MIAMI (AP) — After being swept in a three-game road series against the Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker felt his team had to turn it around quickly.
“Good teams stop the bleeding,” Schumaker said after a 5-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals Monday night. “They don’t continue the streak. And it felt like today was the day.”
Nick Fortes hit a go-ahead RBI single in a seventh inning rally to open a seven-game homestand for Miami that will include three more games against the Cardinals and a three-game series against Philadelphia.
Jesús Sánchez homered, singled twice and had four RBIs and the Miami Marlins beat St. Louis 15-2 in another short outing by Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright.
Ozzie Albies’ two-run homer in the fifth gave Atlanta the lead and the Braves overcame an early two-run deficit to beat the Miami Marlins 6-3 for their 16th win in 17 games.
The Miami Marlins have added a fresh arm to their bullpen for the final game of their series against Atlanta by recalling right-hander Jeff Lindgren from Triple-A Jacksonville.
Ronald Acuña and Ozzie Albies homered as part of a six-run first inning and the Atlanta Braves beat the Miami Marlins 7-0 as major league batting leader Luis Arraez saw his average dip to .388.
In front of a home crowd of 19,638, pinch hitter Yuli Gurriel tied it in the seventh with a two-run double against reliever Andre Pallante after two straight walks. The Marlins then inserted the speedy Jon Berti to pinch run for Gurriel, and Berti scored on Fortes’ ground-ball single.
“He’s a winner,” Miami starter Braxton Garrett said of Gurriel.
Marlins reliever Tanner Scott worked a scoreless eighth to preserve the lead despite giving up a single to Paul DeJong and hitting Dylan Carlson with a pitch. And A.J. Puk got the final three outs for his 14 save of the season.
“They are throwing in leverage situations against the meat of the order every single time I put them out there,” Schumaker said. “Puk had to go through the heart of a really good offense and got out of it.”
The victory gave Miami 11 wins in its last 14 home games and improved the Marlins to 12-1 in one-run games at loanDepot Park. Their 20-5 overall record in one-run games leads the majors.
DeJong had broken a 2-2 tie in the sixth with an RBI double for the Cardinals, who are last place in the NL Central.
Willson Contreras led off the inning with a double against Garrett then scored on DeJong’s line drive off reliever Andrew Nardi. Huascar Brazoban (3-1) got the last two outs of the seventh for the win.
Garrett struck out six and allowed seven hits and two runs.
Contreras, who was 3 for 4, tied it in the second inning with his ninth home run of the season — a solo shot that went 383 feet to left. He also singled in the first and finished a triple shy of the cycle.
Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas struck out two and gave up two runs and four hits in six innings. After giving up all four hits in the first two innings, he retired 14 straight batters and did not allow a runner until back-to-back walks of Garrett Cooper and Jean Segura in the seventh to start the Marlins’ rally.
Pallante (2-1) replaced Mikolas with the tying runs on base and took the loss.
Miami used a three-hit first to take a 2-0 lead. Luis Arraez led off with a single, Jorge Soler doubled, Bryan De La Cruz drove in Arraez with a grounder and Jesus Sanchez hit an RBI double.
Arraez was 1 for 4 bringing his batting average to .388.
Nolan Arenado’s sacrifice fly in the seventh drove in Lars Nootbaar to make it 4-2.
The Cardinals blew their 17th save opportunity of the season — the most in the NL and tied with the Chicago White Sox for most in the majors.
“You have to make everything right. Make a mistake and lose ballgame,” Mikolas said. “If the games are that tight, any little mistake can cost you.”
ROSTER MOVES
Cardinals: Designated OF Oscar Mercado for assignment and recalled first baseman Luken Baker from Triple-A Memphis. … Signed RHP Chen-Wei Lin, the franchise’s first player signed out of Taiwan.
Marlins: Placed OF Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain. … Called up OF Dane Myers from Triple-A Jacksonville .. Designated RHP Eli Villalobos for assignment.
TRAINERS ROOM
Marlins: RHP Matt Barnes (left hip impingement) is scheduled to pitch back-to-back outings on a rehab assignment in Jupiter starting Monday night. … RHP Edward Cabrera (right shoulder impingement) threw a 25-pitch bullpen Monday … RHP Max Meyer (Tommy John surgery) will begin a bullpen progression this week. … RHP Johnny Cueto was scheduled to pitch seven innings with Triple A Jacksonville on Monday night.
