The Major League Baseball playoffs are raring to go with the Wild Card games in each league being played over the next two days. Thursday sees the beginning of the American League Divisional Series. On Friday, the NLDS kicks off with the NL Central’s Cardinals and the winner of tomorrow’s Wild Card game between one of two inter-divisional foes, the Cubs or Pirates. This leads to the main event of the entire first round of games, the Mets versus the Dodgers. Like in professional boxing or wrestling, baseball has put its money matchup on last. Make sure you stay up for it (9:30 PM first pitch on TBS) as it has the potential to be the best pitched series in recent memory.
For most baseball fans of MLB’s target audience (18-49), the best pitching staff they witnessed was the early 1990’s Atlanta Braves featuring Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz. You could even include ancillary characters like All-Stars Steve Avery and Kevin Millwood to the mix to further assert their status as top dogs in the staff strength department. However, the underachieving team who dominated the decade but could only muster one World Series victory the year after the strike. That comes as even more of a surprise seeing how the Braves never faced an opponent with a staff the caliber of either side of this upcoming Mets/Dodgers encounter. It is rare to see a pair of sides whose staffs create an almost Game 7-esque atmosphere around each start. Let us see what each side is bringing to the table; the good and the bad, the optimistic and pessimistic.
GAME 1: JACOB DEGROM (METS) @ CLAYTON KERSHAW (DODGERS) (Friday 10/9,9:30 PM ET,TBS)
The Mets have filled out half of the equation by naming Jacob deGrom their starter for Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles manager Don Mattingly also put his tentative rotation together, unsurprisingly puting the onus on the reigning MVP of the National League, Clayton Kershaw, to take the bump in Game 1 for the NL West Champions.
The Mets are relying on their most reliable pitcher to get them on the right track. Jacob deGrom built off his Rookie of the Year winning 2014 by going 14-8 with a 2.54 ERA and 0.98 WHIP in 2015. While Matt Harvey has been billed as the team’s ace, deGrom has been the team’s skid stopper. He was heavily instrumental in the Mets catching and usurping the Nationals in the standings in late June and July. Though he hit a couple of blips in the season’s final month (2 2/3 innings, 6 ER @ PHI; 10 hits, 6 ER vs MIA), the deGrominator proved he had staying power. He’ll get his first chance at pitching in the postseason against one of the finest the sport has to offer.
Clayton Kershaw may very well win his fourth National League Cy Young Award this fall. The numbers that the 27 year old southpaw has accumulated through his career thus far has garnered him comparisons to some of the greats within the organization as well as throughout history. This year he became the first pitcher since Randy Johnson to strike out 300 batters in a season. His K/9 and K/BB figures both trump those of left-handed pitching luminary and Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax. There could probably be an entire column’s worth of praise for Kershaw’s gaudy statistics, but let’s get to the elephant in the room. For all his poise and brilliance in the regular season, the playoffs have been a huge bugaboo for Kershaw. He has lost his last four playoff starts, all against the Cardinals, and has been dismantled in two of them. He is 1-5 lifetime in the postseason and his teams have only won three of the eleven games he has pitched in. Will the challenge of a duel with deGrom up Kid K’s game or will it add just more pressure to put his sordid playoff past behind him?
GAME 2: NOAH SYNDERGAARD (METS) @ ZACK GREINKE (DODGERS) (Saturday 10/10,9:00 PM ET,TBS)
Mets manager Terry Collins goes with right handed rookie Noah Syndergaard in Game 2. Barring horrendously unforeseen circumstances, he will be opposed by another top flight Cy Young candidate for the Dodgers in Zack Greinke.
Syndergaard burst onto the Major League scene this summer living up to his moniker as Thor. His own personal Mjölnir was just as dangerous as his near 100 MPH fastball. Had he qualified, his 10.0 K/9 would have ranked him third in the league behind Kershaw (who may just win the Cy Young) and Max Scherzer (who threw two no-hitters). That is pretty good company for a rookie. Syndergaard’s steadiness in the rotation has also allowed Terry Collins to tinker with the rest of the rotation at various points of the year, most notably with the polarizing Matt Harvey. Like the rest of Mets playoff rotation, this will be the Norse god’s first foray into October baseball. The pressure shouldn’t faze him as he’s had several showdowns with opposing aces this season (Gerrit Cole, Jordan Zimmermann, James Shields) but the playoffs (and Zack Greinke) are a totally different animal.
