Dodgers take advantage of Cardinals sloppiness in NLCS Game 3

We'll start off with a quick stat about Los Angeles shortstop Hanley Ramirez: The Dodgers are 55-28 when he is in the starting lineup this season. They are 41-45 when he is not.

Ramirez did not play in Game 2 of the NLCS because of a hairline fracture in his ribs, but he managed the pain well enough to get back in the lineup for Game 3. Ramirez collected two bloop singles and an RBI in four at-bats as the Dodgers defeated St. Louis 3-0 Monday night to cut the Cardinals' lead in the series to 2-1. 

Ramirez's presence helped the Dodgers, sure, but the main storylines from this game were poor St. Louis defense and outstanding pitching from Los Angeles starter Hyun-Jin Ryu.

The Dodgers had failed to score a run in their previous 22 offensive innings before breaking through with two tallies in the bottom of the fourth inning off St. Louis ace Adam Wainwright. Both runs were gifts. Cardinals center fielder John Jay and right fielder Carlos Beltran had a miscommunication on a fly ball to right-center off the bat of Los Angeles second baseman Mark Ellis. Jay should have made the play; Beltran could have made the play. Neither man did, and Ellis was credited with a gift double. He would later score on a softly hit double by Adrian Gonzalez.

Yasiel Puig finished the rally with a two-out RBI triple. The hit broke and 0-for-11 slump (with seven strikeouts) for Puig. None of that would have happened if Jay had made the catch on Ellis' ball. It was a poor defensive night for Jay overall. He had four misplays out there, and was fortunate Wainwright was able to pitch over a couple of  his other gaffes. Ramirez added his bloop RBI hit in the eighth inning to cap the scoring, after Jay let a Carl Crawford blooper fall in front of him.

Ryu, a rookie left-hander, couldn't have pitched any better against the most prolific offense in the National League. He fired seven shutout innings, striking out four and allowing just three hits. That performance was exactly what the Dodgers needed. They couldn't afford to go down 3-0 in the series. They had to find a way to beat Wainwright, who had never lost in the postseason previously. Thanks to that performance by Ryu, they are back in the series.

Game 4 is Tuesday night, and both teams will be using their weakest starting pitcher. Lance Lynn, who picked up a win in relief in Game 1, is going for the Cardinals. Ricky Nolasco gets the ball for the Dodgers. St. Louis needs to get its bats going against Nolasco. The Dodgers will be able to throw their pair of aces, Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, in Games 5 and 6. St. Louis won Games 1 and 2, which were started by Greinke and Kershaw, respectively. I don't know if the Cardinals will be able to pull that off again, so I feel like it would behoove them to win Game 4. That way, they'll have a little cushion before facing the Dodgers' top two guys again. 

Detroit's dumbest move: Throwing David Ortiz a first pitch changeup

The Detroit Tigers pitching staff continues to do things that have never been done before.

Starter Max Scherzer went 5 2/3 innings without giving up a hit in Game 2 of the ALCS on Sunday night. The Tigers became the first team in postseason history to have a starting pitcher carry a no-hitter into the sixth inning in three consecutive games.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, on Sunday they also became the first team in postseason history to have four different pitchers give up a single run in the same inning. When David Ortiz hit a first-pitch changeup from closer Joaquin Benoit out of the park for a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning, Jose Veras, Drew Smyly, Al Alburquerque and Benoit were all charged with one run.

Ortiz's blast erased a 5-1 Boston deficit, and the Red Sox went on to win 6-5 and even the best-of-seven series at 1-1. Predictably, motownsports.com exploded with criticism of Detroit manager Jim Leyland. Scherzer had thrown 108 pitches threw seven, but he wasn't allowed to start the eighth inning. Did he have another inning in him? Maybe, but Scherzer said he was done at that point after the game. Did Leyland overmanage by using those four relief pitchers to try to get through the eighth inning? Perhaps. I'm not a big proponent of the lefty-righty, batter-by-batter stuff. I always figure if you use enough relief pitchers, eventually you'll land on a guy who doesn't have his best stuff that day.

All that said, Leyland had his best reliever on the mound to face Ortiz. The odds were still in the Tigers' favor. They were up four, there were two outs, and the pressure was on Ortiz to do something to get his team back in the game.

Ortiz did just that, but I think he was helped by the worst decision any Tigers player or manager made all evening: They threw something offspeed on the first pitch of the sequence. I'm pretty sure the veteran Ortiz has seen that trick before. The pitcher assumes the hitter is looking first-pitch fastball with the bases loaded, so he tries to flip a sloppy offspeed offering up there in hopes of grabbing a first-pitch strike and getting ahead in the count. That kind of crap works against younger hitters. It didn't work against Ortiz, who ripped the ball into the right-field bullpen, a hit that definitely turned the game around and possibly the entire series.

