Playoffs Turning Into A Horror Movie For The Big Boys

Image Credit: George Napolitano/Latino Sports

Los Angeles, California — Like I said in my article here at Latino Sports five days earlier, “Predicting The Winner This Postseason Is Impossible.” There have been five legitimate upsets in the first eight playoff series played and we are not done yet as the Guardians of Cleveland are now poised to upset the big bad Yankees as they lead that series 2-1. They will be the last to advance to the ALCS, where the winner will face the Astros.

Houston swept Seattle, but not before the Mariners kept them scoreless in an 18 inning thriller in Seattle. The game was decided with a home run by rookie Jeremy Peña, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on a 3-2 count off of right hander Penn Murfee.

Murfee was one of 10 pitchers used by Seattle on the night. The Astros used eight pitchers. Those 18 pitchers had a combined 42 strikeouts and threw a combined 498 pitches. There were only four walks yet there were five hit batters.

It was noted in various stories that Cal Raleigh was deserving of player of the game honors because he became just the fourth player in postseason history to catch at least 17 innings of a game. I have one thought on that, what about the umpires? Yea it was a grind for him but Raleigh got to sit between innings. Home plate umpire Marvin Hudson had to squat 498 times in a six hour and 22 minute game with just an average of 3 minutes per half inning to rest.

One thing for sure is that we can’t predict what will happen with anything in the playoffs. We can only guess and base those guesses on what we have seen all season. What we need to understand is that teams are built to win their division. In the playoffs, they face different issues when in three, five and seven game winner take all post season games. Mostly on how they use their starters and bullpen. We have seen that this year. Last night with Dodgers Dave Roberts and the Yankees Aaron Boone, using the wrong people late in the game, costing both teams the game. In the case of the Dodgers, their season. The Dodgers Achilles heal was their bullpen in the playoffs.

Is it an over reliance on front office analytics or just poor execution by the players? As an observer all year with the Dodgers, I saw Evan Phillips as their most reliable late inning guy to set up their closer. Roberts went with Tommy Kahnle who was on the IL almost the whole season. Why? Front office analytics calling the shots? If Roberts goes with his baseball knowledge to make a decision and it backfires he could lose his job. Same thing with Boone and Yankees. Roberts gets blamed for losing and no one blames the real decision makers. The analytics department.

And you could add the GM’s who put these two teams together. The Mets had a legitimate closer. In fact the best in Edwin Díaz, Naguabo, Puerto Rico. The Braves had Kenley Jansen, Willemstad, Curacao, The Dodgers never had a closer all year. Craig Kimbrel was a big bust and they waited too long to address that. They could have made a deal for Josh Hader.

The Braves and Mets wore each other out physically and mentally and were flat for the playoffs. The Dodgers? People thought the Padres were an average team. They were 4-15 vs Dodgers and still won 89 games. I watched them get bullied by LA all year! What a tremendous flop by a team that blew everyone away with 111 wins this season.