We spent the entire regular season obsessing over what the playoff picture would look like and who the top seeds would be, in large part because home field advantage is supposed to be so important. And now here we are, seven games into the two Championship Series, and the home teams are… 1-6.
This has led to a 2-2 tie in the ALCSbut it has also given rise to the very real possibility that the Dodgers, in front of their fans, secure a spot in their second consecutive World Seriesand the fifth in the last nine seasons, on Friday night. However, the Brewers had the best record in the major leagues during the regular season; You have to think that this will be reflected on the field at some point in this series. Either way: Friday may very well be the last day with more than one ball game until March.
Throughout this postseason, I will be previewing the day’s action, game by game. Here’s a story line for each team from Friday’s two ALCS games.
ALCS, Game 5: Blue Jays vs. Sailors (Tied 2-2)
6:08 pm ET, FS1, FOX Sports
Blue Jays: Did the offense fully wake up?
The Blue Jays were blown out in their first two games by Seattle, scoring just four runs and leaving tens of thousands of Canadian fans in silence. After Julio Rodríguez hit a home run to start Game 3, one wondered if the Mariners were going to sweep this. And then Andrés Giménez hit a two-run homer that led to a five-run rally in the third inning, and the Blue Jays scored in the next three innings after that, and then in Game 4 they turned the lineup around again in the third, and suddenly… well, the Blue Jays seem to be one of the best offenses in baseball again. And success is coming from top to bottom of the lineup.
Giménez, who hit seven home runs all season, has now homered in consecutive games for the first time since August 2022. And in Game 4, he combined with Ernie Clement, Addison Barger and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to go 7 for 14 with two doubles, a home run, a walk, four RBIs and four runs scored from spots 6 to 9. but The real spark — and what makes it feel like the Canadians are going to maintain this pace — is the explosion of the Dominican Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who is so fired up right now that you forget that he was thought to be in a slump about 60 hours ago.
The Blue Jays have punished the Mariners’ pitching and stunned their fans in the last two games at T-Mobile Park. If their hitters keep up the pressure, they could do it once again and fly back to Toronto feeling unstoppable and with a chance to secure a trip to the World Series.
Sailors: Is Bryan Woo ready for this?
It was a bit surprising that manager Dan Wilson decided to go with Miller to start Game 5. Miller was excellent (on little rest, no less) in Game 1, but had a miserable regular season that was plagued by injury problems. Meanwhile, Woo was one of the best pitchers in all of MLB this year before being excluded from the AL Division Series roster while recovering from right pectoral inflammation that has sidelined him since September 19.
Woo’s inclusion on the ALCS roster was a sign that the Mariners are comfortable with his health, and the assumption among many was that Woo would return to the rotation. Instead, he will come out of the bullpen for the first time in his entire professional career. Your team will certainly need it either way.
Given that the Mariners’ starters have only totaled 6.1 innings in the first two games in Seattle, Woo may be tapped to provide a significant inning load out of the bullpen, especially if Miller isn’t as sharp as he was in Game 1. (Watch out for the third inning: that’s been the breakout moment for the Blue Jays these last two games.) Woo hasn’t pitched in almost a month, and now the 25-year-old will be thrust onto the biggest stage of his career. Seattle is counting on him to be ready.
NLCS, Game 4: Brewers vs. Dodgers (LAD up 3-0)
8:38 pm ET, FS1, FOX Sports
Brewers: Now how are you supposed to score runs?
It’s fair to say that the Brewers have had trouble scoring runs in this series. They only have four extra base hits. They have just nine total hits, three of them from Caleb Durbin. They only have one home run. They’re hitting .101. A lot of that, most of it, is due to the Dodgers’ pitching.
But the Brewers have been bringing wet noodles to home plate for three games, and getting that offense on track has become more difficult after leadoff hitter Jackson Chourio, the man with that only homer, suffered from his hamstring injury. Although manager Pat Murphy sounded optimistic about the Venezuelan’s availability after Game 3. The worst part of this series for the Brewers is that, even though these three losses have been by only seven runs in total, they have rarely felt like they have been in these games. That’s what happens when your offense looks this bad.
The Brewers were a good offensive team this year, honestly, even if anyone watching them for the first time now might not believe it. Those who have been watching them all year know that the bat explosion should come at some point. But they are down 3-0. That “sometime” is in danger of becoming “in 2026.”
Dodgers: Will returning to the mound make Shohei take off?
It’s been 12 days since Shohei Ohtani was the starting pitcher in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Phillies and allowed three runs in the second inning before settling in for a quality start that set his team up for a come-from-behind victory. The Dodgers have won five of six since then, thanks in large part to a series of incredible performances from their starting pitching, and look like a team that’s firing on all cylinders. Last year’s Dodgers won the World Series, and right now, this team looks much better than that one.
But one cylinder that isn’t currently firing is Ohtani the hitter. His problems have been well documented: After going 1 for 4 with a leadoff triple in Game 4, he is 3 for 29 between the NLDS and the NLCS, with that triple being his only extra-base hit. It’s his worst slump of the season, and he’s sufficiently baffled by what’s happening that he took batting practice on the Dodger Stadium field before Game 3, a rare occurrence.
In this series, the Brewers haven’t scored enough for the Californians to miss Ohtani’s bat. But LA will need more than that in a theoretical World Series, one that is now just one win away. The main goal for the Dodgers in Game 4 is to complete the sweep, but Goal No. 2 could be for Ohtani to find his rhythm — both at the plate and on the mound — for what’s next.
