NLCS: Mets vs Dodgers

The New York Mets defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in four games to move on to the NLCS. They entered the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in baseball and they have paved that way so far throughout their first two series of the postseason.

The Met’s pitching staff completely dominated the entire Phillies lineup and used timely offense to their advantage to win the series as an underdog.

Speaking of underdog, they will once again be just that when they take on the Los Angeles Dodgers. The advantage the Mets will have is a layoff for their pitching staff and a lineup that will give them the opportunity to rest up before the NLCS begins.

If the Mets want to pull off another upset, they will have to slow down the high-powered Dodgers’ offense and score runs against their vulnerable starting rotation, which includes getting big hits in big spots.

This will be a battle of the top two favorites to win NL MVP in Shohei Ohtani and Francisco Lindor. Ohtani will most likely win it, but that doesn’t mean we can take away from what Lindor has done this season.

Lindor has brought energy and leadership to the Mets’ clubhouse. The team revolves around him and he will need to play a big role once again if New York wants to advance to their first World Series since 2015.

What is fun to watch with this team is how they are never out of games and they will continue to fight, no matter the score or the circumstances. Without that mentality, the Mets wouldn’t be where they are right now.

However, the Dodgers pitching has tossed two straight shutout games against the Padres, including 24 consecutive innings of scoreless baseball. They relied heavily on their bullpen in Game 4 and Game 5 to get the job done and advance to their sixth NLCS in nine years.

LA will not have much time off before the NLCS which starts on Sunday, so they will not have the rest advantage over the Mets, but they will have home-field advantage.

If the Dodgers get good enough starting pitching from Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Walker Buehler, manager Dave Roberts knows how dominant his bullpen has been this postseason and will utilize them correctly. With that being said, they have a tough task against a Mets lineup that is the strength of their ball club.

If you’re the Dodgers, offensively you will need to find a way to not let the Mets starters go deep into games. The favor will go into the hands of the Dodgers if they are seeing a good amount of the Mets bullpen this entire series.

This is a series that should be competitive and has a good possibility of going the distance.

ALCS: Guardians vs Yankees

These are two teams that will be facing off in the postseason for the fourth time since 2017, and the Yankees have had their number, winning three consecutive playoff series against the Guardians.

The Yankees go into this series well-rested, meanwhile, the Guardians just finished off a hard-fought series in which they ended up shutting the door on the Tigers in Game 5.

Cleveland’s bullpen is what they relied heavily on to win that series, and we’ll see how they will deal against this Yankees lineup that wasn’t the main reason they beat the Kansas City Royals in the ALDS, although their offense did enough to win thanks to how great the pitching staff was.

One worry that you have if your Cleveland is will their bullpen get worn out at some point since there are more consecutive days that will be played in this ALCS compared to the ALDS.

They will also need to step up offensively, as they did get shut out twice in their two losses against Detroit, and the Yankees on paper are better than the Tigers. Cleveland will be going up against a significantly better offense than the Detroit team they just played.

This will be more of a battle test for Cleveland since they have had their struggles against the Yankees in the past.

The key will be how the manufacturer runs early against the Yankees starting staff because if Cleveland has a lead in the fifth or sixth inning, that will usually spell trouble for New York.

At the same time, the Guardians will need to have some of their starters be efficient enough so that they can pitch into the sixth inning. That points directly at Tanner Bibee, Matthew Boyd, and Alex Cobb.

The Yankees bullpen was fantastic in the ALDS against the Royals, and ace Gerrit Cole showed in Game 4, a moment where Cole needed to shine and show why the Yankees gave him 324 million dollars.

They will need to do a better job of hitting with men on base though, as they struggled getting timely hits against Kansas City. Aaron Judge is a big part of that, as he will eventually have to step up at some point.

It does look like a scary sign that despite Judge’s struggles in the ALDS, they were able to get through that series and if he gets going, watch out.

This series will favor the Yankees as they are clearly the better team, but it’s the playoffs and anything can happen.

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