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Welcome to a Marathon Day of Playoff Baseball
It is Day 2 of the 2020 Major League Baseball postseason, and it is a doozy: An orgiastic, 13-hour baseball-a-thon, with an unprecedented series of eight playoff games on a virtual conveyor belt of high-stakes action.
It starts at noon Eastern time in Atlanta, with the next five games scheduled to begin every hour until the Yankees play in Cleveland at 7 p.m. Eastern time, and it lasts until the final pitch is thrown in Los Angeles between the Dodgers and Brewers, probably around 1 a.m., and half of them will be elimination games.
“It’s going to be crazy,” said Chicago White Sox pitcher Dallas Keuchel, who will pitch in the third game of the day against the Athletics in Oakland. “It’s almost kind of like a jumbled mess.”
Tuesday was the warm up-act, when baseball turned the page from an abbreviated regular season to an expanded postseason. There were four American League playoff games scheduled Tuesday, starting with the Houston Astros against the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis.
But on Wednesday, when the National League joins the fray, the curtain will rise on the main stage for what may more closely resemble the early days of the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament than a traditional day of playoff baseball.
“March Madness is one of my favorite times of the year,” said Dusty Baker, the Astros manager, who is leading his fifth different team to the postseason. “This is like September Madness.”
Wednesday’s Schedule
(All times Eastern)
Reds at Braves, 12 p.m. (ESPN)
Astros at Twins, 1 p.m. (ESPN2)
Marlins at Cubs, 2 p.m. (ABC)
White Sox at A’s, 3 p.m. (ESPN)
Blue Jays at Rays, 4 p.m. (TBS)
Cardinals at Padres, 5 p.m. (ESPN2)
Yankees at Indians, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
Brewers at Dodgers, 10 p.m. (ESPN)
Twins in Danger After Rosario Is Ejected
Eddie Rosario, the Twins’ left fielder and cleanup hitter, was thrown out of the game by the home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez in the bottom of the sixth inning with the score tied, 1-1.
With a steady rain falling, Rosario got upset by a called strike during his at-bat in the sixth. Then, after he struck out swinging, he turned and said something to Gonzalez, who did not hesitate to eject him.
The Twins are already without the center fielder Byron Buxton, who was out of the lineup because of an unspecified physical problem. Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli would only say before the game that Buxton was not feeling 100 percent. Buxton was hit in the head with a pitch last week and had reported concussion-like symptoms.
Buxton’s absence paved he way for the rookie Alex Kiriloff to play in his first major league game in right field, and Jake Cave replaced Rosario in left.
Carlos Correa gave the Astros the lead, 2-1, with a home run in the top of the seventh. The Twins have nine more outs to score a run, or their season is over.
Game 5 Preview: Blue Jays at Rays
These are heady days in the Tampa Bay area. The Lightning just won the Stanley Cup on Monday night, Tom Brady has led the Buccaneers to a 2-1 record in his first year there, and the Rays made good on their No. 1 seeding in the American League on Tuesday with a 3-1 win over the Blue Jays at Tropicana Field.
Tampa, which went 40-20 in the regular season, hands the ball to Tyler Glasnow, their tall right-hander who will be making his first postseason start since last year’s debacle in Game 5 of the A.L. division series against the Astros in Houston. In that game, he gave up four runs in two and two-thirds innings, which in retrospect was an early indication of Astro sign-stealing via illegal means at Minute Maid Park. The Rays were clearly worried about it, because Rays catcher Travis d’Arnaud used three sets of signs even when there were no Astros runners on base. But Glasnow reported after the game that it was his fault because he had been tipping his pitches. It could have been both.
Today, Glasnow squares off against Hyun-jin Ryu, who has pitched well in his first year with the Blue Jays. Ryu also pitched twice against the Rays in Tampa this year, and the Jays went 1-1 in those games.
But things have changed since then. Now it’s Title Town Tampa.
Game 4 Preview: White Sox at Athletics
Oakland’s terrific regular season, in which they tied for the third-best record in baseball and earned a No. 2 seed in the American League, is all on the line today when they face the Chicago White Sox in Oakland.
