The MLB playoffs are already off to a raucous start, and the jam-packed schedule of games slated for this weekend promise to continue to be highly entertaining as eight teams remain in the hunt for the World Series after the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Texas Rangers in Game 163 of the regular season last Monday and continued their surge by topping the Cleveland Indians in the American League wild-card game Wednesday, while the Pittsburgh Pirates disposed of their division rival Cincinnati Reds in the National League wild-card game Tuesday.
The playoffs continue with an exciting weekend of action, starting with a quadruple header of games Friday.
The field of eight consists of four key matchups in the American League Division Series and National League Division Series. The NL side kicked things off Thursday, with the Dodgers defeating the Braves in Game 1 in Atlanta while the Cardinals topped the Pirates in St. Louis. The AL side kicks off Friday as the Detroit Tigers do battle on the road against the Oakland Athletics and the Rays pay a visit to their division rival Boston Red Sox for the start of their best-of-five series.
The Cardinals and Pirates kicked things off Thursday afternoon as the Cards topped the Bucs by a dominating 9-1 margin after Adam Wainwright allowed just three hits and one earned run over seven innings and struck out nine. The Pirates turn to rookie Gerrit Cole, who went 10-7 with a 3.22 ERA in the regular season while the Cards look to Lance Lynn (15-10, 3.97) to try and take a 2-0 series lead.
Cardinals outfielder Carlos Beltran tied Babe Ruth for the eighth-most postseason homeruns all-time in Thursday's Game 1 with his three-run blast and is an all-time .357 hitter in the postseason. Cardinals second baseman Matt Carpenter led the Majors with 126 runs and 55 doubles in the regular season, while he also led the NL with 199 hits. Catcher Yadier Molina was second in the NL and fourth overall with 44 doubles to go along with a .319 average, 12 homers and 80 RBIs.
Meanwhile, Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez tied for the NL lead in homers by launching 36 this season and collected 100 RBIs, though he was first in the NL with 186 strikeouts. Outfielder Andrew McCutchen was third in the NL and fifth overall with a .404 on-base percentage to go along with a .317 average, 21 homers and 84 RBIs.
After Friday's 1:00 p.m. game, the team's will have a travel day Saturday before the series resumes in Pittsburgh with the probable pitchers being Joe Kelly(10-5, 2.69) for the visiting Cardinals and Francisco Liriano (16-8 3.02) for the Pirates, who will hope their season isn't on the line. Liriano was the winning pitcher for Pittsburgh in its wild-card victory over the Reds Tuesday, and gave up one run over seven innings while fanning five. If the series continues, Pittsburgh will host Game 4 Monday and if necessary it will go back to St. Louis for Game 5 Wednesday.
The other NLDS continues Friday night with a 6:00 p.m. ET Game 2 between the Dodgers and Braves at Turner Field in Atlanta. The Dodgers took Game 1 on the back of a stellar performance from ace and NL Cy Young candidate Clayton Kershaw (16-9, league-leading 1.83 ERA), who pitched seven innings and yielded just one run on three hits while striking out 12 Braves. The Dodgers chased Kris Medlen after just four innings as they knocked him around for five runs on nine hits.
The Dodgers turn to Zack Greinke (15-4, 2.63) to try and take a commanding 2-0 series lead while Atlanta sends out Mike Minor (13-9, 3.21) to try and even things up before the series shifts out west to Los Angeles.
Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman was tied for second in the NL and fourth in the league with 108 RBIs to go along with a .319 average, and 23 homers. His average was third in the NL and was behind teammate and third baseman Chris Johnson, who was second in the NL in average after hitting .321 on the year with 12 homers and 68 RBIs.
The Dodgers boast a sparkplug in their own right with rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig, who played in 104 games this season and was partially responsible for the team's epic turnaround by hitting .319 with 19 long balls and 42 RBIs while swiping 11 bases. First baseman Adrian Gonzalez displayed his power by launching a two-run homer in Thursday night's game after finishing with 22 homers and 100 RBIs.
The series will move to Los Angeles on Sunday with a probable pitching matchup of Hyun-jin Ryu (14-8, 3.00 ERA) for the Dodgers and Julio Teheran (14-8, 3.20) for the Braves. If necessary, the series will continue in Los Angeles on Monday and a Game 5, if needed, would be contested Monday in Atlanta.
Over in the AL, the AL East champion Boston Red Sox host their division rival Tampa Bay Rays starting Friday at 3:00 p.m. ET with Game 1 of the series. Matt Moore (17-4, 3.29) toes the rubber for Tampa while Jon Lester (15-8, 3.75) mans the mound for Boston.
Rays third baseman Evan Longoria has already displayed his power in the postseason and looks to continue to do so after finishing 10th in the league with 32 homers while adding 88 RBIs and batting .269. Meanwhile for Boston, designated hitter David Ortiz finished tenth in the majors in RBIs with 103 while he also launched 30 bombs and hit .309. Ortiz was also third in the majors in slugging with a .564 mark and fourth in OPS with a .959 finish.
Boston first baseman Mike Napoli launched 23 out of the park this season, while he also struck out 187 times, the fourth highest in the league. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia was third in the MLB with 193 hits and came in seventh with 42 doubles on the year.
Game 2 from Boston will commence Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET time with John Lackey (12-12, 6.41) slated as the Red Sox probable pitcher, while the Rays have yet to announce one. Depending on how Game 1 goes, Tampa may be inclined to use 2012 Cy Young Award winner David Price (10-8, 3.33), who pitched the team's one-game playoff victory over the Texas Rangers Monday.
After Game 2, the series heads down to Tampa for Game 3 and Game 4 (if necessary) on Monday and Tuesday. If the series comes down to the wire, Game 5 will emanate from Boston on Thursday.
The other ALDS also kicks off tonight when the AL West champion Athletics host the AL Central-winning Detroit Tigers Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET. The Tigers will send out MLB-wins leader and Cy Young candidate Max Scherzer (21-3, 2.90) while the Athletics will counter with Bartolo Colon (18-6, 2.65).
Scherzer finished third in the league in WHIP with a 0.97 mark and second overall in strikeouts with 240, while Colon was sixth in the league in ERA with a 2.65 average.
Oakland will have to find a way to get Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera out as he led the league in average (.348), OBP (.442), slugging (.636), OPS (1.078) and was second in homers (44) and RBIs (137) during yet another dominant year despite injuries plaguing him. He also finished tied for fourth in runs scored with 103 while his teammate Austin Jackson finished 10th overall with 99.
Fellow slugger Prince Fielder had a .279 average on the year while launching 25 homers and finishing eighth in RBIs with 106. Oakland's Jed Lowrie finished third in the league with 45 doubles while hitting .290 with 15 round-trippers and 75 RBIs on the year.
After Friday night's Game 1, Game 2 will kick off in Oakland Saturday at 9:00 p.m. ET. The probables for Game 2 are Justin Verlander (13-12, 3.46) for visiting Detroit and rookie Sonny Gray (5-3, 2.67) for host Oakland. The series then shifts to Detroit for Games 3 and 4 (if necessary) on Monday and Tuesday, and if a Game 5 is needed it will shift back to Oakland on Thursday.
The long, winding road that is October playoff baseball shifts through this weekend starting with a quadruple header Friday as come Monday, some teams may be eliminated while others continue to fight for the chance to advance in hopes of hoisting up the World Series trophy.
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