UP NEXT
LHP Jesus Luzardo (6-5, 3.53) will start for the Marlins on Tuesday against Cardinals RHP Adam Wainwright (3-3, 7.45).
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NEW YORK (AP) — Tim McCarver, the All-Star catcher and Hall of Fame broadcaster who during 60 years in baseball won two World Series titles with the St. Louis Cardinals and had a long run as one of the country’s most recognized, incisive and talkative television commentators, died Thursday. He was 81.
McCarver’s death was announced by baseball’s Hall of Fame, which said he died Thursday morning due to heart failure in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was with his family.
Among the few players to appear in major league games during four decades, McCarver was a two-time All Star who worked closely with two future Hall of Fame pitchers: The tempestuous Bob Gibson, whom McCarver caught for St. Louis in the 1960s, and the introverted Steve Carlton, McCarver’s fellow Cardinal in the ’60s and a Philadelphia Phillies teammate in the 1970s.
He switched to television soon after retiring in 1980 and called 24 World Series for ABC, CBS and Fox, a record for a baseball analyst on television.
“I think there is a natural bridge from being a catcher to talking about the view of the game and the view of the other players,” McCarver told the Hall in 2012, the year he was given the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. “It is translating that for the viewers. One of the hard things about television is staying contemporary and keeping it simple for the viewers.”
McCarver became best known to national audiences for his 18-year partnership on Fox with play-by-play man Joe Buck. McCarver moved to Fox in 1996 when it began televising baseball and called his final World Series in 2013.
“I learned really fast that if you were in his inner circle, he would be a fierce defender of you and for you,” Buck said Thursday. “He taught me how to deal with criticism because he had been criticized, his whole broadcast career. And sometimes it was because he was a teacher of the game. If some player or manager didn’t manage or play the way he thought the game should be played, he let a national audience know it. He was always the first one in the clubhouse the next day. If that person had something to say back to him, he would engage and stood his ground, but it was fair.
“He taught me a lot about the game, but he taught me as much or more about how to broadcast on a on a national level.”
Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement that McCarver was “a respected teammate and one of the most influential voices our game has known.” McCarver, who in the 1960s was an early and prominent union activist, was praised Thursday by Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark for his “lead role” in the union’s formation.
Six feet tall and solidly built, McCarver was a policeman’s son from Memphis, who got into more than a few fights while growing up but was otherwise playing baseball and football and imitating popular broadcasters, notably the Cardinals’ Harry Caray. He was signed while still in high school by the Cardinals for $75,000, a generous offer for that time; just 17 when he debuted for them in 1959 and in his early 20s when he became the starting catcher.
McCarver attended segregated schools in Memphis and often spoke of the education he received as a newcomer in St. Louis. His teammates included Gibson and outfielder Curt Flood, Black players who did not hesitate to confront or tease McCarver. When McCarver used racist language against a Black child trying to jump a fence during spring training, Gibson would remember “getting right up in McCarver’s face.” McCarver liked to tell the story about drinking an orange soda during a hot day in spring training and Gibson asking him for some, then laughing when McCarver flinched.
“It was probably Gibby more than any other Black man who helped me to overcome whatever latent prejudices I may have had,” McCarver wrote in his 1987 memoir “Oh, Baby, I Love It!”
Few catchers were strong hitters during the ’60s, but McCarver batted .270 or higher for five consecutive seasons and was fast enough to become the first in his position to lead the league in triples. He had his best year in 1967 when he hit .295 with 14 home runs, finishing second for NL Most Valuable Player behind teammate Orlando Cepeda as the Cardinals won their second World Series in four years.
McCarver met Carlton when the left-hander was a rookie in 1965 “with an independent streak wider than the Grand Canyon,” McCarver later wrote. The two initially clashed, even arguing on the mound during games, but became close and were reunited in the 1970s after both were traded to Philadelphia. McCarver became Carlton’s designated catcher even though he admittedly had a below average throwing arm and overall didn’t compare defensively to the Phillies’ regular catcher, Gold Glover Bob Boone.
“Behind every successful pitcher, there has to be a very smart catcher, and Tim McCarver is that man,” Carlton said during his Hall of Fame induction speech in 1994. “Timmy forced me pitch inside. Early in my career I was reluctant to pitch inside. Timmy had a way to remedy this. He used to set up behind the hitter. There was just the umpire there; I couldn’t see him (McCarver), so I was forced to pitch inside.”
