Oakland was pretty much shut down. They had opportunities as Severino walked 4 in the first 4 innings but they just could not capitalized on anything. Their one shining moment was a Khris Davis home run in the 8th but by then time was running out fast.

Overall, it was a good season for Oakland who came into it with one of the lowest team salaries in baseball but who made it to the playoffs. A few more pieces or a better strategy and they could have made it further.

Hopefully next year they’ll represent the West a bit better once and if they make it to the post season.

The post What Was the Plan? appeared first on Beyond Tannhauser Gate.

The West got one win and one loss on Thursday but for some reason I lost my post on the games. I had a cool post with witty comments and insights into the stats but I Left it at work without syncing my Evernote. Oh well, here’s a short post about the games.

Hyun-Jin Ryu dominated Atlanta on Thursday pitching 7 innings of shutout ball. He struck out 8 and only gave up 4 hits. Joc Pederson scored all the runs needed in the first at bat for the Dodgers by smashing a leadoff home rum but that wasn’t all the scoring. Max Muncy mashed a 3-run HR in the 2nd and Enrique Hernandez hit his own in the 6th. As I mentioned though, Pederson‘s was the On,y one needed.

Colorado on the other hand had to fight tooth and nail but fell short in Milwaukee. For the 3rd October game the Rockies only scored 2 runs and they weren’t enough this time. It took them until the 9th to finally break through on the Brewers pitching and the 2 runs tied up the game and sent things into extras. Even with the “bullpen game” of Milwaukee, they weren’t able to get on the board sooner. And then they couldn’t hold the Brewers in the 10th. There gonna have to get back to scoring more runs if they’re gonna start winning.

Pitcher of the Day: Hyun-Jin Ryu, LAD – 7 INN, 4 H, 0ER, 8K
Player of the Day: Max Muncy, LAD – 1–4, 1 R, 3 RBI, 3 BB

Sports – West Coast Baseball – One Win, One Loss<_font><_p>

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The Houston Astros had a plan and they executed it to near perfection on Friday. Their ace starter pitched 5 1/3 solid innings and their potent offense smashed 4 home runs as they easily walked away from game 1 in their division series with a 7–2 victory over the Indians.

The Dodgers also executed their plan to perfection shutting down Atlanta for the 2nd game in a row. After a masterful game pitched my Hyun-Jin Ryu on Thursday the Braves had to face the best pitcher of current times in Clayton Kershaw. He held them to 2 hits over 8 innings and they never had a chance.

Both alums of last years’ World Series are on a direct path for a collision in the Series again and I’m looking forward to it.

Boston took a step closer to their season goal as well as they beat their division rival Yankees 4–5. And Milwaukee is on the verge of eliminating Colorado from contention with their 4–0 win.

Player of the Day: Alex Bregman, HOU – 2–3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR, 1 BB
Pitcher of the Day: Clayton Kershaw, LAD – 8 INN, 2 H, 3 K, 0 ER

The post All According to Plan appeared first on Beyond Tannhauser Gate.

Game 2 is in the books for the defending champions and once again they had things working on the mound and at the plate. Gerrit Cole may have give up a run on a 3rd inning HR to Francisco Lindor but that was all Cleveland got from the Astros. He pitched 7 innings with only that one blemish and put together 12 strike outs.

Meanwhile, Marwin Gonzalez went 4 for 4 with a 2-run double that put the Astros ahead in the 6th and they never looked back. Alex Bregman added an insurance run in the 7th with a home run but the6 didn’t really need it with how well the team was firing on the mound.

In the other game, New York tied up their series with Boston with a 6–2 victory.

Player of the Day:Marwin Gonzalez, HOU – 4–4, 2 RBI, 2B
Pitcher of the Day: Gerrit Cole, HOU – 7 INN, 3 H, 1 ER, 12 K

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Colorado’s post season journey has come to an end. Their mighty offense was silenced by the pitching of the Brewers and in three games, the Rockies only scored 2 runs. A team that was only shut out twice all season long was held scoreless in 2 consecutive games in the playoffs – it was also the first time EVER that the Rockies were held scoreless in consecutive games when at least one of the games took place at Coors Field. I’m surprised by this turn of events particularly since I hadn’t heard about the dominance of the Brewers’ pitching. Hmm…turns out they use a bunch of relievers instead of standard starters and even their traditional starters only pitch twice through the batting order. It looks like there very well could be fewer positions available in the future for starters that can pitch a whole 9 innings. If a team in the playoffs can be this successful against such a potent offense other teams will try to copy them. Regardless, my hat goes off to the Brewers who not only held Colorado to 2 runs, they only allowed 14 hits in 3 games – wow!

The Dodgers also had to put their League Championship Series plans on hold Sunday as the Braves turned on the power. They did so with a grand slam by Ronald Acuna in the 2nd inning and a Freddie Freeman home run in the 6th. So while Colorado scored a couple in the first game of the NLDS and still lost, Atlanta waited until they got back home to finally score, and they smashed enough that they pulled off the win. It’ll be interesting to see id they can keep up the power and scoring against Rich Hill today, but for one day in October, Atlanta was better than the Dodgers.

The Dodgers may have lost but they at least put up a good fight. Chris Taylor hit a 2-run home run, Max Muncy hit a solo shot and, Justin Turner knocked in a couple with a single in the 3rd, but the 5 runs were not enough.

