The Dodgers are ascendant with three-straight shutouts. Previews of both Championship Series and other news from MLB.
Good morning. I think I won’t publish links to the articles where Kodai Senga assured everyone that he was ready to pitch Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.
I think nearly all of America is a Guardians fan now. Even if most of them have no idea what a Guardian is or where they play.
- The Dodgers tossed their third-straight shutout yesterday evening as they took a one-game-to-none lead over the Mets in the NLCS. Adam McCalvy breaks down the Dodgers record-tying streak of 33 innings in the postseason without allowing a run, including the “hidden perfect game” by the Dodgers.
- A roundtable preview of the NLCS and what each team needs to win. Just a hunch, but if the Dodgers don’t allow another run, they’re probably going to win the series.
- Jack Harris has nine things the Dodgers should be worried about in the NLCS.
- Juan Toribio notes the impact that outfielder Teoscar Hernández has had with the Dodgers, on and off the field. Hernández is a free agent, but he says he wants to stay with LA.
- Ken Rosenthal praises Dodgers manager Dave Roberts for his moves in the playoffs. (The Athletic sub. req.) In the article, Roberts admits that he manufactured the whole “Manny Machado” incident to try to motivate his team.
- David Adler and Andrew Simon have five “X-factors” for the Mets.
- David Adler looks at how Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor started squaring the ball up and turned his season around.
- R.J. Anderson has four reasons for the Mets midseason renaissance and only one of them is Lindor.
- Andy McCullough looks at how the Padres shut down Shohei Ohtani and whether the Mets can do the same thing. (The Athletic sub. req.) Well, Ohtani was 2 for 4 with a walk in Game 1, but both hits were singles and there wa a caught stealing in there.
- Esteban Rivera examines the role that team swing path diversity has played in the playoffs so far.
- Katie Baker looks at the Mets team and their magical season so far and asks “Why not the Mets?” Well, they do have to score a run. Actually, at least four.
- Seriously, I have never seen a team with more good-luck gimmicks than the 2024 Mets. Josh Wilson explains what’s behind the Mets “OMG” signs.
- A roundtable preview of the American League Championship Series.
- Jordan Schusterman with an ALCS preview.
- Brent Maguire has the five “X-factors” for the Yankees in the ALCS.
- Tyler Kepner writes that New York is excited about the possibility of a Subway Series. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Quincy Wheeler has three keys to the ALCS for the Guardians.
- Mandy Bell has the story of the “brotherhood” between the Guardians’ Venezuelan middle infield tandem of Andrés Giménez and Brayan Rocchio.
- Tim Britton reviews his earlier article that compared all of the playoff teams to a historical analog. (The Athletic sub. req.)
- Will Leitch ranks all four possible World Series matchups.
- Tyler Kepner ranks all four Series matchups as well, (The Athletic sub. req.) and has them in the same order as Leitch.
- David Schoenfield also ranks the four potential Fall Classic matchups. (ESPN+ sub. req.) Not quite the same order, but both have the same two top picks and then switch the order of the two potential Guardians Series. Guardians get no respect.
- Sarah Langs has the 14 most common postseason matchups in history. Yankees and Dodgers are number one with 11 World Series matchups.
- The three teams with the highest payrolls are three of the four teams still alive in the playoffs. Matt Snyder argues that maybe we shouldn’t read too much into that.
- Gabe Lacques writes that the current playoff format is working just fine.
- Offseason questions for teams eliminated from the playoffs. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
- Michael Baumann examines what went wrong with the Phillies this October and whether it can be fixed.
- Michael Rosen breaks down Tigers’ ace Tarik Skubal’s arsenal and calls him a “crafty flamethrower.”
- Some (minor) good news from Hurricane Milton in that it appears that no Spring Training facility in Florida suffered more than minor damage.
- And finally, the Dodgers’ Kiké Hernández apologized for using a bad word on television.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.