It’s mathematically impossible to win a best-of-five series in Game 1. It’s figuratively possible to lose it, though.
And a quartet of Division Series openers on Tuesday brought a host of surprises, heart palpitations and crucial pivot points, for Game 1 certainly and quite possibly for the series in general. Fortunately, the American League will take a day to rest after Houston Astro made history.
But the defending champs will be fighting for their lives as the 111-win favorites in the NL are back at it on Wednesday. Check out four things we learned from Tuesday’s Division Series opener:
Astros-Marers: Down, but never out
It’s been eight years since the Astros began this golden era of baseball and six years of unhindered dominance that resulted in five consecutive trips to the AL Championship Series.
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And yet, the Astros find ways to make history.
Yordan Alvarez became the first player in playoff history to hit a two-out, walk-off home run with his club trailing by multiple runs, a hit by Robbie Ray capping a hard-working comeback and sending Minute Maid Park into a frenzy.
Justin Verlander and Alex Bregman said they couldn’t remember much in the haze of victory, only knowing they felt like hugging Alvarez. Dusty Baker, the 73-year-old manager who can reference Bill Russell or Stevie Wonder as casually as one might talk to their postman, called the moment “so close to the top” of the moments he’s lived through in his half-century. in the game. “I don’t know what the top is, but that’s very, very close to it.”
We’ll see how Alvarez’s sucking punch hits the Mariners; ace Luis Castillo will start Game 2, which will help manager Scott Servais recover from his disastrous decision to snap Robbie Ray on two days’ rest to pitch to Alvarez.
But it’s rarely about the opponent.
“It happens in all kinds of different ways. We know that,” says third baseman Alex Bregman, now in his sixth postseason dance. “So we know we’re never out of the game, and keep going.”
Bregman continued when he cut a 7-3 Astros deficit in half with a two-run homer in the eighth. David Hensley, the 26th man on the roster for this Division Series, kept it going as he milked an eight-pitch inning from Mariners closer Paul Sewald that culminated with a hit back-to-back pitch in a full count.
And rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena kept it going when he poked a single to dead center field by Sewald.
“I told the young guys, the one who is the most relaxed, the most focused, and is the most determined is the one who usually wins,” Baker said of Hensley and Pena. “At least you can make a good showing.”
They did something much bigger than that: They got the game to Alvarez — and apparently got into Servais’ head.
He hooked Sewald for Ray, who rarely appears in relief and was poor in a three-inning outing in Game 2 of the wild-card series at Toronto just two days earlier. Suddenly, this unprecedented feat, this departure with the home team trailing 7-5, took on a strange air of inevitability.
Alvarez delivered. And the Astros, once again, aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
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WORLD SERIES SELECTIONS: Dodgers, Braves and Astros are favorites
Dodgers-Padres: Four-header closer
It was a grim inevitability that barely caused a pregame ripple: Craig Kimbrel pitched his way off the Dodgers’ playoff roster.
LA’s 111-win regular season gave it the luxury of trying to get Kimbrel right, giving him the ball in the ninth, his comfort zone, and hoping he’d work his way back to viability.
It never happened. And this Dodgers club is so good that whoever handles the ninth inning can, on many nights, be irrelevant.
That certainly seemed the case when the Dodgers forged a 5-0 lead and ace Julio Urias retired the first nine Padres.
But the Dodgers lineup hasn’t gotten a runner on base the last five innings. The Padres chipped away at Urias for three runs in the fifth. The post-Kenley Jansen, post-Kimbrel playoff reality was about to test.
Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol and Chris Martin managed it.
Although they faltered at times, the quartet hung four zeroes on the scoreboard and iced the 5-3 victory.
It started sketchily. Phillips walked the first batter he faced and threw 20 pitches before recording an out. But with two on and Wil Myers — who had homered earlier — at the plate, Phillips got a huge break when Myers’ 100-mph single was right at second baseman Gavin Lux, who made a nice catch and flipped to shortstop Trea Turner for a huge double game
Eventually, the baton came to Martin, who was a less famous member of Atlanta’s Night Shift bullchurch last year. He didn’t join the Dodgers until a late July trade from the Cubs, one that barely caused a trade-deadline ripple.
