Pirates Morning Report: Division Series Brief

Both lower seeds in the National League are on the verge of going to the League Championship Series. Last night the Padres and the Dodgers played one of the oddest games in playoff history. The Padres scored 6 runs in the 2nd thanks to some cagey running by Manny Machado, a routine ground ball where the Dodgers got no one out,and capped off by a Fernando Tatis 2 run homer. The Dodgers came right back with 4 runs in the top of the 3rd on a grand slam home run by Teoscar Hernandez, with one out to make the score 6-5 Padres. For the next 6 and 2/3 innings there were only 4 batters that got on base. Three for the Padres, one being immediately erased on a double play and another was intentionally walked. The Dodgers got a lone single in the 8th. Talk about pitching taking over a ballgame. The Mets beat the Phillies 6-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their series. The National League still has the potential to send the 6th seed to the World Series for the 3rd consecutive year. Oh my! MLB welcome to playoff baseball. On the American League side both series are tied at one game apiece. The Yankees had the audacity to call the Royals lucky when they lost to them 4-2 in game 2. This from a team that received 8 walks in game 1 and could only manage to win 6-5. We will all see how lucky the Royals are over the next two days. The Tigers evened their series with the Guardians by hitting a 3 run homer in the top of the 9th off Emmanuel Clase who in 74 games had an ERA of 0.61. Frankly I am not expecting this but it could be an all wild card final series in both leagues. Wow!