The big cities dominate the play-offs: New York, with the Mets and Yankees, and Los Angeles with the Dodgers dream of returning to the top of Major League Baseball. Also competing for the title is the “smaller” city of Cleveland which, with the Guardians, remains the real surprise between the superpowers of New York and Los Angeles and returns to the league final for the first time since 2016.
The only team to go through the “gallows” of the Wild Card Series was the Mets, while the other teams exploited and confirmed their status as winners of their respective divisions, with the Dodgers, owners of the best regular season record (98-64) capable of eliminating the San Diego Padres reaching game five, the Yankees and the Guardians – the top two teams in the American League – good at confirming themselves against the complicated Kansas City Royals of Bobby Witt Jr and Vinnie Pasquantino, and the Detroit Tigers by Tarik Skubal, Kerry Carpenter and manager AJ Hinch.
A fairy tale that doesn’t seem to want to end: this is how we could describe the journey of Francisco Lindor and the New York Mets. Four months ago, on June 11, 2024, i New York Metsbeaten 4-2 by the Miami Marlins, reached the maximum gap from Philadelphia Phillies (17.5 games), for a record of 28 wins and 37 losses that put the Queens team in a difficult position, close to another failure after the catastrophic 2023 season. Instead, the blue and oranges surprised everyone by winning 67 of the last 107 games until they snatched a place in the Wild Card Series – where they eliminated the Milwaukee Brewers – and subsequently eliminated the Philadelphia Phillies, dominators of the National League East, in the National League Division Series. Among the main protagonists of the change of skin of the New York team there is certainly Francisco Lindor, who starting from June 12th took over the position batting .305 average with 23 home runs, supporting and inspiring the Mets attack. The Puerto Rico star did the same in the play-offs. Although he did not shine in the Mets’ first two victories of game one (6-2) and game three (7-2), in which the protagonists were Brandon Nimmo (5-14, 4R, HR, 3RBI, 4BB, 3K), Jose Iglesias, Mark Winds e Starling Marteas well as an extraordinary one Sean Manaea in game three and with a bullpen capable of taking control of the game at any moment, Lindor was decisive especially in game four (won 4-1) where in the sixth inning, with the bases occupied and with the Mets down one to zero, he sent over the outfield fences a straight shot thrown at 99mph from Carlos Estevez in the middle of the strike zone. For Francisco Lindor it was the second grand slam hit of his career in the playoffs, like Shane Victorino and Jim Thome, the only ones to have hit more than one home run in postseason games.
The series with the highest magnitude was the one that took place in California between Los Angeles Dodgers e San Diego Padres. The two National League West rivals faced each other in a hard-fought and tense Division Series won in game five (2-0) by Los Angeles Dodgers thanks to two one-run home runs hit by Kiké Hernandez in the second inning, and from Teoscar Hernandez in the seventh inning, everyone against Yu Darvishwho, in six and two-thirds innings of work, allowed just three hits in the battle against his compatriots Yoshinobu Yamamoto (5IP, 2H, BB, 2K) e Shohei Ohtanistopped with an 0-4 and three strikeouts, who, after going 2-5 with a three-run home run in game one, closed the series by batting just 4-20 with 10 strikeouts, 2 base balls and 4 runs batted in. The victory in game five, which came after the successes in game one (7-5) and game four (8-0), allows the Dodgers to challenge the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series for a re-edition of the 1988 series, cursed for the Mets, won by Tommy Lasorda’s Dodgers – recently remembered in Tollo – who would later win the World Series. The two teams have met twice more in the playoffs in the 2006 and 2015 Division Series, both won by the New York team.
The San Diego Padres, after winning game two (10-2) and game three (6-5) thanks to Darvish’s pitches, Michael King and to a solid bullpen, and to an offense that he had in Fernando Tati (4 home runs in the playoffs, 2 in Game 3), Manny Machado e Xander Bogaerts important references in the two victories, they disappeared in the next two games sucked in by a Los Angeles bullpen that had a key role in the last two successes and, since game three, was among the main protagonists of the streak of 24 rounds without a point scored by San Diego’s attack, which particularly suffered from the negative games of its three fittest hitters.
While waiting for the start of the National League Championship Series, scheduled for the Italian night (2 am) between Sunday 13 and Monday 14 October, the Dodgers, dealing with several injuries and absences in the rotation and lineup, hope to recover at least Freddie Freemantormented throughout the series by an ankle injury suffered in the final days of the regular season.