McCarver liked to joke that he and Carlton were so in synch in the field that when both were dead they would be buried 60 feet, 6 inches apart, the distance between the rubber on the pitching mound and home plate.
During a 21-year career, when he also played briefly for the Montreal Expos and Boston Red Sox, McCarver batted .271 and only twice struck out more than 40 times in a season. In the postseason, he averaged .273 and had his best outing in the 1964 World Series, when the Cardinals defeated the New York Yankees in seven games. McCarver finished 11 for 23, with five walks, and his 3-run homer at Yankee Stadium in the 10th inning of Game 5 gave his team a 5-2 victory.
Younger baseball fans first knew him from his work in the broadcast booth, whether local games for the New York Mets, Yankees, Philadelphia and San Francisco, as Jack Buck’s partner on CBS (1990-91) or with son Joe Buck for Fox from 1996-2013. McCarver won six Emmys and became enough of a brand name to be a punchline on “Family Guy”; write a handful of books, make cameos in “Naked Gun,” “Love Hurts” and other movies and even record an album, “Tim McCarver Sings Songs from the Great American Songbook.”
“To a generation of fans, Tim will forever be remembered as the champion whose game-winning home run during the 1964 World Series echoes throughout time,” Fox Sports CEO and executive producer Eric Shanks said. “To another, his voice will forever be the soundtrack to some of the most memorable moments in the game’s history. To us, he will forever be in our hearts.”
Knowledge was his trademark. In his spare time, he visited art museums, read books and could recite poetry from memory. At work, he was like a one-man scouting team, versed in the most granular details, and spent hours preparing before each game. At times, he seemed to have psychic powers. In Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, the score was tied at 2 between the Yankees and Arizona, and New York drew in its infield with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth. Mariano Rivera was facing Luis Gonzalez.
“Rivera throws inside to left-handers,” McCarver observed. “Left-handers get a lot of broken-bat hits into shallow outfield, the shallow part of the outfield. That’s the danger of bringing the infield in with a guy like Rivera on the mound.”
Moments later, Gonzalez’s bloop to short center field drove in the winning run.
“When you the consider the pressure of the moment,” ESPN’s Keith Olbermann told The New York Times in 2002, “the time he had to say it and the accuracy, his call was the sports-announcing equivalent of Bill Mazeroski’s home run in the ninth inning to defeat the Yankees in 1960.”
Many found McCarver informative and entertaining. Others thought him infuriating. McCarver did not cut himself short whether explaining baseball strategy or taking on someone’s performance on the field. “When you ask him the time, (he) will tell you how a watch works,” Sports Illustrated’s Norm Chad wrote of him in 1992. The same year his criticism of Deion Sanders for playing two sports on the same day led to Atlanta outfielder/Falcons defensive back’s dumping a bucket of water on his head. In 1999, McCarver was fired by the Mets after 16 seasons on the air.
The Mets said in a statement that McCarver gave Mets an insightful, humorous and knowledgeable behind the scenes look into the game.
“Some broadcasters think that their responsibility is to the team and the team only,” McCarver told the Times soon after the Mets let him go. “I have never thought that. My No. 1 obligation is to the people who are watching the game. And I’ve always felt that praise without objective criticism ceases to be praise. To me, any intelligent person can figure that out.”
After retiring from Fox’s national broadcasts, McCarver announced part-time for Fox Sports Midwest and worked the occasional Cardinals game before sitting out the 2020 season because of concerns about COVID-19. Besides the Frick award, he was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame, in 2017.
“By the time I was 26 I had played in three World Series and I thought, ’Man this is great, almost a World Series every year,” he said during his acceptance speech. “Uh-uh. The game has a way of keeping you honest. I never played in another World Series.”
McCarver is survived by his daughters Kathy and Kelley, and grandchildren Leigh and Beau.
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Adam Wainwright will pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals next season, choosing to return for an 18th with the club while longtime teammates Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina head into retirement.
Cardinals president John Mozeliak said Wednesday that the 41-year-old Wainwright informed the NL Central champions of his decision to return shortly after they were eliminated by the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Wainwright did not pitch during either game in part because he had struggled with his delivery late in the season.
Wainwright finished 11-12 with a 3.71 ERA in 32 start, his first losing season in which he made at least 20 starts. He won just twice over his final six starts, though, and had a 7.22 ERA while dealing with what he called a “dead arm.”
