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After a couple of nights of wild card action, the “real” playoffs get going on Thursday night. Not to take anything away from the teams who competed in those games, of course - except for the Yankees, because screw those guys forever - but it’s just not the same until you get to at least a best of five series.
Weird things can still happen in a best of five or best of seven and the lesser team can end up winning. It’s just a less likely outcome. I find the drama more interesting when it’s spread over a week rather than condensed into one night.
Each of the National League Division Series matchups begins on Thursday. The Rockies and Brewers start things off with a scheduled 5:07 first pitch. That will air on Fox Sports 1. Later, the Braves and the Dodgers will get going at 8:37 on MLB Network.
The expected starting pitchers are:
Rockies: Antonio Sentazela
Brewers: Brandon Woodruff
Braves: Mike Foltynewicz
Dodgers: Hyun-Jin Ryu
As my default stance is to treat both National League baseball and baseball played west of Frederick as being beneath my notice, I can’t say that I have ever spent any time thinking about either Sentazela or Woodruff before right this moment as I compose this open thread post. We can learn about them together as these games go along.
The Brewers starting lineup, which does not include Jonathan Schoop:
- Lorenzo Cain - CF
- Christian Yelich - RF
- Ryan Braun - LF
- Travis Shaw - 2B
- Jesus Aguilar - 1B
- Mike Moustakas - 3B
- Manny Pina - C
- Orlando Arcia - SS
- Brandon Woodruff - RHP
Notably, Woodruff started only four games for the Brewers during the regular season, with 15 games pitched in relief. The Brewers are going with a bullpen game in Game 1. Good luck to them, if they deserve luck since they don’t even have Schoop playing.
The Rockies starting lineup:
- Charlie Blackmon - CF
- DJ LeMahieu - 2B
- Nolan Arenado - 3B
- David Dahl - LF
- Trevor Story - SS
- Carlos Gonzalez - RF
- Ian Desmond - 1B
- Chris Iannetta - C
- Antonio Sentazela - RHP
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