Final Four: Dodgers vs. Brewers; Astros vs. Red Sox

Baseball's final four is set. We've got the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, and the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series.

Who ya got?

I've got the Brewers in six in the NL. Milwaukee reminds me of the 2015 Kansas City Royals, and not just because they have Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain in their starting lineup.

Much like that Kansas City team, it's hard to match the Brewers' bullpen depth. Milwaukee basically is playing a six-inning game with relievers such as Jeremy Jeffress, Josh Hader, Corey Knebel and even our old friend Joakim Soria pitching effectively out of the bullpen.

The Brewers have the one piece that nobody else has -- a dominant left-handed reliever who can get six outs if needed. That's Hader, and I expect him to be a difference-maker in this series, as he has been all season.

Hey, it's finally getting interesting in the AL! We've got the 108-win Red Sox and the 103-win Astros ready to do battle. There was almost no pennant race in the AL this season, with the five playoff positions basically secured by Sept. 1, and five teams in the league losing 95 or more games.

It just wasn't interesting, until now. We've got two super-teams going head-to-head here, and I'll take the defending champion Astros in 7.

I like Houston's pitching depth. As much as I like the Boston ace, Chris Sale, Houston ace Justin Verlander is just as good. And I'm not much of a fan of Boston's No. 2 pitcher, David Price, who always seems to struggle in the playoffs.

I question the Red Sox bullpen, too, especially after Craig Kimbrel had so much trouble closing out the Yankees in Game 4 of the ALDS.

It would be a huge disappointment in Boston if the Red Sox don't win the World Series after going 108-54, but I really think they are the underdogs in this series.

Houston, to me, looks poised to repeat.

Now that I've posted this, we'll probably end up with a  Red Sox-Dodgers World Series. If I know anything about baseball, it's that I know nothing about baseball.

Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees win wild-card games -- some thoughts

Tony Wolters

The wild-card round is complete in the Major League Baseball playoffs. One game was interesting, and one was not.

The Colorado Rockies beat the Cubs, 2-1, in 13 innings Tuesday in a captivating National League game, while the New York Yankees on Wednesday coasted to a 7-2 win over the Oakland Athletics in American League action.

The most remarkable part of these results? As recently as Saturday morning, the Cubs were in first place by themselves in the NL Central and had the best record in the league. Of all the NL contenders, they probably had as good a chance as any team of being the league's representative in the World Series.

By Tuesday night, their season was over after a stunning offensive collapse. The Milwaukee Brewers caught the Cubs on the second-to-last day of the season and forced a Game 163 on Monday to determine the NL Central champion. The Brewers came into Wrigley Field and won that game, 3-1, to relegate the Cubs to the wild-card round.

Against the Rockies, the vaunted Cubs offense continued to sputter, and Colorado finally put the North Siders out of their misery when Tony Wolters (of all people) delivered a two-out RBI single in the top of the 13th inning to put Colorado ahead to stay.

The Cubs failed to put a ball in play in the bottom of the 13th inning, as Terrance Gore, Javier Baez and Albert Almora all struck out against Colorado reliever Scott Oberg.

Cubs fans will point out that they made the playoffs for the fourth season in a row, which is true, and any playoff season can't truly be characterized as a failure. But, relative to expectations, this season is a big disappointment for the Cubs. They had made the NLCS three years in a row; there has been plenty of "dynasty" talk in Chicago over the past five years, and I feel pretty comfortable saying at this point that the Cubs are not a dynasty. There really aren't dynasties in baseball anymore -- with the extra layers of playoffs, it's just too hard to win.

In fact, this season reminded me of many Cubs team from before 2015, such as this one, this one, this one, this one and this one -- clubs that made fans believe they were on their way to a championship, only to implode in a spectacular manner.

The New York Yankees, meanwhile, had no such trouble. It took them two batters Wednesday night to score as many runs as the Cubs did Monday and Tuesday combined.

Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer of Liam Hendriks in the bottom of the first inning to put the Yankees up, 2-0, and they were on their way.

Oakland tried an outside-the-box strategy, using Hendriks and other relievers to pitch a do-or-die game. Obviously, it didn't work. It wasn't Lou Trivino's fault. He was the second Oakland reliever to take the mound, and he tossed three shutout innings to keep his club in the game.

However, the Yankees scored four runs in the sixth to increase their lead to 6-0 against Fernando Rodney and Blake Treinen. Rodney only needed four pitches to give up a run, and he did not retire a batter.

For me, that's the problem with bullpen days and using an "opener" as your starting pitcher. If you use enough relievers, to me, you're eventually going to put a guy out there who doesn't have his good stuff that day, and that's when the game is going to go off the rails.

