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After all eight remaining teams were in action during Friday’s MLB postseason action, just the National League will take center stage Saturday in a pair of Game 2s from the division series.

A pair of division winners lead off the day’s play, as the NL East champion Washington Nationals host the NL West-winning Los Angeles Dodgers, who lead the series 1-0.

In the nightcap, the San Francisco Giants, who went into Queens and took the Wild Card Game, head back to Wrigley Field down 1-0 to meet the best team in baseball, the Chicago Cubs:

Predictions

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Washington Nationals

Probables: Rich Hill (12-5, 2.12 ERA) vs. Tanner Roark (16-10, 2.83 ERA)

The headline of this game will be the two men on the mound to start Saturday afternoon.

Los Angeles’ Rich Hill and Washington’s Tanner Roark are both making their postseason debuts after solid seasons.

Roark put up a career-best 16-10 record and 172 strikeouts in his fourth professional season to go with a 2.83 ERA that ranked sixth in the majors.

Hill, on the other hand, just finished his 12th regular season, which began in Oakland with the Athletics. After going 9-3 with a 2.25 ERA as the Athletics ace, Hill, who is a free agent at the end of the year, was dealt at the deadline to a Dodgers team in need of pitching depth after the injury over the summer to ace Clayton Kershaw.

In six starts with the Dodgers, his first stint as a NL pitcher since 2008, Hill posted a minuscule 1.83 ERA.

Having spent most of the past eight seasons in the American League, he’s an unfamiliar arm for a lot of NL teams, including the Nationals.

Only Stephen Drew, Bryce Harper, Jose Lobaton, Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman have faced Hill in their careers, going a combined 5-for-8.

On the other side of the diamond, 10 different Dodgers have faced Roark for a combined 54 at-bats.

Familiarity in big situations can always give one particular team a leg up. In this case, it’s advantage Dodgers, especially with a hot pitcher on the mound like Hill.

Prediction: Dodgers 5, Nationals 3

San Francisco Giants vs. Chicago Cubs

Probables: Jeff Samardzija (12-11, 3.81 ERA) vs. Kyle Hendricks (16.8, 2.13 ERA)

It’s not going to matter who the Giants are rolling out on the mound for Game 2 of the NLDS at Wrigley Field as long as his name isn’t Madison Bumgarner, which it isn’t after his complete-game gem in the Wild Card Game against the Mets.

Instead, it’s Jeff Samardzija, who has allowed nine runs in two career starts against his former team.

The Cubs are rolling out Kyle Hendricks, who had the lowest ERA in the majors at 2.13, which was 0.31 points lower than the second-place Jon Lester, who is also Hendricks’ teammate.

Against a Giants offense that was hitless against Noah Syndergaard through the first 5.2 innings in the Wild Card Game, a pitcher who has been as good as Hendricks could be too much for San Francisco to handle. Especially after it was held scoreless Friday night in Game 1.

Having already faced the Giants once during the regular season, Hendricks allowed just one run on three hits in 5.1 innings. However, he did lose the game 1-0, but it was opposite of Bumgarner, who went 7.2 innings, gave up three hits and struck out six.

As long as Bumgarner doesn’t take the mound and Hendricks is on point, the Cubs should win this game.

Chicago has an offense that scored 808 runs in the regular season, third-most in the majors, and it got its power surge from the bottom of the lineup Friday night in the form of Javier Baez, via MLB:

That should be more than enough to head to San Francisco with a 2-0 lead after Saturday night due to an anemic Giants offense.

If not, Bumgarner is looming in Game 3, and a loss at Wrigley on Saturday means all the momentum swings to the Giants as the series progresses.

Prediction: Cubs 6, Giants 1

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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On Monday, the Miami Marlins fired hitting coach Barry Bonds, one of the greatest home run hitters in MLB history.

Later in the day an MLB coach told Kevin Kernan of the New York Post that Marlins manager Don Mattingly would have resigned if Bonds had remained with the team. 

According to SiriusXM’s Craig Mish, Bonds’ “commitment level dwindled” as the season progressed, and Mattingly called him out over the summer. 

However, the writing was on the wall early.

