Yesterday, in his first career playoff game, Alek Manoah looked bad. He gave up three runs in the first set and in the end, in a 4-0 loss, his four runs allowed clearly made the difference. He didn’t do badly afterwards, but…
For 10 minutes after the match, Manoah stared into space. He had to think about how he let the club down from his point of view. He must have thought that he might not have the chance to start again this season if the club did not win their next two games.
He had to think how much better Luis Castillo, who only had one game of playoff experience behind the tie, was. We push, there, but he was perhaps thinking of his next contract …
In short, it was wrong. Matt Chapman pulled him out of his thoughts to help him out a bit and I don’t know what was said, but I know what I would have said to the kid.
Kid, it happens even to the best. Look at Max Scherzer.
Because while there were many surprises yesterday, none was bigger than seeing Max Scherzer get run through by the Padres. The pitcher allowed four homers and seven runs in a heavy loss. It must scream in New York…
The Mets will therefore rely on Jacob deGrom to save their season. Will this work? That remains to be seen.
But when I talk about surprises, I also mean pitcher performance.
Yesterday, no less than four starters pitched at least seven innings, including the two pitchers in the game between the Guardians and the Rays. Seven sets in series, in our time, it is enormous. The proof? Last year, in ALL series, it happened… only four times.
And obviously, among the surprises, to see the Phillies score six points in the ninth against St. Louis, that wasn’t exactly planned either. We knew the Phillies had a good offense, but…
We resume at noon when the Rays, Blue Jays, Mets and Cardinals will face elimination. Only one home team (Guardians) can’t be eliminated which is crazy.