Wainwright earned $17.5 million on a one-year deal last season. Terms of his contract for 2023 have not been disclosed.
The right-hander will head into next season needing five wins to reach 200 for his career. Wainwright is 15 behind Jesse Haines for the second-most wins in franchise history; Bob Gibson is the leader with 251 of them.
Wainwright and Molina set the major league record for career starts as a battery last season, eventually hitting 328 starts together. But with Molina heading into retirement, Andrew Knizner is in line to be the everyday catcher, though Mozeliak did indicate Wednesday that the club would be in the market for help behind the plate.
In other news, Mozeliak said he was willing to offer new contracts to pitching coach Mike Maddux and hitting coach Jeff Albert but both decided to step away. The 61-year-old Maddux had been with the Cardinals since 2018 and Albert spent time with the Astros before taking over as the Cardinals hitting coach ahead of the 2019 season.
The Cardinals had already lost bench coach Skip Schumacher to the Marlins as their manager this week. And with bullpen coach Bryan Eversgerd being reassigned as a special assistant within the organization, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol will have four spots to replace on his staff heading into his second season in charge.
Turner Ward, who had been the assistant hitting coach, could be a candidate for promotion. Pitching strategist Dusty Blake also will be back and could be among the candidates to replace Maddux as the pitching coach.
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MIAMI — Skip Schumaker was a candidate to take over as manager of the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets in recent years, only to see those clubs pick someone else.
The Miami Marlins didn’t let him get away.
Schumaker has been hired by the Marlins to become the 16th manager in franchise history, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said Tuesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the Marlins had not announced the hiring.
He comes to Miami from St. Louis, where he spent this season as the bench coach. Schumaker had been a first-base coach and associate manager for San Diego from 2018 through 2021, then joined the Cardinals’ staff.
The 42-year-old Schumaker takes over in Miami for Don Mattingly, who managed the Marlins for seven seasons. Mattingly went 443-587 with Miami, winning the NL Manager of the Year award after leading the Marlins to the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Mattingly’s contract expired when this season ended, and he and the Marlins’ front office — owner Bruce Sherman and general manager Kim Ng — agreed it would be best for both sides not to enter into a new deal.
That prompted a search by Miami, and Schumaker became the pick.
Schumaker played in the majors for 11 seasons, mostly with the Cardinals, and now gets his first managerial opportunity with Miami — which shares a spring training complex in Jupiter, Florida, with St. Louis.
Schumaker was a starter for the Cardinals team that won the 2011 World Series. The California native batted .278 in 1,149 games while primarily playing second base and the outfield. He retired in March 2016 while in camp with the Padres on a minor-league deal.
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The regular season is officially in the books (OK, maybe there is still a game or two trickling slowly to its finish as you read this) and the 2022 MLB playoffs are set to start Friday — and this year’s postseason could be epic.
In addition to a new format that features 12 teams and a three-game wild-card round that is guaranteed to bring drama to October from the very start, there are so many storylines to follow throughout that it has a chance to be an all-time great month of baseball.
Below, we highlight the 12 themes that will dominate the entire sport as the new 12-team format begins.
I think baseball finally nailed it. Yes, there are those who will always favor the old setups of two pennants or four division winners, but the 12-team arrangement is an improvement over 10 teams (which had been the norm for the past decade). The do-or-die wild-card game, which had been around since 2012, never felt right and, frankly, never really turned into the must-see drama that the sports world stopped everything to watch anyway.
As we saw with the temporary 16-team bracket in 2020, these quick, three-game series are fun. They’re still plenty pressure-packed, but they feel more like baseball than a winner-take-all matchup.
Crucially, this format still rewards the best teams with a first-round bye and the opportunity to rest a pitching staff and line up a rotation. My only nit with where baseball landed this year is that a seven-game division series would be better than five — maybe next year, when the start of the season won’t be delayed by a lockout.
2. There’s a 111-win superteam and nobody is sure what to make of its World Series chances
The Los Angeles Dodgers won 111 games — the most ever for a National League team in a 162-game season and a total topped only by the 2001 Seattle Mariners and 1998 New York Yankees. If they win it all, they go down alongside that Yankees team as one of the greatest of all time; if they don’t win it all, they’re relegated to the back pages of history alongside those Mariners.
