There are four playoff games on tap for today in Major League Baseball.
The Tampa Bay Rays yet again find themselves on the brink of elimination in an ALDS series, after the Boston Red Sox tore the Rays to shreds in winning two games at Fenway Park. Tampa will return home to Tropicana Field for Game 3 this afternoon. Alex Cobb will take the mound for the Rays and Clay Buchholz will start for the Red Sox. Rays Manager Joe Maddon says Buchholz proposes a lot of challenges.
Buchholz has defeated Tampa Bay twice this season, allowing five hits in 13 scoreless innings. He has a career 2.41 ERA in 16 starts against the Rays.
The Red Sox outscored the Rays 19-6 in the opening two games at home. Maddon says the Rays need to score more runs in order to win.
The first pitch for Game 3 is set for 6pm tonight.
The Atlanta Braves fell to the LA Dodgers yesterday 13-6, but hope to keep their playoff dreams alive tonight in Game 4, as they trail in their National League Division Series 2-1. Julio Teheran pitched for the Braves Sunday night, allowing eight hits and six runs in just 2.2 innings. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez says he doesn’t think the atmosphere at Dodger Stadium had any impact on how Tehran pitched.
Freddy Garcia has the start for the Braves and Ricky Nolasco will take the mound for the Dodgers tonight in a game you can hear live on ESPN 850 WRUF starting at 9pm. Garcia was released by San Diego during the spring and spent the first three months of the regular season with Baltimore’s Triple-A affiliate. Nolasco on the other hand has gone 0-2 in his last three starts and allowed 17 earned runs in 12 innings.
The first pitch is set for 9:30pm.
In the other NLDS series, the Pittsburgh Pirates will try and win the series today when they take on The St. Louis Cardinals. The Pirates beat the Cardinals 5-3 Sunday. Michael Wacha will make his postseason debut today for the Redbirds, in a place they have won only 3 of 11 times this season. Charlie Morton will take the mound for the Pirates, who will also be making his post season debut. Morton enters the game with a 7-4 record this season and is 4-1 with a 2.67 ERA in his past 11 starts with only one home run allowed.
First pitch is set for 2pm.
The other American League Division Series is tied 1-1 between the Oakland Athletics and the Detroit Tigers. Stephen Vogt captured Game 2 for the Athletics, with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth that drove in the only run of the game.
As the series moves to Detroit, The Tigers will start Anibal Sanchez in Game 3, while the A’s will send Jarrod Parker to the mound. The Tigers are hitting .219 in the series with a .254 on-base percentage and .250 slugging mark. The A’s hold a .250 on-base percentage and .274 slugging percentage this series.
The game is set for 1:07 PM.