Playoff Miscellany: Voodoo Magic, Yadier Shoving, Tigers and Angels in Trouble, Harper Third Decker

I could barely even concern myself with any of the other playoff games yesterday because of what the Cardinals did …

  • The Dodgers led 6-1 in the 6th inning of the first game of their NLDS series against the Cardinals last night. With Clayton Kershaw on the mound. The game was over. And then the Cardinals scored 9 runs in the next two innings, and held on for a 10-9 win. Voodoo freaking magic. I was like:
  • There was a dust-up mid-game, after Adam Wainwright plunked Yasiel Puig and then Adrian Gonzalez started jawing with Yadier Molina. Then this happened:
  • I’m going to disagree with Buster’s take on that one. Obviously Molina wasn’t planning to shove the ump there, but he did. How was he not ejected? And how could you not punish him for that? You can’t put your hands on an ump like that. You just can’t. The whole system falls apart!
  • The two teams will play again tonight at 8:30pm CT, with Zack Greinke facing Lance Lynn. If the Dodgers can’t pull that one out, they’re in real trouble.
  • Each of the Orioles and Royals have gone up 2-0 in their series against the Tigers and Angels, respectively, after wins yesterday. The Orioles were down 6-3 in the 8th, but the Tigers’ bullpen gonna Tigers bullpen, and the Orioles wound up winning 7-6. The Royals beat the Angels 4-1 on a three-run Eric Hosmer homer in … you guessed it … the 11th inning. The 11th and 12th innings are the only innings that Royals postseason games are allowed to end, and the Royals have won all three of ’em so far.
  • The Orioles will go for the clincher in Detroit at 2:30pm CT on Sunday, but they’ll have to beat David Price to do it. Miguel Gonzalez will start for the O’s. The Royals will head home for their own clinch attempt, Sunday at 6:30pm CT. James Shields will be back at it, trying to beat C.J. Wilson.
  • Things don’t look good for the Angels and Tigers (the best, and third best, teams in the AL this season): 39 times out of 44, a team that went down 0-2 in a division series has gone on to lose that series.
  • Back to the NL, the Giants keep on winning (9 straight playoff wins). They beat the Nationals 3-2 to go up 1-0 in their NLDS series. Jake Peavy outpitched Stephen Strasburg, and, yes, you are reading that correctly. At least this happened for the Nats:
  • Your browser does not support iframes.

  • That’s not just an upper deck shot. That’s a third deck shot. To say that ball was crushed does not do it justice.
  • Tim Hudson and Jordan Zimmermann square off today in Game 2 of the series at 4:30pm CT.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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