Elephant Rumblings: NLCS Game 2 set for tonight

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Morning everyone! Rise and shine!

Yesterday we were treated to a pair of LCS playoff games and boy was it interesting. The Athletics’ division rivals the Seattle Mariners came out swinging in Toronto, beating the Blue Jays 10-3 and giving themselves a huge 2-0 series lead. Even better for the M’s, they won both games in Toronto and now get three games at home to try to finish off the AL East foe. For the Mariners’, their first trip to the ALCS since 2001 is going swimmingly and another straight win would

all but end the series. The only team to come back from an 0-3 deficit in the LCS round was the Boston Red Sox over the New York Yankees way back in 2004, and that was the biggest storyline for years after the Yanks’ collapse.

The Jays have to be in panic mode and can not afford to go down 0-3 in the series. If they want to make it to their first World Series since 1993 they can not lose tomorrow night’s contest and realistically expect to get back into the series. They’ll hope that midseason trade acquisition Shane Bieber can keep their season alive Wednesday evening when he gets the ball for Game 3 for what’ll be his fifth career postseason start and second this October. The Mariners can all up lock up the series though with just one more win and they’ll hope homegrown righty George Kirby can get them one step closer to the promised land. He’s made two postseason starts for the M’s during these playoffs and has looked like a different pitcher than he did during the regular season. Over two starts against Detroit Kirby pitched 10 innings and allowed just three runs, splitting the games with the Tigers in the previous round.

But that contest isn’t until tomorrow. First we got Game 2 between the Dodgers and Brewers to watch tonight. Los Angeles looked like it was in complete control last night thanks to an incredible performance on the mound from ace lefty Blake Snell. Over eight innings the Milwaukee bats had little to no answer for the 2023 Cy Young Award winner, managing just one single off Snell. It wasn’t until the bottom of the ninth, with Snell’s night over and rookie Roki Sasaki in the game that the Brew Crew’s bats came to life. Down 0-2 they managed to push across one run and load the bases, coming within 90 feet of tying the game and 180 from completing the comeback. Unfortunately for them their cleanup hitter Bryce Turang struck out facing former Athletic Blake Treinen to end the game and put Milwaukee in an early series hole.

Like with the Blue Jays, the Brewers do not want to head to LA down 0-2 in the series. The NL’s #1 seed is going to be needing all hands on deck tonight in Game 2 when they take on Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who has looked good over his first two postseason starts this year. He only faced the Brewers once this year and it did not go well as he couldn’t even complete one inning while allowing five runs. Milwaukee needs more of the same if they want to even this series up with a win in front of their home fans. The Dodgers will be getting their own tough test when the Brewers send staff ace Freddy Peralta to the mound hoping to play stopper. Peralta hasn’t looked as sharp in the playoffs as he did during the regular season, allowing five runs in 9 2/3 frames in two starts against Chicago. Can Peralta rediscover his regular season form for tonight’s contest? First pitch is at 5:08 PCT tonight so we’ll find out then.

Have a great Tuesday A’s fans!

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