In April, Mattingly, who was in his first season with Miami after spending five years as the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, took a swipe at Bonds’ work ethic, saying he was “a work in progress,” while lauding assistant hitting coach Frank Menechino for making most of the preparations ahead of games, per Ann Killion of the San Francisco Chronicle:

You see Frankie still doing a lot of the prep work. Barry is still getting into the routine of the ugly side of coaching: being here at 1 and studying video, studying on the plane and you don’t get a chance to watch movies, things like that.

It just depends how good you want to be as a coach. If you want to be a really good coach, you’ve got to do the work.

Under Bonds, the Marlins offense was mediocre as the team finished with a 79-82 record, good for third place in the National League East:

However, the Marlins’ difficult ending to the season, with the tragic death of ace Jose Fernandez, made late-September and October baseball irrelevant.

For Bonds, his first job in MLB since his retirement as a player in 2007 ended early, and his reported problems with Mattingly might not make it easy for him to catch on anywhere else.

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Major League Baseball’s postseason is officially underway after the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Wild Card Game on Tuesday night. 

While there are only nine teams remaining ahead of Wednesday night’s National League Wild Card Game between the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets, 21 other teams have officially set their sights toward next spring. 

Whether it’s in the field or in the dugout, here is the latest on baseball’s biggest rumors.

Andrew McCutchen Could Be Shipped from Pittsburgh

For the better part of seven years, center fielder Andrew McCutchen has been the face of the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise and gone through the peaks and valleys of a franchise that’s fluctuated from mediocrity to playoff contender. 

The five-time All-Star was the 2013 National League MVP and is currently fifth on the Pirates’ all-time home run list. But there has been a growing suspicion that Pittsburgh could deal McCutchen out of town sooner rather than later. 

According to former New York Mets general manager and MLB Network Radio analyst Jim Duquette (via Rob Biertempfel of TribLive.com): “There are people I’ve talked to who are convinced the Pirates are going to trade McCutchen this winter.”

While his numbers were still productive, McCutchen did see a noticeable dip in his play in a 2016 season that ended just eight days before his 30th birthday:

McCutchen‘s contract is up in 2017—he is owed $14 million—although he has a $14.5 million club option in 2018, per Spotrac.

Dealing McCutchen before he hits free agency will eliminate the chance of not getting anything for him if he does decide to walk come next winter. And given his sudden decrease in production in 2016, it might be a sell-high opportunity for the Pirates to retool the roster and acquire some young pieces to build a contender around. 

Per Biertempfel, one American League scout said that McCutchen could garner “two good prospects.” But if there is a large market interested in him, Pittsburgh’s return could become much more if it does indeed make McCutchen available. 

Candidates for Braves Job Surfacing

Times for Atlanta Braves are certainly different compared to the team that won 14 straight divisional titles from 1991-2005. 

For the second straight year, Atlanta lost over 90 games, including a last-place finish in the NL East this season. 

The franchise gave former manager Fredi Gonzalez a short leash, firing him 37 games into the season after a 9-28 start. 

Interim manager Brian Snitker went 59-65, which was far more respectable for a struggling roster. However, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported that Snitker is “not automatic” to get the job next season. 

Two names that have surfaced for the job are Bud Black and Ron Washington, per Rosenthal—two men with substantial managing experience in the majors. 

Black spent nine seasons with the San Diego Padres, compiling a 649-713 record. He was voted the 2010 NL Manager of the Year after leading the Padres to a 90-72 record but never made the postseason. 

Washington, on the other hand, won a pair of American League pennants in seven-plus seasons with the Texas Rangers from 2007-14. 

He collected five winning seasons—90-plus victories in four of them—and that has seemingly made him an early favorite for the job. 

Per Rosenthal, Washington is set to interview with the team on Wednesday and has a friend in the front office in John Hart, who is Atlanta’s president of baseball operations and worked with the former Rangers manager in Texas. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com. 

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The San Francisco Giants are headed back to the postseason for the first time since 2014, clinching the final National League wild-card spot Sunday thanks to a 7-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on the last day of the regular season.