Since 2017, the Dodgers have had four 104-win seasons, a remarkably long period of domination … but just one World Series title. Their sole championship came in the shortened 2020 season, with playoff games played in front of empty stadiums or at neutral sites. It counts — or as a friend of mine who is a longtime die-hard Dodgers fan told me, it counts as one-third of a title. And don’t forget that teams were allowed to play with 28-man rosters that postseason, which allowed the Dodgers to use starters as relievers and relievers as starters and do things they might not have been able to do with a 26-man roster.
Alden Gonzalez had a good breakdown of the pressure the Dodgers face this October. In a sense, they’re playing for two championships: 2022 and a validation of 2020. While manager Dave Roberts told ESPN he “absolutely” considers the Dodgers a dynasty — and four 104-win seasons certainly back that claim up — two titles would definitely secure their place in history as one of the greatest teams of all time.
3. We’ve got a real chance of a repeat
After winning the World Series in 2021, the Atlanta Braves lost Freddie Freeman to the Dodgers — and got younger and better, winning 101 games and their fifth straight division title. No team has repeated as World Series champs since the Yankees won three in a row from 1998 to 2000; the Braves have the power, the pitching and the momentum — after stealing the NL East in the final week with a three-game sweep of the New York Mets — to do it.
And it’s not just a repeat, the Braves might be on their way to a dynasty here. Their turnaround from a 10½-game deficit to the division title began when they called up Michael Harris II to play center field in late May and moved Spencer Strider to the rotation. From June 1 — the first win in a 14-game winning streak — to the end of the regular season, they went 78-34. Strider’s injured oblique might keep him out of the playoffs, but they still have Max Fried, 20-game winner Kyle Wright and October hero of the past Charlie Morton, plus a lineup that led the NL in home runs.
4. Speaking of dynasties … what do we make of the Houston Astros?
You might have noticed by now, but there are a lot of good teams at the top of this year’s playoff bracket. We have four 100-win clubs in the Dodgers, Astros, Braves and Mets, with the Yankees finishing at 99 wins. The you-can’t-predict-baseball nature of the postseason doesn’t guarantee we’ll see two of these teams in the World Series, but if we do, there’s a good chance we’ll see a classic series. The last matchup of 100-win teams in the World Series was 2017, when the Astros beat the Dodgers in seven thrilling games. Before that, you have to go all the way back to 1970 to have two 100-win teams in the World Series.
The Astros also have four 100-win seasons since 2017, including 107 in 2019 and 106 this season. Sign-stealing scandal or not, if they win the World Series, perhaps they go down as the dominant franchise of this era. And an added bonus? After 25 years of managing in the big leagues and making his 12th trip to the postseason, manager Dusty Baker is hoping to finally win that final game of the season.
To make matters more interesting, the Astros appear on a collision course to meet the Yankees in the American League Championship Series for the third time since 2017. Remember the war of words in the spring between Astros owner Jim Crane and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman after Cashman cried that the only thing that had stopped the Yankees in previous seasons from reaching the World Series was “something that was so illegal and horrific.” A Yankees-Astros ALCS would be an epic battle — even if it is one Evil Empire versus another.
5. New York baseball is B-A-C-K
This is now the Yankees’ 13th season since last appearing in a World Series in 2009 — an unacceptable length of time for baseball’s richest and most historically successful franchise with 27 titles in a sport where the wealthiest teams have a decided advantage. Longtime fans will note the Yankees are closing in on the infamous World Series drought from 1982 to 1995, the reign of terror era under George Steinbrenner when he cycled through 13 managers and seven general managers.
On the other side of town: The Mets won 100 games for just the fourth time in franchise history and first time since 1988, but they enter the postseason with the bitter taste of defeat after losing that final series to the Braves. Everyone knows that Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer can carry a team through a postseason — but deGrom allowed 14 runs and six home runs in 21 innings over his final four starts, so the Mets will need him to find that groove where he posted a 1.66 ERA over his first seven starts after returning in August. Still, this is hardly a two-man team: Pete Alonso led the NL in RBIs, Francisco Lindor might finish in the top 10 of the MVP voting, Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker are solid 3-4 starters and Edwin Diaz has been a lockdown closer. The Mets have had their moments since that run of success in the 1980s, including two World Series appearances, but it’s been 36 years since their iconic 1986 team won it all.
