By DjackFacing elimination, the Blue Jays stepped up to the plate, literally. In a series in which the Blue Jays scored all of 3 runs in the first three games they were able to put up a 5 spot on the scoreboard today. Donaldson started off the scoring in the third inning with a solo shot off Indians ace Corey Kluber. That would be the first run Kluber let up in 16 postseason innings, pretty damn impressive for a guy playing in his first postseason, not to mention he's also been facing two of the best lineups in baseball. Kluber would also let up a RBI double to Carlos Santana in the 5th, he'd finish out the inning, and that'd be his night. His counterpart Aaron Sanchez, who had an awful first outing against the Rangers early this postseason, returned to his regular season form. He allowed one run in 6 innings pitched, allowing only two hits. The Blue Jays bullpen did a great job over the course of the next three innings allowing no runs, no hits, and striking out 4. The Indians bullpen, which has been absolutely phenomenal this postseason, was anything but that today. They allowed 3 runs in 3 innings, Miller and Allen didn't pitch today, but they can't rely on those two arms every game, these other guys have to be better. Let's give some credit to the Blue Jays bats though, this is exactly what this team needed, a game where the bats got rolling again, and their pitching staff showed up. Complete team win tonight by the Blue Jays, this is a good sign going forward, having the home crowd behind them in game 5 will also give them that extra motivation to extend the series. If you're the Indians, you need to finish this team off in game 5, the last thing you want to do is restore this teams confidence. The more the Jays win, the more pressure the Indians players will start to feel, so the last thing you want is to let this series go any further. Most importantly, Toronto lives to fight another day, is there another October miracle brewing, or is this just a fluke win for the Jays. We must wait till game 5 to learn more.
By DjackThe Blue Jays have fallen into the dreaded 0-3 hole, the odds have never been more against them, and their backs never been pushed this far against the wall. Only one team in the history of baseball, which is a very very long time, has ever come back from the feared 0-3 deficit. That was the Boston Red Sox in 2004, I still have nightmares about that series, and I wouldn't wish the same upon even my worst enemies. Cleveland fans don't deserve to feel that sort of pain, they live threw that pain everyday of their life just being from Cleveland, the added distress would send the city into a suicidal state. I mean New York is one of the better places to live and I was pretty suicidal after the Yankees blew a 3-0 lead, I can't imagine what would happen to a city like Cleveland. Luckily for them, the Blue Jays are NOT the 2004 Red Sox. The 04' Red Sox were a special team, they were definitley more talented than the Blue Jays, and they had a feeling of desperation with the fan base to produce for them. A franchise that has been deprived for 86 years is a lot more hungry than a franchise that's been deprived for 20, the Red Sox had a special vibe around them, and it was basically an act of god what happen on those 4 days in October. I just can't see the Blue Jays having that same fortune. The Indians are clearly the better team, they're now 6-0 in the playoffs, and they'll probably end the series tonight capping off their second sweep of the postseason. The sooner the Indians end this series the better, because the last thing you want to do is give this Blue Jays team any sort of hope. Indians have a chance to step on the Blue Jays throat tonight and that's exactly what they need to do. Corey Kluber takes the mound today for the Indians, this is probably the last guy the Jays want to face in an elimination game. Kluber hasn't allowed a run in either of his postseason starts thus far, if that's the case today the Indians will be back in the World Series for the first time since 1997. Go Tribe Go.
