On the heels of a wild day of NLDS games that saw both series head into a travel day tied up, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. ALDS Game 2:
Both ALDS series are scheduled to have their second games this evening, with the Royals and Tigers playing catch-up after falling to the Yankees and Guardians respectively in Game 1. Fortunately for the underdogs, each club will send an ace lefty to the mound after leaning on them to win Game 1 of the Wild Card series. In the case of the Royals, that means they’ll be trotting out Cole Ragans, who posted a 3.14 ERA (135 ERA+) with a 3.00 FIP in 32 starts during the regular season before throwing six scoreless frames against the Orioles with eight strikeouts in his first career postseason appearance. He’ll be tasked with taking on Yankees southpaw Carlos Rodon, who bounced back after a brutal 2023 season to posted a 3.96 ERA (104 ERA+) in 175 innings of work this season.
Meanwhile, the Tigers will lean on lefty Tarik Skubal in today’s game against the division-rival Guardians. The winner of the pitching Triple Crown in the AL and the likely favorite for the AL Cy Young Award, Skubal turned in an utterly dominant season with a 2.39 ERA (170 ERA+) and a 2.50 FIP in in 192 frames this year before throwing six scoreless innings of his own against the Astros during the first postseason appearance of his career. Skubal will face former teammate Matthew Boyd, who spent eight of his ten career seasons in Detroit, in this evening’s game. Boyd, a midseason signing who sat out the first half while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, has looked great since his return, with a 2.72 ERA (151 ERA+) and a 27.7% strikeout rate in eight regular season starts.
2. Freeman day-to-day:
In addition to a brutal 10-2 rout at the hands of the Padres last night, the Dodgers were dealt another blow when star first baseman Freddie Freeman had to be removed after aggravating his injured right ankle. Freeman is considered day-to-day for now, but as noted by ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, manager Dave Roberts did not seem optimistic about his first baseman’s availability going forward in the series, calling the injury “not ideal” and “of concern.” That said, the Dodgers also expressed pessimism about Freeman’s availability for Game 1 of the series before he went on to not only start the game but go 2-for-5 with a stolen base. If Freeman is unable to take the field, Max Muncy figures to slide from first base to third base. Enrique Hernandez or Tommy Edman could handle third base, with the other slotting into center field.
3. Bogaerts exits due to cramping:
Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts also exited San Diego’s win in the bottom of the eighth inning last night due to what he described to reporters (including those at MLB.com) last night as hamstring cramps. The club will already be without primary shortstop Ha-Seong Kim for the remainder of the postseason, a reality that forced Bogaerts back to his old position in the first place. It’s not expected to be an issue that leaves Bogaerts unavailable, but it’ll still be worth keeping a watchful eye on how he comes out of today’s off-day workout. The Friars aren’t lacking players with shortstop experience if Bogaerts does need to miss a game. Light-hitting utilityman Tyler Wade is on the bench, and the lineup features former shortstops Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill all playing other positions. First baseman/second baseman Jake Cronenworth has also played more than 400 big league innings at short.
Those Dodgers fans really showed their true colors last night.
Blue. That color is blue.
Holdover Raider fans.
“If Freeman is unable to take the field, Max Muncy figures to slide from first base to third base.”
I believe you meant that in reverse.
The next rule change: You have to be a pitcher to pitch in the playoffs. $1,500 for an “eh” ticket and the Dodgers trot Kike out for the 9th? I’d be pissed
For the 9th last night, the Dodgers sent out Edgardo Henriquez, a pitcher, not Enrique Hernandez, who was playing 3B.
@ karkat
That’s embarrassing (on my part)
To keep it rolling, given how bad Henriquez did, they should have sent Kike out for the 9th
In your defense, Kike has more innings pitched in his major league career (4.2) than Henriquez (4.1 including last night’s appearance) so far.
@Troy Percival’s iPad
Position players have done pretty well this year for pitching. Probably should be using all of the position players to pitch at least 1 inning. Save the bullpen.
When I quickly checked the box score this morning, I had also thought that Hernandez had pitched the 9th lol
Old York: I get what your saying but another one of Manfred’s asanibe rules doesn’t allow it unless a team is down a certain amount of runs.
@Troy Percival’s iPad
Teams can throw anyone they want out there that’s on the 40-man roster. Only thing they can’t do is pitch a random fan in the stands, given they weren’t on the 40-man roster at 11:59 p.m. ET on Aug. 31.
