Read about the management in the divisional series second game for each ALDS matchup. Calls on readers to send the article to other readers.
Day 2 of the Divisional Series was a 2 game slate of ONLY the American League Divisional Series matchups. We saw a 22 year old pitcher make his postseason debut, a Cy Young candidate pitching in his second start of the postseason, and two pitchers who have had very high quality seasons and careers. The eyes in both games were situated on the pitching. Let’s check out what happened in the American League today.
Blue Jays vs Yankees
One word will leave Yankees hitters and fans fearing… Yesavage. Trey Yesavage was one FIRE in Game 2. The Blue Jays starter walked Aaron Judge as the second batter of the game and didn’t allow another base runner through 5.1 innings. He struck out 11 batters before handing the game over to Justin Bruihl. 3 straight hits off of Bruihl, the main hit was a 2-run homer that inning to Cody Bellinger. What went from being a 5 inning no hitter, quickly turned into a slugfest.
The Yankees put up 7 runs between the 6th and the 7th off the Blue Jays bullpen. Manager John Schneider didn’t have an answer for the Yankees’ fire power off of his bullpen. As tough as the bullpen performed, it’s really nice having a 12 run lead. After seeing the fantastic start that Trey Yesavage had, seeing 5 relievers go one-third of an inning and then two more relievers combining to cover the last two innings was a little uneasy for me. I wish that the bullpen would have been able to cover themselves a little bit better. There was a lot of rest that was lost today in that bullpen. I know they have an off day tomorrow, but the team with the most rest this October will have an advantage. This isn’t a management problem, it’s a problem with execution.
Despite Will Warren giving up 6 runs in relief for the Yankees, the fact that he got through 4 innings was great for the Yankees bullpen. This could have easily called for multiple relievers to throw today, but Warren eating innings saved a lot of the bullpen, kind of like what I was hoping for the Blue Jays. Max Fried shouldn’t have stepped foot on the rubber in the 4th inning after giving up 5 runs in the 3rd. I liked that Luke Weaver got into the game in a low intensity moment, after being roughed around in the postseason. These were good coaching decisions that followed a very, very bad performance by the Yankees.
The offensive firepower of the Blue Jays, specifically George Springer, Vlad Guerrero, Jr., Daulton Varsho, and Ernie Clement, were devastating to go up against for the Yankees pitching staff. I said it yesterday… Vlad Guerrero may have an easy World Series MVP trophy if he keeps on pace with what he’s been doing, but if the rest of the Blue Jays lineup continues to rake like they did today… It’s not going to be an easy decision on who wins that award.
Mariners vs Tigers
Jorge Polanco may be the only person in the world who can hit off of Tarik Skubal. I mean, he’s the only guy that has been able to do something against Skubal, and he did it twice. Honestly, Skubal looked great, just not against Polanco. Two mistake pitches and both were taken advantage of.
Luis Castillo for the Mariners pitched really well. This was his first home performance in the playoffs, and he delivered. 4.2 in innings of only 1 hit ball, 3 strikeouts, but he walked 4. If Castillo had limited the walks, I could have seen him going deeper into the game. However, with Seattle’s bullpen… he really only needed to go through the 4th inning.
One of the main reasons Detroit scored in this game was because of an error. You take away the error and the mistake pitch by Matt Brash, there’s a very good chance that the Tigers go scoreless in this game. Regardless, right after the Tigers tied the game, the Mariners ambushed Kyle Finnegan and hit two doubles to take the lead again.
I can’t put blame on either manager for how this game went, in fact, I wouldn’t have changed anything about this game. Finnegan didn’t get the job done, Skubal threw a few mistake pitches, the Tigers weren’t the better team today. I will give Manager Dan Wilson a shoutout though. In game 1, Dan Wilson let Kerry Carpenter face the starter a third time. That was a bad idea. In game 2, Wilson removed his starter and Carpenter was held in check. That was a great coaching decision, and one that potentially won the Mariners the game.
I was one of the many analysts who had already written up this game to the Tigers. I was confident in the ability of the Tigers to get to Castillo, whether that was getting him out early on pitch count, or running up the score, and even more confident in Skubal to shut down the Mariners offense. I apologize to the readers because… I was completely, and utterly wrong. I owe an apology to the Mariners fans reading this article. I owe an apology to a lot of people for assuming, but seriously… This is why October baseball is the best baseball. Nothing, and I mean nothing is guaranteed.
Final Thoughts: The coaching/managing decisions today didn’t have as big of an impact on the outcomes as I thought. I do believe that some players and teams have better capability of “icing up” in the pivotal moments of games. We are seeing in live time who is capable and who is not. I can’t wait to watch more again tomorrow.
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