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The 2021 Major League Baseball playoffs jumped into high gear on Friday with a four-game roster of division matches. The Astros, Brewers, Red Sox and Giants were all winners on this busy day. Houston opened a 2-0 advantage over the White Sox in the ALDS, while the Red Sox tied their streak against the Rays. In the National League, the Giants – the best baseball team in the regular season – took a shutout victory over the Dodgers, and the Brewers edged the Braves in a pitching duel.
Here are Friday’s scores and the main takeaways.
Friday play-off results
- FINAL: Astros 9, White Sox 4 (box score) – Astros lead 2-0
- FINAL: Brewers 2, Braves 1 (score Box) – Brewers leads 1-0
- FINAL: Red Sox 14, Rays 6 (Box score) – Series tied 1-1
- FINAL: Giants 4, Dodgers 0 (score box) – Giants lead 1-0
Giants strike first in NL West showdown
There has never been a playoff between two teams with more than 106 wins, and the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants never faced each other in an actual playoff series – until Friday night. The Giants quickly got the upper hand in this one when Buster Posey hit a soaring two-runner shot into the opposing field on a 3-0 count in the first inning. The Giants would later add a Kris Bryant home run as insurance and later add another Brandon Crawford shot, although neither was really necessary as starter Logan Webb was absolutely brilliant. He worked 7 2/3 innings scoreless, striking out 10 scoreless while allowing just five hits.
For complete information on this game, click here.
Hernández and Red Sox make history on return
Similar to ALDS Game 1, Friday Game 2 got off to a disastrous start for the Red Sox. They scored two runs early in the first set to see Chris Sale give up five runs in the bottom half, including a grand slam to Jordan Luplow. The sale lasted a round. This is the first time that a team’s starters have failed to complete two innings in the first two games of a playoff series (Eduardo Rodriguez played 1 2/3 innings in Game 1).
Rather than let the Rays get away with it, the Red Sox hit back. Xander Bogaerts and Alex Verdugo scored back-to-back homers in the third inning, reducing the deficit to 5-4, then Enrique Hernández tied the game with a solo homerun in the fifth inning. Later in that round, JD Martinez gave Boston the lead with a long, strong three-point home run down center.
Martinez missed the Wild Card Game and ALDS Game 1 with a sprained ankle. It was a fluke injury – he slipped at second base while running to his position in right field in the regular season finale – but it was bad enough to put him on the sidelines in the first two games. of the team in the playoffs, and that limited him to DH in Game 2. Martinez had four hits in Game 2.
The not-so-misunderstood hero: Tanner Houck. Houck replaced Sale and shot five scoreless innings, keeping the Rays long enough for Boston’s offense to return to the game. Houck joined Nathan Eovaldi and Pedro Martinez as the only pitchers in Red Sox history with a relief appearance in five playoff innings. He had a 30 consecutive retired batting streak (spanning his last four appearances) in Game 2.
Rafael Devers froze Game 2 with a two-run homer in the eighth inning. Even with all homers – the Red Sox hit a five homer playoff franchise record in Game 2 – Hernández was the star. He went 5 for 6 with a homerun and three doubles, becoming only the fifth player in history with four more hits in a playoff game. Hernandez also came close to hitting a fourth double, but Kevin Kiermaier made a good play to cut a ball in the gap in the ninth inning. The other four hitters with four more hits in a playoff game:
- Albert Pujols, cardinals: 3 doubles and 1 home run (2011 NLCS Game 2 vs Brewers)
- Hideki Matsui, Yankees: 2 doubles and 2 home runs (2004 ALCS Game 3 vs Red Sox)
- Bob Robertson, pirates: 1 doubles and 3 homers (1971 NLCS Game 2 vs Giants)
- Frank Isbell, White Sox: 4 doubles (1906 World Series Game 6 vs. Cubs)
Before Friday, the teams were 24-1 in the playoffs scoring more than five points in the first inning. The Rays are just the second team to lose such a game, joining Cleveland. Cleveland lost Game 1 of the 1997 ALDS to the Yankees 8-6 after taking a 5-0 lead in the first inning. The ALDS are now tied at one game each. Game 3 is Sunday at Fenway Park.
