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NLCS Begins: Explaining the Brewers’ jaw-dropping play
Dodgers 2, Brewers 1 — Los Angeles leads series 1-0
We’ll get to the outcome, but first, you gotta hear about this play. I can confidently say that I had never before seen a bases-loaded 8-6-2-2 double play with no runs scored. Re-read that! It looks like baseball Mad Libs!
It left Brewers center fielder Sal Frelick making this face:
I’ll try to explain:
OK, so it’s 0-0, top of the fourth inning, bases are loaded. Max Muncy hits a ball 404 feet to dead center field, and it looks like it might be a grand slam. But Frelick leaps up and robs it. Except wait, no, the ball is loose. No wait, he … caught it? Did he catch it?!
Frelick, to his credit, immediately fires a strike to the cutoff man, shortstop Joey Ortiz, who makes a perfect relay throw home. Teoscar Hernández, who had tagged up at third, slides into home, no tag. Except wait, no, he was called out! And then catcher William Contreras jogs up the third-base line, and … hang on, what just happened?
As it turns out, between first contact and settling into the glove, the ball had bounced off the wall.
The rules are clear: Once the ball hits the wall, it is not a catch, but a live ball. We’ve seen that before. Where it got weird: Dodgers base runners didn’t seem to see the umpire signal that it wasn’t a catch. So they were playing it like a sac fly.
But it wasn’t a catch! So the play at the plate wasn’t a tag play, but a force play, and replay confirmed: The throw beat Hernández to the plate. Meanwhile, Dodgers catcher Will Smith hadn’t tagged up and was standing at second base while Contreras jogged to third, completing the double play.
The play just sorta broke MLB’s Gameday app. It was ruled that Muncy “grounded” into a double play, even though the ball never even touched the ground!!!
Here’s the video, so you can see it yourself: an 8-6-2-2 double play. No runs scored.
Well … at least not until Freddie Freeman homered in the sixth inning. Then Mookie Betts added an insurance run with a bases-loaded walk in the ninth, which proved important, since the Brewers almost came back in the bottom of the ninth, scoring once, then loading the bases before Blake Treinen struck out Brice Turang to end it.
We should note Blake Snell was brilliant yet again for the Dodgers, going eight innings and allowing just one base runner. It was a third-inning single by Caleb Durbin … and Snell picked him off. That means he faced the minimum through eight innings, striking out 10. His postseason ERA after three starts? Just 0.86 in 21 innings pitched.
Game 2 is tonight at 8:08 p.m. ET (TBS) in Milwaukee. It’ll be Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Freddy Peralta.
Ken’s Notebook: Toronto’s Schneider is in a bind
From my latest column:
TORONTO — When a team combines for only one hit after the second inning in back-to-back games, there can be only so much debate about the manager’s pitching moves.
In Game 1 of the ALCS, a 3-1 loss to the Mariners, Blue Jays manager John Schneider perhaps did not stick with right-hander Kevin Gausman long enough.
In Game 2, a 10-3 drubbing on Monday night, Schneider arguably stuck with rookie righty Trey Yesavage for too long. But on both nights, the Jays’ offense faded, their bullpen imploded and a series of unfortunate events — a wild pitch, a throwing error, a foul ball off catcher Alejandro Kirk’s mask — also conspired against them.
Schneider has evolved as a manager since his infamous removal of José Berríos in the fourth inning of Game 2 of the Jays’ 2023 wild-card series against the Minnesota Twins. He can’t be accused, as he was then, of following a front-office script. He’s reading game situations in real time and reacting. It’s just that his relievers are erratic and possibly fatigued, helping cause some of his decisions to backfire.
More here.
Closing In: Polanc-tober is real; Mariners 2 wins from WS
Mariners 10, Blue Jays 3 — Mariners lead series 2-0
Jorge Polanco had a rough 2024. The longest-tenured Twin, he was traded to the Mariners in January, then posted career worsts in all three slash-line stats and strikeouts. Then came knee surgery, and the Mariners didn’t re-sign him until February, just before spring training.
Since then: across-the-board improvements at the plate, including a drastic cutback in strikeout rate, from 29.2 percent to 15.6. And he only got better as the season progressed. His first-half OPS was .785, and .867 in the second.
So maybe this postseason run should come as no surprise:
- ALDS Game 2: With the Mariners trailing the series 1-0, Polanco hit two home runs off presumptive AL Cy Young repeat winner Tarik Skubal, and the Mariners won 3-2, tying the series at 1-1.
- ALDS Game 5: A 15th-inning walk-off single sent the Mariners to their first ALCS since 2001.
- ALCS Game 1: Drove in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning (and another insurance run in the eighth) to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead in the series on the road.
- ALCS Game 2: His three-run home run snapped a 3-3 tie before things got truly out of hand in the blowout.
That’s three straight game-winning RBIs, if you’re keeping count. And the Mariners are two wins from a World Series as the ALCS goes back to Seattle.
As for Toronto, it simply does not look like the team that just walloped the Yankees in the Division Series. Now the Blue Jays’ season-long resilience will be tested.
Game 3 is tomorrow at 8:08 p.m. ET, with Shane Bieber facing George Kirby. (FS1; streaming on Fubo — try for free.)
Again?: Shildt retires as Padres manager
It has already been a high-turnover offseason for managers. The Pirates (promoted Don Kelly from interim to full-time manager) and Rangers (hired Skip Schumaker) have filled their vacancies, but six-maybe-seven jobs were available as of yesterday morning: the Braves, Orioles, Angels, Twins, Giants, Nationals and maybe Rockies, once they suss out their GM situation.
Well, make it seven-maybe-eight now. Mike Shildt announced yesterday that he is retiring from managing the Padres. The 57-year-old had been under contract through 2027, but as part of the above-linked story, he told The Athletic this, via text:
“I’m very pleased with the decision. It just has taken a toll on me and didn’t have it in me to lead another team to a 90+ win season and World Series run!”
The Padres have undergone quite a bit of turbulence since the death of owner Peter Seidler — mostly having to do with the various disagreements about which of his family members should run the team. There was speculation last offseason that the uncertainty and bickering around that process were what led Roki Sasaki to choose the Dodgers.
Who knows?
Either way, Shildt becomes the third straight Padres manager to last just two seasons, following Bob Melvin, who took over for Jayce Tingler.
More managers:
Handshakes and High Fives
Sandy Alomar Sr. has passed away at 81 years old.
On the pods: On “Rates & Barrels,” they are — surprise — talking about the ALCS and NLCS, which is also the topic for “The Roundtable,” who attempt to identify who is the underdog in the Dodgers/Brewers series.
Most-clicked yesterday: Tyler Kepner’s look at the Mariners and Blue Jays’ 1977 introductions to trading card collectors.
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