By DjackDon't hang your heads Cubs fans, there's not much your Cubbies could've done to win this game, when Kershaw brings his best stuff you can't expect to beat him. The Cubs pitching staff did their part, holding the Dodgers to only one run. Adrian Gonzalez was responsible for that run, he hit a home run in the second inning off Kyle Hendricks, and it would be the difference in the game. Kershaw mowed through a Cubs lineup that is filled with lethal bats, his performance was especially impressive in a hitters ballpark like Wrigley. Javy Baez, who has been nothing short of incredible for the Cubs this postseason, missed a home run by inches off Clayton Kershaw in the 7th inning which would've tied up the game. Besides for that one little scare, despite only having a one run lead, the game was never in question. Kershaw was absolutely in the heads of the Cubs hitters, he had them looking clueless all night, leading to atrocious AB's all night from the Cubs hitters. Kershaw had 6 strikeouts, allowed only 2 hits, and 1 walk in 7 innings worth of work. Kelly Jansen came in for a six out save just 2 days after throwing the most pitches he's ever thrown in his career. He wouldn't allow a base runner, striking out 4 Cubs hitters along the way to getting the save, and securing the game 2 victory for the Dodgers. The series in now all tied up at one game a piece, too bad for the Dodgers that Clayton Kershaw can't make every start or else they'd have a real shot of winning this series. Unfortunately, that is impossible, so this loss may suck Cubs fans, but you'll be winning this series in 6 games, and you'll be heading back to the world series for the first time in 71 years.
By DjackIf the Chicago Cubs are playing and you aren't watching, you're missing some of the best postseason baseball games in a very long time. This team is so electric and has so much hype around them that the atmosphere surrounding the game elevates the play that much more. That and the Cubs knack for heroics late in games has made their postseason run so far the most fun to follow. Tonight was game one of the NLCS, a lot of people wrote off the Dodgers before a pitch had even been thrown, but after the gutsy performance they had tonight I think people may take them more seriously in this series. Jon Lester was basically unhittable for 6 innings, he let up a home run to Andre Either in the 5th inning, other than that he was essentially lights out. The Dodgers had Kenta Maeda pitching, the Cubs would get on him early with a pair of RBI double in the first two innings of the game. Javy Baez, who has done everything right so far this postseason, continued to make plays for his team, he would steal home in the third inning after getting a RBI double earlier in the inning. This kid is just a straight up difference maker, the type of player that championship caliber team's have. The score was 3-1 Cubs going into the 8th inning, this is where things got real fun. Joe Maddon would try everything to bridge the gap between Lester and Chapman, it wouldn't work though the bases would be loaded with no outs in the 8th inning when Maddon felt forced to put Chapman in the game. Chapman was able to strike out the first two batters he faced, it looked like Chapman would be able to do the unthinkable and be able to get out of the inning unscathed. Adrian Gonzalez didn't let that happen though, he drove a ball back up the middle for a 2 run single to tie the game. Chapman would then get the next guy to get out of the inning with a tie ball game. The Cubbies would strike back though, Zobrist led off the bottom of the eighth with a double, that was followed by Addison Russell grounding out, and he was unable to advance the runner. The Dodgers would then walk Heyward to get to Baez which I thought was the dumbest move ever, why would you walk Heyward who has struggled all year to get to the hottest hitter on the team, but it paid off since Baez popped out. Now the Cubs had men on first and second with two outs, Dodgers would walk the next batter to bring up the pitchers spot in the lineup so the Cubs would have to take Chapman out of the game. Miguel Montero would pinch hit for Chapman, the bases were loaded with cubs just needing a base hit to take the lead. The unlikeliest of heroes, Miguel Montero hits a grand slam, yes a grand slam to absolutely demoralize the Dodgers. This wasn't just a cheap Wrigley home run either, this ball was absolutely pissed on. Wrigleyville went bananas, the stadium started to shake, and then Dexter Fowler decided to get in on the fun making it back to back homers. This extended the lead to 8-3 and the Cubs would go onto to win the game 8-4, another late inning surge from the Cubs offense provides them a much needed game 1 victory since they have to face the greatest pitcher on the planet tomorrow, Clayton Kershaw. Would've been huge if the Dodgers could've stole game 1, especially with Kershaw pitching tomorrow, that would've really got the Cubs fans shaking in their boots.
