MLB Divisional Series Recap

The Autumn wind is a Raider. Pillaging just for fun. He'll knock you 'round and upside down. And laugh when he's conquered and won.

That might just be a line from the poem by late NFL Films co-founder Steve Sabol but, the Autumn winds were/are a very real force in some of these playoff games (Cubs-Cardinals Games 3 & 4) and have chilled temperatures at Bla Blog headquarters from the mid-70's all the way to the mid-40's and there is no sign of things getting any warmer or welcoming. This means more time inside and more time watching the baseball postseason as soon as a game is on. Could you imagine a world series in Chicago? The complaints from people who have to cover the game would be intolerable. 

Blue Jays defeat Rangers in 5 games

Gm. 1: Rangers 5, Blue Jays 3
Gm. 2 : Rangers 6, Blue Jays 4
Gm. 3: Blue Jays 5, Rangers 1
Gm. 4: Blue Jays 8, Rangers 4
Gm. 5: Blue Jays 6, Rangers 3

Chris Young: Canadian Press
Well duh, what other photo would I have used?

What. A. Series. This thing looked over after Game 2, Canada was downtrodden and I was about to lose my World Series pick in a first-round sweep. Game 1 was packed with injuries and no big deal except it was a nice performance from Yovani Gallardo. Game 2 was craziness and went fourteen innings until Hanser Alberto (The Third Baseman who got to replace Adrian Beltre after he aggravated an injury) knocked in the game-winning run after only knocking in four runs in his major league career. Game 3 saw Texas refuse to show up at all and Toronto took out their frustrations on Martin Perez with a three-run Troy Tulowitzki home run. The series was knotted up in Game 4 after Toronto showed Jeff Bannister what a problem it is for them to not have Yu Darvish (recovering from Tommy John Surgery) and have to rely on Derek Holland and then Game 5 happened. Game 5 was tied up at two runs apiece headed into the seventh inning when somebody broke into a locked far-away security center and unlocked the portal to sports-based chaos that allowed the greatest inning of entertainment in recent baseball history.

That one seventh inning saw the following occur...

- Texas took the lead on a mishandled, miscalled and just downright awful play where Russell Martin tried throwing the ball back to Aaron Sanchez on the mound, the ball deflected off of Shin-Soo Choo's bat as his bat and left foot were out of the batter's box, the ump called time and the run scored by Rougned Odor counted anyways.

- An eighteen minute stoppage to review the play and calm down the fans who were throwing babies on the field (or something to that extent. Seriously, why bring a baby to a playoff baseball game in a dome? You're only damaging the small one's still-developing ears)

- 3 consecutive errors involving Elvis Andrus (one not his fault but Mitch Moreland's) leading to the bases being loaded

- A groundball that got the Toronto runner out at home before the runner slid into the Rangers' Catcher's leg.

- Another short review

- A Josh Donaldson bloop hit that was an easy out from the television camera's point of view but, carried just out of reach of Rougned Odor, scored the tying run and forced the out at second base for out #2.

- Jose Bautista's three-run homer that ultimately won the game

- That great bat flip photo

- Oh, and the benches cleared twice

Toronto won and will face the winner of the next series...

ALDS TOR-TEX MVP: RF Jose Bautista

Royals defeat Astros in 5 games

Gm. 1: Astros 5, Royals 2
Gm. 2: Royals 5, Astros 4
Gm. 3: Astros 4, Royals 2
Gm. 4: Royals 9, Astros 6
Gm. 5: Royals 7, Astros 2

Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle
It looks like we will have to wait another year for the Astros to validate tanking.

