Monday, October 21, 2019

The 2019 League Championship Series

The two League Championship Series were just the opposite of the Division Series, meaning that all the drama this time was on the American League side.  In the NL, the Nationals swept the Cardinals 4-0, with scores of 2-0, 3-1, 8-1, and 7-4.  So thoroughly did the Nationals starting pitching dominate the Cards that the Cards never had a lead in the entire series.  The Cardinals hit a woeful .130, with an OPS of only .374.

The AL series between 100-game winners the Yankees and the Astros was, by contrast, full of drama.  The Astros won it in six games, with Altuve hitting a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth in game 6.  The scores of the games were 0-7, 3-2, 4-1, 8-3, 1-4, and 6-4.

My enduring image from game six won't be Altuve's walkoff, but a spectacular play by Michael Brantley in left.  He dove and caught a line drive inches off the ground, then jumped up and threw out the runner from first who couldn't get back in time.  Simply awesome.

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