MLB: Chess on one side, heavyweight combat on the other side

The League Championship Series of the MLB Playoffs are in full swing. After two games everything is balanced in the series of the American and National League. But did that have to happen? Were decisive mistakes made? Time for a mid-term review.

Game 1 of the NLCS went 6:5 to the Brewers. This game is a good example of the Brew Crew’s approach and their pitfalls.

The extreme bullpening was pulled through in pure form. Starter Gio Gonzalez (1 ER) had only two innings, then Brandon Woodruff took over for two and Josh Hader for three. Xavier Cedeno and Joakim Soria followed, who struggled through the eighth inning and only managed two outs.

That again was not ideal, but Jeremy Jeffress finally slammed the door – also in shaky form with two hits. In the ninth inning then Corey Knebel finished the game and sealed the victory.

It was a ride on the razor blade, though. Not only the question arises why Gonzalez had to get out so early after a good start – the Homer of Machado was a Homer of Machado. Such things are sometimes difficult to prevent. Also it has to be noticed in general that with so many used pitchers there can also be a rivet. Lots of cooks and so on.

After Hader was finished – and effectively burned for game 2 – no pitcher was able to walk through an inning confidently. The Dodgers didn’t make up for it, of course, but with their race to catch up – four runs in the final two innings – they achieved two effects.

On the one hand, they forced the Brewers to use almost their entire bullpen – Corbin Burnes was the exception – and thus at least estimate it for game 2. On the other hand, it gave L.A. self-confidence. The realization arose that there is something to get against this outstanding bull.

Even after the 3-0 deficit after six innings, the Dodgers remained adamant and started their successful comeback in the seventh inning.

And then the Dodgers benefited from a flaw in the system, if you will. The Brewers and their manager Craig Counsell are now so polarized on aggressive bullpen use that they may become too actionist in certain situations. With two outs in the sixth inning and a cruising left-hander Wade Miley (1 hit until then) on the Mound Chris Taylor managed a single for Los Angeles.

Now it would have been quite customary to let Miley, who had only thrown 74 pitches, on it. But overcautious as Counsell is now, he took the starter out and brought burns. He turned Justin Turner off and ended the slight threat.

Burnes then stayed in the game and waltzed Max Muncy on five pitches. After that, he let Machado have another single. Once again: Well placed pitch, which Machado nevertheless beats. What are you gonna do? In any case, don’t throw a pitch over the middle of the record, which Burnes did against Cody Bellinger – 1:3 only.

Then Jeffress, who apparently hadn’t recovered from the day before, came and gave a single to Joc Pederson – Bases loaded. After a strikeout he finally gave a walk to Austin Barnes – 2:3.

This wobbly inning was Counsell but not warning enough, he stayed with Jeffress, who then gave a single and the decisive home run of Justin Turner in the eighth inning.

The lesson from this is clear: There is just one morning after the day on which one went forward as if it did not exist.

Especially in game 1 another construction site opened up for the Dodgers. Catcher Yasmani Grandal, who now stands at 2-17 in this postseason, played catastrophically. He afforded two Errors and two Passed Balls in the first three innings. This paired with his percussive performance makes it difficult to set him up further, especially as manager Roberts subsequently spoke of “lack of focus”. But in game 3 he is supposed to play again.

The two games in the ALCS can be broken down more easily. Everything depends on the starting pitching. The Astros won behind a largely sovereign Justin Verlander against Red Sox, where Chris Sale had little control. The Red Sox, on the other hand, won Game 2 behind a solid performance by David Price against an apparently overaggressive Gerrit Cole.

According to Manager A.J. Hinch, Cole was “overheated.” He mainly bet on his fastball, but overtook his targets. Many pitches missed their target. To make matters worse for Cole, the Red Sox know how to beat hard pitches (95+ miles per hour fastballs) like no other team.

They demonstrated this in game 2! The pitch, which made Betts about a double, landed at the inner edge of the strike zone, maybe a bit too high, but at the edge. Betts beat the pitch with an exit velocity of 102.9 MPH. The following single by Andrew Benintendi even had an Exit Velo of 103.1 MPH. And this pitch wasn’t even a strike – it landed above the strike zone.

A real mistake was the following RBI single by Rafael Devers (101,3 MPH EV). Cole threw his fastball over the middle of the plate. Such a thing is punished as a rule!

The problems that Sale in game 1 had, however, were of a different nature. They couldn’t really be explained. He simply had no control over his fastball – and it wasn’t particularly hard either. Also his slider and his cutter often missed their targets.

However, this did not result in predominantly hard contact. Sale gave the 2-run double to George Springer with an EV of 101.8 MPH, but otherwise he generated rather soft contact until then. The other hard hitting balls, however, ended up in the glove of a field player for sales luck.

Manager Alex Cora explained that he had to get out after the weak second inning: “In terms of speed, he was good in the end. He wanted to go out for the fifth inning, but I said to him, ‘No, it’s gonna be a long series and we need you.'”

In this way it is ensured that Sale – should his stomach ache not be serious – will pitch on Thursday Game 5 in Texas. Previously Nathan Eovaldi will take over match 3, because Rick Porcello (match 4) was the Reliever on Sunday and will need some more rest.

Meanwhile, a question mark remains Closer Craig Kimbrel. He has now pitched three games in the postseason 2018 and always allowed one run – in game 4 against New York even two. When he pitches, it’s always a vabanque game these days. It can at least be doubted that this will go well until the end of the playoffs.

As for the Astros, with Dallas Keuchel and Charlie Morton as starters for the upcoming games, they may even be better equipped than in the two games to date. The Red Sox are known to be experts against fastballs. Straight Keuchel, however, mainly relies on Off-Speed-Stuff. Houston advantage, huh?

If one had to roughly rewrite both series, the NLCS seems to be the announced chess game, while the ALCS is rather the heavyweight fight with open visor. No one tries to outdo the other tactically, it’s more about knocking out the opponent!

This article was published without prior review by Major League Baseball.