In order to separate the AL and NL so that there weren’t any nights without playoff baseball, MLB did an odd thing and gave the four teams in the Junior Circuit a night off between Game 1 and Game 2. That means that the Mariners have had a long time to think about their devastating loss to the Astros and that the Guardians have had a lot of time to think about how to score runs against the Yankees.
The pitching matchups are much more favorable for the road teams and series underdogs for Game 2, but will that be enough? Before taking a detailed look at the two Game 2s, a few thoughts on what happened in the NLDS last night.
We’re up to 47.6% of the runs in the playoffs being scored via the home run, as both series are now 1-1. The team that scores first is 10-5. @SlangsOnSports is keeping a daily count on Twitter and I highly recommend following her.
Two big things stood out to me yesterday. The first was how much different the Phillies lineup looked against a righty as opposed to a lefty. It makes me wonder how Max Fried fares in Game 4, especially if the Phillies can win behind Aaron Nola in Game 3. Zack Wheeler only had nine swinging strikes, so the command wasn’t fully there against the Braves, even though it took until the sixth for him to give up runs.