Zack Greinke, the second of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ two aces, and Jacob deGrom, breakout star of the New York Mets, take the mound Thursday night at Dodger Stadium with each team’s season hanging in the balance. The Astros’ loss to the Royals was a dead-team-walking game; Houston came just a handful of outs from a series victory in Game 4 before losing that game, then suffered a relatively listless loss in Game 5.
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“They both have fantastic fastballs, and I just think deGrom might have a little more location”, said Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke, who will start Game 5 on Thursday.
BAT FLIP IRKS FOE: Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista’s emphatic bat flip after his seventh-inning homer didn’t sit well with Rangers RH reliever Sam Dyson, who served up the tiebreaking blast.
“Well, there’s a reason why we thought, hey, look, if we’re up 2-1 in Game 4 that we’re going to save him because he’s the guy we want on the mound”, Collins said.
If the Mets are going to have more success against Greinke in Game 5 than they had in Game 2, they have to less concerned with hitting the long ball and focus more on simply getting guys on base and into scoring position. “You want to get to the postseason”. Though Daniel Murphy hit a solo home run off him in the fourth inning, the Mets never really felt like they mounted a serious threat.
The 24-year-old Matz was pitching in a big league game for the first time in 19 days after a balky back sidelined him late in the season.
He used his curveball to strike out leadoff batter Kiké Hernandez as fans lustily chanted “We wanted Utley!” and shook those ubiquitous playoff towels. One game. victor take all. He was erased on a fielder’s choice, but Howie Kendrick then singled to put runners on first and third. Gonzalez has an RBI in each game of the series, and Turner is hitting.467.
“It will be a fun one to watch”, Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson said. Bartolo Colon has been dependable out of the bullpen, but he’s now pitched in three straight games.
Of the four division series, three need a deciding game ” with the Mets to head to Dodger Stadium for their clash on Thursday.
“That stuff’s all in the past”.
“It motivated me”, Flores said. “If we’re able to get the ball back to him (in the next round), that means we’re in a seven-game (series) and I don’t think we would do that”. Matz was pulled for a pinch hitter – Michael Cuddyer – in the fifth when he represented the tying run.
“I made a few bad pitches and it wound up costing me three runs”, Matz said. You know Kershaw remembers, too.
If the Dodgers’ postseason is over at the time of the decision, any suspension that is upheld would be served at the start of the 2016 regular season. If the Mets get that kind of performance from deGrom again, they likely win the game, no matter what Greinke is doing on the other side. Grandal is 1-for-8 with a two-run single in the NLDS and has just five hits in his last 90 at-bats dating back to August 11. Greinke is 3-2 with a 3.48 ERA in eight career postseason starts.
Wood, acquired July 30 from Atlanta, went 12-12 with a 3.84 ERA for the Braves and Dodgers this season.
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After his dominating Game 1 start in Los Angeles, the Dodgers have their fingers crossed that deGrom won’t be as sharp as he was last Friday. As a rookie, he had a 2.77 ERA in 28 games a year ago.
