MLB playoffs roundup: Phillies rally late; Mets stumble badly

AP photo by Jeff Roberson / Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm makes a catch on a ball hit by the St. Louis Cardinals' Lars Nootbaar during the third inning of Friday's NL wild-card matchup in St. Louis.
AP photo by Jeff Roberson / Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm makes a catch on a ball hit by the St. Louis Cardinals' Lars Nootbaar during the third inning of Friday's NL wild-card matchup in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS — The Philadelphia Phillies showcased plenty of plucky resilience all season, bouncing back from a poor start and the firing of their manager to qualify for Major League Baseball's postseason for the first time in more than a decade.

It was going to take more than a two-run deficit in the ninth inning Friday to keep them down, even against the playoff-tested St. Louis Cardinals.

Philadelphia rallied for six runs in the ninth, silencing a sellout crowd at Busch Stadium with a 6-3 victory in the opening game of a wild-card series to start the National League playoffs.

It was the first time in 94 postseason games that NL Central Division champion St. Louis, an 11-time World Series winner, had blown a lead of at least two runs going into the final frame, according to Sportradar.

"It's what we do. We fight," said Alec Bohm, who was plunked on the shoulder by Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley with the bases loaded to drive in the first run. "We're never out of it. That's just kind of who we are."

Phillies manager Rob Thomson, who replaced Joe Girardi after their poor start to the year, was asked how it felt in the dugout during the go-ahead rally. He had a one-word reply: "Electric."

That's because the Cardinals, who were 74-3 this year when leading after eight innings, were poised to put another one away after Juan Yepez hit the first go-ahead pinch-hit homer in franchise history with two outs in the seventh.

But after struggling all afternoon against José Quintana and the St. Louis bullpen, the Phillies finally got their offense going. JT Realmuto began the decisive rally with a single off Helsley, and walks for Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos loaded the bases before the All-Star closer plunked Bohm.

The Cardinals training staff checked on Helsley, who jammed a finger on his pitching hand earlier in the week, and he was replaced by Andre Pallante, who gave up Jean Segura's go-ahead single through the right side of the infield.

Edmundo Sosa added a run when he brazenly scored on Bryson Stott's grounder to first base, and Brandon Marsh drove in another when a tough hop got past Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong.

"Unfortunately," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said, "that last inning got away."

By the time Kyle Schwarber added a sacrifice fly, Phillies reliever Zach Eflin had plenty of wiggle room in the ninth.

Nolan Arenado and Dylan Carlson reached base and Nolan Gorman hit a two-out RBI single to right in the bottom half, but Eflin responded by striking out longtime Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina to end it.

That leaves Philadelphia one win away from a series victory and a matchup in the next round with the Atlanta Braves, the reigning World Series champs who won their fifth straight NL East title earlier this week.


Padres 7, Mets 1

NEW YORK — After a stunning romp, the San Diego Padres are halfway home in the wild-card round.

Josh Bell and Manny Machado smashed two of San Diego's four homers off an ineffective Max Scherzer, and the Padres blew out the New York Mets, who had spent most of the season atop the NL East before falling short to Atlanta.

"This is not a game that you normally see out of Max, so we were fortunate," Padres manager Bob Melvin said.

Yu Darvish shut down the Mets once again, and San Diego also got long balls from leadoff batter Jurickson Profar and slumping Trent Grisham against Scherzer, who was booed off the mound in the fifth inning at sold-out Citi Field.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner exited his first postseason start for New York down 7-0, a massive disappointment after Scherzer was signed to a $130 million contract in December to pitch big games for his new team.

"Baseball can take you to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and this is one of the lowest of lows," said Scherzer, who was part of the Washington Nationals' World Series title run in 2019.

San Diego needs one more win to advance to face the Los Angeles Dodgers, who ran away with the NL West and the league's top seed with 111 victories in the regular season.

Blake Snell starts for Arizona on Saturday night, when the Mets will give the ball to Jacob deGrom, the staff's co-ace with Scherzer who has been scuffling of late.

After winning 101 games during the regular season, which ranks second in franchise history, the Mets are suddenly facing elimination at home after falling flat before a revved-up crowd of 41,621 in their first playoff game since 2016.

"We've been really good, and now we get to see what we're made of," said New York slugger Pete Alonso, who struck out in the first two playoff at-bats of his career — including with runners at the corners and one out in the first inning.

