MINNEAPOLIS -- By eliminating the Minnesota Twins on Monday, the New York Yankees proved that they are ready to win every way there is during this postseason.
The Yankees beat the Twins 5-1 in Game 3 of the American League Division Series to complete a sweep. But before the offense tacked on some late insurance runs, this was a duel of pitching and defense in which the Yankees showed their ability to hang tough in a tight game in October.
"I thought they played such a clean game. They made so many big plays in big spots because I really thought the Twins brought it tonight," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "They made it difficult. They had traffic it seemed like all night. Our guys just kept making big pitches when they needed to and big defensive plays."
The Yankees' pitchers had times when they were not crisp, but they got outs when they mattered most. Every time the Twins threatened to score, they came away empty-handed, thanks to a combination of stellar defense and a relief staff that knows how to seal a low-scoring win. Only an eighth-inning homer by Eddie Rosario got the Twins on the scoreboard.
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Twins' torture: Breaking down their record 16-game postseason losing streak Luis Severino's start was not as clean as his four scoreless innings would indicate, but he stepped up when it mattered, masterfully escaping a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the second inning by limiting slugger Miguel Sano to an infield popup and striking out Marwin Gonzalez and Jake Cave to end the threat.
"I think that situation right there set the tone for the rest of the game. I think that was the chance for the Twins to score," Severino said. "I'm happy that I could throw good pitches enough to get out of that inning."
Chad Green, arguably New York's best pitcher in the second half of the season, entered in the fifth inning to protect a three-run lead with two men on and two outs and retired the dangerous Rosario. Green was awarded the win after pitching a tough 1⅓ innings supported by great defensive play by outfielder Aaron Judge.
"I thought we played really good defense today," Green said. "Sevy getting out of huge jams early in the game was big for us, and that set the tone for the whole game, and every pitcher fed off what he was doing out there. The guys stepped up at the right time and made plays when they had to, and that's really what this game came down to."
play 1:29 Torres, Yankees filled with confidence heading into ALCSGleyber Torres talks to Buster Olney after the Yankees finish off the Twins, breaking down the team's performance in Game 3 of the ALDS. Judge, unanimously praised by his teammates for his defense, made several highlight-reel catches to keep the game close until the Yankees managed to build a more comfortable lead in the ninth inning, scoring two runs off reliever Sergio Romo.
"We played three really complete games, offensively and defensively, but this felt like one of the best defensive games we have had," New York first baseman DJ LeMahieu said. "It seemed like Minnesota hit the ball hard all night, and especially at the right times, and we just made so many great plays. Judge had a couple of great plays. He is a Gold Glove right fielder, one of the best I have seen out there. His bat gets all the attention, for obvious reasons, but he is a complete player."
However, Judge's focus during the Yankees' subdued clubhouse celebration was not personal accolades or whether his defense is an underappreciated aspect of his game.
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"I really don't know if I'm overrated or underrated. It really doesn't matter to me if I make the play," Judge said. "A lot of people label us as just a home-run-hitting team, but we are not. We play great defense, and our pitching staff is exceptional -- goes out there and executes their pitches."
Gleyber Torres, who made a case for series MVP with a second-inning home run and two doubles backed up by big-game defense, credited the field work that the team has done this season.
"We know we can hit, but we also know that defense also wins games. We are a team that cares a lot about our defense. We worked hard on it all season," Torres said. "We certainly hit very well in this series, but I think that defensively we played incredible ball. Some of the plays that Didi [Gregorius] made, that Judge made, they were incredible. Makes us feel very proud because this is the time to raise our level of play."
Yankees utility man Tyler Wade agreed.
"It's a cliché saying, but defense wins championships, and this game was a product of all the early work we put in the outfield and the infield, the attention to detail and the pride that we have," he said. "Those kinds of plays we made today get momentum going, and hats off to Judge, Didi, Gleyber, DJ. Their great performance on the field was contagious."
