Playoff Miscellany: deGrom Bests Kershaw, Blue Jays on the Brink, Royals Tie It Up

clayton kershaw dodgersWe’ll get back to discussing the Cubs’ loss in Game One of their NLDS series soon (yes, I have many hundreds of words coming on the strike zone), but a quick check on the other playoff action yesterday …

  • Clayton Kershaw can’t win in the playoffs! Er … just kidding, as he was pretty good last night against the Mets, but just not his usual dominating self. The three runs he gave up over 6.2 innings were enough for the Mets, though, as they won 3-1 behind Jacob deGrom, who was better than Kershaw.
  • The Mets are up 1-0 in the series, with Zack Greinke facing Noah Syndergaard. That series is just pitching for miles and miles.
  • Had the Cubs won last night, I’d probably be more eager to break down the likely-impending match-up with the Mets, but, hey, since the Cubs lost, I have to be all “the Dodgers could totally come back!”
  • In the AL, the Royals tied up their series with the Astros 1-1 with a 5-4 win yesterday, which came after they trailed 4-1 early. Johnny Cueto’s slide since coming to the Royals continued, with a rocky start to his outing – his free agency is going to be extremely interesting to follow. Tons of upside, still relatively young, no qualifying offer, but some injury concerns and struggles after he was traded.
  • Cueto was opposed by another guy who didn’t have a great outing, Scott Kazmir, who will also have an interesting free agency. He was so good in Oakland, reclaiming his career, but then had some injury concerns, struggled after he was traded, and will also enter free agency unfettered by a qualifying offer.
  • The Rangers beat the Blue Jays 6-4 in a back-and-forth, 14-inning affair that puts them up 2-0 in the series. Should the Rangers complete the sweep on Sunday, it’ll be just the latest reminder that the playoffs are a total crapshoot, considering that the Blue Jays were not only among the best teams in baseball coming into the playoffs, but they were also among the hottest.
  • 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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