WAYNE, N.J.-With the completion of both Wild Card games, the MLB postseason brackets are officially set. In the American League the winner of Tuesday night’s Wild Card game, the Toronto Blue Jays will travel to Arlington, Texas to take on the team with the best record in the American League, the Texas Rangers. The American League Central division champion, Cleveland Indians will have home field advantage in a best of 5 series with the American League East division champions, the Boston Red Sox.
Texas Rangers (95-67) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (89-73)
Game 1 Globe Life Park, Arlington, Texas- Thursday, October 6th 4:30 pm TBS
Game 2 Globe Life Park, Arlington, Texas- Friday, October 7th 1:00 pm TBS
Game 3 Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario- Sunday, October 9th 7:30 pm TBS
Game 4 (if necessary) Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario- Monday, October 10th TBD TBS
Game 5 (if necessary) Globe Life Park, Arlington, Texas- Wednesday, October 12th TBD TBS
Veteran sluggers, RF Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays and 3B Adrian Beltre of the Texas Rangers are both seeking their first World Series Championship.
What everyone will be talking about is the “rematch” between Blue Jays outfielder, Jose Bautista and Rangers second baseman, Rougned Odor who punched Bautista in the face resulting in a bench clearing incident between the two teams on May 15th. Contrary to the popular opinion, I would rather speak about the postseason rematch between the two teams. These teams met last season in the ALDS with the Blue Jays to advancing to the ALCS winning the series 3 game to 2. The Rangers had a 2 games to none series before dropping the final 3 games. In Game 5, the Rangers held a 3-1 lead over the Blue Jays needing 9 outs to punch their ticket to the ALCS. In the 7th inning they fell apart making 3 consecutive errors before Jose Bautista hit a game winning 3-run home run with an exaggerated bat flip known as, “the bat flip heard ‘round the world.”
As I said in my AL Wild Card preview, I like how the Blue Jays starting rotation plays in a 5 game series with Marco Estrada starting Game 1 and 5 (if necessary), Cy Young Award candidate J.A. Happ Game 2, Aaron Sanchez Game 3 and Marcus Stroman who threw 6 strong innings in the Jays Wild Card game win would start game 4 if necessary. Other than the Chicago Cubs, in my opinion the Toronto Blue Jays have the most complete starting rotation of the teams remaining in the postseason. Jays closer Roberto Osuna was removed from the AL WIld Card game with an apparent injury. If Osuna is unavailable it is likely 39 year old Jason Grilli will take over the duties.
The Rangers have not released a set rotation for the series but the only two names you need to know are Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish. Hamels and Darvish make up one of the best 1-2 punches in all of baseball and combined for 20.8 strikeouts per nine innings, the most of any two starting pitchers in the postseason. Hamels who will get the start in Game 1, has been a great postseason pitcher in his career with a 7-5 record with a 3.03 ERA in 15 starts while winning the NLCS and World Series MVP with the Phillies in 2008. Hamels was a Cy Young Award front runner with a 2.67 ERA over his first 26 starts before fading over his final 6. Rest might be the best thing for Hamels whose last start came on September 28th as he is 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA this season when he has 6 or more days rest. Darvish was selected to the American League all-star team each of his first 3 seasons, but missed time over the last 2 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. Game 2 on Friday will be Darvish’s second career postseason start. An option to start Game 3 for the Rangers is veteran Colby Lewis. Lewis, a member of Texas’ 2010 and 2011 pennant winning teams has 4 wins with a 2.38 ERA in 58 career postseason innings.
Both teams can match each other with their potent offenses so this series is going to come down to which team can do the best job of limiting their opponents sluggers. Last year in their 5 game postseason series the Jays outscored the Rangers 26-19. In a 5 game series, Game 1 is pivotal and Texas will be at home with their ace, Cole Hamels on the mound, giving them the edge. Home field advantage will play a huge role in this series. This season, the Rangers had a 36-11 record in one run games, good for the best record in the modern era and a 53-28 mark at Globe Life Park this season good for the second best home record in Major League Baseball. On the other hand, nearly 50,000 rowdy fans packed into the Rogers Centre for Toronto’s Wild Card Game Tuesday night and could play a factor in Game 3 and 4.
The pick: Texas Rangers 3 games to 2
With one of the best postseason pitchers of this generation in Cole Hamels and a strikeout machine in Yu Darvish the Rangers will have the pitching advantage in all 3 of their home games (1,2,5). This is a great combination for a Texas team seeking their first World Series championship in franchise history.