The Yankees outscored the Twins 23-7 in their ALDS sweep, but reliever Tommy Kahnle believes they should be recognized for what they have accomplished on both sides of the ball in their 103-win season that included their first AL East title since 2012.
"A lot of people, they look on the outside and look at us as a power staff with power hitting, but at times we have shown that we have one of the best defenses in the league. We have the players to do it," Kahnle said. "Tonight really showed that when the stage is set, our guys are going to shine.
• Everyone wonders if swapping Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook makes the Rockets better or worse. My boring take: They are about the same -- a really good team that probably isn't going to win the title. The trio of Westbrook, James Harden and coach Mike D'Antoni is talented and creative enough to paper over Westbrook's busted jumper, but only so much. You never know what the backup wings and bigs are giving you night to night. An injury to P.J. Tucker is death against LeBron and Leonard.
But the Rockets don't get enough credit for being the only Western Conference team to compete at all with the Durant-era Warriors. Those Warriors are the only team to beat Houston -- or really even trouble them -- in the playoffs since the Rockets paired Paul and Harden. The Westbrook/Harden/Eric Gordon/Tucker/Clint Capela grouping should be a championship-level closing lineup.
Houston deserves to be grandfathered into the top tier. I am a little afraid of what hard-chargin' Tilman Fertitta might pull in the event of a slow start. He could fire everyone and install himself as GM, coach, and head chef. He could also mandate the kind of nutty all-in trade (R.I.P. Nene contract) that fortifies the 2019-20 Rockets even if it hamstrings the team's future.
WASHINGTON -- Everything about the game screamed football. Especially the guy on the mound.
It was football season. It was football weather. It was even prime time on Monday night.
But the most football thing of all at Nationals Park was the dude on the hill, the one with the ball in his hands. The one who, like a workhorse, goal-line running back, just seemed to get stronger and stronger as the game wore on. He was the one in the middle of the huddle (stay tuned for more on that).
Max Scherzer has always been a bit of a football player in baseball player's clothing. Not because he played quarterback at Parkview High back in St. Louis. Not because he geeks out over the sport to the point that he's the commish of his team's fantasy football league (his team is called "Hardware"). Not because you wouldn't think twice if you saw him, at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, in a uniform featuring, instead of Washington Nationals red and blue, Redskins red and gold.
No, the most football thing about the dude who was the most football thing on Monday at Nats Park is what's going on between his ears.
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"There's definitely a different animal in there," said reliever Daniel Hudson, who had the audacity to finish what Scherzer started, picking up the save in Washington's 6-1 win and sending the NL Division Series back to Los Angeles for a decisive Game 5 on Wednesday.
What kind of animal was Hudson talking about, exactly?
The kind that makes everyone -- from teammates to friends to even family -- sign a waiver in order to watch him throw his notoriously maniacal bullpen sessions between starts. The kind that can suffer a broken nose while practicing bunting, then go out the next day, black eye and all, and steamroller a division rival to the tune of 10 strikeouts over seven scoreless innings (this happened in June against the Phillies). Apparently, it's also the same species that can pitch in high-leverage relief on Friday, then come back and start an elimination game on Monday.
At the outset, it looked like manager Davey Martinez might have been asking a little too much of his ace. The third batter of the game, Justin Turner, turned on a 95 mph fastball and sent it screaming over the wall in left-center to give L.A. a 1-0 lead. By the time Scherzer had gone through the Dodgers lineup once, he had allowed four batted balls with exit velocity of at least 95 mph. Perhaps even more un-Scherzerian, he hadn't registered a single strikeout.
As it turns out, it was all part of the plan.
Like a quarterback whose first 15 plays are scripted, Scherzer was under strict orders early: Do whatever it takes to go as deep into the game as you possibly can. In fact, while the Nationals were getting pounded on Sunday in Game 3, Scherzer was approached in the dugout by Martinez, who told his hurler that no, you may not pinch hit, and no, you may not pinch run, and no, you may not pitch in relief (all of which Scherzer volunteered to do).