6. Did you really think we forgot about Aaron Judge?
Yes, both teams have made New York baseball interesting all season, but nobody has been more at the center of that than the man who just finished up a 62-home run campaign — and has fans of both New York teams envisioning his free agency will end with him signing with their club.
Now, we have Judge trying to cap off what might be arguably the greatest season of any player in history — by that, I mean a historic regular season, a great postseason and a World Series title. Ted Williams in 1941? Didn’t even win the pennant. Carl Yastrzemski in 1967? The highest single-season WAR for a position player other than Babe Ruth, but the Red Sox lost the World Series. Bob Gibson in 1968? A 1.12 ERA and a record 17 strikeouts in one World Series game, but he lost Game 7. Dwight Gooden in 1985? The Mets missed the playoffs. Pedro Martinez in 1999? The Red Sox lost in the ALCS. Barry Bonds in 2001? The Giants didn’t make the playoffs. Bonds in 2002? He had a great postseason, but the Giants lost Game 7 of the Fall Classic. Mookie Betts in 2018? A 10.7-WAR season that matches Judge and the Red Sox won the World Series, but Betts had a lackluster postseason (.210/.300/.323).
7. Can the GOAT go out on top?
Let’s not forget the other slugger who made home run history this season — Albert Pujols. Every player would love to go out on top, either still playing well or with a dogpile on the field. Almost none of them do. Pujols and Yadier Molina have a chance to do that — and maybe Adam Wainwright joins them in retirement as well (he’s yet to officially announce his status for 2023).
The three St. Louis Cardinals legends reunited this season when Pujols returned after a 10-year exile, and all three will play a key role in what happens to the club in October. As will Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, two of the greatest players of their generation who will likely finish 1-2 in the MVP voting in the NL — and who both seek their first trip to the World Series.
8. The playoff drought-busters
While the Cardinals come into this postseason with loads of October experience, there are two franchises about to get their first taste of the playoffs in a long, long time. The Seattle Mariners and Philadelphia Phillies ended the sport’s two longest playoff droughts in securing wild-card spots, although both teams will be on the road for the first round — Seattle at Toronto, Philadelphia at St. Louis.
When Cal Raleigh hit his pinch-hit walk-off home run to clinch a wild-card spot, the Mariners celebrated like they had won the World Series. Can you blame them? Twenty-one years is a long time between playoff appearances. Sure, they had plenty of terrible teams along the way, but also several near misses: 93 wins in 2002 and 2003, 88 wins in 2007, one win short in 2014, three short in 2016, alive until the final day last season. They aren’t even guaranteed a home playoff game if they don’t beat the Blue Jays, although you can bet the watch party at T-Mobile Park will have a playoff-like atmosphere.
The good news is Julio Rodriguez returned from his back problem to play a couple of games at the end of the regular season (and homered in the season finale). The bad news is second-half spark plug Sam Haggerty and outfielder/DH Jesse Winker both just landed on the injured list. The rotation and bullpen are healthy, however — Luis Castillo looks like a legitimate ace when he’s on, while Logan Gilbert had a 2.00 ERA in September, allowing one run or less in five of his six starts. If you like a good underdog story, believe in the Mariners.
Meanwhile, the Phillies had the majors’ second-longest playoff drought, making it for the first time since 2011. They have Bryce Harper, back in the postseason for the first time since 2017, and power-hitting Kyle Schwarber, who led the NL in home runs. Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Ranger Suarez (2.95 ERA since July 16) are a strong rotation trio. I wouldn’t bet on them in the tough NL, but there are similarities here in roster construction to the 2019 Nationals, who went from the wild card to World Series champs.
9. The World Series curses we don’t talk about enough
The Cleveland Guardians are trying to win their first World Series since 1948. The San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays are trying to win their first one, while the aforementioned Mariners remain the only franchise never to play in a World Series.
The Guardians’ World Series drought has never received as much attention as the ones for the Red Sox and Cubs did, but it’s now been 74 years since the Cleveland franchise won it all — longer than the 1986 Red Sox had gone (68 years) when they lost to the Mets. How about winning it all in the first season with the new nickname? They might make a movie out of that given this list of Cleveland’s postseason heartbreaks:
1995: The best team in baseball that year, but they lost the World Series to the Braves.
1997: Blew a ninth-inning lead in Game 7 of the World Series to the Marlins and lost in extra innings.
2007: Lost the ALCS to the Red Sox after being up 3-1.