I understand the thought process: The A's wanted to give the loaded New York lineup different looks, and never let any of the Yankees hitters face the same pitcher twice. But, if the plan is to use six or seven pitchers to get through nine innings, my feeling is one of those six or seven guys is not going to be up to the task.

In this case, Hendriks, Rodney and Treinen all struggled, and now a 97-win season in Oakland has gone for naught.

One more pile of crud: 'Fan Appreciation Night' at Guaranteed Rate Field

The view from my seat about 45 minutes before Wednesday's home finale.

The White Sox concluded the home portion of their schedule Wednesday with a 10-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians.

The Sox (62-96) were 30-51 at Guaranteed Rate Field in 2018, and in some respects, it's a miracle they won 30. I personally attended 13 of the 81 home games -- including Wednesday's -- and saw the Sox lose 10 times and win three times.

Most of the 10 losses were just like the one Wednesday.

The Sox were never in this game. For some strange reason, it was a "bullpen day," even though Reynaldo Lopez could have started on regular rest. He instead will get the start Friday afternoon in the first game of a day-night doubleheader at Minnesota.

Jace Fry started Wednesday, and gave up a home run to Francisco Lindor on the third pitch of the game.

So, Fry (2-3) gets the loss, even though that was the only run he allowed. The Indians got a run off Aaron Bummer in the third inning, then three in the fourth and two in the fifth off Ryan Burr, and three in the sixth off Jeanmar Gomez.

By the bottom of the sixth inning, Cleveland led, 10-0.

Some Fan Appreciation Night, huh?

In the case of Burr, he's 24 years old, so perhaps the poor outing can be chalked up as a learning experience. The veteran Gomez, however, can take a hike, as we've previously discussed on this blog.

Here's the real unfortunate thing about this game: You had 25,598 people in the stands on a Wednesday night in late September, for a 95-loss team that's been out of the pennant race since the first week of May.

That's a nice crowd under those circumstances, but the Sox basically punted the game before it started with this "bullpen day" baloney. They didn't even try to win this game.

As a fan, that's frustrating. You're driving to the ballpark knowing the Sox are going to get their asses kicked. As most readers of this blog know, I'm a longtime partial season-ticket holder. My message to Sox brass in a lot of the surveys they have sent me has been a simple one: OK, you think you're going to be good in three years. I get it. But I'm spending money on tickets *now*, and the product that's being put on the field does not qualify as Major League Baseball.

The Sox should have thrown Lopez on Wednesday and tried to win their last home game before a decent crowd of fans. They should have saved the tanking bullpen day for one of the road games in Minnesota.

Wednesday's loss represented one more middle finger at the paying customers, who have endured miles upon miles of hell in 2018.

White Sox outfielder Daniel Palka making his ninth inning hits count

White Sox outfielder Daniel Palka has started to establish a reputation as the team's best clutch hitter.

Palka has had a good (and surprising) season overall. He didn't make the Sox's roster coming out of spring training and mostly was an afterthought. But injuries to incumbent outfielders gave him an opportunity in April, and he has taken advantage, leading the team with 27 home runs and ranking second with 66 RBIs in 119 games.

Although Palka's overall slash line of .239/.291/.491 isn't overly impressive, a .782 OPS isn't bad for a rookie, and fans are starting to feel as though they want Palka at the plate with the game on the line.

His latest signature moment came Wednesday. With runners on second and third and one out in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Sox trailing, 4-3, Palka shot a base hit through the infield to score both runs and lift the South Siders to a 5-4 win over the Cleveland Indians.

It was a little surprising that Indians manager Terry Francona let Carlos Carrasco face Palka with first base open. He could have brought in left-handed closer Brad Hand to possibly neutralize Palka, or he could have issued an intentional walk to set up a possible double play and a right-on-right matchup between Carrasco and Avisail Garcia.

But, the Tribe chose to let Carrasco pitch to Palka, and they lost.

But amid all this, would you believe that Palka is only 10 for 48 with 16 strikeouts in his ninth inning at-bats this season? That will pencil out to a .208/.255/.625 slash line.

Oh, yeah, that .625 slugging percentage. Palka has made those 10 hits count. Six of them are home runs -- he leads the league in ninth inning homers. And those 10 hits have produced 12 RBIs, including the two to win the game Wednesday.

So, Palka does not have a high number of hits in the ninth inning, but most Sox fans view him as a clutch performer because the hits he has had sure have counted.

