HOUSTON (AP) — Rookie Ian Anderson pitched like an October veteran. Old pro Nick Markakis threw the best strike of the game. And just like that, the Atlanta Braves are on the verge of something they haven’t done since the days of Chipper, the Big Three and Bobby Cox.
Anderson blanked Miami into the sixth inning, Markakis made a nifty play in right field to help preserve the lead late, and the Braves threw another playoff shutout in a 2-0 victory Wednesday for a 2-0 lead in the NL Division Series.
The Braves have pitched three shutouts in four games during this year’s playoffs. They’re just the third team in MLB history to toss three shutouts in the first four games of a postseason, joining the 1966 Baltimore Orioles and the 1905 New York Giants.
“It’s hard to bunch hits together, pitching is too good,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Power, I think is something that plays in the postseason and was witnessed today.”
Atlanta hasn’t reached the NL Championship Series since 2001 when Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz played under Cox.
The Braves have lost in the division series eight times since then, including in the last two seasons — a fact star slugger Freddie Freeman said put a chip on their shoulders entering this round.
Anderson scattered three hits and struck out eight over 5 2/3 innings. The lanky right-hander who made his major league debut in late August added to his impressive outing last week in the wild-card series when he fanned nine in six scoreless frames against Cincinnati.
“It doesn’t seem like the moment ever matters to him,” Snitker said. “He just keeps pitching and trusting his stuff.”
Added d’Arnaud, his catcher: “He’s just always been like that. It’s something that should be noticed and put out there.”
Despite his calm demeanor, the 22-year-old Anderson admitted to some early-game jitters.
“I definitely had more nerves today,” he said. “I don’t know if was the different site and seeing all the playoff stuff around the stadium or what … but I was able to calm down and get in the groove of the game.”
The 36-year-old Markakis contributed after Anderson departed.
Corey Dickerson reached on an error by Swanson at shortstop to start the eighth, setting up Markakis’ heads-up play.
“He’s a veteran outfielder and he’s one of the best in the business at what he does,” Swanson said. “And he really made a perfect play.”
Miami manager Don Mattingly didn’t fault Dickerson for being thrown out because he said Markakis could’ve dived to catch it.
“Corey’s in a tough spot there, and that ball just kind of bounced right up to (Markakis),” he said. “That’s just a tough read in a tough situation.”
Will Smith retired the next two batters and Mark Melancon, Atlanta’s fifth pitcher of the game, closed the combined three-hitter for a save.
On a day when Atlanta got only four hits, Swanson and d’Arnaud provided the offense. Both players hit solo shots a day after the two hit multi-run homers in a huge seventh inning for the Braves in their Game 1 win.
Players from both teams behaved themselves a day after tempers flared in the opener when Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. was nailed by a 98 mph fastball. Acuña had a quiet afternoon, going 0 for 4 and striking out all four times.
Swanson’s homer off Pablo Lopez put the Braves up 1-0 with two outs in the second inning.
There was one out in the fourth when d’Arnaud launched his soaring home run to left field, where it bounced off a metal sign high on the wall making a loud bang. Cameras panned to Anderson in the dugout, and the pitcher smiled broadly as he watched the ball sail away.
D’Arnaud’s homer made him the first catcher for the Braves to hit multiple home runs in one postseason since Brian McCann also had two in 2005. He’s made quite a comeback this season after bouncing around between three teams in a tough 2019.
The Marlins, who made the playoffs for the first time since 2003, bounded their way into this round with high energy and plenty of smiles. They had little reason to grin on Wednesday when they couldn’t scratch a single run across, going 0-4 with runners in scoring position.
It’s put them cusp of losing the first playoff series in franchise history after entering this round 7-0 all-time in the postseason.
They had a chance to cut into the lead in the sixth inning when Berti singled with one out before Darren O’Day took over for Anderson with two outs and plunked Brian Anderson. The veteran reliever than walked Garrett Cooper to load the bases, but the Marlins came away empty when Matt Joyce grounded out to end the inning.
Lopez didn’t pitch badly, allowing just three hits in and striking out seven in five innings. But he was done in by the home runs in his postseason debut after not pitching since Sept. 24.
“Pablo was really good,” Mattingly said. “With a lot of guys, and these guys have a lot of good hitters, you miss your spots and sometimes you can get away with it, and sometimes you don’t.”
UP NEXT
Atlanta’s Kyle Wright will make his postseason debut when he starts in Game 3 against rookie Sixto Sanchez. Wright hasn’t pitched since Sept. 25 when he allowed two runs in a career-high 6 2/3 innings against the Red Sox. Sanchez started Game 2 of the wild-card round, striking out six in five scoreless innings.
