Recap of what went on in the fifth day of the MLB Divisional Series.
Day 5 of the Divisional Series was something that I think I’ll be talking about for most of the offseason. For the first time, possibly ever (I don’t have the time to look for these sort of stats, and I wouldn’t want to even if I did) 5 out of the 8 starting pitchers in the 4 games today were making their postseason starting pitching debut or their second start. The lack of postseason experience for the starting pitching was going to be something the coaches and I would be looking at. Let’s see how the starting pitchers stacked up, but also how the coaches navigated the games today.
Mariners vs Tigers
After the first inning, seeing Casey Mize and Bryce Miller just wreck through the hitters, I thought we were going to see a great pitching duel. Mize did well to limit damage in the 2nd inning, only giving up 1 earned run. Bryce Miller didn’t face any trouble until the 5th. Before that happened, Mize was taken out after the 3rd, the bullpen came in, which featured Kyle Finnegan giving up 2 earned runs over 2 innings, Finnegan got all of those 6 outs, as well. Finnegan looked good, Holton was rough. Tyler Melton and Will Vest then came in and really shut things down, allowing only 2 hits over 4 innings.
I didn’t understand why Casey Mize was taken out after the third inning. After walking a batter in the third inning, he struck out the next two. Mize was only at 54 pitches. I would have liked to see manager AJ Hinch rely on his starter for another inning. The roster is only so deep and the amount of relievers a team has is limited at this point in the season. Taking innings off of their workload would have made more sense. AJ Hinch did have a mid-game conversation with a reporter where he mentioned having a good plan of attack for his bullpen and the hitters to get accelerated against the Mariners bullpen. As he was talking about that, Gleyber Torres laced a single. It didn’t turn into anything, but it was a good sign.
Bryce Miller was great today. In his first postseason outing, he went 4.1 innings with 2 earned runs and 2 strikeouts. I personally would have allowed Miller to stay in the game longer. The next three pitchers out of the bullpen combined for 2.2 innings with 7 earned runs on 9 hits. It was a bad performance by the bullpen, and I think the bullpen was put into the game too early. Miller was only at 55 pitches when taken out. It made no sense. Manager Dan Wilson made the wrong move here. I will say that Miller’s outing could have been a lot worse had it not been for the great defense behind him. I’ll point out Josh Naylor in particular as he was fantastic on the defensive side of the game. I believe that Wilson was outcoached in this game, as evidenced as Hinch’s pinch-hit selection in Jahmai Jones had a double and an RBI before being hit in by Javy Baez to tie the game. Long story short… the Tigers showed up after being boo’ed by their fans. It was a great comeback performance, led by manager AJ Hinch.
Brewers vs Cubs
Alex Pal said, “the Cubs found a way to keep their season alive,” and honestly, it couldn’t have felt more fitting of a sentence. I had many conversations with my friends who are Cubs fans and one told me, “It feels like Craig Counsell is doing anything to lose this series.” Craig Counsell has made countless decisions that didn’t make sense to me throughout this series and the decisions tonight didn’t make much sense either. Matt Shaw is hitting .000 in the entire postseason, Ian Happ is hitting .095 in the entire postseason, and Dansby Swanson is hitting .200. Together they’re combined 5/45 with 26 strikeouts. That’s almost as many outs there are in one MLB game. I have a better chance of being struck by lightning than Matt Shaw does getting a hit, and I have a better chance of flipping a coin and landing on heads three times in a row than Ian Happ does getting a hit.
Jameson Taillon pitched well for the Cubs, which is a rarity in the starting pitching category for Chicago, while the Brewers have been bolstered by starting pitching but today Quinn Priester looked rough and couldn’t get out of the first inning. Yet again, though, the Cubs were silenced by the Brewers bullpen. The Cubs bullpen almost faltered, even going into the 9th it was questionable as Brad Keller threw 5 consecutive balls before locking in and getting the final 4 outs of the game. I want to talk about more of the coaching decisions than the players in this game, because it’s a rivalry and there were some questionable things done in this game.
Two instances the Cubs had runners on first and second with no outs, and didn’t bunt. It worked the first time because of a sacrifice fly to bring Nico Hoerner to third base. The second time around Carson Kelly flew out, then Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out, and Dansby Swanson grounded out. That chain of events is different if Kelly lays down a bunt and puts pressure on the pitching and defense. Manager Craig Counsell knows his team has a hard time scoring runs outside of the first inning, but didn’t pursue the runs there.
Jake Bauers looked good at first base, but I would have liked to see Andrew Vaugh be inserted as a pinch hitter earlier in the game. Bauers can play other positions besides first base, so they could have had both players batting. I don’t think Manager Pat Murphy could have done anything different to win this game though. The pitching was fantastic after the first inning, and the hitters were just not able to get as much going as previous games.
Blue Jays vs Yankees
My favorite part of this game was when Aaron Boone went to get Cam Schlittler during the 6th inning after Schlittler gave up a single, and the Yankees fans boo’ed him. Boone left Schlittler in the game and Schlittler showed out. Many starters do not get standing ovations… the number of those go down tremendously when your team is losing, yet Cam Schlittler got a standing ovation going out in the 7th inning after Jazz Chisholm committed a devastating error. Schlittler deserved it, honestly. He kept the Yankees in this game. Aaron Boone was boo’ed as he was walking out from the dugout, and walking back to the dugout. Schlittler’s stat line was 6.1 innings of 8 hit, 2 earned run baseball.
The Blue Jays chose to go with an opener and stick with the bullpen this game, seeing Louis Varland go 1.1 innings of 1 hit ball before Mason Fluharty came in and gave up 1 earned run in 1 inning of work. This helps their starters be ready for a potential game 5, and also gives them even more time to rest up. None of the Blue Jays starters were even warming up in the bullpen this series… which leads me to my final point of this series.
I won’t lie, this series was all about how John Schnieder out-coached Aaron Boone. I spoke in my last article about the lack of lineup changes by Aaron Boone, and today we saw a different lineup again, not including Ben Rice. The Yankees won the last game, so I was sure there would be less lineup changes, but today there were more. In game 3 the Yankees misused their challenges and didn’t have one to protest when Austin Wells was safe at second on a hit. John Schneider played this series out perfectly, to have his top relievers available at the end of Game 4. Schneider stuck to what worked. He used his bullpen well, he used his starters well. Eric Lauer in particular was used in Game 4 despite a rough Game 2 and performed very well. The changes that the Toronto coaching staff as a whole, was better than the changes the Yankees staff made. That’s why we aren’t seeing another game in this series.
Phillies vs Dodgers
Aaron Nola was my point of focus in this game. His regular season was not very good, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been very good, postseason start included. He was taken out honestly before the game even began for him. Nola went through two shut down innings with 3 strikeouts. Manager Rob Thomson took him out way too early. Ranger Suarez came on and gave up a homer to his first batter, Tommy Edman. Suarez then shut down the Dodgers over 5 innings. I didn’t question any moves made by Rob Thomson after he took out Aaron Nola from the game.
I have a big question about the Dodgers in this game. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was doing well and only gave up 3 earned runs. After Anthony Banda and Jack Dreyer shut down the Phillies it was still a 3-1 game. In a wild turn of events… Manager Dave Roberts turned to Clayton Kershaw to pitch, after he was left off of the Wild Card roster. It almost felt like Roberts threw in the towel and admitted defeat. The Dodgers have proven time and again that their team can hit off of anyone, so I’m not sure why they threw Clayton Kershaw for 2 innings giving up 4 earned runs on 6 hits and 3 walks. If this was a “Respect the Legacy” type of game… this was not the way Kershaw wanted to go out.
I also didn’t really understand why Roberts threw this game away. That really frustrates me as a competitor, and it should frustrate Clayton Kershaw. If that’s the last we see of Kershaw, that is not a good memory to have.
Final Thoughts
My brain truly is becoming mush at this point. I have watched so much baseball, but I’m still finding things that I would do differently as a manager. I won’t say that I’d be right, but definitely things that are different. Seeing the Tigers and Cubs extend their seasons, Cam Schlittler pitch extremely well… AGAIN, and the Phillies exploding for 8 runs, despite most of them being against a broken down Kershaw, the excitement is still so strong in October baseball. When I started on this journey to watch every out of every postseason game… I didn’t realize that I’d actually continue to pursue it, and if I did pursue it I thought I’d get bored.. But 7 days in… I still love October baseball. Come back for the journey and send this to your friends and family. I’ll see y’all tomorrow!