Bad thought process, bad pitch. Throwing a changeup in that situation was worse than any of the questionable decisions Leyland made throughout the game. Next time, throw Ortiz a well-located fastball on the first pitch.

Anibal Sanchez's outing in ALCS Game 1 was a rarity

The Detroit Tigers came within two outs of no-hitting the Boston Red Sox in Saturday's Game 1 of the ALCS in Boston. Daniel Nava singled off Detroit closer Joaquin Benoit with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Benoit recovered to close out a 1-0 Tigers victory.

Why was a closer on the mound trying to preserve a no-hitter? Well, for as well as Anibal Sanchez pitched, he wasn't efficient enough to hang around for the whole game. In fact, he lasted just six innings. He struck out 12, walked six and threw 116 pitches.

Credit Detroit manager Jim Leyland for realizing the no-hitter wasn't important. Sanchez survived a highly stressful sixth inning; he struck out Stephen Drew to escape a jam after walking the bases loaded. With the lead at just one run, Leyland would have been pushing his luck to send Sanchez back out for the seventh. He didn't, instead using four relievers to close out the win.

The Tigers failed in their quest to throw the third no-hitter in MLB postseason history (Don Larsen, Roy Halladay), but Sanchez's outing was notable in a couple other ways. First, he became the first pitcher ever to be removed from a playoff game after going six innings without giving up a hit. Secondly, he became only the second pitcher ever to record both 12 strikeouts and six walks in a postseason game.

The other one? Walter Johnson in Game 1 of the 1924 World Seriess. In that game, Johnson pitched 12 innings and gave up 14 hits. Yeah, that was a different time and place. That goes to show you don't see an outing like the one Sanchez had Saturday night come along too often. 

Dumb decision to bunt hurts Dodgers in NLCS Game 1

I just don't understand why some managers are so insistent on bunting and giving away precious outs, especially in the playoffs.

One of those head-scratching moments arose in the top of the 12th inning Friday night in St. Louis.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were tied 2-2 with the host Cardinals in Game 1 of the NLCS. Los Angeles outfielder Carl Crawford singled off St. Louis pitcher Lance Lynn to lead off the top of the 12th.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly then asked Mark Ellis to bunt Crawford into scoring position, which he did. But guess what? That strategy played right into the Cardinals' hands. That opened up first base and allowed St. Louis manager Mike Matheny to walk the Dodgers' No. 3 hitter, Hanley Ramirez, intentionally. Ramirez is probably the most dangerous hitter Los Angeles has. If you're the Dodgers, don't you want him to take his hacks there? The intentional walk also set up a possible double play. That's exactly what happened. Michael Young bounced into a rally-killing double play. Inning over, game still tied.

I could maybe justify the bunt if Adrian Gonzalez was still hitting in the cleanup spot, just behind Ramirez, for the Dodgers. That would have been a pick-your-poison situation for Matheny. Pitch to Ramirez? Or walk Ramirez and take your chances with Gonzalez? That would have been a tough call, but Gonzalez had been lifted for a pinch runner earlier in the game. Deciding whether to pitch to Ramirez or Young is a significantly easier call to make, and Matheny made the obvious choice. Lynn made the pitch he needed to make and got out of trouble.

St. Louis eventually won 3-2 in 13 innings on a walk-off hit by right fielder Carlos Beltran. Right now, Beltran is probably the Cardinals' best hitter. He had all three RBIs in Friday's game. He made his presence felt. Meanwhile, Ramirez didn't get his chance in the 12th inning, and it was by his manager's own folly that the bat was taken out of his hands.

Mattingly had to know Matheny was going to walk Ramirez with a base open, right? It's a manager's job to think two or three moves ahead. So, knowing that, why would Mattingly open up first base by having Ellis bunt? I don't get it.

Can Miguel Cabrera get his power stroke back?

The Oakland A's actually took my advice for Thursday night's Game 5 of the ALDS. They started Sonny Gray instead of Bartolo Colon.

It didn't work out so well as Gray allowed three runs on six hits and walked four over five innings pitched. He took the loss as the Detroit Tigers beat Oakland 3-0 to secure a 3-2 series victory and advance to the ALCS.

It wouldn't have mattered if Colon had gotten the start because nobody was going to outpitch Justin Verlander on this night anyway. Verlander continued his postseason mastery of the A's, allowing just two hits over eight shutout innings. He struck out 10 and took a no-hitter into the seventh. The hard-throwing right-hander has now fired 24 consecutive scoreless innings against Oakland in the playoffs.

