Kansas City Royals lead LA Angels 2-0 in ALDS
The Royals continue to win with pitching, defense, speed and timely hitting— the recipe of World Series Champions. The pitching staff has limited baseball's highest-scoring offense to just three runs in 22 innings.
Getting back to the playoffs for the first time in 29 years has made this franchise thirsty for a ring. KC, heavy underdogs to the LA Angels entering the ALDS, wins Game 2 of the series in the same wild fashion as Game 1 when Mike Moustakas slammed a homer in the 11th inning. On Saturday, it was turn up cat Eric Hosmer who broke up a pitcher’s duel by hitting a two-run homer in the 11th and lifting the Royals to a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.
With three extra-inning wins in four remarkable days, the Royals are becoming this season’s “Cardiac Kids.” They went into the toughest place to play in the majors, won two games and now return home with the .45th to the mighty Angels’ dome and on the verge of eliminating them from a chance to advance to the AL Championship Series,
"That's what the cool part of this has been — everyone has had their time," said Hosmer, who had three hits and scored two runs. "They've had their moment when they've made a big play or stepped up and did something big. A lot of the times, it was with our back against the wall. Most of the time it was with our season on the line."
Game 3 in the best-of-five series is Sunday in Kansas City, where Angels left-hander C.J. Wilson faces “Big Game” James Shields.
Baltimore Orioles lead Detroit Tigers 2-0 in ALDS
There’s one thing baseball fans have learned over the past decade:
Don’t roll with Detroit come playoff time and don’t bet against the mastermind that is Buck Showalter. He’s officially brought B-More back. After putting the beats on Max Scherzer and the Tigers bullpen, B-More brought it to Justin Verlander and crew on Friday.
Delmon Young drove in three runs with a pinch-hit double, and Baltimore used a four-run eighth inning to pull out a 7-6 victory. This series is a wrap.
“We did it yesterday, we’ve been doing it all year against teams in our own division,” said ex-Detroit player Young, who went 10 for 20 as a pinch-hitter during the regular season. “So any time we have an opportunity and get guys on, we think we can win.”
San Francisco Giants lead Washington Nationals 1-0 in NLDS
The San Francisco Giants got a solid outing from vet Jake Peavy (5.2 IP, two hits, 0 runs) to snatch Game 1 of the NLDS from the Washington Nationals. It was the Giants' ninth consecutive postseason victory going back to their 2012 title run. It seems Bruce Botchy’s boys can’t lose in the postseason and they will be a murderous out for any team hoping to rep the NL in the World Series. San Fran won the c’hip in 2010 and 2012 and they are “giant killers” in the postseason. Saturday’s victim was sensational Stephen Strasburg (5.0 IP, eight hits, and one earned run) who admittedly idolized Peavy as a kid growing up in San Diego and watching Peavy’s success with the Padres early in his career. The young gun got schooled on the art of playoff pitching by the more experienced O.G. That’s playoff baseball in a nutshell.
Jordan Zimmerman (14-5, 2.66 ERA)—who tossed the organization's first no-hitter in his previous start will take on 39-year-old Tim Hudson (9-13, 3.57 ERA) in Game 2 on Saturday night in D.C. and attempt to get his squad up and running,
