Many players emerged from Tuesday’s games disappointed, but perhaps no more than a former MVP and a three-time Cy Young Award winner.
All Clayton Kershaw could do was watch the Los Angeles Dodgers drop 7-0 in a game he was about to start. Despite a late rally, the Dodgers still lost 7-8 as the Atlanta Braves took a 2-0 lead in the NLCS.
In the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Houston Astros 5-2 to take a 3-0 lead. And while Jose Altuve came home to start the scoring, we won’t remember his performance in Game 3.
Ben Nicholson-Smith is Sportsnet’s baseball editor. Arden Zwelling is a senior writer. Together they bring you the most in-depth Blue Jays podcast in the league, covering the latest news with opinions and analysis, as well as interviews with fellow insiders and team members.
Here are some observations after a night of ups and downs at the LCS …
Altuve’s throwing problems persist
The game was as routine as it comes. Brandon Lowe hit Jose Grouve, who set the ball clean and turned to throw the ball into second place. Easy enough for every second baseman, let alone a 10 year old veteran.
Only Altuve let the ball past Carlos Correa for his third throwing error in the last two days. Soon after, the Rays brought the game out of reach with a five inning.
To his credit, Altuve beats his fourth playoff with another home run on Tuesday. But when a gamer makes so many mistakes in such a short period of time, it’s a strong indicator that something is wrong. Whether the root of these problems is mental or physical is hard to tell from afar, but either way, manager Dusty Baker appears to be sticking to his guns for Wednesday’s game as the six-time all-star will play second base.
Make a Difference in Defense
The day after Manuel Margot made one of the most impressive catches of the year, the Rays outfielder were making increasingly spectacular games. Kevin Kiermaier made two of them – first on the midfield wall and later in the flat right midfield.
Then, with two in the seventh inning, right fielder Hunter Renfroe made a spectacular dive himself to rob George Springer of a hit. At the next inning, Renfroe raced in and made another dive to steal a hit from Kyle Tucker with bases loaded.
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From Margot to Kiermaier to Renfroe, the Rays’ full defense in this series was nothing short of extraordinary.
Teams forced to trust more players
In previous years there were usually two planned travel days during each LCS: one after Game 2 and one after Game 5. As the Games take place in neutral locations this year, travel is no longer necessary and this small shift affects decisions about Playing time off.
On Tuesday, for example, backup catcher. Michael Perez and Dustin Garneau started for the Rays and Astros respectively when the starters Mike Zunino and Martin Maldonado had some days off.
This season Dan chooses an issue, trend, news or story from the MLB area and addresses it with a guest. And he does it five times a week for about 15 minutes a day. Enough time to find out more and to chat, but also to draw the fans’ attention to all kinds of sports again.
This is just one example of a greater challenge teams now face. With no days off, the teams have to rely on a wider range of positional players, starters and reliefs. The starry approach we usually see in October just isn’t that realistic when there are no days off.
Seager’s great year continues
After Atlanta took a 7-0 lead, the game seemed out of reach, but a triple home run by Corey Seager made things interesting at the end of seventh place, and two innings later sparked a ninth run with four runs from an RBI -Double that put the Dodgers in one.
It wasn’t enough in the end, but Seager’s big night on the plate is the continuation of his best offensive season yet. At 26, he’s already a veteran of five big seasons in the big league, and none was as productive per game as in 2020. In 52 games, Seager scored 15 home races on the way to becoming a career best. 943 OPS.
Well, Seager builds on those numbers when it matters most to the Dodgers (timing works on a personal level too – another year like this and Scott Boras’ client will be looking at a huge contract if he gets the free one year from now Agency meets).
Dodgers falter without their ace
The Game 2 loss could sting a little more for the Dodgers, considering who should start. Nondescript playoff record or not, the Dodgers are a better team when Kershaw is on the hill, especially after a season when his pace picked up. But back spasms left the left-handed out of action, and Tony Gonsolin started instead.
Granted, Gonsolin had a strong season of his own, with a 2.31 ERA in 46.2 innings, but stalled against Atlanta’s offensive and the Dodgers now followed 2-0. Whether Kershaw may be unlucky later in the series remains in question, but manager Dave Roberts said the chances are very good that he will.
It won’t start on Wednesday, however, as the Dodgers will try to recover in Game 3 with Julio Urias on the hill.