By DjackThe Indians win game two of the ALCS in very similar fashion to their first win of this series. Timely hitting, good staring pitching, and an electric shutdown bullpen to compliment the starting pitching. This is the Indians formula to winning ball games, it just so happens to be working to perfection. Josh Tomlin started for the tribe tonight, he would follow in Corey Kluber's footsteps throwing a gem for his team in the biggest game of his career. Tomlin threw 5 2/3 innings allowing just 3 hits, 1 run on a Josh Donaldson double, and struck out 6 batters. J.A. Happ started for the Blue Jays, he would let up an early home run to Carlos Santana in the 2nd inning, but that'd be one of three mistakes that would cost him the game. The other two mistakes came in the third inning, the first of those was walking his only batter of the game, walks to start an inning never lead to good things. The last of his mistakes was letting up a base hit to Francisco Lindor that would drive in the batter he walked. Lindor has been feasting this postseason, he's been amazing all season long, but so far in these playoffs he's been especially exceptional, and everyone is finally getting to watch him play. Indians had a 2-1 lead after the Lindor RBI single, Andrew Miller would pitch the 7th and 8th inning again, and he would strike out 5 of the 6 batters he faced. Miller is just absolutely filthy, he now has 10 strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings pitched this ALCS, that's just not fair. After he was done making the Blue Jays hitters look silly, Cody Allen came in to close the door shut on the game, he would do just that as he hasn't let up a base runner in this series yet. The back end of this Indians bullpen is such a luxury for Terry Francona to have, he has to basically hope his team can get a lead, his starter can go 6 innings, and the last three innings will be shut down by the Miller Allen duo. The Blue Jays now have their backs against the wall, fortunately for them they're heading home where we all know they play much better. These bats need to get going for them or this series won't last much longer, they'll never win a pitchers duel in this series, they're simply over matched in that department. Blue Jays need to get an early lead in game 3 this way they don't have to face Miller and Allen while they're down. Indians seem to be following in the Cavaliers footsteps though, is Cleveland becoming the city of champions?
By DjackComing into this series you know a few things about each teams strengths, the Indians have an amazing bullpen, and the Blue Jays have a very powerful lineup. Both teams have good starting pitching, so you should expect a very even matchup between these two teams throughout this series with things going back and fourth. For instance, one game we might see the Blue Jays offense explode for 10 runs and the next you might see the Indians shut them down completely with their filthy pitching. Well, that's exactly what happened last night, the lethal Blue Jays lineup was neutralized by great pitching, and error free baseball. Corey Kluber is the definition of a horse, he went out there and shoved for 6 1/3 innings before handing over the keys to the Indians most dominate reliever, Andrew Miller. I love how Terry Francona uses Miller as a long set up man, simply for the fact that it works so efficiently, and it closes the gap between the starter and the closer. Miller came in struck out 5 batters to get 5 outs before handing it over to Cody Allen in the ninth. Before we get to the ninth let's rewind a little. The Blue Jays had their ace on the mound as well, Marco Estrada. We saw how well he pitched in the ALDS when he shut down the Rangers for 8 innings, and he continued that success last night. He made it through 5 scoreless and was looking basically unhittable, until the sixth inning when Francisco Lindor hit a two run BOMB off him to give the Indians a 2-0 lead. That would be the difference in the game, Cody Allen came into the game in the ninth, and shut it down. The Indians took game one as their pitching staff deserves all the credit in the world for shutting down one of the best offenses in baseball. Marco Estrada probably hates his life after one pitch cost his team the game, you can't blame him though, can't win games if you can't score runs. Never thought I'd have to use that line when talking about the Blue Jays. I expect the Blue Jays offense to play with a little extra fire in game 2, so I'd be very nervous if I were Trevor Bauer.
