Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - American League Wild Card Series Recaps

Episode Date: October 14, 2020

With D.C. still out with laryngitis, Jon Miller hosts again. On this episode, he offers updates on the already-completed American League Wild Card series, and offers more insight into his feelings on this newly-expanded MLB postseason format. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, filling in for D.C. Lundberg, John Miller. Thank you, Joey Martin. I am Locked-on Mariner's contributor, John Miller, filling in once again for an ailing D.C. Lundberg. In any case, this is Locked-on Mariner's, part of the Locked-on podcast network, brought to you by Rock Auto. Remember to download rate and subscribe to this program on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Lockdown Mariners podcast or any podcast here on the Locked On Podcast Network.

Follow us on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. Follow DC on Twitter at DC underscore Lunberg. You can follow me on Twitter at Seattle Pilot 69. Earlier today, we recap the National League Wildcard series, a new round in this bloated playoff format, which also. say a few words about in the second half of this program. And we'll recap the American League Wildcard series in this episode. These series all began on September 29th one day before the National League series commenced. And like the National League series, three of these four were two game sweeps. We'll

begin with the Astros to get them out of the way. They finished second in the American League West with a 29 and 31 record. Yet you heard that right. The team below 500 made the postseason. They were up against the central winning Minnesota twins who went 36 and 24. This should have been in no contest, right? Wrong. The trash can bangers took the first game four to one, despite Zach Granky, only pitching four innings. He had to leave because of an injury. He'd give up the lone Minnesota run, an RBI double to Nelson Cruz. Frambert Valdezis, relieved him and went the remaining five innings, giving up two hits and two walks while striking out five. Houston wouldn't score until the seventh to tie the game at one all. Then would pull away

with three runs in the top of the ninth to win the final score of four to one. Game two would be a three to one victory for the asterisks. They'd score first in this one, pushing across one run in the top of the fourth, countered by a twins run in the bottom of the fifth. Houston would score one more a piece in the seventh and the ninth innings to win this one three to one and take the series two games to none. So a team with a sub-500 record won a playoff series. I will say this as plainly as I can. That should never happen in baseball. And it had to be the Astros too. Anyways, let's move on to the raised Blue Jays series, shall we? Which was also a two games first. sweep. The race finished with the top record in the American League at 40 and 20, while the Jays finished

third in the east at 32 and 28. Again, another team treading water around 500 making the playoffs. Game one would be another low-scoring affair with Shoreline's very own Blake Snell towing the rubber for the raise. He was opposed by Matt Shoemaker, who went three innings only. Tampa Bay would be the first on board in the bottom of the fourth. Randy a Rosa Rane. scoring on a wild pitch, they'd get two more on the seventh, and Toronto would get one in the eighth only and lose by a score of three to one. Next game was almost over before it started. The race got things underway in the bottom of the first with one run, then exploded with six in the second. They'd add one more in the third, and that was easily all they'd need, as the Blue Jays could only muster a run apiece in the

third and fifth innings. Toronto Ace Hienjin Ryu simply didn't have it, and only last an inning in two-thirds giving up all eight Tampa Bay runs, seven of them earned. Tyler Glass now, on the other hand, went six innings, struck out eight, and only walked one while giving up both Blue Jay runs. The Rays win this game in a cake walk. Ooh, cake. They won eight to two and swept aside the Blue J's two games to none. We'll get to the other two American League Wildcars series in a bit, but first, this from Rock Auto. Rockado.com is a family business serving auto parts customers online for 20 years. Go to rockado.com to shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers,

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or whichever vehicle you drive. Right, locked on in their How Did You Hear About Us Box, so they know we sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Rockado.com. Do you have a question or comment for? DC, send it to Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com and DC will reply to it on the air in an upcoming mailbag episode. Questions and comments about any subjects are welcome. Please keep it clean. This is a

family show. Locked-on mariners at gmail.com is that address once again. Locked-on mariners will continue after this brief commercial word. Welcome back to Locked-on Mariners and your guest host, John Miller. Thanks, JM. Locked-on Mariners back with you. I'm I am John Miller filling in for D.C. Lundberg, who lost his voice, practicing his yodeling, as you heard in the last episode. I'm sure there are a few of you out there who wish that would happen more often. But D.C., fortunately or unfortunately, we'll be back later on this week. We've gone over the Astros twin series and the Rays Blue Jays series. Raisin Jays has a nice ring to it.