But the evasives, as is their custom, justified him; he posted a 1.46 ERA and 1.13 FIP in 26 games with them after those numbers were 4.31/3.02 in Chicago. His final pitch, to Ha-Seong Kim, consumed a great deal of the plate, and Kim cursed himself for making it even before it settled into the glove of left fielder Trayce Thompson.
It doesn’t matter. Martin rejoiced emotionally, just as Vesia and Graterol and Phillips had done before him. The order may change on another night. The results might also differ. But the late entry committee meets successfully.
Guardians-Yankees: soft landing
Gerrit Cole’s home run problem hasn’t gone away. Josh Donaldson did some sketchy base running. The bullpen still has a dart-and-hope-for-the-good feel.
But this strange Yankees team — a 99-win champion, a flawed favorite, an unstoppable force, a disaster waiting to happen — seemed to have found the antidote to its herky-jerky performance and whatever angst might have built up over five days. dismissal – the fistless Guardians.
Oh, Cole gave up his semi-daily dinger, a third-inning solo homer to leadoff man Steven Kwan that gave Cleveland the early lead. But by the end of the Yankees’ 4-1 Game 1 win, the Rangers’ three-game playoff effort featured this disturbing statistic: Shutout in 30 of 33 innings.
Sure, they swept the Rays in two games and were competitive throughout in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. But they also had yet to score by any means other than the home run, and they had to wait 15 innings for each other the other day. On one hand, the Rangers looked like trouble coming in, with excellent starting pitching, a fearless bullpen and a contact-friendly offense catalyzed by perennial MVP candidate Jose Ramírez.
Upsetting the Yankees probably meant stealing Game 1, a possibility if Cole wasn’t on point or the Yankees sluggers got too eager against starter Cal Quantrill. But New York was waiting for Quantrill, pushing across the decisive runs in the sixth inning. And Cole — who hit an AL-high 33 home runs — overcame a high early pitch count and stuck around in the seventh, leaving just eight outs for an extraordinary Yankees bullpen to consume.
“Look, it’s hard to win playoff games,” says Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “It’s definitely really good to get the first one at home.”
Phillies-Braves: Six relievers, 17 outs
It turns out the Phillies’ playoff life wasn’t as charmed as it seemed. Even as they swept the Cardinals in the wild-card series, reliever David Robertson blew out his calf jumping to celebrate Bryce Harper’s Game 2 home run. Not what you want, sure, especially with the defending champion Braves waiting in a best-of-five series.
However, these Phillies have been in whatever mode is necessary for two weeks now.
“Someone will step up,” manager Rob Thomson said of his reinforcements.
How about half a dozen guys?
Robertson’s injury — no longer a surprise to Philly — was exacerbated when No. 3 starter Ranger Suarez couldn’t escape the fourth inning despite being gifted a 4-1 lead. So the Phillies, who have been a traditional downfall and only recently seen a sweeping reversal of roles, were tasked with steering them home.
Never mind that Jose Alvarado was sent to the minors earlier this year. That nominal closer Zach Eflin is a back starter thrown into the ‘pen because it coincided with his recovery from a knee injury. That lefty Brad Hand wasn’t even on the wild card roster and hadn’t pitched since September 20th that Seranthony Dominguez had only just worked his way back into the circle of faith.
They just kept coming, six in all, standing up to the inevitable Atlanta onslaught until a 7-1 lead turned into a 7-6 win and a huge advantage: Top starters Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola would start the next two games.
Maybe they’ll take the titles back and that’s fine. Game 1 was for the workers in the pen – perhaps none more so than Dominguez, who threw two clean innings and struck out three, bridging the gap from the middle innings into the eighth.
“These two innings today were magnificent,” Thomson said of Dominguez.
