The losing pitching was able to also perform and keep the games close
Today was a day for a fan of pitching. The starting pitching stat lines say it all from today’s game. Walker Buehler (and his tight pants) hurled six scoreless innings with six strikeouts and only 7 hits. Max Fried threw 6.2 innings of 3 run ball. He didn’t surrender a run after the first inning, keeping Atlanta in the game. Lance McCullers was beaten early but notably struck out 7 Rays in his 3.2 innings pitched. Charlie Morton highlighted the pitching with his scoreless decisive outing. Saturday night gave us one pennant winner in a winner-takes-all game while the other forced a winner-takes-all game.
Dodgers-Braves
The first was all the Dodgers needed
The Braves pitching has been incredible throughout the postseason and Max Fried has appeared unhittable for his starts. The Dodgers lineup knew they had to attack Fried early and often with aggressive swings. The hits would need to be nothing short of clearing the fences.
Corey Seager pounced on an early breaking ball that hung in the strike zone. He hooked the ball just beyond the right-field foul pole. Two pitches later, Justin Turner attacks Fried’s fastball with the same mentality of attacking Fried early. The pitch wasn’t far from its intended location, rather we have to acknowledge the beauty of Turner’s swing. Turner’s swing was one swift action that wasn’t broken up the way many hitters struggle with at the plate. Likewise, Turner wasn’t swinging for launch angle or to pull the ball over the fence. Turner was able to get ahead of the heater and let the motion of the swing power it out.
Fried couldn’t have given the Braves a better performance. After the Bellinger base hit for the 3rd run in the first inning, Fried calmed down and progressed through the rest of the outing. Max Fried’s two established pitches (fastball and breaking ball) looked like the ones that made Fried one of the NL Cy Young candidates from this season. Unfortunately, the early 3 runs were enough to put the game away and dampen the great start.
Walker attacked the zone throughout the night
The second inning had to provide legitimate concern for Dave Roberts and Dodgers fans everywhere. he bases were loaded with no outs. This was a reminder of why Walker is the ace of the Dodgers. Buehler blew the fastball past Austin Riley and Nick Markakis to strikeout both and forced Christian Pache into a groundout to end the inning scoreless. After the early scare, Buehler attacked the aggressive Braves batters with an aggressive approach of his own. Buehler went right after the Braves order with high heat, fastballs that were 99 MPH constantly. In the later innings gave the Braves a different look with off-speed pitches out of the zone forcing multiple swings and misses. The Dodgers have not had a clutch postseason pitcher like Buehler since their last World Series in 1988. A day like this one gives Dodgers fans much optimism about their championship chances.
Braves late comeback is robbed and held
When watching the early segment of the NLCS, you could tell which team was which based on their body language. The Dodgers knew that this was their series to lose and that they were the heavy favorite. The Braves were coming in hot from the earlier rounds and were ready to have fun in this series. The calm of the Braves and the nervousness of the Dodgers showed as the Braves took the 3-1 series lead. Watching the Braves recently, anyone could tell that the energy is gone. They have become serious ones and now are playing with a sense of urgency.
In the fifth inning, the Braves saw the opportunity to finally break through again Buehler’s heroics. Marcell Osuna finally made hard contact with a Walker off-speed pitch. The drive was intended to bring in the runner on first and possibly take Buehler out of the game, yet Mookie Betts made the catch of the day. Mookie timed the hit perfectly and snagged the ball to end the inning. The Braves managed to bring in a run on a Ronald Acuna double, but after the Betts robbery, the game felt out of reach. Pedro Baez and Kenley Jensen closed out the last two frames for the Braves to force the coveted Game Seven. The Braves suddenly feel placed in the Dodger shoes. ATL now has everything to lose and is playing that way as well.
Rays-Astros
Morton’s Magnificence
If one watched Charlie Morton pitch this closeout game, they would have the impression that Morton had a plane to catch. Charlie Morton was quick and methodical on the mound as he managed his pitches and was constantly earning quick outs, resulting in quick innings. Many will look at the stats and see that Morton only tossed 6 strikeouts and threw only 5.2 innings. Those stats are far from telling the full story.
Morton’s style of pitching wasn’t going to strike out many Astros batters. Rather, the breaking pitches and ability to paint the corners with his location forced terrible swings and easy outs for the Rays’ fielding. While not getting the strikeouts, Morton was able to let Astros hitters put the ball in play and keep Mortons pitch count low. Morton only threw 66 pitches when he was taken out of the game and appeared ready to throw past the century mark in the deciding game. At the end of the night, Charlie Morton gave the Rays a shutout performance and in his impressive style. Morton retired 14 batters in a row (from the second inning until the sixth, the Astros failed to put a runner on base).
Randy Arozarena’s seventh gives him the MVP, Zunino powers Rays to close out the series
The Rays lived and died by the homer throughout this series and the longball punched their ticket to their first World Series since 2008. There aren’t enough words or actions that can describe the great run that Randy Arozarena is currently on. The historic run is one thing but to see how the home runs are being hit makes everything more impressive. Randy Arozarena hit his 7th homer in the postseason in the first inning to give the Rays and early 2-0 lead. Randy was able to power the outside fastball to deep center field and this homer is not an oddity, he has been hitting home runs like this throughout the postseason. It was a given that Arozarena was going to win the ALCS MVP. The rookie isn’t just pulling balls out of the park, he’s powering them.
Mike Zunino is another Rays success story. After years of promise in Seattle, Zunino was finally put in a system that would see him thrive. Tampa Bay doesn’t need Mike Zunino to be the power hitter that Seattle asked him to be, rather it just is a bonus to have. The Rays were looking for a knockout blow. They got one in the second inning from Mike and another from him in the sixth.
The second inning brought back the power that we saw from Game 2 as he connected with the sweet spot of the bat on an outside pitch to pull the ball well over the left-field wall for a solo shot. The sixth inning saw the same situational hitting that Zunino displayed in games one and two. Mike was able to power the pitch just far enough to bring in the runner from third and extend the lead to 4-0.
The Rays made it this far with the ‘Pen, they clinched with the ‘Pen
Many were quick to criticize Kevin Cash for pulling Charlie Morton in the sixth inning. Cash pulled Blake Snell from Game Six early and looked to be making the same mistake for the second night in a row. Charlie Morton might have been throwing his best game in his career given the circumstances and stakes. What we all as fans failed to realize is that this is the Rays way of winning games. This method won them 40 regular-season games and it was going to be the method that was going to put them in the World Series.
Charlie Morton left two runners on when he was pulled. Nick Anderson came in and took the Rays out of the jam with the first batter. Anderson then progressed through the seventh inning with the help of an inning-ending double play before he struggled in the eighth. After loading the bases, Cash turned to Pete Fairbanks to close out the inning and eventually the game. Carlos Correa slapped a grounder around the shift to bring in two runs but Fairbanks was near perfect from there. Fairbanks found the fastball and fanned the final Astros hopes as the Rays won the game 4-2. The Rays are known for setting trends. The ability to have any reliever step in for the needed out can’t be underappreciated. This game was a reminder of why the Rays were considered the best team in baseball throughout the season.
