Three out of four.
Monday, Boston won their best-of-five to move on. Yesterday, Houston and Atlanta advanced to the next round.
Now, all that’s left is for the 107-win team and the 106-win team to have a one-game, winner-take-all grudge match to see who the fourth and final contestant will be.
The Dodgers won 7-2 last night to tie the series at two games apiece. Gave 5 is tomorrow in San Francisco. There will be no baseball today. And that’s a shame. Because these games have been wonderful, for the most part.
Yesterday’s Brewers-Braves game was as good of a playoff game as you could ask for.
After three scoreless innings, Milwaukee finally broke out with two runs in the top of the fourth. Atlanta immediately counted with two of its own.
Milwaukee then got two more in its half of the fifth. So did Atlanta.
This do-or-die game for the Brewers stayed tied at 4-4 until the bottom of the eighth when one of the best hitter on the planet, Freddie Freeman, went deep to put the Braves up 5-4.
The one thing these playoffs are coming to be known for is interpretation of rules.
The ball that bounced off the wall, then off Red Sox right fielder Hunter Renfroe for a ground rule double triggered hours of debate.
The tapper in front of the plate that Yasmani Grandal hit when the throw home hit him in the arm triggered much argument on running out of the baselines. Then, yesterday in Atlanta, the foul pop-up that bounced out of the Brewers’ catcher’s glove and appeared to be caught by their third baseman only to be proven not to be caught before it bounced only to find out that wasn’t a reviewable play, caused a longer than is usually allowable argument from the Braves manager.
In the end, they were able to overcome the bad call and knock off the Brewers in four games.
Now the Braves are like the rest of the baseball fans in America. They’re waiting for Game 5 in the Giants-Dodgers series. Chances are, that will be determined by a play nobody has ever seen before that will have to be proven out on some obscure section of the rulebook.
This is what makes baseball great.
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