The Red Sox avoided elimination on Sunday against the Astros with a well-pitched game that became a rout in the later innings. The Yankees only scored one run in their own elimination game, but it was enough to force a Game 4 on Monday against the Indians.
Monday’s MLB postseason action includes 3 elimination games
Monday’s Say Hey, Baseball recaps the Sunday action and looks forward to the day’s postseason slate.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
With the Cubs already losing to the Nationals on Saturday thanks to Bryce Harper, we’ve gone from wondering if every Division Series round would end in a sweep to only one of them still having that opportunity. And the extension of the two American League iterations of the DS means we’ve got four games on Monday, three of them elimination contests.
At 1 p.m. ET, the Red Sox will once again try to avoid going home against the Astros. This time it will be Rick Porcello taking the mound, and while he won the AL Cy Young a year ago, in 2017, he’s had trouble keeping the ball down. Combine that unfortunate tendency with the rise in homers across the league (likely due to a changed ball), and, well, Porcello could be in trouble against the Astros’ potent, homer-happy offense. He’ll take on Charlie Morton, who has evolved into a strikeout artist rather than a pitcher reliant on his defense and balls in play.
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Then, at 4 p.m. ET, the Nationals and Cubs see who can take the next series lead. Max Scherzer, who missed Game 1 and Game 2 due to a hamstring injury, will attempt to thwart the Cubs and midseason acquisition Jose Quintana.
The Indians will try one more time to send the Yankees packing at 7 p.m. ET, with Trevor Bauer, who starred in Game 1, going on short rest against Luis Severino, who was knocked out of the AL Wild Card Game after earning just one out. Severino will likely be better this time unless adrenaline ruins his command once again, but will Bauer be able to replicate his Game 1 magic? We’ve had a high-scoring game and a low-scoring game, with Game 1 somewhere in between. Who knows what Game 4 has in store for us, but we’ll be watching.
Last, we’ve got the Diamondbacks at 10 p.m. ET trying to avoid being the only team to be swept in the Division Series round when Zack Greinke takes on his former team and Yu Darvish. Los Angeles has had two convincing wins against Arizona so far after losing the season series to them, and each W puts the memories of a rough September a little further behind.
We’ll be liveblogging Red Sox-Astros, Yankees-Indians, and Diamondbacks-Dodgers for you on Monday, since all three are elimination games. Come join us for a long (and hopefully rewarding) day of postseason baseball.
- Grant Brisbee wrote a wonderful feature on Houston and the Astros, and how the latter is the perfect team for the former right now. It’s absolutely worth your time.
- Yeah yeah, Aaron Judge robbed the Indians of a homer and it could have very well won the game for the Yankees in the long run, but who cares? What matters is that Judge also robbed noted annoyance Zack Hample of a souvenir, causing Hample to get clowned on Twitter by the masses, and even Yankees fans would agree that this is the most important thing.
- Here are the seven best crowd reactions to Judge’s key catch.
- The Dodgers are not planning to celebrate in the pool at Chase Field this year if they win the NLDS.
- Josh Reddick had a three-run homer robbed from him by Mookie Betts, and then caused a three-run homer later with his glove. It wasn’t a great Sunday for the former Red Sox and current Astro.
- Rafael Devers became the youngest Red Sox player to homer in postseason history, and it ended up being the game-winner, too.
- Devers wasn’t the only hero for Boston on Sunday, as David Price threw four scoreless innings of relief to keep the Sox alive.
- Federal Baseball wonders if the Nats should change up their lineup for Game 3.
- If Dayton Moore leaves the Royals for the Braves, he is going to need “complete control.” Considering the power struggle going on in Atlanta right now, that seems unlikely.
- Yes, the Yankees won on Sunday, but in large part due to Masahiro Tanaka’s incredible start that limited the bullpen decisions Joe Girardi needed to make. Otherwise, this series has been exposing his weakness.
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