The 2020 Major League Baseball .L postseason continued on Wednesday, with an eight-game schedule packed into the wild card series from the top three. The entire slate saw three American League teams advance to ALDS – including the Yankees in the Wild Game vs. Cleveland – and two-way teams winning in the National League.
Below are the results from Wednesday and the main gifts of the day.
Scores of the Wild Card Series
The Yankees Wild Game Outland in Cleveland 2
Hands down, Postseason’s game is thus far Game 2 between the Yankees and Cleveland. The game featured several major changes, including one in the eighth inning and one in the ninth, and 19 total runs. In four hours and 50 minutes, it was the longest nine-inning game in baseball history, and did not include the 76-minute rain delay they had to wait for.
The Yankees finally won thanks to Brad Hand for returning in his ninth inning. A walk, a single and an infield single loaded a baseless base, then Gary Sanchez tied the game in the center with a bag fly. DJ Lamhiayu gave the Yankees a lead with a four-hopper in the middle back-up. It was definitely better placed than the well-struck, which the Yankees needed.
New York got off to a poor start with Masahiro Tanaka (six runs in four innings) and some useless bullpen work to win Game 2. They scored 12-wicket, the most in a nine-inning postseason game, and they also scored three home runs. That includes Geo Ursella’s fourth inning Grand Slam lead. Ursella, of course, began her career in Cleveland.
The Yankees are now heading for the bubbles of Southern California and the ALDS, where they will face rival rays from the AL East. That series will begin Monday. With the franchise’s championship drought now Cleveland has gone home for the winter, now 72 years old.
It’s a rematch of the 2018 NLCS, though not as close as the matchup on this paper. The batsmen put in doubles in each of the first two innings for the Dodgers, who made it three times in the first two frames and did not win the Brewers 4-2. Julio Urea, Blake Trainen and Kenley Jensen from the Dodgers’ bullpen locked things up for seven runs in a pair for five scoreless innings. To take a full look at the 1-0 series lead dodgers, click here.
Cards hit the paddle hard in Game 1 win
In a perfect world, Pedres would have had Mike Clevinger or Danielson Lamet start 1 game of the Wild Card series against their 1 Cardinals. Certainly in this imperfect world, Predres had to start Chris Paddock after both Klewinger and Lamette developed hand issues.
If the Pedres continue to lose the series – and they will have to win Games 2 and 3 to be eliminated after eliminating the series opener on Wednesday – they will have no choice but to wonder if Clevinger and Lamet have been healthy for a while. He started the padcake on the wrong foot before Pedres got a chance to bat, as he allowed four runs to cross the plate.
His troubles won’t end with the first inning, either. By the time he left, after 2/3 innings, he had scored six runs on eight hits. Paddock managed just one strikeout along the way. On Thursday the Cardinals will have a chance to advance in the NLDS. He will play the winner of the Dodgers-Brewers series.
The Astros beat the Twins
The number seed numbered twins saw their post-season dreams continue this week. After losing 3-1 to the Astros in Game 2, the twins extended their record to 18 MLB playoffs and knocked out the postseason in the process. The devastating streak belongs to 2004 ALDS and is the longest in the history of North American sports. Team Houston, with the worst regular season record in the playoff field (29-31), beat Minnesota in the target area in two games.
Although the Twins are a much better team than the Astros in the regular season, the Twins also have a record of 24-7 (.774) when playing at home. Moreover, the Astros went awry while playing on the road during the regular season, setting an outrageous 9-23 (.281) record on the road. The Twins home record was the highest winning percentage since the 1975 Reds, while the Astros Ano record is the percentage of the playoff team’s worst road win in the World Series era.
The Twins ’offense frustrated the game of elimination on Wednesday as the ice cooled and the Twins made an iled glow. In both wild card series games, the twin lineup managed just seven hits and two runs. It’s not a new story that Minnesota usually stays quiet during hot bat postseason. The last time the Twins scored more than four runs in a Planes game was when they lost to the Yankees on October 9, 2004.
Brave needs only one
Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman beat the Reds 1-0 in the 13th inning of the Atlanta series opener Wednesday. It was the sixth day of the day for Freeman’s Knock Brave team that reached the base six times less than the Reds.
What everyone will remember about Game 1 is how dominant the pitching was for both teams. The Braves were moved by left-hander Max Fried, who struck out five of seven shutout frames. Atlanta then received three-plus full frames from reliefs Chris Martin, Will Smith and Mark Melankan before turning things into the rest of the bullpen. Darren O’Day, Tyler Metzzek, Shane Green and AJ Minter could not break through the trend by placing eight bazrunners and stranding them all in 2/3 shutout frames.
Reds left Bahadur behind with arguments. Trevor Bauer scored 12 runs and allowed just two hits in 7 2/3 innings. Raisel Iglesias, Lucas Sims and Michael Lorenze then hit nine batters and went two for four plus innings. However, Archie Bradley and Rich Garrett could not stop the good times without a break for the error. Each team’s starter went out at least once, resulting in a record 37 punches out. As our Mike Axisa noted elsewhere, the Braves and the Reds also set the record for the longest scoreless playoff game. It was the same time that afternoon.
Does the Oakland script flip?
That’s why playoff success was hard to come by in the days of the Bass Brothers. From 2000-13, ALDS had six Game 5 losses. They won an ALDS, but then switched to ALCS. Since that stretch, there have been three wild card games and all three have been lost. Scattered in the last two with Game 1 here in 2020, the Royals had zero leads in any playoff game after losing the 2014 Wild Card Game.
With his back against the wall on Wednesday, however, he delivers the goods as soon as possible. They got two in the first thanks due to a nick m rig riggle error, although they got three singles before that and always prefer to strike when putting the ball in the game. Then at the bottom of the second, Marcus Semian muscled for a two-run shot:
Left Sox of the White Sox were chased after just 3/3 innings.
The equivalent, however, was excellent. Chris Bassett worked seven innings and allowed just one run on six hits. Auckland took a three-run lead in the ninth, but Jack Dyckman threatened Jose Ebre and came on with a base load to end the game.
Looking ahead to Game to, it could run a left-handed scene mania from there, but that’s a warning. The White Sox are now 15-0 this season in games started by the left, including Game 1 against Jesus Luzardo. Here’s how the Sox came up against each side in the regular season:
Vs RHP: .253 / .313 / .436
Vs. LHP: .285 / .364 / .523
With that in mind, maybe the right choice would be Mike Fires?
The White Sox options are Dan Dunning (2-0, 3.97), Dylan Cez (5-4, 4.01) and Ronaldo Lopez (1-3, 6.49).
The rays swept Jay easily
A three-game series on one-on-eight matchups in baseball would not normally be expected by bloodbath fans of other sports. In the case of visiting the Blue Jess rays, it was one of every thing. Reese caught the bottom of the first, Homer the second, and then Bo Baychet mistakenly opened the door for Hunter Ranfro with a base load and two outs:
Likewise, it was 7-0 rays and they never looked back. The series hardly felt like it had necessarily started even before it was completed.
Ranfro’s shot was the first Rez Grand Slam in post-season history.
The Rays only had to use black snail and Tyler glasses in their early pitchers and now to play again. Will have to wait until 5 (Monday). They will travel to Southern California, but otherwise, there are a few easy days to prepare themselves for ALDS, where they will face the Yankees or Cleveland.
The Marlins Surprise 2020 continued on Wednesday as Miami scored five times in the seventh inning to win 5-1 over the Cubs in Game 1. Miami got a hefty outing from Sandy Alcantara and finally got the seventh Cubs right Kyle Hendrix. You can read more about that game here.