White Sox check most of my boxes in late-season series vs. Cubs

Predictably, the White Sox lost two out of three to the crosstown Cubs over the weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field, but that does not mean this series was a total loss. In fact, I got most of what I realistically hoped for out of this series:

• Prevent the Cubs from clinching their division on South Side soil -- Check!
• Sell tickets for well above face value -- Check!
• Don't get swept -- Check! The Sox won, 10-4, Friday.
• Give a good performance for announcer Ken "Hawk" Harrelson's last game Sunday --- umm, no, this did not happen.

But, three out of four isn't bad in this crappy season.

Now, let's forget about this foolishness and move on to the next series against Cleveland.

Seven games to go ... we've made it this far, might as well finish up.

It's time for another insufferable crosstown series

When the 2018 baseball schedule came out, I cringed.

I saw that the White Sox's last home weekend series of the season was against the Cubs, and I immediately thought "conspiracy."

Jerry Reinsdorf must have known the Sox were going to field a terrible team this season, and perhaps he wanted some September gate. Is it unreasonable to think he asked the league office to schedule the crosstown series on the South Side in September, just to bump up the attendance figures at the end of a miserable Sox season?

Given that a crosstown series this late in the season is unprecedented, it wouldn't surprise me.

Obviously, these games mean a lot to the Cubs (89-63), who enter Friday's game with a 2.5-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central. Their magic number is 8 with 10 games to play. At least it is mathematically impossible for them to clinch their division at Guaranteed Rate Field, even if they sweep the Sox (and I wouldn't be surprised if they do). We would never hear the end of it if the Cubs clinched on South Side soil. Thank goodness that will not happen.

The Sox (60-92), of course, have been out of the pennant race since about Mother's Day. I sold my tickets to this weekend's series on StubHub for about double the face value. I figure the tickets were purchased by an enterprising Cubs fan, and I'd like to congratulate him or her for contributing to my fund for a deposit on next year's Sox season tickets.

Sure, I'll miss out on the "fun" this weekend, but with that money I can go to five or six games next season, when hopefully the Sox are fielding a little bit more watchable team.

If the Sox somehow manage to hold their own in this series, I'm sure someone will start a narrative about how this is "like the World Series" for the Sox and their fans. Hell, actually, someone will probably say that even if the Sox get swept.

That's simply not the case. If this were "like the World Series," trust me, I would not be selling my tickets for profit. This series is just three more games at the end of a lost, disappointing season. Even if the Sox win, that would not redeem the season. If the Sox lose, well, just throw these games in the pile with the other 90-some losses.

White Sox reliever Caleb Frare: Right idea, bad execution

Jason Kipnis

The White Sox lost, 4-1, to the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night, after Jason Kipnis hit a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth inning.

That's not news -- the Sox are 0-8 at Progressive Field this season. However, they could have had a 1-0 victory if relief pitcher Caleb Frare had followed through with good execution after he had the right idea of what play to make in a bunt situation.

Cleveland had runners on first and second with nobody out in the ninth after Josh Donaldson's infield single and Yandy Diaz's ground ball with eyes.

The next hitter was Melky Cabrera, and he popped up a bunt right back to Frare at the pitcher's mound. The runners had to freeze -- there is no infield fly rule protection on a bunt -- so Frare dropped the ball and threw to third base for what he hoped would start a double play, and potentially a triple play.

Frare didn't make the best throw to third, but that's neither here nor there, because umpires signaled the play dead, called Cabrera out and sent the runners back to their bases.

Why? Because Frare touched the ball and intentionally dropped it. Had he just let the popped-up bunt fall without touching it, he would have been well within his rights to throw to third for a force, and give his team an opportunity to record multiple outs on the play.

Instead, Frare's actions allowed the umpires to invoke little-used Rule 5.09(a)(12), which says an infielder cannot drop a popup intentionally to start a double or triple play:

"An infielder intentionally drops a fair fly ball or line drive, with first, first and second, first and third, or first, second and third base occupied before two are out. The ball is dead and runner or runners shall return to their original base or bases;

"In this situation, the batter is not out if the infielder permits the ball to drop untouched to the ground, except when the Infield Fly rule applies."

So Frare had the right idea. At some point, it must have flashed through his mind, "Don't catch this popup. Get multiple outs." That's the correct thought process, but it wasn't the right execution. He's got to let the ball fall untouched there, and then pick it up and make a throw. The umpires aren't going to let an infielder cheat the system with an intentional drop.

And, of course, after that play went astray, we all know what happened next. Ian Hamilton enters the game, beans Yan Gomes with a pitch to load the bases, and then throws a meatball for Kipnis to hit into the seats.

Another rough loss for the Sox in a season full of them.