MLB shared the news on Twitter:

Dating back to 2010, the Giants have won the World Series every other year, and Sunday’s victory kept the streak alive at least for another few days.

The Giants’ Twitter account was well aware of the team’s recent success:

Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports believes in San Francisco’s ability in the playoffs:

The Giants will play the New York Mets at Citi Field on Wednesday afternoon for an opportunity to advance to the National League Division Series for a meeting with the juggernaut Chicago Cubs.

Wayne Randazzo of WOR 710 discussed the pitching matchup for the Wild Card Game battle:

Jayson Stark of ESPN.com provided an interesting note on the regular season’s final game:

Veteran pitcher Jake Peavy addressed the home crowd after the win, as the Giants shared on Twitter:

Meanwhile, the real celebration took place a short time later in the locker room:

The Giants, who have won three World Series titles in the past six years, were coming off a disappointing 2015 campaign in which they missed the playoffs with an 84-78 record. They overhauled their starting rotation, bringing in new signings Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija to support ace Madison Bumgarner, which immediately made them a more threatening team.

Behind their impressive pitching staff, the Giants were the class of the National League for the first half of the season. Through July 10, San Francisco was 57-33, the best record in the big leagues, and was 6.5 games up on the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the National League West. 

But after the All-Star break, things fell apart, and the Giants went 11-25 over the next month and a half, squandering the division lead to the Dodgers for good.

Los Angeles clinched the division for the fourth straight season Sept. 25, forcing the Giants to fight for their postseason lives in the wild-card race with the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals. 

The Giants and Mets tied for the top spot, although New York will be at home Wednesday thanks to its 4-3 advantage during the regular season. The Cardinals ended up one game out of the playoffs.

Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area noted the Giants are streaking at the right time:

When the Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals in the 2014 World Series, they were an 88-win wild-card team that had gotten hot at the right time.

However, playing the Mets, who rely on home runs, the Giants might not have the power to keep up. San Francisco didn’t have one player record 20 or more home runs this year.

If they get past the Mets in the Wild Card Game, the Giants will have to rely on their pitching and the winning experience of Bumgarner and Cueto to limit the high-powered offensive lineups of other National League contenders in the postseason.

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With Major League Baseball’s playoffs just days away, the first 100-win season since 1935 doesn’t mean a thing for Chicago Cubs starter Jon Lester. 

On Saturday, the All-Star left-hander who is tied for the National League lead with 19 wins, made his intentions clear as the calendar flipped to October, via Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com: “This season isn’t anything unless we do what we showed up at spring training to do—win a World Series. I don’t want to sound like an a–hole or anything, but we really haven’t done anything yet.”

It’s been 108 years since the Cubs won their last World Series, which was the second in franchise history, and while Lester is downplaying his team’s accomplishments, 100-win seasons don’t come around too often in the team’s 141-year history. 

In fact, it’s only happened only six times, including this season:

For Lester, though, the shift to October means that it’s a clean slate, but it’s imperative that his Cubs carry over their regular-season success into the playoffs:

This is the real season now. You play 162 to get to now. … It’s go time. Now we have to live up to the expectations and hype. … The big thing with this team is we’re consistent. We show up every day to play. That’s huge, especially with the young group that we have. That’s hard to do. That’s a hard thing to learn at a young age. These guys do it.

At 32, Lester is an elder statesman on a Cubs team that is riddled with young talent ranging from National League MVP candidate and 24-year-old third baseman Kris Bryant to 22-year-old starting shortstop Addison Russell. 

That youth has brought a swagger of sorts to a downtrodden organization as the Cubs rank third in the MLB in runs, first in team ERA and most importantly, first in wins. 

Lester has done his part to contribute to that team ERA, posting a 2.44 that ranks second in the majors. It’s 0.45 points higher than his Cubs teammate, 26-year-old and league-leader Kyle Hendricks’ 1.99 mark. 

According to Rogers, Lester is slated to pitch Game 1 of the NLDS where the Cubs will meet the winner of the National League Wild Card Game whether it be the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants or St. Louis Cardinals. 

His veteran presence is sure to be one of the most valued in the clubhouse too as he won a pair of World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2007 and 2013. 