The NL teams don’t really need to travel that far. 2 hour drive for both series.
And here I had been teasing the Padres for being the team of 100 shortstops…
karkat: I wonder if that would even work. Tatis seems pretty much established in RF. I wouldn’t take Machado off of 3B. Same with Merrill in center. Who would replace those guys in their current positions?
I assume they’d actually just use Wade at short if Bogaerts can’t play the position, but if they wanted to bring in one of the formerly-SS outfielders Peralta can play a corner OF position. Mostly it’s just funny to me that they raised some eyebrows at signing so many one-time shortstops, now that they have needed to deploy quite a few.
I think you’re right that they would most likely just play Wade at SS but if not then I think they would shift Cronenworth over to short and play Arraez/Solano at 1B/2B. I don’t think they’d move Tatis or Merrill back to SS now that they’ve been converted to OF.
Padres have only 99 shortstops. The other is Xavier. He’s never been a SS. He’s been a bat, that plays there. There’s a difference.
Tigers-Guardians is a late afternoon start at 4 PM EDT. Royals-Yankees is the night game.
Chucky: Which network is carrying those games?
As a Dodgers fan I am disappointed that our fan base behaved this way and made this the headline instead of keeping it on the field as it should be. The Padres out hit us last night, hopefully we can bounce back and show some of the grit that helped us get into the postseason despite the injuries and challenges we faced during the season. Can’t wait for game 3!
@captainsalty. The incident doesn’t reflect on the Dodger fanbase. As often is the case, the actions of a few spoil the fine behavior of the majority. And I say that as a Padre fan.
Appreciate you. Here’s to game 3 and a hell of a series!
likewise and here’s to Bogey and Freddie being healthy and in the game.
love this exchange. thank you guys!
It’s unfortunate. The Dodgers fans I’ve interacted with (including at the NLDS in 2022) tend to lean towards the passionate, knowledgeable fans who wouldn’t interrupt a game out of spite.
At the end of the day, this is just a game and entertainment. It’s not life or death. Players shouldn’t have to deal with things being thrown at them.
I think a majority of fans understand that. It’s just unfortunate that some take it too far. Let’s just see a good, classic playoff series.
Given that I was predicting the Padres or Pirates in the WS for the NL, I guess I still got to cheer for them. The Mariners really let down my predictions by collapsing.
And for those reading this thinking I was actually serious, it was not that serious of a prediction. I took the 2023 WS teams and mapped their Spring Training record to this year’s Spring Training record and it came out to be the Mariners vs. Padres or Pirates.
Old York: I had the White Sox vs. the Rockies in the WS (just kidding).
No Marlins?
Old York: I don’t know. Are they as comical as the Sox?
Dodgers will have another early exit
Hopefully! Lots of game to be played though
Yankees, first and foremost, Dodgers and Indians out would be fine with me, though I don’t hate the Dodgers.
Tigers Indians at the Jake. Don’t get more must win for Detroit than this one. That gives Tiger fans the two games at home guaranteed Those Indian fans used to fill up Tiger stadium in the 90’s, the war hoops and Zena hoops filled the stadium. It was a hoot.
The Ilitch family taking over the Tigers was the best thing to happen to Detroit since they took over Wings. The new stadium, the hiring of Dombrowski, and it was a great time in the city. .Big Mike was a visionary for Detroit. LETS GO TIGERS !!
MPrck: I’m sure Ty Cobb is looking down and, after cursing his usual dislike of certain players, would be happy to see the Tigers rise up again! (side note: Pretty cool that the “D” on their uniforms hasn’t changed since Cobb’s time.)
Ty Cobb’s father was an abolitionist and Ty himself spoke out (many times!) in favor of integration.
Eighty: That’s not the Ty Cobb I’ve read about. I would say maybe later in his life but one of the things I like about Ty is that he never changed. He was always true to himself.
With Skubal if they get to game five the tigers win it. The guardians have no chance against him. Though it would be an interesting story if Boyd could come back against his old team. Ok I may be dreaming
Boyd will be a good matchup for Detroit. His weakness is he gives up the long ball, but the Tigers lack RH power. Malloy is looking like a RH Baddoo, He’ll be in the lineup because we have nothing better. I wouldn’t criticize if they just left Carpenter in the lineup. Its also annoying that Perez is being platooned in the RH lineup, but hits better LH.