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ALCS Game 5

You can bet Ned Yost will be more aggressive about getting his bullpen in there to relieve Edinson Volquez in the much less forgiving environment of the Rogers Centre. I mean, you’ll probably lose if you do, but there are people who will take any bet for the right odds.

Kansas City Royals (Edinson Volquez) at Toronto Blue Jays (Marco Estrada), 4 p.m. Eastern

PECOTA odds of winning: 65% Blue Jays, 35% Royals

Projected Starting Lineups

Royals vs. Estrada (R)

Blue Jays vs. Volquez (R)

Alcides Escobar (R) SS

Ben Revere (L) LF

Ben Zobrist (S) 2B

Josh Donaldson (R) 3B

Lorenzo Cain (R) CF

Jose Bautista (R) RF

Eric Hosmer (L) 1B

Edwin Encarnacion (R) DH

Kendrys Morales (S) DH

Chris Colabello (R) 1B

Mike Moustakas (L) 3B

Troy Tulowitzki (R) SS

Salvador Perez (R) C

Dioner Navarro (S) C

Alex Gordon (L) LF

Kevin Pillar (R) CF

Alex Rios (R) RF

Ryan Goins (L) 2B

Injuries/Availability: Nothing new here, really. The Blue Jays’ implosion in Game Five spared John Gibbons from feeling obligated to use any of Aaron Sanchez, Aaron Loup, or Roberto Osuna, so at least the important bullpen is fresh (to the extent that Loup is available at all—we don't really know, and he was called away again Tuesday for a family medical emergency). If Gibbons is wise, and if Estrada pitches through the Royals’ lineup twice with a lead, and if Loup is available, those three arms can march through and get as many as 12 outs without allowing Kansas City to take a long look at any single hurler.

The same cadre of guys are playing through injuries we know about, while a handful more are almost certainly playing through injuries we don’t know about (or at least don’t know the extent of). That’s October.

Outlook: Volquez’s sixth inning in Game One might be the biggest half-inning of this series. It was fun, it was dangerous, it was tense and terrifying. It was everything you should want October baseball to be. It was also, one can imagine, terribly taxing, since he threw 37 pitches to get those three critical outs and escape a jam. Volquez might need to be on a shorter leash on Wednesday simply for arm-related reasons. If not, he still needs to be on a shorter leash, because the Blue Jays got some good looks at him in that inning and they’re too good to be given another chance to pounce when he’s compromised at all.

That said, this series hasn’t really been primarily about the Royals’ run prevention; it’s been about their offense. Hell, the same was true of their victory over the Astros in the ALDS. The Royals are a fine defensive team, and they have just enough good pitchers to get by in October. That said, they’re a team built around six excellent hitters. If the Blue Jays are going to come back in this series, starting with a win Wednesday, it has to start with finding a way to prevent the protracted rallies of which the Royals are suddenly uniquely prone. This is usually the Jays’ thing; they scored two or more runs in a league-best 15.2 percent of their offensive innings this season. (The Royals did that in 12.6 percent of all frames, an above-average number but not an elite one.) Their fans will have a hard time remembering that, though, if Estrada and company can’t leave a more indelible final image of the playoff run than the Royals doing laps around the bases. —Matthew Trueblood

NLCS Game 4

The Cubs will take the field in Chicago Wednesday evening with their backs against the wall, straining under the weight of a thousand hopes crashing down around them. They’re not out yet—nobody who was alive and watching baseball in 2003 would discount the possibility that the improbable might happen—but they’ve reached the point in their season where miracles and tragedies come out to play.

New York Mets (Steven Matz) at Chicago Cubs (Jason Hammel), 8:07 p.m. Eastern

PECOTA odds of winning: 53% Cubs, 47% Mets

Projected Starting Lineups

Mets vs. Hammel (R)

Cubs vs. Matz (L)

Curtis Granderson (L) RF

Dexter Fowler (S) CF

David Wright (R) 3B

Jorge Soler (R) RF

Daniel Murphy (L) 2B

Kris Bryant (R) 3B

Yoenis Cespedes (R) CF

Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B

Lucas Duda (L) 1B

Starlin Castro (R) 2B

Travis d’Arnaud (R) C

Kyle Schwarber (L) LF

Michael Conforto (L) LF

Miguel Montero (L) C

WIlmer Flores (R) SS

Jason Hammel (R) P

Steven Matz (R) P

Javier Baez (R) SS

Injuries/Availability: Kyle Schwarber presents a conundrum for Joe Maddon, at least insofar as his presence in the lineup on Wednesday is concerned. (One imagines that Maddon spends little to no time considering Schwarber’s other virtues, all things being equal.) The case for the prosecution? Schwarber hit just .143/.213/.268 off of lefties this year, despite efforts on the part of his manager to defend him against their sinister assault: Just 22 percent of his plate appearances were taken with a platoon disadvantage. The case for the defense? Everything he’s done this postseason. Schwarber hit .381/.435/.952 in 23 postseason plate appearances coming into Tuesday’s action, adding a walk and a home run in Game Three to bring his postseason longball total to five—that’s a Cubs record.

I’m guessing the defense will win out in this one—chalk that up as a win for public defenders everywhere—and Schwarber will see his name on the lineup card Wednesday morning. The compromise is likely to be a drop in the batting order, with Jorge Soler slotting into the two-hole and Schwarber taking his spot at six. That’ll give Maddon a bit more time to consider switching the Ohio native out for Chris Denorfia late in the game against a tough lefty reliever.