ATHLETICS 9, ASTROS 7
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ramón Laureano sensed his teammates’ energy dragging. They were down three runs with time running out to save their season.
So the Oakland outfielder lit into them in the dugout during the sixth inning, getting so loud he was heard easily in mostly empty Dodger Stadium.
And just in case Laureano’s words did not get the message across, he ripped a double as the A’s got a pair of sacrifice flies in the eighth to rally past the Houston Astros 9-7 on Wednesday and avoid elimination in their AL Division Series.
“We live another day,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said.
Suitably inspired by Laureano’s outburst, Chad Pinder tied the score with a three-run homer in the seventh before Sean Murphy hit the go-ahead sac fly in the eighth.
“Ramón got everything fired up, saying this wasn’t it, we’re not going to let it be our last game, we’re gone through too much this season,” Pinder said. “It was awesome.”
Houston leads the best-of-five series 2-1 and can advance to its fourth straight AL Championship Series with a victory in Game 4 on Thursday.
“There’s never a doubt in this team,” Oakland starter Jesús Luzardo said. “We can go ahead and win three in a row.”
The Astros wasted leads of 2-1 and 7-4, and the Athletics bounced back after giving up advantages of 1-0 and 4-2.
Houston’s bullpen had stifled Oakland in the first two games with seven shutout innings of one-hit relief, but Pinder ended that dominance.
La Stella, Mark Canha, Matt Olson and Semien also homered for the A’s, whose entire infield went deep. Teams outhomering opponents are 19-1 in the postseason.
“They beat us with the home run ball,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said. “Tough to take but we have to come back tomorrow.”
The teams have combined for 18 homers — including seven in Game 3 — in the neutral-site series at Dodger Stadium featuring all day games. After two straight days in the 90s, the temperature cooled to 81 degrees.
Loser Brooks Raley walked Robbie Grossman leading off the eighth, and Laureano doubled. Murphy’s sacrifice fly put Oakland ahead, Semien walked,
La Stella was hit on his right forearm, loading the bases and forcing him from the game. Pinder, who went 3 for 4 with four RBIs, followed with another sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Winner Liam Hendriks pitched three innings of one-hit, scoreless relief.
“Once our backs are against the wall, suddenly everything changes,” Hendriks said. “Everybody has that bit of extra drive.”
Carlos Correa singled leading off the bottom of the eighth and Tucker reached on catcher’s interference by Murphy, a call the A’s challenged unsuccessfully.
Yuli Gurriel popped out, Aedmys Díaz advanced the runners with a groundout, and pinch-hitter Josh Reddick struck out, smashing his bat on the ground and breaking it over a knee.
“I’m an emotional guy and I like to see it out of hitters too,” Hendriks said.
Houston took a 7-4 lead with five runs in the fifth, when the Astros sent 10 batters to the plate. Díaz hit a tying, two-run homer off rookie Luzardo, and Brantley, Bregman and Tucker drove in runs. Houston was slowed when José Altuve was thrown out on a relay by Olson at first when he tried to go from first to third on Brantley’s single.
Hendriks threw 37 pitches. He vowed to be ready to pitch again Thursday.
“I wasn’t coming out of the game,” he said. “They were going to have to wrench the ball out of my hand.”
GREINKE’S ARM
Zack Greinke’s right arm is structurally sound and the Astros say they are hopeful he can pitch at some point in the postseason. The right-hander started Game 1 of the AL wild card series on Sept. 29, but was lifted after allowing one run and two hits and three walks in four innings. Greinke tailed off late in the season, posting a 5.73 ERA over his final seven starts; in that span, dating to Aug. 23, he gave up at least three runs in each outing. He threw off flat ground after the Astros’ win in Game 2 and Baker said he was told the session went “pretty good.”
PINDER, AGAIN
Pinder’s go-ahead, two-run single in a 6-4 win against the Chicago White Sox sent the West champion A’s into the Division Series. He missed time with a hamstring injury down the stretch.
“So far it hasn’t gotten worse on me,” he said.
UP NEXT
The A’s will start RHP Frankie Montas in Game 4. Baker said Greinke “might” be a possibility for the Astros.
RAYS 8, YANKEES 4
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Tampa Bay Rays are unanimous in their praise of Randy Arozarena, who is living up to his nickname, “The Cuban Rocket.”
Arozarena homered for the third straight game and Kevin Kiermaier and Michael Perez also went deep for the Rays, who beat the New York Yankees 8-4 Wednesday night to move within one victory of reaching the AL Championship Series for the first time in 12 years.
