Hello,
On Monday LA defeated Atlanta 4-3, winning their NLDS. LA advances to the NLCS, which starts Friday. The Dodgers won the series 3-1 as the Braves had another complete playoffs. meltdown. The Dodgers will play the winner of Pittsburgh-St. Louis in the best-of-7 NLCS in a soon to be decided city. This is a very exciting time to be a Dodgers fan!
2013 continues to be a season of redemption for Juan Uribe. He's in his third and last year of a 3 year contract with the Dodgers. To be charitable Uribe's first two seasons with the Dodgers were terrible. In both seasons he performed wildly under his expected production for the contract he signed. However this season has been a bounce back season, Uribe hit .278 this season. I'm sure that's what the Dodgers expected his production to be in the first two years of his contract. Finally his contract is paying off for the Dodgers. He had many clutch moments and many big hits, none bigger than last night. With the Dodgers down 3-2 and Yasiel Puig on base, this is what happened. (Sorry this is the best video I could find- the guy in the background provides some unintentional comedy.)
The Dodgers were able to hold on for a 4-3 lead and are headed to the NLCS.
Earlier this season Uribe hit both 3 home runs in one game, but also fell for the old hidden ball trick when the Rays played it on him. But Uribe and his off-kilter batting style kept on plugging away. It's game winning homers like last night that can fully redeem Uribe's 3 year contract with the Dodgers. Just what do the Dodgers do with Uribe once the season is over?
The Dodgers Don Mattingly received some criticism, and would have received a lot more criticism, if his decision to pitch Kershaw on 3 days rest didn't work out. In Kershaw's first ever game pitched on 3 days rest Kershaw certainly had some moments when he didn't seem sharp. But overall he played well last night, he has the misfortune of being compared to himself. It's extremely tough to play up to that high standard every game. Kershaw only gave up 1 earned run in the 13 postseason innings he has pitched this playoffs. His ERA was the best in MLB in the regular season, but it's at a minuscule .69 in the playoffs.
Not only does it seem that Mattingly's decision paid off, but Game 1 of the NLCS isn't until Friday. That would be 4 days since Monday's game. Obviously Kershaw could pitch Friday, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen. It looks like it will be Zack Greinke pitching on Friday. Back to Monday Kershaw didn't finish with the win, that was Brian Wilson. Kenley Jansen came into the game and had his first postseason save. This wasn't the first game he finished, but this is his first official playoff save.
Uribe isn't the only Dodger who was hitting the long ball yesterday. Carl Crawford was 2 for 3 and both of his hits were solo homers. That means he's had 3 home runs in his 4 playoff games this season. Crawford only had 6 home runs in his 116 regular season games.
LA will play the winner of the Game 5 of the other NLDS, the game between the Pirates and Cardinals will be played Wednesday in St. Louis. I'm so proud of the Pirates season so far. Not only did they get that finishing below .500 monkey off their back, but they also made the playoffs. Not only did they make the playoffs, but they won the Wild Card game. Then not only did they advance to the NLDS, but they are giving the battle tested Cardinals everything they can.
St. Louis is 7-1 in games from the last 3 seasons when their season is on the line. Game 5 is Wednesday night about 8:07 EST. As of right now it looks like the pitching matchup will be Gerrit Cole vs. Adam Wainwright. Likely this will be the only playoff game on Wednesday. Go Pirates!
Also the A's went to Detroit and beat the Tigers 6-3, Oakland was powered by 3 homers. With that win the A's have stolen back homefield advantage. The A's look to close out the series Tuesday early evening.
Also the Red Sox-Rays played Game 3 of their ALDS last night, Boston led the series 2-0 going into Monday night's game. I was hoping that the Red Sox could get the sweep. However that goal was thwarted by the Rays and Jose Lobatan. Lobatan hit a walk off homer with 2 outs in the 9th inning that gave the Rays a 5-4 victory. This was the Rays first ever walk off playoff victory.
Lobatan hit his homer off of the nearly untouchable Boston closer Koji Uehara. He had only allowed one earned run since June 30th, which combined was a total of 40 1/3rd innings. Uehara had pitched a perfect inning in Game 2 of this series. (Thanks to ESPN.com.)
Jacoby Ellsbury continued his hot series with a 3 for 5 outing. He's hitting .571 through the first 3 games in this series. David Ortiz was only one for one, but was walked 3 times. He's hitting .444 but has an amazing .615 on base percentage. Shane Victorino was 1 for 3, he's hitting .455 in this playoffs.
Red Sox- Rays game 4 is Tuesday night in Tampa Bay as the scheduled starting pitch up is Jake Peavy vs. Jeremy Hellickson. Go Red Sox, end the Rays' season.
themusicaddict
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