Wednesday afternoon had plenty of potential for drama, with all four wild card series offering the potential for teams to advance into the division round of the Major League Baseball playoffs.
The first game of the quadruple-header, the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, delivered in spades. A Bryce Harper misplay in the 7th inning allowed two Braves’ runs to score, putting the Phillies on the brink of elimination. But Schwarber and Harper hit back-to-back homers in the 8th to tie it, and a 10th inning homer for Alec Bohm won it for Philadelphia to force a winner-take-all game three on Thursday.
Then there’s the Houston Astros. The Astros entered game two needing a win to force a game three, sending their ace, Hunter Brown, to the mound against the White Sox’ powerful lineup. 36 pitches, five hits, four runs, two errors and just two outs later, the White Sox had a 4-0 lead and Brown was out of the game.
That summed up Houston’s series; just not quite good enough to overcome Chicago’s offense. The White Sox, one of baseball’s most strikeout-prone offenses, had 13 in Wednesday’s game, but kept chipping away, fending off an attempted Astros comeback with a massive three-run homer from Chase Meidroth in the 6th inning to give them some breathing room.
Four combined innings from Jordan Hicks and Erick Fedde closed it out to send the White Sox through for a massive ALDS against their division rival Cleveland Guardians. But they weren’t done with the entertainment quite yet.
In the postgame clubhouse celebrations, star first year third baseman Munetaka Murakami gave what might be the quote of the season. When asked how he felt, Murakami answered, “100.”
A minute later, after being joined by another member of the White Sox staff, Murakami, covered in beer, added, “I’m drunk, I’m drunk. Yesterday, maybe hungover, you know?”
After the interviewer offered a gentle correction, he said, “No, not yesterday, tomorrow. Sorry, I don’t speak English.”
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Impossible not to root for him.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the American League postseason bracket, the New York Yankees had an opportunity to sweep the hated Boston Red Sox after a dominant 9-0 win in game one. And after Cam Schlittler’s remarkable outing on Tuesday, Max Fried was nearly as good on Wednesday.
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Six innings with just one run allowed, three hits, one walk and six strikeouts, enough for New York to take a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth. Which is where everything imploded for Boston. Garrett Crochet, making his first appearance on a big league mound since late-April, took over, hoping to keep the Yankees at two.
Instead, Spencer Jones reached on a strikeout, then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error from catcher Adley Rutschmann. George Lombard singled in a run, Jazz Chisholm poked one through the right side, Trent Grisham got a bunt down for a hit, knocking Crochet out of the game without getting an out. Garrett Whitlock came in to stop the bleeding, but after two more runs scored on a sac fly and groundout, Cody Bellinger delivered the big blow.
On a 1-0 changeup, Bellinger took advantage of the short right field porch and knocked in three to make it 8-1.
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New York cruised home with a 9-2 win, setting up an ALDS matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays.
There are a few big takeaways from these two sweeps, namely the importance of power in October baseball. It’s an old adage that small ball wins against quality pitching, but it was the homers from Chicago in game one and two that gave them the edge, while Bellinger’s bomb effectively put the game out of reach in the Bronx. Even without Aaron Judge, the Yankees’ lineup outscored Boston 17-2. And with two days off before the start of the ALDS, Schlittler will be able to start in game two of the ALDS, with Gerrit Cole or Carlos Rodon available for game one.
While the Yankees are through, the other three teams left in the AL bracket are the Guardians, Rays and White Sox. Those teams rank 25th, 26th and 28th in total payroll respectively. There’s a long ways to go to reach or win the World Series, but it’s a bit of a tough look for MLB that the league office has spent the past few months preparing to lock players out by claiming that small market teams with low payrolls have no hope of meaningful baseball.
Pretty sure those three organizations should have hope. Saturday in Cleveland and Tampa should be a blast. Playoff baseball always is.