Cleveland Indians (94-67) vs. Boston Red Sox (93-68)
Game 1 Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio- Thursday, October 6th 8:00 pm TBS
Game 2 Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio- Friday, October 7th 4:30 pm TBS
Game 3 Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts- Sunday, October 9th 4:00 TBS
Game 4 (if nessesary) Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts- Monday, October 10th TBD TBS
Game 5 (if nessesary) Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio- Wednesday, October 12th TBD TBS
Thunder vs. Lightning: The Red Sox scored the most runs in all of baseball this season while the Indians lead the AL in stolen bases. Red Sox DH David Ortiz’ 127 RBI and Indians OF Rajai Davis’ 43 stolen bases lead the American League.
This series makes for an interesting story line as Indians manager Terry Francona will become the first manager in MLB history to manage against a team in the postseason that he had previously managed to multiple World Series titles (2004 and 2007). The more obvious storyline comes from the opponent’s side however as Boston’s beloved designated hitter David Ortiz is making his final run at a World Series title as the 40 year old veteran is retiring at season’s end.
In his final season, Big Papi had one of the greatest final seasons ever hitting .315 with 38 home runs while leading the league with 127 RBI and 48 doubles. Ortiz is no stranger to the postseason as he has lead the Red Sox to three World Series championships in his fourteen year tenure with the team, the most prevalent being 2004 ending the Red Sox 86 year World Series drought. Ortiz illustrious postseason career has seen him win the 2004 ALCS and 2013 World Series MVP as well as put him in the top ten all-time in plate appearances (9th, 357), runs scored (9th, 51), hits (10th, 87), total bases (5th, 163), doubles (4th, 21), home runs (7th, 17), RBI (5th, 60) and walks (7th, 57).
The remainder of the supporting cast for the Sox form one of the most feared offenses in the league. Rightfielder Mookie Betts has my vote for the American League MVP award totaling for over 200 runs (113 RBI/122 runs scored), while centerfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. had a breakout season that included a 29 game hit streak between April 24th and May 25h. After a disastrous first year in beantown Hanley Ramirez made the transition from left field to first base and is a leading candidate for AL Comeback Player of the Year honors while the double play combo of Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts were among the league leaders in hits; Bogaerts with 192 and Pedroia with 201, the most since his MVP season of 2008. This lineup is the best in baseball and will be overwhelming for any pitcher in this postseason to handle.
The Indians won their first Central division title since 2007 and will send 25 year old Trevor Bauer to the mound for Game 1. Bauer has the stuff to be a frontline starter; an upper 90’s fastball and a devastating 12/6 curveball however his walk rate of 3.3 BB/9 is alarming. In 2015, Bauer lead the AL in walks with 79 and was among league leaders again this season with 70. Bauer’s style could be referred to as “effectively wild” however In a postseason game everything is magnified and even more so against a deep Red Sox lineup. Game 2 will feature the ace of the Indians staff, 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber who nursing a mild quadriceps strain that he suffered in his final start of the regular season on September 26th. Josh Tomlin will get the ball for Game 3 of the series and due to injuries to both Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco, it is likely Bauer will be back on 3 days rest for Game 4 (if necessary). The mid-season acquisition of relief ace, Andrew Miller who is the lone left-hander in the Indians bullpen, will play huge dividends working multiple innings out of the bullpen in this series with the Indians starting rotation being short handed.
New Jersey native, Rick Porcello will get the ball for the Sox in Game 1. Porcello had a career year going 22-4 with a 3.15 ERA. David Price will seek to improve his poor postseason résumé in Game 2, while Clay Buchholz and southpaw Eduardo Rodriguez will round out Boston’s rotation. Their toughest outs in the Indians lineup are 23 year old third baseman, Jose Ramirez and 22 year old shortstop, Francisco Lindor. Ramirez hit .312 and was second in the AL with 46 doubles while stealing 22 bases. Lindor is part of the next crop of great young shortstops hit 15 home runs and 30 doubles, while swiping 19 bags and hitting .301 respectively. First baseman, Mike Napoli who was a member of the 2013 Red Sox World Series championship team paced the team in RBI with 101 and was tied for the lead in home runs with 34 along with designated hitter, Carlos Santana (87 RBI). Second baseman, Jason Kipnis hit .275 with 23 home runs and 82 RBI and rookie centerfielder Tyler Naquin hit .296 over 365 plate appearances. The lone offensive advantage Cleveland has is their ability to steal bases. Over the course of the regular season, the Tribe lead the AL in stolen bases with 137 while doing so at the highest success rate of 81.55%.
The pick: Boston Red Sox 3 games to 1
The Cleveland Indians took two huge losses late in the season with Carlos Carrasco breaking his pinkie finger after being struck by a line drive on September 17th and Danny Salazar who made his last start on September 9th before exiting early with a forearm strain. Despite winning 94 regular season games I think the young Indians are overmatched by the veteran Red Sox in this series.
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