“He’s the best player on the planet,” Kiermaier said. “He’s incredible. He’s very unique in so many ways. Everyone loves him. He’s the man. What he’s doing is incredible.”
New York slugger Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer off Shane McClanahan to center field in the eighth inning to become the first player with a home run in each of his team’s first five games of a single postseason. Stanton has six homers and 13 RBIs in those five games. McClanahan made his major league debut in Game 1 on Monday night.
Arozarena hit a shot deep to left leading off the fifth Wednesday night to chase Masahiro Tanaka and give Tampa Bay a 5-1 lead.
The Rays took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five Division Series. Game 4 is Thursday night at Petco Park, which has yielded 16 home runs in three games — nine by Tampa Bay.
The Rays are looking to advance out of the ALDS for just the second time. They reached the 2008 World Series before losing to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Arozarena went 3 for 4 with a walk. He leads all players in the postseason with 12 hits in five games. He went hitless in five postseason plate appearances in 2019 for St. Louis, which traded him to Tampa Bay in January.
On Tuesday night, Rays starter Tyler Glasnow called Arozarena “the best baseball player on earth right now. What he’s doing is phenomenal.”
Added Kiermaier: “We should all take a page out of his book in what his routine is and how he comes to the field each and every day. He just doesn’t think up there. He goes up there and he’s so raw in every facet of his game, and he goes out there and just does it night in and night out. It’s incredible.”
Rays manager Kevin Cash called it “pretty spectacular. He’s wowing all of us in the dugout. I’m sure there are guys who have done some special things, but when you’re sitting there and watching it firsthand, it’s pretty remarkable what’s taking place.”
Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka said Arozarena has an unwavering approach at the plate.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen before where a guy punishes every single mistake,” Higashioka said. “We can’t get away with anything against him right now. It’s been pretty frustrating.”
With the Yankees facing elimination, “We’ve got to find a way to obviously keep him in check,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ll continue to dive in and just try to execute pitches. We’ve made some mistakes, and he hasn’t missed them.”
Kiermaier hit a three-run shot into the home run deck in right off Tanaka with no outs in the fourth to make it 4-1. Joey Wendle was aboard on a leadoff single and Willy Adames on a walk.
“To be quite honest, I think my homer really got us going, and then it was a snowball effect after that,” Kiermaier said.
Perez hit a two-run shot to left off Chad Green in the sixth. Kiermaier was aboard on a leadoff double. It was the 11th home run by a No. 9 hitter this postseason, the most all-time.
Charlie Morton got the win after holding the Yankees to two runs, one earned, and four hits in five innings. He struck out six and walked two in winning his fifth straight postseason decision.
Tanaka took the loss after allowing five runs and eight hits in four-plus innings. He struck out four and walked one.
The Yankees loaded the bases twice in the third inning and got only a sacrifice fly by Aaron Judge. Aaron Hicks hit an RBI double in the fifth.
With the series at a neutral site, Tampa Bay, the AL’s top seed, was the home team in Games 1 and 2 and the Yankees batted last in Game 3 and will do so again in Game 4. That meant the Bronx Bombers wore pinstripes, one of the rare times they’ve done so away from Yankee Stadium in recent decades. The last time they wore pinstripes in an NL park was on April 15, 1998, against the Angels in a game played at Shea Stadium after an expansion joint fell into the seats at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees played home games at Shea from 1974-75 when Yankee Stadium was being remodeled. Most recently, they wore pinstripes during a series in London against the Boston Red Sox in 2019 and in Tokyo on March 30-31, 2004, for a season-opening series against the Rays.
UP NEXT
Rays: Ryan Thompson will be the Game 4 opener.
Yankees: LHP Jordan Montgomery makes his postseason debut. Montgomery was on the Yankees’ 2017 ALDS and ALCS rosters but did not pitch. He went 2-3 with a 5.11 ERA in 10 regular-season starts this year. He lasted two-thirds of an inning against the Rays on Sept. 2, allowing two-run homers to Arozarena and Mike Brosseau.
DODGERS 6, PADRES 5
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Cody Bellinger would take the homer-robbing catch over the home run he hit if he had to pick from the two. The Los Angeles Dodgers needed both from their MVP center fielder.
Bellinger nearly went to a knee to hit his long home run, and later made a spectacular, leaping catch at the center-field wall to take away a go-ahead shot from Fernando Tatis Jr. as the Dodgers barely held off the San Diego Padres 6-5 Wednesday night.
Los Angeles took a 2-0 lead in the NL Division Series when Joe Kelly finally got the last out with the bases loaded in a tension-filled ninth inning.
