Palsgrove Points

There is nothing in sports more exhilarating, more exciting and more anxiety-inducing than postseason baseball. The anticipation leading up to each pitch, the little exhale after each ball, foul or strike, and everything else that leads up to the inevitable explosion of a home run makes it one of the most enticing viewing experiences in sports. And after a year of waiting, we have returned the MLB postseason. For this edition of Palsgrove’s Points, we’re going to take a look at each Divisional Round series and make a prediction or two. As always, these are my opinions, and on the off chance I am wholly incorrect with these, feel free to bug me on Twitter so I can promptly ignore you.  

Rangers in Four 

I’m so incredibly confused by the Rangers. Baltimore felt like a Cinderella story, and this hodge-podge, make-shift Rangers seems to have taken the magic of this young Orioles team and claimed it as their own. This is the first time the Orioles have had a 100-win season in 40 YEARS. They placed first in their division off the backs of a strong and youthful hitting corps led by everyone’s favorite newcomer, Adley Rutschman. I thought game one was going to be a fluke, and that the Rangers bullpen would fail to rise to the occasion in the rest of the series, but I was sorely mistaken. 

In game two, the Orioles scored a very good eight runs on 14 hits, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the 11 runs from the Rangers’ bats. And it’s not often that a team can launch a grand slam in the divisional round, but the Rangers did. It’s never impossible to come back from a deficit until the series is over, but the O’s just dropped games one and two on their home diamond, and a comeback seems out of the realm of possibility. 

Red October rolls on – Phil’s in 4

For the second year in a row, the Phillies and the Braves are facing off in the second round of the playoffs, and for the second year in a row, the Phillies are going to knock the Braves out of the second round. All season, the Braves have been the team to beat in the National League, but the Phillies are absolutely rolling right now, and they’ve peaked at the perfect time. 

Not only that, but this Phillies roster is “built for post-season baseball,” Phil’s Manager Rob Thompson said. The Braves might be more talented, deeper and had one of the best regular seasons in recent memory, but the Phillies are the team to beat in the NL.  

As of this reporting, they’re up 1-0 on the Braves after an impressive shutout victory over the No. 1 seed in the NL. Bryce Harper appears to be back in postseason form after ripping a liner over the back wall for a 375-foot home run. The Phillies scored the finalizing run on a controversial catcher interference call where the call on the field stood simply because there wasn’t enough to overturn it. It can’t go unspoken that Braves starter Spencer Strider was incredible, but the Phillies’ bats were too good for even him to overcome. 

The gosh-darn Astros win in 4

In the NL, it feels as if the winner of the Braves–Phillies series is going to win it all. In the American League, it’s the same sort of two-horse race between the Orioles and the Astros. The Astros, after years of denying that they’re any sort of antagonist in the story of the MLB, have finally embraced their villain role. The entirety of the MLB fanbase is rooting against them, and yet they’re almost definitely going to roll through the Twins. 

Houston and the Twins are at a standstill as the series heads back to Minnesota, but I would be stunned if the Astros’ big bats don’t bounce back from a rather stunning game two defeat at the hands of Twins starter Pablo Lopez and his 7-strikeout outing. 

D-backs in 5 

You know this was a total vibes-based pick going into this series against the Dodgers, and then the D-backs dropped 11 runs on them in game one. Could some of that be chalked up to Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers’ pitching corps being “embarrassed” by Arizona? Sure. This type of offensive proficiency isn’t something that Arizona showed much over the regular season; they finished T-22nd in the league in total homeruns and 15th in RBI’s. 

In game one, Arizona had 13 hits and 11 runs. Something to note is that the Diamondbacks were second in the MLB in total steals this season, and didn’t tally a single stolen base against LA, something that is sure to go up. So yes, their batting will most likely regress back to the mean, but expect their speed and aggressiveness on the basepaths to increase over the rest of the series. 

Palsgrove is the asst. sports editor for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on X