Astros & Diamondbacks Punch Tickets to League Championship Series, Phillies Pummel Braves

Bryce Harper hit two mammoth home runs, Phillies one win from NLCS

Smart baseball folks can disagree about whether Bryce Harper should have been that far passed 2nd base when Michael Harris II caught Nick Castellanos’ near home-run ball at the wall at the end of Game 2. If Harris doesn’t make the play, Harper almost certainly scores the tying run. If Harper is on or closer to 2nd base, maybe he doesn’t score. It also took an absolute seed of a throw from Austin Riley to double off Harper at first.

Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia had a less nuanced view. In the Braves clubhouse following their come-from-behind win in Game 2, Jake Mintz—half of the wonderful @CespedesBBQ duo—reported for FoxSports that Arcia was “cack[ling] emphatically about Harper's misfortune, bellowing ‘ha-ha, atta-boy, Harper!’ repeatedly as reporters circled the room.”

Oh boy. That was not a good idea, Orlando Arcia. Not a good idea at all.

With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 3rd, and runners on first and third, Bryce Harper came set in the left-handed batter’s box against Braves starter Bryce Elder. With the count 2-1, Elder threw a slider that caught waaaaaaay too much of the plate.

Harper obliterated the ball. Absolutely destroyed it. As he rounded 2nd base on his home run trot, he gave Arcia a stare. Don’t taunt me, bro.

Citizens Bank went berserk. I’ve watched the highlight from the Spanish-language broadcast on MLB Network 20 times. It’s so, so good.

The Phillies kept going, scoring 2 more to make it 6-1 after 3 innings. Harper hit another home run in the 5th inning. Again, he shot a stare at Arcia. 7-1 Phillies.

The Arcia-Harper thing reminds me of when Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain said, after Game 5 of the 2014 World Series, that the Royals were in good shape heading home for Games 6 and 7 because they wouldn’t have to face Madison Bumgarner again in the series. Uh oh.

Revenge games are real.

Like Harper, Nick Castellanos homered twice, while Trea Turner and Brandon Marsh added one each. The Phillies forced the Braves to use 5 pitchers on the way to a 10-2 victory.

After the game, several Braves players, including catcher Travis D’Arnaud, complained to the media that the media shouldn’t have reported what it heard Arcia say in the clubhouse after Game 2. “The clubhouse is a sanctuary,” they said.

No, it’s a workplace. And there are times pre and post game when the media has access to the clubhouse to do their jobs. On the TBS postgame show, Jimmy Rollins said that players need to understand that when reporters are around, what you say will be noted or recorded or both. Agree 100%.

Philadelphia will go for the series win in Game 4 on Thursday at 6:00 pm EDT/3:00 PDT (TBS). Spencer Strider will take the ball for Atlanta. Ranger Suarez will start for the Phillies in a rematch of Game 1.

Diamondbacks hit 4 home runs in one inning, sweep Dodgers

Here are the only statistics you need to know about the Dodgers-Diamondbacks series:

• Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman went a combined 1-for-21 in the 3 games

• Dodgers starting pitchers: 4 2/3 IP, 13 ER (25.08 ERA), 16 H, 5 HR 3 BB, 2 K

My husband asked me to explain how Betts and Freeman could perform so poorly in this series after such fantastic seasons at the plate. Here’s what I told him:

• It’s not at all unusual for major league hitters—even great major league hitters—to go hitless in 11 consecutive at-bats throughout the season. In fact, Betts had zero hits in 14 of the 24 games he played in September and he still ended the season with a .307 batting average. Freeman had an 0-for-13 in mid-August across 3 games: 1 against the Brewers and 2 against the Rockies.

• Over the course of a full season, hitters go up against a lot of mediocre pitchers—4th and 5th starters, back-of-the-bullpen guys, and pitchers who play for bad teams. In the postseason, hitters typically face the best pitchers on the opposing team and those pitchers are armed with up-to-date scouting reports and analytics.

• Hitting is hard. Postseason hitting is really hard. The pressure is immense and sometimes, even great players don’t perform to their skill level.

On the flip side, the Diamondbacks took full advantage of three very poor outings by Dodgers starters Clayton Kershaw, Bobby Miller, and Lance Lynn. Arizona scored 13 of their 19 total runs in the series off those starters. Wednesday night, Lance Lynn was serving up perfect pitches for hitting home runs. The Diamondbacks are locked in offensively and did not miss.

Look at these at-bats. Major league hitters are going to punish you if you throw the ball across the middle of the plate like Lynn did to Geraldo Perdomo, Christian Walker, and Gabby Moreno.

The Diamondbacks now await the winner of the Phillies-Braves series. The National League Championship Series starts Monday, October 16.

Astros too much for Twins

The Astros hit two home runs in Game 4. So did the Twins. In one of the Astros’ home runs—the one hit by José Abreu in the top of the 4th—there was a runner on base. That was the difference in the game.

This was a well-played series and the Twins more than held their own in 3 of the 4 games. When it’s clicking, though, the Astros’ offense can flat out mash. It was clicking this week to the tune of 10 home runs in 4 games. The Twins just couldn’t keep up.

The Texas Showdown is on. The Astros will host the Rangers in Game 1 of the ALCS on Sunday.