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| Jack Flaherty |
Who do you have winning?
Before the playoffs started, I picked the Cardinals and the Dodgers to win these series, so I guess there's no reason to backtrack now.
The series between Atlanta and St. Louis has been incredible. I really had no idea which team was going to win coming into the series, and I still don't have much of a clue.
Both clubs have one significant weakness. For the Cardinals, they have the weakest lineup of any team in the playoffs. Strong pitching staff, yes, but the offense is suspect. And that lack of offensive punch has hurt them in a 3-0 loss in Game 2 and a 3-1 loss in Game 3.
For the Braves, the significant weakness is in the bullpen, and that weakness has hurt them twice in this series. In Game 1, Atlanta led 3-1 after seven innings. The Braves lost, 7-6. In Game 4, Atlanta led 4-3 after seven innings. The Braves lost, 5-4, in 10 innings.
Game 5 will feature a matchup of perhaps the two best pitchers in the National League since the All-Star break. For St. Louis, Jack Flaherty went 7-2 with a 0.91 ERA in 14 second-half starts. His mound opponent, Atlanta's Mike Foltynewicz, went 6-1 with a 2.65 ERA in 10 second-half starts.
This is also a rematch of Game 2, which was won by Atlanta and Foltynewicz, as cited above. Should be a great one.
Meanwhile, the Nationals will try to do the unthinkable and slay the heavily favored Dodgers, who have won the NL pennant in each of the past two seasons.
Los Angeles won 106 games this season and was an absurd +273 in run differential. The second-best team in the NL in that area was, well, the Nationals at +149.
When you think about it, Washington probably is the second-best team in the NL right at this moment. Sure, the Braves won the NL East fair and square, but when you look at the Nationals, they lost the division because of their pathetic 19-31 start. However, Washington went 74-38 over the last 112 games of the regular season -- that's not a small sample size, and perhaps we should have known they were the biggest threat to the Dodgers.
And, the Nationals will send Stephen Strasburg to the mound. So far in these playoffs, Strasburg has worked nine innings, allowing only one run on five hits. He has struck out 14 and walked nobody. He was the winning pitcher in Game 2 of this series against the Dodgers. Could he win this game Wednesday and help Washington shock the baseball world? You bet.
But he'll have to beat Walker Buehler, who is the Dodgers' ace, with all due respect to Clayton Kershaw. Buehler was the Game 1 winner in this series, when he tossed six innings of no-run, one-hit ball with eight strikeouts and three walks. It should be a great pitching matchup.
These days, they say fans love the long ball, and there are plenty of those in the modern game. Me personally, I like to see the top pitchers go head to head. I'm hoping to see that kind of baseball Wednesday.
Cardinals score 10 in the first inning and beat the Braves, 13-1. Flaherty did his job; Foltynewicz not so much.
ReplyDeleteHow about the Dodgers choking? Back-to-back homers for Rendon and Soto off Kershaw in the eighth, and then a grand slam for Kendrick in the 10th.
Nationals have been on the wrong end of these Game 5s in the past. Will heads roll in Los Angeles?