Given the Cubs’ past though, it’s understandable why fans could be entering the postseason as cautiously optimistic supporters. The last time the Cubs even competed in a World Series was 1945, and the following seven decades have been filled with collapses and playoff heartbreak. 

But given the makeup of this team and the way they barnstormed through the league this season, the Cubs have a great chance to end baseball’s longest, most torturous drought this season. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com. 

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MLB announced Tuesday that it suspended Washington Nationals rookie pitcher A.J. Cole five games for intentionally throwing close to the head of Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang during Sunday afternoon’s contest.

Cole will appeal the suspension. 

The feud began in the third inning when Nationals star Bryce Harper tripled down the right field line. The throw from Pirates right fielder Josh Bell sailed over both cutoff men and bounced well to the left of third base, where Harper was headed. 

As Kang covered third, he faked as though the ball was coming at him by pretending to prepare for a tag. To beat the imaginary tag attempt, Harper slid awkwardly into third, where he injured his hand, which forced him to leave the game:

According to the Washington Post‘s Chelsea Janes, Harper jammed his thumb and underwent X-rays on Monday. He isn’t expected to miss much time. 

Harper missed Monday night’s game and is not in the Nationals’ lineup for Tuesday night’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, per Rotowire.

He had torn the ligament in his left thumb in 2014 and was initially worried that it happened again Sunday, voicing his displeasure with Kang’s actions in the process, per Janes:

First initial thought in my head was my UCL [ulnar collateral ligament] was gone and I’ll have to go back through surgery and things like that. Right now, I don’t feel that feeling. More like a jam, like in basketball kind of thing. Just a bad play. Ball’s up the line, shouldn’t do it. I understand the deke at second base, double play kind of thing. But that kind of thing? It’s not part of the game.

In the bottom of the inning, Cole seemingly came to the defense of his teammate by unleashing a fastball that sailed behind Kang, which ushered an immediate ejection. 

The benches proceeded to clear, but that was the extent of the fireworks. 

Per MLB.com, Cole is the Nationals’ 13th-ranked prospect and is 1-2 with a 5.09 ERA in seven games this season. 

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Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen is set to hit free agency after his one-year, $10.65 million contract expires at the end of the 2016 season, per Spotrac. 

Having spent his entire seven-year career with the Dodgers, Jansen revealed to Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball that he isn’t automatically committing to Los Angeles in the winter:

LA’s nice. LA’s great. LA gave me the opportunity. LA converted me when I failed as a catcher. I’m grateful about it, and will never forget LA. But at the same time, we’ll have to see what’s good for the family… It’s going to be a tough decision. It’s not going to only be me.

Jansen originally joined the Dodgers organization as a catcher, though he was unable to find success at the plate in the minors. It was there he moved from behind the plate to the mound, joining the Dodgers bullpen in 2010. 

After two years as a middle reliever and setup man, Jansen became the team’s closer in 2012 and hasn’t relinquished the role since. 

Over the past five years, the Curacao native has recorded 177 saves, including 44 in 2014. In total, his 186 career saves are a Dodgers all-time record. He also hasn’t recorded an ERA over 2.76 in that span and is experiencing a career year in 2016. 

In 65 games, Jansen has already tied his career high with 44 saves while posting an ERA of 1.72, which will be the lowest of his career in a season in which he appeared in over 25 games. 

It warranted his first-ever All-Star selection and has helped the Dodgers open up a four-game lead in the National League West over the San Francisco Giants entering Friday night. 

He doesn’t have the most overpowering stuff compared to other premier closers around the game such as Aroldis Chapman of the Chicago Cubs and Jeurys Familia of the New York Mets. But a fastball that tops out around 94 miles per hour is supported by a seldom-used slider that is more than 10 miles per hour slower, per Fangraphs, which has made him so tough to figure out:

Excelling at a position that has become a hot commodity in a game that stresses pitch counts from its starters, Jansen will surely garner plenty of attention during free agency this winter. 

If a team that is desperate for late-inning help comes along, a bidding war might decide where Jansen lands in 2017. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com. 

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Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Scott Kazmir was diagnosed with thoracic spine inflammation and could be out indefinitely as the regular season draws to a close. 

