Saturday MLB postseason open thread

The number of days in which there will be more than one MLB game played is rapidly dwindling. Depending on how the series play out, there will be as many as four, but potentially as few as two, including today. Enjoy the baseball while you can, before it goes away from us for five months.

Here’s what’s lined up for the Saturday evening action:

Astros at Yankees, 5:07, TBS

Houston leads best-of-seven series, 2-0

Starting pitchers: Cristian Javier (HOU), Gerrit Cole (NYY)

After dropping two games in Houston to start this series off, the Yankees are back in New York looking to turn things around. They can do a whole lot worse than turning to their $324 million starting pitcher Cole in looking to do so. Cole tossed over 200 innings in the regular season this year and had a WHIP only just above 1 (1.017, to be exact). Those are pretty good numbers, though because he gave up so many dingers, his league-adjusted ERA+ was only 111.

Cole’s been on fire through this postseason so far, almost singlehandedly dragging the Yankees through the ALDS. Houston’s offense might be a bit better than Cleveland’s. The Yankees might need Cole to drag them through this series too, as they’re batting only .138 through the first two games of the series. They’re going to need more than just Cole to get four wins in the next five games.

Javier was amazing in the regular season, finishing with a 2.54 ERA in 30 games (25 starts). That included a sub-1 WHIP. Pretty good.

Padres at Phillies, 7:45, Fox

Philadelphia leads best-of-seven series, 2-1

Starting pitchers: Mike Clevinger (SDP), Bailey Falter (PHI)

The Padres let the Phillies come away with a win in San Diego, and now the Padres need to steal a win on the road themselves if they are going to be able to bring the series back to San Diego.

Turning to a pitcher who was well below league average in this season (an 86 ERA+, which is about the Spenser Watkins level) as the starter in Game 4 may not be the best way to do that for the Padres, but hey, we’ll see if it works out for them, won’t we? Phillies pitcher Bailey Falter has yet to pitch in this postseason, or any postseason.

Of the four teams remaining, the Padres would by far be the most interest winners to me, so I hope they can find a way to get back into the series.