The "Moneyball" approach doesn't seem to work against Verlander. The Oakland hitters tried to work the count, but most of the time, they found themselves behind 0-2 and 1-2. That's a recipe for making outs against Verlander.

Perhaps the best sign for Detroit was seeing reigning MVP Miguel Cabrera hit a his first home run of the postseason, a two-run blast off Gray in the fourth inning. It was just the third extra-base hit Cabrera has had since Sept. 1. The slugger has a groin, hip and abdominal strains that are limiting his mobility and overall effectiveness. He hasn't been able to run, nor has he been able to get his legs into his swing. Hence, the loss of power.

It's a tough spot for the Tigers. They can't lose Cabrera's presence in the lineup, but they need him to be more than just a singles hitter in the No. 3 hole, especially given cleanup hitter Prince Fielder's overall struggles in the postseason.

Detroit opens the ALCS on the road against Boston on Saturday night. I think the Tigers are underdogs in this series, primarily because Cabrera isn't healthy and hasn't swung the bat up to his capabilities lately. Can he overcome his injury (or injuries) enough to get his power stroke back? Is Thursday's home run a sign of better things to come? That may be the deciding factor in whether Detroit can advance to the World Series for the second consecutive year.

 The Tigers can match (and maybe even exceed) the Red Sox in the starting rotation, but Boston has a clear advantage offensively if Cabrera doesn't produce the way he has in the past.

Cardinals eliminate Pirates in NLDS Game 5

I think I mentioned earlier this week that St. Louis Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright has been really good in the playoffs in his career.

The right-hander delivered in the clutch again Wednesday, firing a complete game eight-hitter as the Cardinals defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-1 in Game 5 of the NLDS at Busch Stadium.

With the win, St. Louis takes the series 3-2 and advances to the NLCS for the eighth time since 2000. The Cardinals will open at home against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.

St. Louis jumped in front in the second inning when David Freese got a hanging breaking ball from Pittsburgh starter Gerrit Cole and knocked it out of the yard for a two-run homer. Matt Adams added a two-run homer in the eighth inning to put the game out of reach.

Not that Pittsburgh had much chance against Wainwright, who is now 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA and four saves in 15 career postseason appearances. The only time I can remember Wainwright failing in the playoffs was last year when he got rocked by the Washington Nationals in Game 5 of the NLDS. On that night, of course, the Cardinals roared back from a 6-0 deficit and won the game anyway.

After Wednesday's victory, St. Louis is now 8-1 in playoff elimination games over the last three seasons. Give the Pirates credit for a great season -- they won 94 games and took the top-seeded Cardinals to the brink in this series. However, the talent and experience of St. Louis won out in the end.

Joe Girardi signs 4-year extension to remain Yankees manager

I never bought into the idea that Joe Girardi would be managing the Cubs in 2014.

Oh, I wouldn't be surprised if he did indeed express interest in the Cubs through "back channels." I don't doubt that Girardi's "camp" let it be known he would be willing to listen if the Cubs called.

I just think all this chatter was about nothing more than leverage. The Yankees were offering a 3-year extension. Girardi wanted 4 years. He let it be known that he had other options, namely the Cubs, so the Yankees caved and gave him the extra year.

Girardi and the Yankees agreed to terms Wednesday on a four-year, $16 million contract that will make Girardi the second-highest paid manager in the game.

"After talking with my family, we decided that (New York) was where we wanted to come back," Girardi said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday. "It's a special place to manage because of the opportunity that you have every year and the tools that they give you. The history of this organization is unbelievable. There are special things that happen here every year."

The Yankees kept their man. Meanwhile, the Cubs are back to square one in their managerial search. So far, we've heard three names connected to the opening. I assume others will emerge before a hire is made. But here are the names that have been bandied about so far:

Manny Acta: He managed the Washington Nationals from 2007 to 2009 and the Cleveland Indians from 2010 to 2012. His record is 372-518 in 890 career games, a .418 winning percentage.

A.J. Hinch: The current vice president of professional scouting for the San Diego Padres had a rough go as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2009 and 2010, going 89-123 for a .420 winning percentage.

Rick Renteria: The San Diego Padres bench coach has never managed before, but is expected to meet with Cubs brass sometime next week.

Obviously, the names of Hinch and Renteria have popped up because of their ties with Cubs GM Jed Hoyer, who was previously the GM in San Diego.

I'm not one of these people who believes teams need to hire a manager with experience. I think a first-time manager is fine if you believe it's the right guy. I'm pretty sure Acta is the wrong guy. Only two managers in Major League Baseball history have managed more games than Acta and had a lower winning percentage than Acta's .418 mark. Given the choice between hiring a managing newbie or recycling Acta, I would opt for giving someone new an opportunity.