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Dodgers' big bats saved the season with one thunderous inning "You might pitch 140 pitches tomorrow," Washington's skipper said, knowing how perilously thin his beleaguered bullpen was, "so just get your rest."
In other words, conserve your energy. Conserve it in the dugout on Sunday. Conserve it some more at home on Monday. But above all else, conserve it Monday night on the mound.
"I needed to make a full-on start," said Scherzer, who lasted just five innings and 77 pitches against the Brewers in the wild-card game. Another start such as that would force Martinez to somehow cobble together 12 outs from that infamous bullpen against the mighty Dodgers -- a scenario that would almost certainly result in doom.
"There's been times -- like, I know there's times in the regular season -- where you're not fresh, where you come into a game, and you got to conserve," Scherzer said. So that's exactly what Washington's ace did.
The first two innings against Los Angeles -- the first time through the order -- Scherzer threw 76% of his pitches in the strike zone, a rate well above his regular-season average for the first two frames (53%). To hell with whiffing guys: Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young winner who has more K's than any other starter this decade, knew that pitching to contact and keeping his pitch count low (at least to start the game) would give him his best chance to go deep in the game. The strategy wasn't without risk, as Turner's homer and those other three early rockets showed, but Scherzer managed to get away with it relatively whole.
play 1:21 Scherzer records 7 K's as Nationals hold off eliminationMax Scherzer pitches seven innings and records seven strikeouts as the Nationals take down the Dodgers 6-1 in Game 4. When the rain started coming down after the third inning, Scherzer was at a very manageable 39 pitches and had tallied one lonely strikeout (against L.A. starter Rich Hill). As the weather got worse, he got better. Like that workhorse running back who gradually wears down the opponent, Scherzer got stronger as the game went on. Or so it seemed. Really, he just stopped sandbagging.
"We needed a longer game out of him, so he paced himself a little bit," catcher Kurt Suzuki said. "And as you could tell, toward the middle innings, he started to ramp it up a little bit."
After throwing more than three-quarters of his pitches in the strike zone the first two innings, Scherzer worked in the zone less than half the time the rest of the way (44%). In doing so, he gave the Dodgers' hitters fits. From the third inning through the sixth inning, the veteran righty retired 12 of the 13 batters he faced, striking out five of six at one point.
Then came the huddle.
With one out in the top of the seventh, pitching coach Paul Menhart paid a visit to the mound. By then, the rain had stopped, but Scherzer hadn't. One pitch short of 100 on the night, he needed a breather -- or at least that was Menhart's intention. But the pitcher didn't play along. As Menhart attempted to settle his pitcher, surrounded by Suzuki and the infielders, Scherzer paced around the mound, kicking at the dirt and shaking his head. The conversation lasted all of about 10 seconds.
"He told me he loved me," Menhart said of the conversation after the game, deadpanning.
Added shortstop Trea Turner: "Great competitors don't care to listen to anybody. Not to say that he wasn't listening."
But really, Scherzer wasn't listening. Because you'd have to have energy to do that.
"I was just gassed," he said. "I was out. I was emptying the tank, giving everything I got."
Everything Scherzer had was 10 more pitches. Eight to Chris Taylor, who whiffed for the second out, and two to Joc Pederson, who grounded out to end the inning -- but not before lacing the first pitch just barely foul down the right-field line. Said Scherzer: "I caught a break."
Moments after catching that break, once Pederson grounded out and his night was finished, Scherzer stomped off the mound to a roaring ovation. In that moment, and on this night, he reminded everyone in DC -- and beyond -- that he is still very much a force to be reckoned with. That despite the injury and the relatively mortal recent body of work, despite Stephen Strasburg continuing to establish himself as one of the game's most dominant postseason pitchers, Max Scherzer is still very much Max Scherzer. Chris Sale Jersey Manny Machado Jersey Bryce Harper Jersey
09.10.2019 08:42
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