Like Kershaw, Greinke has put up some staggering numbers that allow anybody to make a valid argument about his merits as the NL Cy Young. He led the league in a lot this year. His 19-3 record gave him a league best .864 winning percentage. His 1.66 was the first sub-1.70 ERA since the man referenced in the opening, Greg Maddux, posted a 1.63 in the Braves title winning 1995 season. His 0.84 WHIP is the 15th lowest figure EVER and would be the fourth if you removed all the seasons pre-World War I. Though his postseason failures haven’t been as damning as Kershaw’s, Greinke needs to prove he is worthy of a Kershaw-like contract with a good October run this year. It would be very tough for management to justify having two $300 million pitchers that can’t even get them out of the National League playoffs.
GAME 3: BRETT ANDERSON (DODGERS) @ MATT HARVEY (METS) (Monday 10/12,Time TBD,TBS)
Though much stink has been made about Harvey’s absence from a mandatory NLDS practice today, make no bones about it that Harvey will be on the mound as the series shifts back to Citi Field for what could be a decisive Game 3. Brett Anderson will get the ball for Los Angeles.
Anderson has finally showed this season what many talent evaluators thought he was capable of when he was a top-50 prospect with the Athletics. Injuries of all types had threatened to undermine his development, but he has stayed healthy with the Dodgers this season. His 180 1/3 innings this year are more than he threw his last three seasons combined. With Hyun-jin Ryu shelved for all of this season, Anderson has taken the mantle of the third starter behind the big two and ran with it. Him being the first man on the mound on the road is a good baseball move too. He went 7-4 with a 3.07 ERA away from Chavez Ravine as opposed to 3-5 with a 4.29 ERA on his home turf. His career mirrors that dichotomy as well. With the Dodgers season potentially hanging in the balance, for advancement or to stave off elimination, Brett Anderson will have to maintain his reputation as a ground ball pitcher in the pitcher friendly Citi Field. Just make sure you don’t tape any Fuller House spots during the pregame.
The Mets are hoping they won’t need their Dark Knight to be a hero come Monday. His agent, Scott Boras, is hoping just as much that he will be as just another bullet point on his resume as he tries to make his client the highest paid pitcher in the National League. The Mets have pushed their ace to Game 3 in hopes that they won’t have to throw him twice in the series. They also are banking on him continuing his trend of being the Anti-Anderson in his home/road splits. Known for being a strikeout pitcher, Harvey has lived up to that notion on both fronts. However, his control dips precipitously as he goes from nearly 7.25 K/BB at Citi Field to 3.43 outside of Flushing. As stated before, Harvey is a polarizing figure among Mets faithful and baseball experts alike. He is a man in this game for himself, but his talent makes him essential to the team’s success. Will the Dark Knight rise to the occasion when his city needs him?
GAMES 4&5 (TENTATIVELY SCHEDULED FOR Tuesday 10/13 @NYM & Thursday 10/15 @LAD)
How the series has panned out through three will determine what each team does in these last two games. Whether the Dodgers or Mets are up 2-1 may determine the chances of seeing either of the two above pitchers, Steven Matz of the Mets or Alex Wood of the Dodgers. The losing side may choose to go with their Game 1 starter in Game 4. A team could also go for an all hands on deck scenario and pitch situationally throughout the game with Bartolo Colon (Mets) or Mike Bolsinger (Dodgers) getting a bulk amount of unexpected innings.
However the series shakes out, we as fans are in for quite the pitching spectacle. And with the way these two rotations are constructed, this could be the first of many duels as we head into the future. As both teams look for their first title since both were NL powers in the late 80’s, a pitching rivalry of this stature will be a welcome staple.