Today’s game will show if the home teams keep winning or not but it should be good. Rich Hill goes up against Mike Foltynewicz and the Braves are looking to take another trip back to LA.

Pitcher of the Day: Milwaukee Pitchers – 28 INN, 2 ER, 14 H, 30 K
Player of the Day: Chris Taylor, LAD – 1–3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR

Sports – West Coast Baseball – A Balk and a Grand Slam and Both Western Team Lose

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I Haven’t had much of an opportunity to put anything together in terms of a post for today but regardless, the baseball playoffs continued. Both Western teams that played, Houston and Los Angeles won not only their games but ensured their advancement to the next level of the playoffs.

Houston smashed Cleveland 11 to 3. George Springer smacked two home runs and once they got rolling in the seventh-inning, the Astros never looked back. Carlos Correa also contributed with a 3-run HR in the 8th. With the win, Houston advances to the championship of the American League where they will face either Boston or New York depending on who wins the game today in New York. Actually, if New York wins the series goes to a game five.

The Dodgers on the other hand know exactly who they will be taking on in the National League championship series. Milwaukee took down Colorado with a 3 game sweep and with the Dodger victory over Atlanta it will be a Dodgers/Brewers championship bout.

The Dodgers got a 3-run HR from Manny Machado in the 7th but they were already up 3 to 2. Rich Hill gave up both runs in 4 1/3 innings but even giving up 5 walks, he was able to keep the game in control.

In all, it was a Western day as both teams advanced.

The post A Western Day appeared first on Beyond Tannhauser Gate.

This was not a good showing for the Dodgers even though they had their best pitcher on the mound. How is a team expected to win a game in the League Championship Series when they commit 4 errors and allow 2 passed balls? It isn’t impossible but the Dodgers showed they couldn’t do it. Sure, they came close to a comeback win but they dug their hole too deep for that in Game 1.

The Dodgers got on the board first with a quick home run by Manny Machado in the 2nd and things looked good. With Kershaw on the mound and a lead, even if it was only a single run, the Dodgers were close to winning already. But then in the 3rd inning, the newly entered relief pitcher, Brandon Woodruff became the first left handed hitting pitcher to homer off Kershaw and the third reliever to hit a home run in the playoffs. That started the ball rolling for Milwaukee who ended up scoring 2 in the 3rd and another 3 in the 4th to knock Kershaw outta the game.

But the Dodgers weren’t gonna let that score stand. They rattled off a 3-run inning of their own in the 8th on singles by Yasmani Grandal, Chris Taylor, Manny Machado, and Matt Kemp. That lead to a controversial play overturned at first in the 9th that saw the Dodgers down to their last out when Joc Pederson drew a walk.

With a runner at first, Chris Taylor smacked a ball to right center that was mishandled by Lorenzo Cain and resulted in a triple. With Pederson scoring the game was now a 1 run affair. Could the Dodgers score Taylor from 3rd? Well…you can figure that out on your own as Los Angeles lost 6–5.

I still don’t like these bullpen games but at least Milwaukee makes it seem that there’s more to their plan than just throwing pitchers on the mound like Oakland did.

Player of the Day: Manny Machado, LAD – 2–4, 1 R, 3 RBI, HR (Chris Taylor would have the award but he contributed 1 of the errors so that lowered the value of his 3–5 performance)
Pitcher of the Day: Brandon Woodruff, MIL – 2 INN, 0 H, 0 ER, 4 K, 1–1, HR, 1 R, 1 RBI

Sports – West Coast Baseball – 4 Errors and 2 Passed Balls<_font><_p>

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After 4 strike outs and an error on Friday you’d maybe expect that Justin Turner might be taken out for a pinch hitter on Saturday when he came up in the 8th with Chris Taylor on base. The Dodgers needed a run to tie up the game and Turner hadn’t done much in the series so far. Well it was a good thing they left him in because he smacked the winning home run. A fly ball that landed in the lower decks of left field that scored Taylor and gave the Dodgers a 4–3 lead. That hit and 4 pitchers in 2 innings kept the Dodgers in the lead to win their first game in the League Championship Series. The series is tied up at 1–1 now and heads back to Los Angeles for the 3rd game on Monday.

Meanwhile, Houston and Justin Verlander held the Red Sox to 2 hits and 2 runs through 6 innings while giving his offense enough time to score 3 of their own. There weren’t many hits in the game – only 8 total, but the Astros didn’t need more that the few they got and the 3 runs they scored by the 6th. That really didn’t matter since they went on a rampage in the9th to score 4 runs off Brandon Workman who’s third of an inning ended him with a 108.00 ERA for the LCS. He alone gave up 3 hits and 4 runs to the Astros as they broke the game open and finished off with a 1–0 series lead. The talented bats of the Red Sox that scored 27 runs in the previous series were pretty much silenced by Verlander and Houston. 11 strike outs and no extra base hits really hurt this team that is used to smacking home runs and doubles like there’s no tomorrow.

Pitcher of the Day: Justing Verlander, HOU – 6 INN, 2 ER, 2 H, 6 K
Player of the Day: Justin Turner, LAD – 2–4, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI

Sports – West Coast Baseball – Two West Coast Wins

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