Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) of the Dallas Morning News discusses Game 5 of the ALDS as Cole Hamels takes the mound for Texas…
He has clinched playoff spots. He has clinched postseason series. He has won a World Series. And, for crying out loud, he was the World Series MVP.
One thing Cole Hamels has never done, though: pitch in a winner-take-all game.
He gets that chance Wednesday when the Rangers play Game 5 of the AL Division Series at Toronto. After losing Monday, 8-4, the Rangers have seen a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 series vanish. They must play in a winner-take-all game on the road, against the best offense in the American League.
Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) of the LA Times writes that the Dodgers are down to Clayton Kershaw after their 13-7 loss to the Mets…
The Dodgers are back to where they were at this stage of the postseason last year: One defeat from elimination, with Clayton Kershaw about to take the mound in Game 4 of a National League division series on three days’ rest.
“If we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down with our two horses,” catcher Yasmani Grandal said.
Zack Greinke will pitch Game 5, but only if Kershaw and his teammates can do what they failed to do 12 months ago and extend the series beyond Tuesday.
Ben Frederickson (@Ben_Fred) of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that John Lackey will start for the Cardinals in Game 4…
The Cardinals, on the road and on the brink of elimination in the best-of-five series, have placed their postseason fate on Lackey’s shoulders by calling again on his right arm. Baseball’s most experienced active pitcher in the postseason will try to keep his club’s season alive on three days’ rest. But don’t expect the cowboy-boot-wearing Texan to help build the drama.
“I don’t have time to think about all that right now,” Lackey said. “I’m trying to get ready to win a baseball game.
Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) of the Boston Herald writes that hard work pays off for Red Sox GM Mike Hazen…
Mike Hazen has to work, and work harder than anyone else, he thinks. That’s the only way. Maybe high school came easy to him, when he pulled the grades at Abington High to help him get him into Princeton, but who knows if he would have gotten into the Ivy League school without his baseball accolades.
“I don’t know how I got into Princeton,” he said. “My parents are teachers from a small town in Massachusetts. I mean, it could’ve been anybody. I don’t know how they picked me over someone else. I don’t know.”
Like everything he’s accomplished in his 39 years, the always-humble Hazen shrugs it off.