If there is a blueprint for Padres victory in this playoffs, it looks a lot like their victory over the Cubs 3-0 on Wednesday. The Fiancé got a great moment with superstars Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill, whose bullpen completely shut down Dylan Scease’s solid 3 2/3 innings behind. The victory forced Thursday’s finals of the Backstreet Card Series.
The pitching dominated the day in San Diego. The abbreviation of stop is excellent, with only four basemen and five hits at the same time. He produced 15 WHIFFs (41% WHIFF rate) on 37 swings, and his sliders are definitely unpopular. He works around harmless singles in the first and third innings. It was only after fourth-place Seiya Suzuki had two doubles that Padres manager Mike Shildt turned to his bullpen. Adrian Morejon quickly dismissed the Cubs center fielder on a weak spot after intentionally walking Carson Kelly to Pete Crow-Armstrong.
More Jon made two innings before handing the ball to Mason Miller. Miller hit five Cubs hitters in a row before defeating Michael Busch with two knockout matches in the eighth inning. Shildt, first as a man, went to the bullpen again, calling on Robert Suarez to win the final. Nico Hoerner lined up in the deep right field, but Tatis got stuck in an acrobatic capture to end the game. Suarez allowed Kyle Tucker to play singles in ninth place, but let Suzuki hit a double at the end of the game to secure a victory.
With their season, Hilt has obviously managed to win. The quick hook stop means his bullpen needs to cover the remaining 5 1/3 of the innings. Sumu had reached 69 goals by the time Suzuki doubled for the fourth time, but it looked like he was working. Morejon has been warmed up in previous innings, and walking Kelly to the Crow-Armstrong seems to be a good strategic move in the early high leverage matches. PCA has dropped to .231 WOBA over the past two months, and this year it has produced only .250 Woba on left-handed pitching. However, the use of the stop and subsequent heavy bullpens was short, apparently having some ripple effect on Thursday’s game.
Use of Padres bullpen
| pitcher | IP | h | r | BB | k | Game 1 pitch count | Game 2 pitch count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adrian Morejon | 3.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 33 |
| Mason Miller | 2.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 13 | 27 |
| Jeremiah Estrada | 0.2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Robert Suarez | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
Robert Suarez and Jeremiah Estrada were used only once in this series, but Morejon and Miller threw over 40 courts. I’m sure they both said they could pitch for the third day in a row, but Hilt had to be alert to burn them out. If Game 3 ends and Padres leads, I won’t be surprised to see Miller play on Thursday. Thankfully, Suarez and Estrada have no restrictions on the final game of the series, and Michael King can sell it if necessary.
Back to Wednesday’s game. San Diego joined the board early and grabbed his feet in the first inning against Andrew Kittrech. Tatis and Luis Arraez started the game with back-to-back singles before successfully completing doubles in the inning. This put Jackson Merrill in third place, who hit the deep sacrifice fly to get first place on the board.
It was justified that Cubs manager Craig Counsell’s decision to use Kittredge as a previous opener for shootingimanaga. Imanaga did struggle in the first inning of the year – he had an ERA of 7.20 ERA in the first frame, while he had an ERA of 5.08 on the ERA of the first pass lineup, and he dropped to 6.51 ERA in the last five regular season games. Kittredge has been one of Chicago’s best high-leverage reliefers since he won Chicago from the Orioles in July and will soon be able to quickly build Imanaga in the second inning to face a string of left-handed batsmen in the Padres lineup. Things didn’t figure it out like Counsell pulled it up, and the team fell on the back from the start.
The real killer strike appeared in the fifth inning. Imanaga brought the first-connected splitter to Machado with a second and two-time runner. The star third baseman pushed the 404-foot court into the left stand.
Machado ended in a weird downturn in the regular season. He blasted six home runs in September, but the overall queue that month was only 85 WRC+. This is an improvement from his 70 WRC+ release in August, but he is still struggling to regain his form after a habitually solid first half of the season.
I would have been fired if I didn’t mention Miller’s absolute dominance in this series. In Game 1, he beat one side in the seventh inning. Today, he picked up where he left, hit five batsmen in a row, and then plundered his expected targets as an eighth on the rear foot slider. Then, on the seventh beat Kelly, it was absolutely beautiful:
At 104.5 mph, it was the fastest course in the playoff record and the fourth fastest, resulting in strikeouts from the stadium tracking era (regular season or playoff). There were three called strikes scattered on the prone table below the court! Miller’s four average Today on his outing at 103.0 mph. Just look at these absolutely crazy results from his two playoff outings:
Mason Miller’s dominance
| asphalt | Count | wh | Called a strike | What % | CSW % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Four seams | 16 | 7 | 1 | 77.8% | 50.0% |
| slider | twenty four | 4 | 9 | 57.1% | 54.2% |
He has no name at all. I’ve discussed his availability in the third game above, but if the Padres need him, I’m sure he’ll be ready to do a parking on Thursday.
The decisive game could feature a bullpen plot for both teams. Yu Darvish and Jameson Taillon were listed as starters, but I think both managers will take them to the first sign of danger soon. If there is one benefit for the Cubs’ losses Wednesday, it is that the best arms in their bullpen get a rest. Kittredge may only be available in emergencies, but Daniel Palencia, Brad Keller and Drew Pomeranz all took a day off before Thursday’s game. This could give them the advantage of a very intense knockout game.
