Outside The Confines: Fall Classic

A thrilling ALCS game keeps the Guardians hopes alive. The Dodgers take control of the NLCS.

Last night’s American League Championship Series game was good, but I take issue with this:

I can think of a better postseason game in Cleveland. I bet you can too.

Oh yeah. the Dodgers are one win away from a trip to the World Series, leading the Mets three games to one.

• I’m sure you’ve heard already, but the Guardians roared back to beat the Yankees 5-3 with a game-tying, two-run, two-out home run in the bottom of the ninth by Jhonkensy Noel and a walkoff two-run home run by David Fry. Mandy Bell gets the reaction from the Guardians.
• The Athletic writers have four takeaways from Game 3 of the ALCS. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Here are the Guardians radio calls, English and Spanish, for both Cleveland home runs. The Spanish one is not to be missed. You don’t even need to understand Spanish.
• R.J. Anderson has a profile of Noel, for those of you not familiar with him. Although I think most Cubs fans know him from the August series with the Guardians.
• In an ironic twist, David Adler published this piece arguing that Yankees reliever Luke Weaver has been the most dominating closer in the playoffs. Of course, he gave up Noel’s home run.
• Kiley McDaniel has the standout tools of the ALCS, according to the Statcast numbers. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• The Yankees believe the Guardians “woke up” Aaron Judge after intentionally walking Juan Soto (The Athletic sub. req.) to get to him in Game 2.
• Ben Clemens looks at the math behind the decision to walk Soto to face Judge.
• This was published before Game 3, but the Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. declared that the Yankees will win the World Series this year. He didn’t use the word “guarantee,” but the headline does.
• Jeff Passan reports that the Yankees consider anything short of a World Series title a failure this year.
• Jay Jaffe believes that second baseman Gleyber Torres has been the spark plug for the Yankees this postseason and has the numbers to back it up.
• Bernie Pleskoff speculates on the market for Juan Soto as a free agent this winter. Bidding will start at around ten years and $600 million and Pleskoff has four teams listed as the favorites.
• ESPN writers make the case for Soto to sign with each of the four Championship Series teams. They do dismiss the case for Cleveland, however.
• Over to the National League Championship Series, I love this sentence in the final paragraph of Michael Baumann’s look at struggles that Shohei Ohtani is having hitting with the bases empty. “[I]n the interest of full transparency, I am rushing to get this blog out before Ohtani leads off Game 4 with a bases-empty bomb to right center.” Ohtani led off Game 4 with a bases-empty bomb to right center. Still, the piece is worth reading, more for how Ohtani is hitting with men on base.
• The Dodgers’ Max Muncy has reached base in a record 12-straight plate appearances.
• Ken Rosenthal takes note of Kiké Hernández’s postseason heroics and how he embodies the Dodgers “next man up” philosophy. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• If you want to attend World Series games at Dodger Stadium, be prepared to pay a lot. The cheapest tickets still available for sale are just over $900. That’s face value, not the secondary market.
• Jimmy Traina thinks that MLB is allowing Fox to treat the NLCS poorly. He’s particularly upset that Game 3 was on FS1 while The Masked Singer was on Fox. And no, The Masked Singer doesn’t get better ratings. The NLCS Game 1 on Fox got over 8 million viewers. The Masked Singer gets around 3 million.
• Game 5 of the NL Division Series between the Dodgers and Padres set an all-time record for viewership of a MLB game in Japan. Somewhat embarrassingly, more people watched the game in Japan than in the US.
• Stephen J. Nesbitt has one lesson that each Championship Series team can teach the other MLB teams. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Thomas Harrington notes that the seven best players of this decade are still playing.
• Ben Clemens breaks down the Padres’ Luis Arraez’s 2024 season and demonstrates how, despite a batting title, Arraez didn’t have a very good season.
• Susan Slusser updates the search for a general manager to serve under new team president Buster Posey. Posey is reportedly looking for someone with a strong scouting background.
• The Mets have installed LED lights at Citi Field for in-game light shows.
• Some news about where the Rays will NOT be playing in 2025:

Time for the Oakland rAy’s. (It’s not gonna happen, unfortunately.)

• And finally, good news for the only permanent residents of Tropicana Field.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.