The White Sox blasted the A’s, 4-1, in Game 1 on Tuesday as Tim Anderson’s warning about lefties proved accurate. Anderson noted before Game 1 that perhaps the A’s “didn’t do their homework” because they started the lefty Jesus Luzardo, and Chicago rakes left-handers. The Sox went 14-0 against lefties in 2020, and their O.P.S. was .887, compared to .749 against right-handers. And it was a pair of righties, Jose Abreu and Adam Engel, who homered off Luzardo.
Oakland makes a correction in Game 2 as Chris Bassitt — a right-hander who was drafted and came up to the big Leagues with the White Sox — starts against his old organization. He did not put much credence in Anderson’s comments, saying before Game 1, “I don’t give a damn what you did against lefties. These three games are what matters.”
If the A’s don’t show improvement, though, they might not even get to a third game.
Game 3 Preview: Marlins at Cubs
There’s remarkable historical symmetry around the Marlins’ return to the postseason for the first time since 2003: They clinched a playoff berth in the Bronx, where they won the 2003 World Series, and they play today at Wrigley Field, where they won the 2003 N.L. pennant.
Today’s starter, Sandy Alcantara, was only 8 years old back then, and he’s coming off a strong September in which he lasted at least six innings in all five starts, with a 2.30 E.R.A. He’s backed by a surprisingly stout veteran bullpen cobbled together on the fly by Derek Jeter’s front office, which made 174 roster moves this season.
The Cubs, who start the efficient, soft-tossing veteran Kyle Hendricks, have many of the same characters who won the 2016 World Series, but few were very productive this season: Kyle Schwarber (.188 average), Javy Baez (.203), Kris Bryant (.206) and Anthony Rizzo (.222) all performed well below norms, but Ian Happ and Jason Heyward had strong seasons, and the Cubs are one of the best defensive teams in the majors.
Game 2 Preview: Astros at Twins
Very few people outside of Houston have much interest in witnessing the Astros advance deeper into the playoffs, but that could happen today with one more win over the Minnesota Twins in their Wild Card matchup. The playoff-tested Astros, who incurred the wrath of so many fans for their sign-stealing in 2017, stunned the Minnesota Twins, 4-1, in Game 1 on Tuesday. Despite a mediocre season (Houston went 29-31), the Astros could earn a spot today in the divisional round of the playoffs for the fifth time in six years as they seek their second World Series title in four years.
The Twins, meanwhile, just want to win a game, just one game, and see what that feels like. They are desperately seeking their first postseason win since Game 1 of the 2004 division series at Yankee Stadium. Since that night, the Twins have lost 17 straight playoff games, the longest such streak ever among all four of the major North American sports. The Chicago Blackhawks are second, with 16 consecutive losses from 1975 through 1979.
Now, Minnesota’s season is in the hands of the right-hander Jose Berrios, who has a 6.43 earned run average in five career starts against the Astros. Houston responds with Jose Urquiddy, the beefy right-hander who showed his mettle out of the bullpen in last year’s playoffs when he allowed only one run in 10 postseason innings.
Game 1 Preview: Reds at Braves
One of the fun things about these first-round matchups is that almost all teams are meeting for the first time. Teams played only within their geographic regions in the regular season, so the Braves and the Reds — two charter National League franchises — are just now facing off in 2020.
Last night in Cleveland, the Yankees flattened the Indians’ Shane Bieber when he stepped outside the comforts of the Central. Can the Braves do the same to Trevor Bauer? Like Bieber, Bauer is likely to win his league’s Cy Young Award. But the Braves have an extraordinary offense that ranked first in the majors in on-base plus slugging percentage (.832) and second in runs, behind the Dodgers. Can Bauer, a master pitcher and provocateur, tame Freddie Freeman, Ronald Acuna Jr. and friends? And if he does, will the Reds’ offense hit Max Fried and the Braves’ stingy bullpen?
Batting average isn’t everything, of course, but it’s still worth noting that the Reds hit only .212 this season — the lowest mark in the majors since the 1910 White Sox.
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October 01, 2020 at 01:50AM
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