Free For All Friday #23: League Championship Series Edition

Hello and welcome to Free For All Friday.

After the first two games of each LCS, it looked like the Phillies and Rangers would run away with it and meet next week in the World Series. In baseball, though, momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher.

That’s turned out to be a big problem for the Texas Rangers, who only have two solid starting pitchers in Jordan Montgomery and Nathan Eovaldi. Max Scherzer, fresh off the injured list, did not pitch well in Game 3. In Game 4, Andrew Heaney didn’t make it out of the 1st inning. Now the Rangers and Astros will play a best-of-three to decide who goes to the Fall Classic.

In Arizona, it was an old fashioned pitchers duel. The D’Backs’ Brandon Pfaadt and the Phillies’ Ranger Suarez traded zeroes into the 6th inning when the bullpens took over. Arizona walked it off against Phillies closer Craig Kimbrel. Phillies lead the NLCS 2-1.

Diamondbacks outlast Phillies in Game 3

Ketel Marte has played for the Diamondbacks longer than any other member of the team. So it was fitting that Marte had a monster game in an absolute must-win for Arizona. Marte hit two doubles and whacked a walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th off Phillies closer Craig Kimbrel to give the D’Backs a 2-1 win.

Diamondbacks rookie starter Brandon Pfaadt dominated the Phillies’ powerful hitters using a masterful combination of his 4-seam fastball, his sinker, and his sweeper. For those unfamiliar with the term “sweeper,” it describes a slider with more horizontal movement across home plate.

This short video created by Rob Friedman—known online as Pitching Ninja—shows Pfaadt throwing his fastball and and his sweeper to Phillies catcher JT Realmuto in the top of the 2nd inning.

The fastball is perfectly placed just inside the strike zone. The sweeper starts near the far edge of the strike zone and then darts further away from the batter’s box. The movement is deceiving; Realmuto couldn’t hold back his swing.

It went like this for 5 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball. Pfaadt struck out 9 and allowed just 2 hits—a single by Trea Turner and a double by Brandon Marsh. It was an other-worldly performance from a rookie who made several trips up and back to Triple-A this season to make adjustments in his mechanics. It appears the mechanical adjustments have worked.

In the top of the 6th, with Kyle Schwarber at the plate for his third at-bat of the game, Arizona manager Torey Lovullo pulled Pfaadt in favor of fellow rookie Andrew Saalfrank. At that point, Pfaadt had thrown 70 pitches—significantly more than Lovullo planned on. He told reporters Wednesday that he would allow Pfaadt to go only 40-50 pitches.

Saalfrank walked Schwarber on 5 pitches and you could hear audible groans at Chase Field. But he recovered by getting Trea Turner to ground out.

Phillies starter Ranger Suarez was just as dominant as Pfaadt. In his 5 1/3 innings, he struck out 7 and allowed just 3 hits—a single by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and two doubles by Ketel Marte—and no runs. Just like he did in two games against the Braves in the NLDS, Suarez mixed and matched his sinker, 4-seam fastball, change up and curveball to keep the D’Backs hitters off balance.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson lifted Suarez with out in the 6th and Ketel Marte on third base. Reliever Jeff Hoffman struck out Gabby Moreno and induced a groundout by Christian Walker to end the threat.

The game remained scoreless into the top of the 7th when Saalfrank walked Harper. In came Ryan Thompson from the Arizona bullpen. He gave up a single to Alec Bohm but then got Bryson Stott to hit into a double play. With Harper on third, Thompson let loose a wild, wild pitch and Harper scored.

But the D’Backs came right back against Phillies rookie reliever Orion Kerkering. Tommy Pham dumped a single into right and was replaced by Alek Thomas as a pinch runner. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. doubled down the left field line, scoring Thomas. Then Pavin Smith—who hit .188 in the regular season—slapped a pinch-hit single into right, putting runners on the corners with no outs.

In came Jose Alvarado from the Phillies ‘pen and he slammed the door. With the infield in, the Phillies turned a weak grounder by Emmanuel Rivera into a double play without Gurriel scoring from 3rd base. Gurriel hesitated and didn’t run after it was clear Turner was throwing to 2nd and not home. Missed opportunity. Then Geraldo Perdomo grounded out.

Score tied 1-1.

It stayed that way until the 9th when Kimbrel loaded the bases on 2 walks and an infield single by Pavin Smith. Sorry, Craig, but you have to get the guy batting .188 out when you a potential Hall of Fame closer.

Marte barreled up an 0-1 pitch at the top of the strike zone. Game over.

Game 4 will be played Friday at 8:00 pm EDT/5:00 pm PDT at Chase Field in Phoenix. Christopher Sanchez will start for the Phillies. Joe Mantiply will play the role of opener for what looks to be a bullpen game for the D’Backs.

Astros destroy Rangers’ pitching again, tie series 2-2

After the Astros won Game 3 by knocking around Max Scherzer and the Rangers’ bullpen, I explained why the Astros were in control of the series, despite being down 2 games to 1.

Bruce Bochy sent Andrew Heaney to the mound to start Game 4. Heaney gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and recorded only 2 outs before Bochy removed him in favor of Dane Dunning. You can’t blame Bochy for pulling Heaney after watching him serve up pitches like this, which Alex Bregman launched for a triple.

But things didn’t get better for the Rangers with Heaney out of the game. Well, Texas did tie the game at 3-3 in the 3rd inning, but in the top of the 4th, Dunning and Cody Bradford gave it all back and more. Dunning loaded the bases with no outs, Bradford gave up a sacrifice fly to Yordan Alvarez—which, frankly, is a bit of a victory—and then watched Jose Abreu hit a monster 3-run home run off a lazy 92 mph fastball in the sweet spot. Bradford had Abreu in an 0-2 hole and couldn’t put him away.

The game was all but over in the 4th after Abreu’s dinger. The Rangers couldn’t get anything going against the Astros’ bullpen.

Game 5 will be played today at 5:00 pm EDT/2:00 pm PDT. Jordan Montgomery will face off against Justin Verlander in a rematch of Game 1.