2016: Were up 3-1 on the Cubs in the World Series and lost Game 7, again, in extra innings.
2017: Lost the division series to the Yankees after being up 2-0.
And then there’s the team that’s been around since 1969 — and never won it all. The Padres made World Series appearances in 1984 and 1998, but this is just the seventh postseason trip in franchise history.
But these aren’t your older brother’s Padres. This is a team that has spent the past three seasons acquiring an All-Star squad of talent while playing with a brash style that could make it very popular this postseason — if the Padres can stick around long enough for national fans to get familiar with their stars. They’ve gone all-in to dethrone the Dodgers in recent seasons — only to fall well short. But they squeaked in, and anything can happen in the playoffs, right? Especially with Manny Machado and Juan Soto and Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish and a suddenly rejuvenated Blake Snell (1.76 ERA over his final seven starts). The Mets-Padres wild-card series is the one to watch — with the winner facing the Dodgers in a colossal division series showdown.
10. The redemption stories
Let’s see here. We’ve got Justin Verlander, who after missing 2021 with Tommy John surgery, came back and went 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA while leading the American League in wins, ERA, WHIP and lowest batting average allowed. His status as future Hall of Famer is secure, but with a big October and another World Series championship for the Astros, his legacy becomes that of an inner-circle Hall of Famer. DeGrom and Scherzer missed some time, and deGrom sputtered at the end of the season, but that dynamic pair could carry the Mets to their first title since 1986. And then of course, there is Clayton Kershaw. Yes, he got his ring a couple of years ago, but he was injured last October, and he hasn’t won a ring in a full season with a normal postseason. How will he perform?
11. The October introduction of some legit young stars
As my colleague Kiley McDaniel pointed out recently, this is the best rookie class since Pujols and Ichiro Suzuki debuted in 2001 — and most of the biggest names will be playing in the postseason (sorry, Adley Rutschman). We’ve got Rodriguez leading the Mariners and Harris and Strider on the Braves.
But it’s not just the rookies who will remind us how bright the future of baseball is this postseason …
While we often think of the Rays as a parade of bullpen arms, they also have two budding young superstars in Wander Franco and Shane McClanahan who could power another small-market success story this postseason. And across the AL East, Alek Manoah, Alejandro Kirk, Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. form a young core that makes the Blue Jays a team nobody wants to face this postseason. Of course, the question we’ll all be waiting to see answered is how these young stars will handle the bright lights of October … or should we say November.
12. It’s an October so great — it could take part of November to finish it
That’s right, thanks to the combination of the new format and the MLB lockout pushing back the start of the season, Game 7 of the 2022 World Series would take place on Nov. 5, the latest date of a playoff game in MLB history.
If every series goes the distance, we’ll get 53 postseason games with all of these incredible storylines fueling the possibility that any given night can become a must-see moment for baseball fans. Of course, in the end we need great games to have a great postseason.
That’s what still makes 1986 the gold standard for all postseasons. There were just 20 playoff games that October — the seven-game ALCS between the Red Sox and Angels, the six-game NLCS between the Mets and Astros, then the seven-game World Series when the Mets beat the Red Sox. Five of the 20 games went extra innings. Eight were decided by one run. Several are all-time classics, including Game 5 of the ALCS; Games 3, 5 and 6 of the NLCS; and Games 6 and 7 of the World Series.
The stage is set. I’m going with the Dodgers over the Astros. I’ll take Kershaw versus Verlander in Game 7 of the World Series, thank you very much.
Pujols drove a 0-1 pitch from Roansy Contreras deep to center for a solo shot.
The 42-year-old Pujols is now fourth on the career home run list behind Babe Ruth (714), Hank Aaron (755) and Barry Bonds (762). The slugger has 23 homers in what he says will be his final season.
Pujols hit a two-run double in the first inning. He has 2,214 career RBIs, which ranks second all time behind Aaron’s 2,297; Ruth unofficially drove in 2,214 runs as well but many were not counted because the statistic was not recognized by baseball until 1920.
Pujols and catcher Yadier Molina, who also is retiring, were honored in a 46-minute ceremony before their final regular-season home game.
The pair was given gifts from the team, including a set of golf clubs, a silver plate and one-of-a-kind artist drawings of each player. The two have a combined 41 years in the majors. Former teammates Matt Holiday, Ray Lankord and Jason Isringhausen were present for the ceremony.
