The 89-win Padres, who’ve benefited from veteran supervisor Bob Melvin’s calm taste throughout his first yr as their skipper, went to New York and beat the 101-win Mets within the wild-card spherical. Then they eradicated the Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball’s easiest crew with a franchise-record 111 wins, through profitable 3 instantly video games after dropping the opener at the street.
The 87-win Phillies are the No. 6 seed. They downed the NL Central champion St. Louis Cardinals within the wild-card spherical after which beat the protecting World Series champion Atlanta Braves, who took the NL East identify with 101 wins, within the Division Series.
“People kind of counted us both out, right?” stated Harper. “I think it was LA or the Braves or the Mets are going to win because those three teams are so dynamic and they had such great regular seasons, as they always do.”
“I think it is going to be a great series,” Harper added. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. I know we’re looking forward to it as a team and the opportunity to come in here and win a game hopefully and get home.”
Righthander Zack Wheeler is anticipated to begin for the Phillies in Game 1, and 36-year-old Yu Darvish takes the mound for the Padres. Darvish would have long past on 3 days’ relaxation if the Padres were compelled to play Game 5 of the NLDS at Dodger Stadium on Sunday night time. But they completed the Dodgers with a five-run 7th inning in a 5-3 victory in Game 4.
Most of the point of interest can be on Harper and Machado. They have been teammates at the 2009 under-18 US nationwide crew that received the Pan-Am championship. Harper was once the highest general pick out within the 2010 newbie draft through Washington whilst Machado was once the 3rd pick out through Baltimore.
They made their giant league debuts 3 months aside in 2012, Harper as a 19-year-old and Machado in a while after turning 20. Seven years later they signed huge offers as the highest unfastened brokers going into the 2019 season; Machado were given a $300 million, 10-year contract with San Diego, and Harper went to Philadelphia for $330 million and 13 years.
“We were two of the top free agents,” Machado stated. “And he went to a city that wanted to bring a championship back, and I went to a city that’s never won a championship. Here we are a couple years later, we’ve done that, two organizations, and we’ve helped the organizations out big time.
“It’s going to be fun. He brings an energy. He’s one of the best players in the game.”
Yankees-Indians Game 5 not on time through rain
The decisive Game 5 of the ALDS between the Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees did not start on time because of a threat of rain.
The game was scheduled to begin at 7:07 p.m. on Monday night, and Major League Baseball announced at about 6:20 p.m. that the start would be delayed. MLB planned to reassess the weather forecast at about 7 p.m, a deadline which came and went without update.
An announcement over the public-address system informed fans of the impending delay, and the grounds crew at Yankee Stadium covered the infield with the tarp just before 6:40 p.m.
“If weather is an issue, I don’t want to be powering through that necessarily,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said around 4 p.m.
Aaron Civale was scheduled to pitch for the Guardians against Jameson Taillon.
Cleveland or New York will start the ALCS at Houston on Wednesday night.
Game 2 of the series was rained out last Thursday at Yankee Stadium, pushing it back to Friday afternoon.
After losing last week’s opener, Cleveland won Games 2 and 3, overcoming a two-run deficit in the ninth inning to win Game 3 by 6-5. The Yankees won 4-2 on Sunday night in Cleveland to force the series back to New York.
The Yankees’ banged-up bullpen has been taxed, while Cleveland’s top relievers are fresh.
New York used Clay Holmes for 17 pitches and Wandy Peralta for seven on Sunday, a night after Peralta threw 27, Clarke Schmidt 12, Jonathan Loáisiga 15, and Lou Trivino seven. Peralta has pitched three straight days.
The Yankees are missing Chad Green, Scott Effress, Zack Britton, Michael King, and Ron Marinaccio because of injuries, and Aroldis Chapman was dropped after failing to show up for a mandatory Oct. 7 workout.
Cleveland has now not used its most sensible relievers since Friday, when All-Star nearer Emmanuel Clase threw 33 pitches after Trevor Stephan tossed 21 and James Karinchak 29.