Rowdy, Brewers win the pitching duel
The NLDS opener between the Braves and the Brewers looked like a connoisseur pitching duel until Rowdy Tellez broke a scoreless tie in the seventh with a two-run homerun against Atlanta’s Charlie Morton. The Milwaukee reliever box held just enough of that lead, as the Brewers took a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-five series with the 2-1 victory.
Tellez, seeing Morton for the third time in the game, returned a 1-2 fastball and sent him 411 feet down center right. The clutch explosion left Tellez batting at 109.3 mph:
Ahead of his home plate exploits, Tellez also did the heavy lifting in a 1-2 double play in the lead that helped Brewers starter Corbin Burnes escape an early traffic jam.
Burnes overcame early leadership issues and had six scoreless innings with six strikeouts and three walks. Of his 91 throws, 57 went for strikes. He caused six strikeouts – including that key double play in the first – against a single fly-out. Moreover, Burnes allowed just two hard-hit balls in the first game. He didn’t allow any hits until Eddie Rosario’s single bloop to start the fifth. Burnes struck out a pair of sticks in his final inning, but Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell opted to pinch him in the half of the sixth. Pinch hitter Dan Vogelbach worked a walk – Morton’s first of the game.
Opposite, Morton was just as efficient and even more dominant, at least until Tellez’s decisive home run. Flashing full mastery of his hammer ball and showing one of his fastest speeds of 2021, Morton hit nine and only walked in six innings of work. He allowed two earned on three hits.
Braves outfielder Joc Pederson cut Milwaukee’s lead in half in the eighth with a solo homerun over field from Adrian Houser, who was working his second frame in relief from Burnes. Then, however, the closest to the lockdown, Josh Hader, closed the game in the ninth after a starting walk and a single against Austin Riley.
Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday in Milwaukee, as Max Fried clashes with Brandon Woodruff.
The Bullpens decide on the Astros-Chisox 2 game
The Astros beat the White Sox by a 9-4 (box scoring) final on Friday afternoon in Game 2 of their American League best-of-five division series. The Astros now have a 2-0 lead with the series heading to Chicago on Sunday. The two teams traded leads in the first five innings. The White Sox took the lead in the first when Luis Robert scored on the choice of a defensive player to make it 1-0. Houston first tied the game in the second set on a Kyle Tucker single, then took the lead later in that frame on a sacrificial fly from Chas McCormick. The White Sox pushed three through the plate to take a 4-2 lead in the fifth, but once again the Astros roared and tied the game at 4-4 on a Yuli Gurriel single.
From there it was all Houston.
Neither starter Lucas Giolito nor Framber Valdez finished up to five innings, meaning the game was ultimately left in the hands of the relief corps. The Astros rose to the challenge; the White Sox did not.
Five Houston relievers combined to throw 4 2/3 shutout frames. Chicago also had to use five relievers, but rather than a clean sheet, Aaron Bummer and Craig Kimbrel ended up with twisted numbers.
Indeed, Bummer and Kimbrel allowed five runs on five hits in a total inning of work. Bummer, for his part, allowed three singles that gave the Astros a 5-4 lead. Kimbrel then came in and gave Carlos Correa a brace to make it 7-4, then a two-point shot to Kyle Tucker to put the game out of reach.
As we’ve noted elsewhere, for as busy as the White Sox relieving pen appears on paper, they tended to melt during the regular season. They did it again on Friday – and notably without using Michael Kopech. When asked about Kopech’s absence from manager Tony La Russa, he provided the following blunt response:
Down 0-2 in the series, the story is not on Chicago’s side. The White Sox will now need three straight wins to avoid elimination in the Division Series. According to Andrew Simon of MLB.com, there were 32 instances in the 2-2-1 format era where a road team lost the first two games. Only three of those teams returned to win the series. Conversely, 19 of those teams were swept away in three games. We’ll see if the White Sox can prove to be the exception on Sunday afternoon.
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