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“WILD CARD PLAYOFFS”
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What a fun day of baseball ahead of us…Opening day of Wildcard Week in MLB.
4-great games-back to back on TV. Great storylines. And alot of questions too.
PADRES-CUBS…You tell me, a good season in San Diego? They did reel off 90-wins infront of a record 3.43M-fans at Petco Park. But they failed to pass the Dodgers for first place. Failed to get home field advantage. Failed to impress the critics with all those losses to some of baseball’s bad teams. And have battled to find consistent trustworthy starting pitching.
So they face the big home run hitting Cubs team in hitter friendly Wrigley Field. A Padres team that did not do well on the road. A Friars team that was 29th in HRs for most of the season.
Manny Machado staggered thru a career worst August-September, hitting a combined (.206). Can he flip the ignition switch on and showup and get big hits in October?
Fernando Tatis looks healthy, energized and is hitting. So is streaking Luis Arraez, with a (.383) storke over his 15-game hitting streak.
But can the Padres, once they give the ball to a pitcher other than Nick Pivetta, do well in a short series? The Dylan Cease malaise-is there a quality road start coming? How patient can you be with home-run prone Yu Darvish? Do you get enough quality innings out of Michael King-Randy Vasquez if you go to them in long relief? Will you go to your Gold Star bullpen early in games?
Does the loss of Ramon Laureano hurt this team alot, or are there other guys ready to step up?
Can you keep the Cubs from hitting the ball out of the Friendly Confines, considering they crashed 223-homers in all, and 101 of them at Wrigleyville?
And how about Cubs opening day starter, Matt Boyd (12-1) at home?
If this series was at Petco, where the Friars had the dominant record, I might feel different, but I hope this is not ‘1-and-Done’
DODGERS-REDS…Cincinnati is just glad to be there. The Dodgers belong there seeking a second World Series ring in a row. How about that Gold Standard starting rotation, plus Ohtani and his 55-home runs.
TIGERS-CLEVELAND..Amazing either of them made it. Detroit fell apart so bad, ran out of pitching in late season, and still got there. Cleveland’s home grown roster earned this, but they had a team batting average of (.223)
YANKEES-RED SOX..What a first day matchup, Garrett Crochet-vs-Max Fried. The two left handers combined for (37-wins) and the two southpaws struck out (255-189) this summer. Of course the Yankees have those big home run hitters to watch too.
Enjoy Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. Wildcard week will be wild.
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