Kelly retired Eric Hosmer on a routine grounder to earn the save after Dodgers All-Star closer Kenley Jansen wobbled in the ninth. Los Angeles can sweep the best-of-five set from its NL West rival Thursday night.
The Padres were down one with a runner on and two outs in the seventh when Tatis, the 21-year-old budding superstar, hit a towering drive to center. Bellinger ran nearly 100 feet while watching the ball, then jumped and extended his gloved right hand above the 8-foot wall to make the grab.
“I just kind of turned around as fast as I could, got to the fence and saw that it was probable, so I decided to try to time up the jump, and it’s how it worked out,” Bellinger said. “I didn’t know if it was a homer or not, but I knew I caught it.”
Brusdar Graterol, the second Dodgers reliever after starter Clayton Kershaw, slung his glove and cap away and thrust both arms into the air to celebrate. Graterol also appeared to wave goodbye and blow a kiss at Padres star Manny Machado, who shouted curses back from afar in a heated verbal exchange that included other Dodgers as well.
Bellinger said it was only the second homer he has robbed in his career — the first in the playoffs.
“Certainly turned out being the difference in the game,” Padres rookie manager Jayce Tingler said. “Tatis squared it up pretty good. For him to go up and rob one there, there’s not much to say.”
Game 3 is Thursday night, and the Dodgers can advance to the NL Championship Series for the fourth time in five seasons. They went to the World Series in 2017 and 2018 before losing in a five-game Division Series to the Washington Nationals last October.
Corey Seager put the NL West champions ahead to stay with his two-run double in the third and scored on the first of Max Muncy’s two RBI singles in the game. Leading off the next inning, Bellinger went after a low pitch and drove it 433 feet to center to make it 4-1.
After issuing full-count walks with two outs to Tatis and Machado that loaded the bases, Kelly retired Hosmer on a groundout for his first save this postseason. Jansen had allowed two runs in the ninth, on a pinch-hit RBI double by Mitch Moreland before he scored on Trent Grisham’s single.
“Never a doubt — we had it in our hands. That’s how Joe Kelly rolls. Joe likes to make it interesting for us,” Kershaw said.
Zach Davies allowed four runs over five innings, the longest outing by a Padres pitcher in their five games this postseason. The right-hander struck out three without a walk but took the loss.
That came after Mike Clevinger was removed from the Padres’ active roster, meaning he is out until at least the World Series — if San Diego can recover to make it that far, and his elbow feels better.
Three-time NL Cy Young Award winner Kershaw grew up, went to high school and still lives about 25 miles from the Texas Rangers’ new stadium. The Dodgers have played four regular-season series in Arlington since his big league debut in 2008, but none of those matched up with his turn in the rotation.
Kershaw could pitch there more this October, since the NL Championship and World Series will also be played in the $1.2 billion ballpark with a retractable roof that has been open for the NLDS.
In Game 2 of the best-of-three series against Milwaukee last Thursday, Kershaw struck out 13 over eight scoreless innings. Kershaw has a 2.43 career ERA in the regular season, but entered these playoffs after the abbreviated 60-game regular season with a 4.43 ERA in the postseason.
The Padres took a 1-0 lead in the second when Tommy Pham blooped a single just over the infield, and scored when Wil Myers lined a double into the right-center gap.
Seager’s go-ahead double landed just fair down the right-field line, then ricocheted off the screen fronting the field-level club where Dodgers family members sat. The ball shot sideways away from right fielder Myers, allowing catcher Austin Barnes to score from first.
When the Dodgers went to bat after Bellinger’s catch, Justin Turner had a sacrifice fly and Muncy his second RBI single to make it 6-3.
NOT AS HARD
Jansen was averaging 93-94 mph earlier this season, but rarely got above 90 mph on his 30 pitches (seven fastballs and 23 cutters) in this one. There were 11 pitches of at least 90 mph, only three of them above 92 mph.
Asked about Jansen’s role in the ninth inning going forward, manager Dave Roberts said he’s going to keep thinking about it.
“I thought there were some good throws in there. There was a dropped third strike with Grisham and he ended up getting a base hit,” Roberts said. “I’m going to think through it. It was just a lot for (Jansen), 30 pitches to get two outs. I know that he’s disappointed as well. I’ll keep thinking through it.”
HOMER NOTES
The Padres became the first team in 20 games this postseason to lose when outhomering their opponent. … Kershaw became the first pitcher to allow back-to-back home runs three times in a postseason career, according to Elias Sports.
UP NEXT
The Padres plan to start lefty Adrian Morejon in Game 3. Roberts said he wouldn’t announce a starter until Thursday.
Photo credit – Eric Gay / Associated Press / Houston, TX