We say this all the time,
it’s amazing what a season can come down to.
We play 21 weeks, and some
of us are lucky enough to play a few more, and then in the final day of a
playoff matchup — in the final hours even — the season is on the line.
But no matter how many
times we see a season come down to Sunday Night Baseball, it’s hard to fathom
that both playoff matchups come down to it.
Last year, it was the
insane George Springer night that led Crox Sox to the playoffs over the Sex
Panthers. He took that momentum and went all the way to the World Series where,
of course, he lost to the Cheese Steaks.
The three-time champs will
remain just that for now.
Quad Eh did the
unthinkable and dethroned King James with an insane tie-breaking win. I’ve
written about it before, the No. 3 seed is so dangerous.
A No. 3 seed has appeared
in the World Series four times since 2011.
After the win by Quah Eh,
the No. 3 seed is now 7-1 in Wild Card matchups in the last four years and 9-3
since 2014. In 2013, both No. 2 seeds were victorious, but since 2011, the
record is 12-6 with the 3-seed going on to win a pair of World Series titles.
I don’t need to tell you
who won those World Series because many of you will just shout that they didn’t
count.
Nevertheless, the crazy curse
of the 2-seed continues.
For Choo, however, he
somehow avoided catastrophe.
All those numbers above? I
just had to redo them because of Mookie Betts — Choo’s costly offseason
acquisition — came through with a line-drive homer over the Monster to
even the score at 9-9-4 and send it to a tie-breaker where he owned
the easy advantage thanks to a 13-2-7 drubbing earlier in the season.
This all comes after Choo
had given up hope.
He ran out to a huge —
yuge — lead early in the week and he started working his typically
reverse-reverse-reverse again-jinxes.
Sad puppy at the kennel.
Eeyore after his house
falls down—again!
Choo was laying it on
thick.
I’m going to lose. I can feel it. Parker is going
to come back. This isn’t over. The categories show it’s much closer than you
think. I’m finished.
Well, Choo-icken Little
was right. The sky fell and the lead evaporated over the weekend.
He batted just .088 on
Sunday (3-for-34 before 7th inning) and .200 on Saturday (7-for-35) to fall apart. Parker,
meanwhile, hit five homers over the weekend — including Gleyber Torres’
go-ahead homer to tie the matchup and rare stolen base to take the slim 10-9
lead.
Choo continued with his
reverse jinxes by congratulating Parker at 11:06 p.m.
At 11:20 p.m., Betts
homered and put Choo back in control.
It got scary in the ninth
with both Edwin Encarnaciòn and Gleyber Torres coming to the plate for Parker,
and Torres could have won it with a sacrifice fly or a homer, but his blast off
the bat was too far to be a sacrifice and too short to be a homer.
It hit off the Monster for
a double and locked up the win for Choo, and for the first time in four years,
a No. 3 seed goes home after one round.
The Cheese Steaks wanted
to make it two early exits for 3-seeds, but the big hits just escaped him on
Sunday.
Cheese and Quad went back
and forth throughout the week with eventually Quad Eh taking a lead that appeared
to be in his favor the rest of the way.
But three aces on Sunday
helped JV climb back into it and with a 10th-inning run by Manny Machado, the
matchup found itself tied at 10-10. The first tiebreaker had it tied 4-4, so it
went to the second tiebreaker, head-to-head during the season, which — as you
would expect — Quad Eh had a slim lead of 30-28. Talking about the difference
of one category away from having to go to the third tiebreaker.
All the Steaks had to do
to avoid that was have Andrew Benintendi hit a double or a triple, or just have
two hits period.
He went 0-for-4, including a lead-off lineout in the ninth that had Quad Eh on the edge of his seat about to go drink with some Ontario raccoons.
Benny's woeful night should
be just what Crox needed to acquire him in November.
Now Quad Eh moves on to
face the Dude, who had a week to watch the Astros do awesome things, like score
21 runs on Sunday.
He just hopes that
continues into next week.
I mean, he and Sam both.
After reading this, the two of them have to be absolutely scared.
If they aren’t, I’ll give
them more thing to think about. The Division Series winner is 6-10 since 2011.
Only twice have both No. 1 seeds moved on to the World Series (2013 and 2017).
So, if history holds true,
Sam and Dude are playing musical chairs and there’s only one seat in the World
Series for No. 1 seeds.
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