Wowee did we have some good baseball last night. The Division Series is really turning out to be something quite special isn’t it?
Yankees 5, Twins 1 – Scouts: 2019 came to a pretty decisive conclusion for the Twins. It was a really good year, but they ran into an absolute brick wall in New York. The Yankees completed the sweep late Monday night thanks to homers by Gleyber Torres and Cameron Maybin. Minnesota just couldn’t get anything going the entire series and will have to try again next year.
Dodgers 1, Nationals 6 – Scouts: Just when you thought the Nationals were down and out, Max Scherzer comes in and throws an absolute gem of a game. Scherzer held the potent Dodgers offense to 1 run and 4 hits over 7 innings, only allowing a Justin Turner homer in the first inning. After that, Anthony Rendon and Ryan Zimmerman stepped up big for the Nats, sending this series back to L.A. for a do or die 5th game. Stephen Strasburg will face Walker Buehler in the series deciding match-up.
Braves 4, Cardinals 5 F/10 – Scouts: A day after the Braves rallied to take one away from the Cardinals, the Devil Magic appeared to return the favor. Atlanta had a 4-3 lead in the 8th when Yadier Molina singled past Freddie Freeman to score Paul Goldschmidt and send the game to extras. Then they had to wait for Yadier to step up again in the 10th, knocking in Kolten Wong with a sac fly that ended the game. Game 5 will head back to Atlanta to see Jack Flaherty face off against Mike Foltynewicz.
Astros 3, Rays 10 – Scouts: Facing elimination against the juggernaut Astros, the Rays tore Zack Greinke a new one, touching up the ace for 5 hits and 6 runs over 3.2 innings pitched. Kevin Kiermaier, Ji-Man Choi, Brandon Lowe all homered off Grenkie, with Willy Adames picking up one more for good measure in the 6th. With their backs up against the wall, the Rays will have to take down Justin Verlander next to force an elimination game.
Fan Interference 
During the Caps’ run to the Stanley Cup in 2018, the mantra was “It’s Okay to Believe”. It was coined by their radio play-by-play guy John Walton, as an acknowledgement that while fans had had their hearts broken many times over the years when the Caps lost in the playoffs, that didn’t mean that heartbreak was sure to come again that year, and ultimately, it didn’t.
The Nats’ mantra/hashtag has been “Stay in the Fight” this year, but there’s a little bit of “It’s Okay to Believe” creeping in. Last night could not have gone better for the Nats, from a pitching perspective, with Max giving all he had to get through seven, and only Doolittle and Hudson needed to close it out. This sets up Strasburg on full rest tomorrow, and every other arm except for Max should be available, although the hoped-for formula again will be “Starter goes 7 with a lead, Hudson/Doolittle get the last 2 in some order”.
About Max… His career is quite similar to Clayton Kershaw, in that he’s GOAT-level during the regular season and pedestrian, with a smattering of goat-level, during the post-season. There was a graphic flashed on screen last night that it was Scherzer’s 6th time pitching when his team faced elimination, and he was 0-2 with an ERA above 5.50 in his previous five such games (four starts) and his teams were 0-5. Last night’s performance won’t erase all of that, but it ought to buff a couple of scratches out of the clear coat of a Hall of Fame career.
As for Strasburg, he’s got an opt-out in his contract that he can exercise after this season, and there’s some concern that he might do so, because Boras. Strasburg did move his family from San Diego to DC last year, so he’s put down roots, and an opt-out may just lead to a renegotiation, but the fear is there.
Worth noting too that Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon both may have played their last game at Nats Park as Nationals last night, as Rendon’s going to hit the free agent market, and Zimmerman’s $18MM team option for next year will not be picked up. Zimmerman has made noise about being willing to come back in some kind of part time role, but he isn’t ready to retire, so we’ll see how that works out; as for Tony Two-Bags, if they can’t figure out how to re-sign him, we riot.
But enough of that; there’s a Game Five tomorrow night in LA, and I’ll just worry about that for the time being.
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Boz out here throwing shade at Prof’s boy:
“The hang time for [Zimmerman’s] 414-foot blast was a preposterous 6.1 seconds, long enough for Trea Turner to round the bases twice. Okay, long enough for a fast man to get from home to second base, or Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. to get out of the batter’s box.”
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Sorry about that, Happy. It was a good season, though; they just ran into a lumbermill saw disguised as a baseball team. It happens.
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