Pittsburgh Pirates Wake Up Call – You Can’t Script October

In our daily Wake-Up Call, we get you ready for the day with a complete look at all things Pittsburgh Pirates.

Kershaw gets his moment

Last night the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Washington Nationals 4-3 in game five of the NLDS. On the surface, is seems like your typical, close playoff baseball game. However, this one was special. Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts managed the hell out of this game. He pulled his starter Rich Hill after only 2.2 innings of work.

The Dodgers used a plethora of relief pitchers following this, culminating with using closer Kenley Jansen from the seventh until one out in the ninth inning. The drama picked up when ace Clayton Kershaw came into the game on one day’s rest to close out the series. It was one of the most exciting and thrilling endings to a postseason game in a long time. It also finally gave three-time Cy Young Award winner and former MVP Clayton Kershaw the one thing missing from his resumè, an iconic playoff moment.

The Dodgers now get to face the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS, which completes the MLB final four. The exciting thing is, we are guaranteed to see a team end a long World Series drought. Either the Cubs win for the first since 1908. The Indians haven’t won since 1948. Then the Dodgers and Blue Jays haven’t won since 1988 and 1993 respectively. Either way, we will see a team’s fan base finally get to celebrate a long-awaited World Series title.

ALCS begins TONIGHT

An ALCS game will be played in Cleveland for the first time since 2007. Game one features Corey Kluber taking on Marco Estrada. First pitch is at 8:00pm. This series is exciting as I genuinely admire both teams and would be happy to see either in the World Series. Normally, I’d predict a dramatic Cleveland loss since, well, it’s Cleveland. However, we are living in a world where a Cleveland team has recently won a title, so all bets are off.

I doubt many really predicted this series would happen. The Blue Jays played horrendously down the stretch and the Indians were plagued by injuries. Both teams had tiffs with their local media over these issues. However, you truly can’t script October.

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