By DjackThis postseason gets better and better with each game I swear, we're only just finishing up with division series play, and the amount of thrillers we've had is insane. October baseball is certainly living up to the hype this year. In the first and only game 5 of the divisional series round, the Dodgers went into Washington looking to get back to NLCS for the first time since 2013, the Nationals on the other hand were looking to reach the NLCS for the first time in the franchises history. Rich Hill would start for the Dodgers facing off against Nationals ace Max Scherzer, so clearly the Nats had the upper hand from the get go. Rich Hill wouldn't even make it through 3 innings of work before being pulled by Dave Roberts, this put the Dodgers bullpen in a position where they had to get the last 19 outs of the game. Joe Blanton and Julio Urias pitched 3 1/3 innings for the Dodgers in this game, and they put the game on lock down for those 10 outs. The 7th inning where was things got interesting, the inning literally lasted an hour by itself, it was that action packed. Pederson tied up the game at 1 when he hit a solo blast off of Marc Rzepczynski. Carlos Ruiz who has had plenty of postseason experience with the Phillies got a RBI single, that was followed by a Justin Turner triple that would drive in 2, and the game was now 4-1 Dodgers. The Nationals knew they needed to get to work fast, they would do just that as Grant Dayton for the Dodger let up a two run pinch hit home run to Chris Heisey. Dayton would stay in game despite letting up the homer, not for long though, the next batter got a single, and he was pulled by Roberts as the top of the Nationals order was coming up. Roberts made a bold move and went to his closer Kelly Jansen knowing he needed to get out of this inning with a lead. The move worked to perfection as Jansen would make it through the 7th and 8th inning with the lead for the Dodgers. Jansen would come out for the 9th to close it out and send his team to the NLCS. He struck out the first batter, but then walked the next two. Roberts would then make an even bolder move by bringing in Clayton Kershaw to get the final two outs of the game. Kershaw was coming off of one day's rest so I can't imagine many fans had much faith in Kershaw to come in and shut it down like he did. He would get the final two outs as the Dodgers advance to the NLCS for the first time since 2013. Dave Roberts proved he's a big time manager after pushing all the right buttons in that game to pull out a win. Dusty Baker made some salty comments saying how Roberts may have won the war, but that his team is going to be paying the price against the Cubs in the next series. Really Dusty really, Roberts will actually be playing in the next series that's all he could've hoped for at this point, you'll be sitting on your couch once again after your ninth straight loss in elimination games, embarrassing. Dodgers will probably get swept by Chicago, but I don't think many people saw this team making it this far, hell of a game, hell of a series, and hopefully we'll get more of this in the NLCS.
By DjackTim Tebow has officially started his road to the show, he's currently playing in the Arizona fall league. This is basically a place for these young prospects to get some extra reps, and get an opportunity to showcase their talent against some better prospects. Ever since it was announced that Tim Tebow would be playing, the fall ball league has gotten a lot more attention for the simple fact that he'll be playing. I was more excited to hear Yankees young stud Greg Bird would be playing after spending the entire season sidelined with an ACL injury. The rest of the fans are focused on Tebow, I mean who wouldn't be, this is a pretty big deal right. Well, the part that gets me a little sour is that people are like taken back by how he is yet to get a hit, like what did you expect. I keep hearing, well he hit .450 in high school, too bad that was ten years ago. If you don't play baseball for ten years, you can't just show up and expect to be the next big thing in the MLB, I don't care what type of athlete you are, baseball isn't a sport you can just pick up and be great at. He's currently 0 for 9, he's saying he needs to find a rhythm or some BS, it has nothing to do with rhythm, it has everything to do with the fact he's never seen pitching like this before. Mark my words, Tim Tebow will never be in a MLB starting lineup. Unless, the team is just completely in the tank and they want to sell some quick tickets, that's the only scenario, and even that's unlikely. I'm all for him trying this little dream of his, but don't act surprised that an NFL quarterback isn't a good MLB left fielder because that's actually a ridiculous expectation. I think this whole story is fun for baseball, he hits a home run in his first instructional league AB, and the entire world thinks he's the Mets next big thing. Instructional league is for the worst of the worst MLB players, so that's the only reason he was able to muscle out a home run. This story, dream, whatever you want to call it won't be alive for much longer, Tim Tebow is going to get exposed faster than any player ever because he's not a real baseball player. Nice job Tim, but you should've stuck with the TV stuff, you're just embarrassing yourself at this point. Bo Jackson gave all these other athletes such false hope, just because Bo can do all things doesn't mean you can Tebow, even if you are the reincarnation of Jesus.