I Kansas City Royals they did everything they could against the New York Yankeesbut it wasn’t enough. The Pinstripes made the difference in the Wolf’s Lair, where they won games three and four, and with a 3-1 mark in the series they qualified for the Championship Series for the nineteenth time in their history, and for the sixth time since 2009, year of their last triumph. The series staged between Yankee Stadium and Kauffman Stadium was balanced and decided in a particular way by Aaron Boone’s bullpen, who used it for 15.2 shots in the four games, conceding only one run, unearned, in the first game of the series, won 6-5. The first match of the series was the only one where both attacks were protagonists. In the others, the pitching mound was in charge, with the Yankees lineup struggling especially in the defeat of game two – where the four-hit game by Maikel Garcia and a big four-run run in the fourth inning against Carlos Rodon -, and in game three (won 3-2 by the Yankees), where it was a Giancarlo Stanton with three hits (a double and a decisive home run), two runs batted in and a stolen base, good at leading the team also in game four won 3-1 with a Gerrit Cole unsurpassed for seven shots and one Luke Weaver capable of converting the third salvation of the series. Stanton hit two more hits (including a double) to make it 3-0 in the sixth inning. In the series he went 6-16 with an OPS of 1.132. They were also seen in the victory in game four Aaron Judge (2-13 in four games overall), Gleyber Torres e Juan Soto. For the Royals the only run of the game was batted in, with a double, by Vinnie Pasquantinowho, after going 0-12 with five strikeouts and one base ball in the first three games, closed his first experience in the playoffs by batting 1-16.
For the seventh time since 1997, the American League playoffs will feature a series between New York Yankees e Cleveland Guardians. The Ohio team gained access to the Championship Series at the end of an intense Division Series against the Detroit Tigers and thanks to a 7-3 victory in a hard-fought game five, decided pitch by pitch.
A Pull Skubalstar of game two (won by the Tigers 3-0 thanks to a home run by Kerry Carpenter in the ninth inning against closer Emmanuel Clase), winner of the American League Pitchers’ Triple Crown and leading candidate for the American League’s best pitcher award League, Stephen Vogt, manager of the Guardians in his first experience, responded with the main weapon at his disposal, the bullpen, which took charge of the game after the first six eliminations obtained by the starting pitcher Matthew Boyd (5 strikeouts), Next up, the relief Cade Smith – used together with the ward companion Tim Herrin in all five games of the Series – set the record for strikeouts (12) for a reliever in a Division Series.
Overall, to get the 27 outs, Vogt used eight pitchers who posted a total of 16 strikeouts. After falling behind in the top of the fifth inning on a pinch-hitter’s long single Kerry Carpenter (dealing with a muscle injury), the Guardians turned the game around at the changeover thanks to the decisive grand slam by Lane Thomas (then returned to the charge in the seventh inning with the point of the momentary 6-3), already the protagonist of a home run in the first game (won 7-0) and author of 9 of the 19 points scored by the Guardians in the series.
Among the protagonists of the match, the closer stands out Emmanuel Classwho pitched for the first time in his career for a six-out save, including two strikeouts.
Also Steven Kwan was decisive: the first batter of the Guardians lineup hit at least three hits in games three, four and five, closing the series with a haul of eleven hits, just one away from the record of 12, held by Edgar Martinez (1995) and Ichiro Suzuki (2001) in a best-of-five series.
The Detroit Tigers’ extraordinary season ended after they came close to the dream of returning to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2012. The Tigers led 2-1 in the series after game three (won 3-0), but in game four, which ended 5-4 for the Guardians, Cleveland managed to overturn a one-run deficit in the seventh inning thanks to a two-run home run by David Frywho then increased the lead in the ninth inning thanks to a squeeze play, ensuring the Guardians the opportunity to play for the next round at home.
In Italy the MLB Postseason is broadcast, with one match per day, live on Sky Sport channels and in streaming on NOW.
Monday 10/14 gara due NLCS Los Angeles Dodgers – New York Mets live from hours 22 are Sky Sport Arena (Nicolodi-Gallerani);
Wednesday 16/10 gara due ALCS New York Yankees – Cleveland Guardians live from hours 1.30 are Sky Sport Arena;
Thursday 10/17 gara tre NLCS New York Mets – Los Angeles Dodgers live from 2am (channel to be defined)
List being updated
Luca Giangrande
Photo: Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers rounds the bases after hitting a home run in Game One of the NLDS against the San Diego Padres. Credit: Kiyoshi Mio/Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images.