Eduardo Escobar homered and doubled off Darvish, who has won all three of his starts against New York this year with a 0.86 ERA.

The star right-hander from Japan, coming off a 16-win season, was the NL pitcher of the month for September and picked up right where he left off. He wriggled out of trouble early when the game was still competitive and then settled in to throw seven innings of six-hit ball without a walk for his first postseason victory in five years.

Darvish is 5-0 with a 2.56 ERA in eight career regular-season starts against the Mets, including 3-0 at Citi Field.

The 38-year-old Scherzer also lost a critical game last weekend in Atlanta, giving up nine hits (including two homers) and four runs in 5 2/3 innings. He missed about nine weeks this season during two stints on the injured list with left oblique injuries, but he finished 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA and said Thursday he was fully healthy.

Scherzer had little snap on his pitches, though, and the Padres took advantage. Bell launched a two-run homer in the first in his initial postseason plate appearance and flipped his bat after his first home run since Sept. 6. Grisham, batting eighth after hitting .107 since August ended, connected for a solo shot in the second.

Profar made it 6-0 with a three-run drive in the fifth that tucked just inside the right-field foul pole, and Machado sent a laser over the left-field fence two batters later.

"My fastball was running on me," Scherzer said. "When my fastball's flat and then running, that's usually when I get hit a lot. Obviously tonight I got hit a lot."


AMERICAN LEAGUE

Guardians 2, Rays 1

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Guardians were certain of two things: José Ramírez would deliver, and Amed Rosario touched second base.

The kids were all right.

Ramírez connected for a two-run homer, Shane Bieber dominated Tampa Bay for 7 2/3 innings, and the young Guardians played with poise in their postseason debut for a 1-0 lead in an AL wild-card series.

The sixth-inning shot by Ramirez off Shane McClanahan — the Rays initially appealed whether Rosario stepped on second — helped Cleveland end an eight-game postseason losing streak and left MLB's youngest team one win from advancing in its first season as the Guardians.

Though short on experience, the team formerly known as the Indians seems to have everything else.

"At this point we're dealing with what we got in that clubhouse," Bieber said, brushing off the youth of a team that had 17 players make their MLB debut this season. "And that's a winning ballclub."

Bieber, the 2020 AL Cy Young Award winner who was rocked in his only other playoff appearance two years ago by the New York Yankees, was spectacular on this afternoon. He allowed just three hits and struck out eight batters before being lifted in the eighth to a thunderous ovation.

Emmanuel Clase took it from there, getting four outs for his first postseason save and finishing a game that took just 2 hours, 17 minutes — the fastest in the postseason since 1999 and Cleveland's quickest since its World Series-clinching win in 1948.

Jose Siri homered in the top of the sixth for the Rays, who are on a six-game losing streak that started in the regular season and will turn to left-handed starter Tyler Glasnow on Saturday to keep their season alive. The series winner faces East champion New York in an AL Division Series starting Tuesday in the Bronx.

Terry Francona, Cleveland's veteran manager, will give the ball to 25-year-old right-hander Triston McKenzie.


Mariners 4, Blue Jays 0

TORONTO — Luis Castillo and Andrés Muñoz combined on a shutout, Cal Raleigh hit a two-run homer, and the Seattle Mariners won their first postseason game since 2001.

Eugenio Suárez had two hits and two RBIs, and rookie Julio Rodríguez reached base three times and scored twice for the Mariners, who will try Saturday to wrap up the series and move on to face the Houston Astros, the 2021 AL champs and this year's West Division winners.

Throwing two different kinds of fastballs at 100 mph and his changeup at 92 mph, Castillo scattered six singles in 7 /13 innings. He struck out five batters and walked none while facing the AL's second-highest scoring team this year.

Castillo, acquired in a midseason trade with the Cincinnati Reds, became the first pitcher in franchise history to throw more than seven scoreless innings in a postseason start.

Muñoz came on in the eighth after Castillo hit George Springer on the left wrist with his 108th pitch. The Seattle reliever finished the inning by getting Bo Bichette to fly out and retiring Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on a grounder to shortstop.

Matt Chapman's two-out double in the ninth was Toronto's seventh hit of the game, but first for extra bases, and Muñoz quickly closed out the Blue Jays.

Toronto's Alek Manoah, an All-Star making the first postseason start of his career, gave up four runs in 5 2/3 innings, matching the total he allowed in six September starts. Three of the four hits off him were for extra bases.

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