Continue for updates:

Kazmir Has No Timetable For Return

Saturday, Sept. 10

MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick relayed the update. 

The 31-year-old is in his first season with the Dodgers after signing a three-year, $48 million deal in the offseason, via Spotrac.com, which is his third team in the past two seasons. 

After starting 2016 off slow with a 2-3 record, Kazmir won his next five decisions before splitting his six. He’s now 10-6 with a 4.59 ERA and 1.35 WHIP. 

He also helped keep the Dodgers afloat when they lost ace Clayton Kershaw on June 30 before he returned in a limited capacity on Sept. 9. 

Before this most recent knock, Kazmir looked like he was putting his injury woes behind him. Since 2008, nagging elbow issues had limited him at times. But in each of the past two seasons, Kazmir had recorded over 30 starts.

With the loss of Zack Greinke to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers were in search of a No. 2 starter who could support Kershaw. They brought in Kazmir and Japanese product Kenta Maeda to try to fill the void. 

It looks like Maeda will take Kazmir’s spot as the Dodgers’ primary ace until Kershaw is back at 100 percent and pitching at an All-Star-caliber level again following an extended stretch on the shelf. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com

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The Miami Marlins have gotten their biggest bat back.

The Marlins reinstated Giancarlo Stanton from the disabled list and classified him as active for Tuesday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies, which they announced via Twitter: 

According to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald, Miami will only use Stanton as a pinch hitter, and it’s unclear when he can fully return to the lineup. If he were to reach base, Stanton would not require a pinch runner, per Spencer. 

However, in the fifth inning on Tuesday, Stanton hit a pinch-hit single and was promptly lifted for a pinch runner, per Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. 

Stanton has been out since Aug. 13 because of a groin injury he suffered when sliding into second base:

Originally forecasted as a season-ending injury, Stanton missed just 22 games, though his absence had an adverse effect on the Marlins’ postseason hopes. 

Heading into Aug. 14, the Marlins were 60-56 and just .5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the second National League wild card spot. Entering play Tuesday, Miami had fallen to 68-70 on the season, sitting five games behind the Cardinals for the second wild card spot.

While Stanton wasn’t enjoying his best season prior to his injury—he had a .244 batting average along with 25 home runs and 70 RBI—opposing pitchers still had to be wary of him. It was especially true when he was able to get ahold of a pitch, as his power can turn a game on its head: 

Since Stanton went on the disabled list, Miami has gone just 8-14 while losing nine of its past 10 games. With the Cardinals, New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates all ahead of the Marlins in the wild-card standings, they can only hope Stanton’s bat sparks a turnaround with 24 games remaining. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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Houston Astros starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel did not make his scheduled start against the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday because of left shoulder inflammation, per Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle. 

It’s currently unclear when he’ll return to the mound. 

Continue for updates. 

Keuchel Injury Details Revealed

Wednesday, Sept. 7

Keuchel does not have a tear in his throwing shoulder, according to ESPN’s Jim Bowden, who added that he was given a cortisone shot.

Keuchel Has Been Unable to Regain Cy Young Form

This season has been a nightmare for Keuchel and the Astros after he went 20-8 with a 2.48 ERA in last year’s Cy Young Award-winning campaign. Through 26 games this season, he is 9-12 with a 4.55 ERA; he lost as many games through the first week of June as he had in all of 2015.

While his ERA doesn’t suggest that he deserves to have a better record, the Astros haven’t done much to help him out when he’s been on the mound.Before the injury, Keuchel received only 3.58 runs of support per game, which ranked 76th in the league, per ESPN. 

Even he was looking for answers on how he could turn his season around, per Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post.

“I don’t believe in bad luck,” Keuchel said. “It’s just the way it’s going. So I’ll stick with it, and I would like for it to turn around. If anybody’s got any ideas, that would be great.”

With Keuchel shelved for the time being, the Astros will have to look for someone to take over the top end of the rotation. Doug Fister has been solid for the Astros this season with a 3.91 ERA, but he’ll have to elevate his game if Houston wants to make the playoffs.

Houston is nine games back in the American League West and 2.5 games back in the wild-card race. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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