By DjackEven this, even that, too bad the San Francisco Giants were unable to even the series tonight. They gave their best effort, Matt Moore threw an absolute gem, Cubs hitters were lost, and it seemed like the Giants were about to go back to Chicago with all the momentum in this series. What many people forgot about though was that the Giants lack any sort of bullpen, this has been their Achilles heel all season, the reason they almost didn't make the playoffs to begin with, and now they had to rely on their bullpen to close out their biggest game of the season. The score was 5-2, so at least they had a three run lead to work with right. Apparently that wouldn't be enough, the first two batters of the inning walked, Zobrist would smoke a double down the line driving in one, and setting runners up on second and third with no outs. A base hit by Wilson Contreras would drive in those two runners to tie up the game. Jayson Heyward would then try to sacrifice bunt to move the runner into scoring position, he would fail by drilling the bunt back to the pitcher setting himself up for a double play. Luckily for the Cubs, Brandon Crawford, who is one of the best defensive shortstops in the game, makes a crucial throwing error allowing Heyward to not only be safe, but advance to second on the throwing error. Now the Cubs had a very fast base runner in scoring position with Javy Baez at the plate. Let me tell you something about this Baez kid, he is a fucking gamer, this kid does all the little things, and all the big things, the Cubs have a very special player for year's to come with this stud. Well, he would get a base hit up the middle that would score the game winning run. Adding to an already impressive series where he hit a game winning home run earlier in game two. Chapman came into the game in the 9th, as soon as he takes the mound you know the game is over if the Cubs have the lead. He struck out three in a row and sent the Cubs to the NLCS. A wild finish to a wild series, but at the end of the day the better overall team won, I think we can all agree on that. If you're the Giants you have to feel pretty shitty about this loss but what can you really expect, if you don't have a bullpen how far do you expect to go in the postseason. Cub fans started having doubts, everyone was thinking Giants even year magic is too much to overcome, but at the end of the day the better team prevailed as they often do.
By DjackWhat was supposed to be a story book ending to a fairytale career, ended up being Cinderella having to go home early. David Ortiz and the Boston Red Sox were picked by many to represent the AL in the World Series, what many forgot was that the road through the AL was harder than originally thought. The Red Sox had one of the best lineups in baseball, but their pitching was not as strong as the Indians, especially when it came to the bullpen. Porcello, Price, and Buchholtz all failed to throw at least 5 innings in their starts, where as all the Indians starters threw for at least 5 innings except Trevor Bauer who threw 4 2/3 innings. The Indians also have the advantage of Andrew Miller and Cody Allen in the back of their bullpen who can get them the last 10 outs of a game in dominant fashion. The Indians were just the better team, everyone overlooked them because they aren't a flashy bunch and after all they are a Cleveland team so maybe that's why everyone counted them out, but everyone who watched this series knows the Indians were bringing it to the Red Sox, and the Red Sox couldn't handle them. Now, as for Big Papi having played his last game, I'm ecstatic, I don't give two shits if people think he was a legend, and people telling me that I should miss him because of what he brought to the game, or whatever other sentimental bullshit you might try to throw at me, I don't care. I really don't, David Ortiz put a gun to my Yankees head multiple times, and pulled the trigger with no remorse. So to see this Yankee murderer out of the league is a blessing, I'll be able to sleep much easier at night in October now. I'm also hoping for the post-Ortiz Red Sox to be a lot like the pre-Ortiz Red Sox, irrelevant losers. All in all, very happy to see the Indians knock the Red Scums out of the playoffs, and the cherry on top was seeing every Sox fan watch their franchises greatest player come up short in his final hours.
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AuthorDjack- Chief editor Archives
April 2018
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