Beachy, you need to sneak into the clubhouse, and figure out what the lineup has on Gausman, and then tell me. No other team in the league treats his splitter like that.

Yeah, it's weird. The Twins are well known for striking out. I think they even set the MLB record this year for a team.
But, despite that, most of them DO have a pretty good eye at the plate, and patience and discipline. I think that's mostly
what you need when it comes to facing Kevin Glausman: make him throw you high strikes: If it's High, let it Fly, if it's
Low, let it Go.

Ultimately, I think it might be one of those get-in-your-head things. They've had enough success against him in the past
that Glausman has come to believe that there's something about them or what they know about him that unnerves him.
Something like that gets into your head and then helps to shape reality.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. Jose Berríos was part of that 0-18 streak (and I thought it would have been very interesting
to see him pitching if the Twins were 0-19). As it is, Berríos still likes to beat the Twins at every opportunity and probably
with good reason--but I don't don't know why he and the Twins FO could never come to terms on a contract extension.
Yes, Jose sometimes lacked concentration, and the game could get away from him, but he seems confident these days.

And while Sonny Gray will probably pitch great for us, I think Sonny and the Twins have got some sort of mental block
about being able to give Sonny run support. This may lead to Sonny trying to be too perfect.

Should be good. I very much like Toronto's chances against Joe Ryan if it goes to a Game 3.

Phillies win game one and have now won 6 straight playoff home openers.

Wheeler was absolutely brilliant.

Turner was great and the defense was excellent.

Phils 4, Fish 1.

Game 2 tomorrow.

The Mets' website now shows last week's suspended game as having been wound back to the end of the 8th inning, and completed as a win over the Marlins by a score of 1-0. MLB's season standings have been updated accordingly.

So, if a suspended game isn't completed, it reverts back to the last finished inning and the team that's ahead is awarded the victory?

That's what the article I just read said - it's as of the score at the last fully completed inning, and not the point of suspension.

I have no idea why Toronto pulled José Berríos in the 4th. Two runs have scored now for the Twins.

Okay, that's all the Twins got, but I'd be livid if I were Berríos. He was out pitching Sonny Gray today.

Congrats to the Texas Rangers, who swept their Wild Card series and now go to face Baltimore.

Congrats to the Minnesota Twins, who swept their Wild Card series and now go to face Houston.

Close, exciting games with Toronto; both of those games really could have gone either way.

Happy for you Twins fans!

Not happy for Rangers. Go O’s!

Astros have been wildly inconsistent this year so no telling how this series will go. Should be fun!

Thanks, Brandon. We're still have some key players banged up and hurt but an extra day off tomorrow will help.
Good luck to both teams.

Congrats to Beachy and Garp once again!

Yep, allow me to second this, guys. good luck to the twins going forward.

Thanks, Linda and Jason.

you probably didn't hear much about it on the American feed, but reading between the lines from every Rogers employee getting paid to talk during the game (Dan Shulman, Buck Martinez, Joe Siddall, others), this was scripted in stone before the game, and the way Berrios was throwing (or not) was going to play no part in the decisions made by the analytics boys in the front office. Schneider had absolutely no say - when that first of 4 lefties came up for the second time, Berrios was gone, so they could turn them all around, and get some of them out of the line up early. And, so because their spreadsheets say it, it's likely that a good man is going to lose his job because the city will not tolerate him being back as manager, and the trust between your team and a man under contract for 5 more years has been severely damaged.

In the same way that their analytics decision not to treat the AL's second most frequent closer AS A closer - win, lose or draw - in favour of an analytics darling of a 103 mph throwing free agent has likely poisoned the relationship with Jordan Romano.

When they made the swap, I started wanting Minnesota to win. Because the long-term best interest of the Jays is to show this is fundamentally not working, and that real change is required.

The reason the Jays lost this series were a complete microcosm of the Jays' season, and as they have sown, so did they reap:
- Analytically overthinking the game; the rotation, the bullpen, the hitters. This isn't MLB The Show, this is real life. And if you don't allow your manager to read the room, that's on the team, not the manager.
- The inability of the guys who were supposed to be the 5th and 6th batters in our lineup to either hit the high fastball, or make adjustments to allow them to do so.
- Complete laissez-faire attitude on the basepaths by the keystone players of the team, resulting in absolutely crippling outs.
- a mysterious power outage up and down the line up that makes me think the 6-7 hitting coaches have screwed up the natural inclinations of the hitters trying to adjust to the new dimensions at Rogers Centre.

It's already going to be an offseason of change - Ryu, Merrifield, Belt, Chapman, - and likely Kiermier and Hicks - are going to be gone.
I give it a 75% chance that John Schneider is gone, sacrificed to the fans' ire, with no guarantee that Mattingly takes the job.
I give it a 50/50 chance that Ross Atkins is gone, for multiple failures in building this line up, and for trading Hernandez, Gurriel, and Moreno for No-show Varsho and Eric Swanson without seeing where the power was coming from
I give it a 25% chance that Vlad Guerrero Jr has played his last game as a Blue Jay. they moved the other members of the Barrio to see if Vladdy would smarten up without them,. But he didn't. So if they team can get close to market value (him for Trout straight up, for example, or as part of a Soto or Arenado deal), it could happen.

It will be an interesting offseason here in Toronto, but there is going to be real pressure to fix this - Rogers is putting $300 million of their own money into the renovations, and another $250 million on the field. They can't tolerate the fan base turning away in disgust next year.

Yeah, I read some of that afterwards on Twitter, about the predetermined analytics. Sorry, Jason. The Jays deserve better.

Some analytics can be great tools for making decisions but taking it to that level is dumb.

I've seen both sides with the Astros. When they had Hinch they followed a much more analytical mindset. Baker is pretty much a polar opposite approach. Both have their fair share of frustrations and I wish teams could be more balanced when it comes to paying attention to the stats BUT allowing the human analysis of the situation.

As much as is being made of the quick hook, the real reason the Jays lost was the offense.
Springer, Guerrero, and Bichette were held to 1 double, and the #2 and #5 hitters were 1-16 with 8 K's.

All true. Offense disappears and you won't win anyway

Ah, yes, but we expected that to be the case. We were lacking in offense all year, and we knew it from day 1. So it was fight and claw and get to the playoffs and then let the starting pitchers try and carry you through. And they didn't have enough trust to stick to it. Everyone all season talking about "have a plan at the plate and stick with it". and when we get to the playoffs, the front office can't follow their own advice.

I'm not knocking the Twins, but from here, it feels like a greek tragedy, insofar as the fatal flaws of the team were known, and they were our downfall. And if some schmuck watching games at home can see it, guys getting paid millions of dollars need to get fired if they don't do anything to correct it.

Phillies kicked the Marlins to the curb 7-1, and Nola was brilliant and Stott’s grand slam felt like an earthquake as the stadium was deafening once again from the first pitch, but never more than that moment.

So, the rematch with the Braves is next.

The Phils wasted Atlanta last year, and now the Braves are even more stacked from 1 through 9.

But, the pitching has been suspect lately and they have some injured guys.

Who knows?

Last year was awesome and I can’t wait for the rematch starting on Saturday.