We've got two more series to get to. We'll begin with the third and final series. sweep, the Yankees and Indians series. Both teams would finish second in their divisions with the Yankees compiling a 33 and 27 record and the Indians tying the white socks at 35 and 25 in the central. The Yankees made a statement early as the second batter of the game, Aaron Judge blasted a two-run home run against the Indians, a Shane Bieber. Last year's All-Star Game MVP would only go four and two-thirds innings, giving up seven runs. On the flip side, Garrett Cole would go seven innings strikeout seven and allow two runs, both solo homers.

Yankees would go on to crush the innings 12 to 3. The next game was a shootout. The Indian seemingly angry about the previous game jumped all over Massahiro Tanaka and scored four runs in the first inning. The Yankees would answer with a lone run in the second, then four of their own in the fourth, another in the fifth, and two more in the sixth. The Indians got back in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at eight all and then take the lead in the eighth. However, the Yankees would score in the top of the 9th to take a 10-9 lead against closer Brad Hand.

The Indians would fail the score in the 9th, and their season was over, losing this game to that 10-9 score and the series in a two-game sweep. The final series pitted AOLS champion Oakland Athletics against the Chicago White Sox, who tied for second place in the Central at 35 and 25. Oakland had a very similar record at 35 and 24, and were the only team in the West above 500. Lucas Gio Lido, who authored the seasons, only no hitter, started game one for the palehose, and was opposed by Jesus Luzardo. Gio Lido had the upper hand going seven innings of one-run ball while striking out eight, while Luzardo didn't fare as well, lasting a mere three and one-third innings,

allowing three of the four Chai Sox runs on six. hits, including two home runs. The White Sox would take this game four to one. The A's would come out of the shoot strong in game two, scoring two runs in the first and second innings to jump out to a quick four to nothing score. They'd add their fifth run in the fourth inning while the Northsiders wouldn't score until the top of the eighth. A Yasmani Grandal Homer. They'd add one more in the ninth, but it wasn't enough. They'd lose by a five-to-nothing score, and Oakland would even up the series at a game apiece. Game three was another. close one. This was easily the closest series of the eight. The White Sox got the score underway in the top of the

second inning with Luis Robert leading off the frame with a home run. They'd tack on two more in the third, but Oakland would score four in the fourth on a two-run home run by Sean Murphy and back-to-back bases loaded walks. Chicago would go through three pitchers that inning alone. The pale hose would tie the game back in the bottom of the fifth, but these would counter with two runs in the bottom of the frame and bring them the score to 6-4, which would prove to be the final, with the ace topping the White Sox two games to one. D.C. has shared his thoughts about this new playoff structure, and you know he is not a fan. I concur with him on this opinion. The idea of having eight teams per league just does not work. As we've seen, you've got teams that are too close to 500. You have a team

that is under 500, and even though they weren't banging out trash cans, because there were no fans in the stands, they somehow managed to win a series. I used to be a big NBA fan back when we had a team up here in Seattle, and we had similar situations where a team that was very close to 500 would end up playing a team that had led the league in wins, and that just does not seem to work. That would be like if in a normal season you had, say, the Boston Red Sox, picking a team at random, winning 105 games, having to play in the playoffs against a team that won 78 games. That just doesn't seem to fit. And then if you are going to call it a wild card series, so a team that, say, next year wins 105 games, plays in a wild card, as if there was any doubt, that they would make the playoffs.

They'll probably get a guaranteed shot in the championship series, let alone a wildcard series. Part of me has to wonder if they added this just to give more games played, because otherwise the season isn't lasting long enough. The season was only 60 games. Some players are just getting warmed up, and then, oh, season's over. So why did we edit the playoff structure at all? And on another point, how were the Astros, who were the eighth ranked team in the American League get placed at number six? I understand it's because of the division ranking.

But if you're going to do the playoff rank, you need to keep the divisions, but do away with it for the idea of the playoffs and just have the top eight teams in each league make it. And do it one through eight because you did have some mismatches. in there too. You've heard DC's thoughts, you have heard my thoughts. Send DC your thoughts. Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com. Well, that's about it. DC will probably be back tomorrow to go over the division series in each league. Remember to download rate and subscribe to this program on Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or any podcasting app that springs to mind. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. Follow DC on Twitter at D.C. underscore Lundberg. You can follow me on Twitter at Seattle Pilot 69. Thank you for listening to both of today's episodes. Happy birthday once again

to our announcer Joey Martin. I am John Miller. Have a great evening. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.