With respect to the Mets, everyone should be good to go. Jeurys Familia has been worked hard this series, seeing time in every game so far, and has proved fairly impervious to the added innings. There was some call on Twitter to add Kelly Johnson to the Mets’ lineup in Game Three (though it didn’t reach Collins: when I asked him, in pregame, if the idea had been considered, he said “Not really, no,” and moved on without another word), thereby pushing Daniel Murphy to first base and Lucas Duda out of the game. That talk was driven mostly by Johnson’s success against the changeup (which Kyle Hendricks throws a lot of, and which Johnson has barreled up for a hit 5.0 percent of the time this year, compared to 3.7 percent for Duda). In a matchup against Hammel (who has practically no changeup whatsoever), and given his reaction to the question in pregame, I suspect Collins will keep his lineup pretty much as it’s been against righties all postseason.

Outlook: The Mets haven’t had a chance to advance to the World Series since Adam Wainwright left Carlos Beltran staring blankly at the Shea outfield wall in Game Seven of the 2006 NLCS. The Cubs, for their part, haven’t faced a must-win game since… earlier this month. Tomorrow, New York will try to exorcise the demons of 2006 as the Cubs battle ghosts of their own. There isn’t much else to say here: The Cubs will face down an offseason-long chance to contemplate missed opportunities with their most inconsistent pitcher—Jason Hammel—taking the mound to start the game. Steven Matz, the talented young lefty, will start for the Mets. That’s not, one imagines, how Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer drew it up.

If the Mets win on Wednesday, game over: They’re going to the World Series. If the Cubs win, however, the whole complexion of the series starts to look a little different. With a win, Jon Lester would take the hill in Game Five, followed by Jake Arrieta in Game Six. (Joe Maddon, after the game on Tuesday, resisted calls to start Lester on short rest on Wednesday. Why not? “Because you've got to win four games. It's not just about tomorrow's game.”) Down 3-1 with just one game left in Chicago is still not exactly what the Cubs are looking for, but it’s a heartbeat. That’s all the Cubs believe they need.

The Mets? They’re looking for bubbly, though they would never admit it out loud. David Wright, in postgame comments, tamped down World Series talk as much as he could: “We understand just like we've won the first three games, these guys can win the next three games very easily,” he told a packed press room. “This is an excellent team, and you give them room to win a game or streak along a couple good innings, and they're going to get all the confidence in the world and expect to beat us three in a row. So it's as simple as that.”

It is. Win tomorrow, and the series stays at Wrigley. Lose, and it’s back to the golf course for the Cubs and (presumably) back to New York for the Mets. Wednesday will be a tough day for one team or the other, but the fact is that it’s been a charmed season for both—the Cubs, accelerating down the stretch after a middling start; the Mets, exploding through the National League after the trade deadline—and the baseball future looks bright on either end of I-90. That’ll be true Wednesday in Chicago no matter the outcome of Game Four, even if North Side fans will have a hard time believing it in the event that the Cubs go out in four straight. (Even more difficult to accept, one imagines, would be a New York series loss, impossible though that scenario seems right now.) This is a good time to be watching baseball, folks. Tune in tonight. —Rian Watt

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nicholj
10/21
Um, wrong Jays starting pitcher. Marco Estrada will take the bump and Dioner Navarro the tools of ignorance. Aaron Loup is also out due to a family matter, so the pen is down to just Sanchez and Osuna. Of course, it will be all hands on deck, so Price may pitch in relief. Stroman, too.
bhacking
10/21
All true, I'd like to give the writers the benefit of the doubt here but this is a pretty major oversight in analysis.
lyricalkiller
10/21
You're right, a major oversight. It's been corrected and updated with revised PECOTA odds. Thanks for pointing it out.
bhacking
10/21
The Jays management has had a great year, but with advanced knowledge that Loup may not be available based on him missing games in the previous series it was probably a mistake to not have another pitcher on the 25 man roster. Especially with LaTroy Hawkins running on fumes.

Drew Hutchison would have been valuable yesterday to save the rest of the bullpen.
Unglued
10/21
Yeah I'm pretty sure it has been reported elsewhere that Estrada is starting.
GBSimons
10/21
"nobody who was alive and watching baseball in 2003 would discount the possibility that the improbable might happen"

I think this is a reference to the Cubs' '03 NLCS collapse, but if the year was '04, it could be referencing the Red Sox' comeback from 0-3.

Either way, those were two bizarre LCS.
rianwatt
10/21
Yep, it was a reference to the weirdness of Cubs baseball. But 2004 is another fun referent, if one I'm trying to avoid (too much #narrative). Hope you enjoyed the preview!
drawbb
10/21
These series are both over, and they've both stunk. Minus away all you want, but it's the truth.
buddha
10/22
Both over eh? How's that truth working out for ya?
drawbb
10/22
If I'm so wrong, then put some money on Toronto to come all the way back and win...and I'll take Kansas City.
dbiester
10/21
and the baseball future looks bright on either end of I-90. -- I think you meant I 80.
newsense
10/21
"the baseball future looks bright on either end of I-90"

I-90 runs from Chicago to Boston. I think you met I-80, although neither I-80 or I-90 END in Chicago.
rianwatt
10/21
Yeah, no real good example of a road that *exclusively* from Chicago to New York. Should've been I-80, though, of the two. Thanks!