Friday, October 10, 2008

MLB Postseason Recap

Here is a recap of last night's Game 1 of the NLCS:

Philadelphia Phillies 3 Los Angeles Dodgers 2: I had put Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, & Pat Burrell on notice for Game 1 and boy did Utley and Burrell come up big for the Phillies. Those home run hitting Phillies each went deep and that was all their team needed to beat Derek Lowe and the Dodgers. Chase Utley's home run was actually his first postseason home run ever. I'm not surprised that this was a low scoring game and I expect the whole series to be pretty low scoring, because the starting pitching on both sides has been excellent. Both Cole Hamels and Derek Lowe pitched well in Game 1, but Hamels was just a little bit stronger and came up with the victory. Hamels is quietly turning into one of the games best pitchers and could be also turning into a big game playoff pitcher. He is now 2-1 in 3 postseason starts, with just a 2.08 ERA.
The thing about the games being so low scoring is that any error that is made could be even more costly than usual and that's what happened when Rafael Furcal made a throwing error right before Chase Utley's two run bomb. The funny thing is that Furcal actually has one of the best throwing arms of any short stop in baseball, so he probably didn't need to rush his throw. Furcal's fielding percentage for his career is below league average. I haven't seen him play often enough to know if a majority of these errors are throwing errors, but the one last night was and it might have cost the Dodgers the game.

Since this is a 7 game series and not a 5 game series, then I don't think Game 2 is an absolute must win game for the Dodgers, but they certainly won't be doing themselves any favors by getting in an 0-2 hole. Furcal needs to get on base in front of Andre Ethier and Manny and Chad Billingsley needs a big performance on the mound for the Dodgers to take Game 2. Brett Myers will be pitching for the Phillies and while he has been pitching excellent in the second half of the season, he has been known to get rocked every once in a while, so maybe the Dodgers can catch him on an off night.

Put On Notice: Rafael Furcal and Chad Billingsley

More: MLB Postseason

1 comment: