This year’s American League Division Series have been significantly entertaining. And more than a little jarring.
The Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago White Sox are a combined 4-0, both one win away from advancing to the AL Championship Series, and both answering questions about their viability in a most voracious fashion.
And they’re doing it their way, the White Sox with an unprecedented pitching plan and the Rays suffocating the New York Yankees in every facet of the game.
As the teams charter their way to New York and Chicago, here’s five takeaways from a day that saw the Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees pushed to the brink:
The Rays are scarier than we imagined
It’s a tradition every autumn, trying to discern which teams’ regular-season success will translate best to playoff
baseball. The Rays have made two World Series runs in 18 years, the watchword in that time being their consistency.
This year, they rolled up 98 wins and the AL East title, yet every team must answer the same question once October arrives: Are they really that good?
Through two games, the answer seems to be, even better.
Tampa Bay’s combo of speed and contact, and more than a little power, made them a tough out all season. And in two games against the Yankees, it’s clear both of their offensive personalities are showing up.
Game 1: Jonathan Aranda’s solo homer provides the game’s lone run.
Game 2: The Yankees commit three first-inning errors and four overall, the last coming in a four-run fifth inning that turned a tie game into a solid Rays advantage and an eventual 5-2 victory.
You could say this was a Yankees problem, that they need to clean a lot of things up. And they do.
Yet the mere presence of Chandler Simpson, who plays faster than any human in the big leagues, was palpable in that fifth, when he hit a gentle two-hopper to Yankees shortstop George Lombard Jr., who had a generally impossible task: Throw out Junior Caminero running from third on a contact play or try to get Simpson streaking to first.
The answer: Neither. Lombard biffed the play, most likely properly ruled a fielder’s choice, and Simpson was already clapping his hands five feet before he crossed first base.
This was the Rays at their essence.
“Constant pressure, constant long at-bats, getting pitches to hit. It's our MO all season long,” manager Kevin Cash said in his postgame news conference. “We're a contact-oriented team with guys that can knock the ball out of the ballpark, as well.”
And the Rays struck out just twice against Yankees ace Cam Schlittler, equaling a career low for the presumed Cy Young Award winner. Not an accident: No team struck out fewer times than Tampa Bay in the regular season.
They’re looking like a nightmare.
The Yankees’ bats are almost out of time
Talk about an unproductive business trip: The Yankees went 5-for-58 (.086) against the Rays in Games 1 and 2. Ben Rice hit a pair of homers in Game 2.
The rest of their offense? There was none.
While there’s really no point to the rest-vs.-rust argument for teams earning a first-round bye, the Rays certainly took advantage of their time off to develop a pitching plan against the Yankees. And it is being executed to perfection.
Never mind the 4⅔ serviceable innings Freddy Peralta worked. Lefty Ian Seymour – who toggled back and forth between bullpen and rotation this season – was practically untouchable in three relief innings, retiring nine of 10 batters, striking out four and yielding only a homer to the redoubtable Rice.
Funny thing about this wild-card era: Just finish a little above .500 and you can get in. Yet the gulfs between clubs can be massive. And while the Rays and Boston Red Sox shared a division, the similarities end there. New York scored 18 runs against Boston in the wild-card series, scarcely missing Aaron Judge.
It has scored two against the Rays. And the Yankees absolutely miss the big fella – and he ain’t coming back for Game 3.
Will Venable is a maestro
The White Sox have already made history: They’re the first team in major league history to win their first four playoff games with their starting pitchers throwing four or fewer innings.
Yet in this era of openers and bulk guys and matchup-capturing, it hasn’t felt gimmicky. Nor has it been panicky. Just feels like the White Sox manager and their personnel know exactly what they’re doing.
Oh, Game 2 was plenty hairy: Lefty starter Anthony Kay got just one out, was removed for fellow lefty Sean Newcomb, who tossed a ball way wide of first and buried Chicago in a 2-0 hole as Cleveland’s Progressive Field roared in the late-day sun.
Yet Venable’s button-pushing and, essentially, his knowledge of his guys and the situation seems preternatural – and the dude’s only managed four postseason games.
Think about it: In ALDS Game 1, right-hander Grant Taylor got a four-inning save.
In ALDS Game 2, he got a four-out save.
Yeah, somehow Taylor for 42 pitches and 12 outs was the right call in a 3-0 Game 1 win.
And then, after just a day of rest, extending him for a four-out save – surviving a very hairy Jo Adell drive to the wall with a man on in the eighth – was also spot-on.
Taylor has worked in three of the White Sox’s four games, absorbing eight innings. They used five pitchers each in Games 1 and 2, though Kay and Taylor were the only repeats.
That’s not likely to stop so long as the White Sox are alive.
“I know we're pushing these guys, Grant especially,” Venable said in his postgame press conference. “It is really a lot to ask, but he's in shape for this.
“He's ready for this and he wants the ball.”
Guardians remain offensively challenged
With Steven Kwan’s second-half resurgence, rookie punch from Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana, and Jose Ramírez back from a hamate injury, this was supposed to be the year the Guardians were not an all-pitch, no-hit team.
Yeah, about that.
The Guardians have scored three runs in three games, mustering seven hits against that cavalcade of White Sox arms. Perhaps the multiple looks will catch up to Chicago: Both Kay and Taylor looked more vulnerable their second time in front of the Guardians’ bats.
Or maybe Cleveland is simply destined to run out of offensive juice.
They’ve made three playoff runs now under manager Stephen Vogt and have played 15 postseason games. They’ve been shut out three times and held to three or fewer runs in five other games.
Now, they’ll need to turn it around and then sustain three solid offensive games.
“Two games. Unfortunately, it is two games that are in the postseason,” says Vogt. “A little bit of try to do too much, a little bit of maybe not ready to hit your pitch at times.
“Again, we have had two games stretches like this all year and we come right back. I got a lot of faith in this offense. I have a lot of faith in this team. Like I said, this team plays its best with its back against the wall. I am looking forward to getting out on the field on Wednesday.”
Chicago is about to go crazy
Vogt might not understand what his club is getting into. White Sox fans have existed in a state somewhere between disbelief and delirium. And now, postseason papal power will find its way to the South Side.
The White Sox narrowly lost the Central title to Cleveland, forcing them on the road for four consecutive playoff games.
Now that they’ve survived it and return home undefeated, what might Rate Field sound like in Wednesday’s potential clinching Game 3?
“It’s all we are talking about. We are about to go back to a zoo,” pitcher Davis Martin told reporters in Cleveland. “It’s going to be wild. It’s going to be crazy.
“If Mune (Murakami) hits a ball 900 feet, it’s going to be loud as heck. We are all excited to hear it and be a part of it."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dominant Rays, wacky White Sox and Yanks flailing at the brink: ALDS takeaways
