NLDS Game 2 - Open Thread

BRAVES (0) @ BREWERS (1) - 4:07 pm CDT

Max Fried (165.2 IP - 3.8 fWAR, 3.31 FIP, 23.7 K%)

VS

Brandon Woodruff (179.1 IP - 4.7 fWAR, 2.96 FIP, 29.8 K%)

My takeaway from this postseason is how far the Twins may be from a stable, genuinely complete team. There is just so much elite pitching, everywhere, between all of these teams. Even the #2 and #3 guys on some of the weaker teams in this playoff field are better than some of our best options. I felt the same way watching the Dodgers win it all last year — sure, playoffs are a crapshoot...but the difference between a playoff team and a championship team can be huge.

This will be another good pitching matchup today, or at least it should be. Woodruff is an excellent right-hand man to Corbin Burnes, and Max Fried is probably one of the more underrated arms in the league.

Yesterday afternoon’s matchup lived up to the hype with a 2-1 final score, with Burnes, Charlie Morton, and Josh Hader all doing their jobs. Will the offenses come out to play today?

DODGERS (0) @ GIANTS (1) - 7:07 pm CDT

Julio Urias (185.2 IP - 5.0 fWAR, 3.13 FIP, 26.2 K%)

VS

Kevin Gausman (192 IP - 4.8 fWAR, 3.00 FIP, 29.3 K%)

Ten years ago, Urias might have won the Cy Young, with his sparkling 20-3 record and sub-3.00 ERA. I’ve still got Burnes taking home those honors, but neither of those statements is meant to undervalue the supreme work that Urias put forth in 2021. Still just 24 years old, Urias’ sixth big-league season was certainly his best, after an uneven trajectory so far.

Ten years ago, Kevin Gausman was just getting set to enter the major leagues himself. Gausman debuted in 2013 and had spent most of his professional service with the Baltimore Orioles, before popping up here and there once his initial contract ran out. He was with the Giants last season, where he started to flash the early signs of a significant improvement — this season, he finally blew the doors off with an All-Star campaign (his first) that included a league-leading 33 starts, a K/BB ratio of over 4.5, and 220+ strikeouts.

Both these teams are fantastic, but the Giants have the lead and another home game tonight. To see L.A. so quickly bounced would be almost unthinkable when you track the last eight years of Dodger baseball; but San Francisco has a golden opportunity to get into pole position tonight.