The Kansas City-Houston ALDS was a classic case of a back-and-forth baseball series. I never understood the decision to start Yordano Ventura in Game 1 instead of anyone else and despite two home runs from Kendrys Morales, Ventura still took the L in a very Houston-dominant game. Game 2 started out very much in favor of the Astros as it was 4-1 in the middle of the third inning. Alas, Salvador Perez is one of the most clutch players in baseball and his first postseason home run was just a small piece of the onslaught of runs scored by Kansas City in a 5-4 comeback victory that evened up the series. Houston took Game 3 at home thanks to AL Cy Young favorite Dallas Keuchel. Game 4 was the game that altered the whole series from one bottom of the seventh to another top of the eighth. The Astros built onto a one-run lead with Carlos Correa's second home run of the game and the ever-growing-in-popularity Colby Rasmus knocking out his third homer of the postseason. The Astros led 6-2. It did not even matter how many good relievers A.J. Hinch brought out of the bullpen, nothing was stopping Kansas City from their crazy comeback in the top of the eighth. Five runs in the eighth inning and two more in the ninth for show helped the Royals with the most impressive comeback of the postseason so far and forced a winner-takes-all Game 5. After an early two-run homer by Luis Valbuena, Johnny Cueto and Wade Davis came up HUGE and retired 22 consecutive batters to assist the Royals offense of seven runs and advance Ned Yost's team to the ALCS.

ALDS KC-HOU MVP: DH Kendrys Morales

Cubs defeat Cardinals in 4 games

Gm. 1: Cardinals 4, Cubs 0
Gm. 2: Cubs 6, Cardinals 3
Gm. 3: Cubs 8, Cardinals 6
Gm. 4: Cubs 6, Cardinals 4

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Eight more wins for the Cubs to pull off something magical.

When this series first started it seemed that the consensus was "It's nice to see the Cubs in the playoffs again but, this is still the St. Louis Cardinals and they've done it before so, this should be easy for them" and after a 4-0 Game 1 loss, even I (the guy who picked the Cubs to win the National League") was worried for the youngest team in the playoffs. Game 2 got Chicago on their feet early after a five-run top of the second. The Cubs ended up winning 6-3 despite giving up three solo homers to Matt Carpenter, Kolten Wong and Randal Grichuk. The Autumn winds were in full affect during Game 3 when an MLB postseason-record SIX home runs were hit by the Chicago Cubs (Kyle Schwarber, Starlin Castro, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Jorge Soler & Dexter Fowler) and they beat the 100-win Cardinals again, this time 8-6. Stephen Piscotty was the runaway winner for Cardinal MVP this round but, not even a third home run in four games would be enough to hurt the Cubs' chances as they managed to do the unthinkable and took down the best team (record-wise) in baseball in just four games with a bunch of toddlers mashing the voodoo magic that is St. Louis's pitching staff.

NLCS CHC-STL MVP: RF Jorge Soler

Mets defeat Dodgers in 5 games

Gm. 1: Mets 3, Dodgers 1
Gm. 2: Dodgers 5, Mets 2
Gm. 3: Mets 13, Dodgers 7
Gm. 4: Dodgers 3, Mets 1
Gm. 5: Mets 3, Dodgers 2

Getty Images
For every inning Jacob deGrom did not allow a run this postseason, his hair grew one inch longer.

Clayton Kershaw seemed to have finally erased the lazy narrative of "he's great in the regular season and all but, if he can't do it in the postseason, is he really that great?" in Game 1 until Pedro Baez blew it for him with one out and runners on the corners. Game 2 was another must-see pitching duel between Cy Young candidate Zack Greinke and Noah "Thor" Syndergaard. The Dodgers tied the series up with a four run seventh inning off of Addison Reed and Big Fat Bartolo Colon. The Dodgers win wasn't even talked about the next day however as Chase Utley made baseball fans rethink the rule book on a controversial slide that broke Ruben Tejada's leg. Game 3 was a total mess and despite the promise of Matt Harvey versus a finally-healthy Brett Anderson, no pitching was seen at Citi Field that night. Game 4 featured another Clayton Kershaw gem of a performance and Kenley Jansen proving why he is one of the three best closers in baseball today and Game 5 was when I clinched my first incorrect prediction of the 2015 postseason (darn). For a 3-2 ballgame, Game 5 never felt all that dramatic as no runs were scored after the sixth inning and frankly, all of our expectations were set too high by all of the other exciting series'. Both Zack Greinke and Jacob deGrom pitched just fine and all until Daniel Murphy became the kryptonite to Greinke's Superman qualities.

NLDS NYM-LAD MVP: 2B Daniel Murphy

Typically I would reserve this spot for new predictions but, my World Series teams are amazingly still in play. Toronto sweeping the Cubs still stands!

Good luck to your respective teams or bandwagons that you are fully boarding!