Sunday marked the last game Adam Wainwright, Pujols and Molina will appear together as Cardinals teammates. The trio had its first game together on Sept. 11, 2005. According to the Elias Sports Bureau research, it’s the first trio in major league history to have its first game and final game together be over 6,000 days apart.
Molina, Pujols and Wainwright were all removed from the game together so they could walk off as a trio with two outs in the fifth. Wainwright (11-12), who allowed six runs on six hits over 4 2/3 innings, has yet to decide if he will come back next season.
The Cardinals, who have clinched their fifth NL Central title in the last 10 years, closed the regular-season with 26 wins in their last 34 home games.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
PHOENIX (AP) — J.D. Davis had the go-ahead RBI double in the ninth, Shelby Miller pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief in his season debut and the San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-5 on Friday night.
The Giants rallied with two outs in the ninth off reliever Caleb Smith (1-3), who gave up the unearned run. Mike Yastrzemski started with a line-drive single and Evan Longoria reached on a fielder’s choice after Arizona third baseman Sergio Alcantara made a bad throw to second that bounced and ended up in the outfield.
Davis followed with a double down the left field line, scoring Yastrzemski. Camilo Doval worked the ninth for his 25th save in 28 opportunities.
The Giants had the opportunity to win thanks to Miller’s extended effort in relief.
The right-hander — who was a promising pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals back in the early 2010s before bouncing around the league — said his outing went even better than he could have hoped. He struck out seven.
“I felt like I commanded my fastball really well, slider was definitely working,” Miller said. “That was the game plan going in — if you can get ahead of these guys, you’re going to have success. That’s what I did.”
The Diamondbacks fell to 70-82, which guarantees a losing season for the third straight year.
“This is one of those games that we’ve got to find a way to make plays, get the job done and execute,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “Doesn’t matter if it’s in the first inning or the ninth inning.”
The Giants have won five straight.
The D-backs nearly broke the 5-all tie in the eighth. Ketel Marte hit a two-out double and Daulton Varsho followed with what looked like another extra-base hit, but LaMonte Wade Jr. made a difficult catch in deep right while sprinting back towards the wall.
The Giants built an early 2-0 lead after solo homers from Brandon Crawford and Austin Wynns. The D-backs bounced back in the third when Stone Garrett’s two-run homer just cleared the left-center wall.
San Francisco pushed ahead again on David Villar’s two-run homer and Evan Longoria’s RBI single for a 5-2 lead. The D-backs rallied for three runs in the fifth on Emmanuel Rivera’s two-run double and Jordan Luplow’s RBI single.
San Francisco left hander Carlos Rodón gave up four runs on four hits and three walks over 4 1/3 innings. He struck out seven.
Rodón’s been a bright spot in San Francisco’s disappointing season with a 13-8 record and 2.98 ERA, but he failed to throw at least five innings for just the second time since the All-Star break. Alex Young (1-1) got the win in relief.
D-backs left-hander Tommy Henry gave up five runs over 4 2/3 innings in his first start since being recalled from Triple-A.
700 ON THE BIG SCREEN
In between innings, the D-backs showed a replay of Cardinals star Albert Pujols hitting his 700th career homer against the Dodgers. The crowd of more than 25,000 responded with arguably its biggest cheer of the night.
MILLER IN ’22
The 31-year-old Miller was once a coveted prospect and won 15 games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013. He’s hasn’t achieved the same success since that point, though, and spent most of this season in Triple-A.
“It was nice to see him come through like that,” San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler said. “He’s been waiting a long time for this opportunity, came into the game and did exactly what we were looking for. He delivered a ton of strikes, worked fast and forced the action.”
Miller has a not-so-great spot in D-backs lore: He was acquired in a trade that sent Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte back to the Braves. Miller spent three mostly ineffective seasons in Arizona.
Miller is the 64th player the Giants have used this season, which ties a franchise record set in 2019.
HEAT
Doval threw a sinker 104 mph during the ninth. It was a ball.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Diamondbacks: Placed OF Jake McCarthy on the bereavement list. Optioned LHP Tyler Holton to Triple-A Reno. Called up Henry and OF/INF Pavin Smith.
UP NEXT
The teams continue their series on Saturday night. The D-backs will send RHP Merrill Kelly (12-7, 3.15 ERA) to the mound. The Giants will counter with RHP Alex Cobb (6-6, 3.48).
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