After winning the AL Championship Series opener, Texas will send Nathan Eovaldi to the mound in Game 2 on Monday against Houston’s Framber Valdez.
Zack Wheeler will be on the mound when Philadelphia opens the NL Championship Series against Arizona on Monday night.
Jordan Montgomery outdueled Justin Verlander in Sunday night’s opener, combining with Josh Sborz, Aroldis Chapman and José Leclerc on a five-hitter in a 2-0 victory. Jonah Heim hit an RBI single in the second and Leody Taveras homered in the fifth. Evan Carter, at 21 the youngest player in the matchup, made a pair of sparkling catches in left field.
“Oh, my gosh. This is so much fun,” Carter said. “That’s just all I think about. Where else would I want to be. This is awesome. I’m just trying to keep my feet grounded and just keep rolling with this team . It’s been a lot of fun.”
Wheeler pitched into the seventh inning in both of his starts for Philadelphia and has struck out 18 and walked one. He has thrived in front of boisterous Phillies fans.
“Playing in New York made me a little tougher, for sure,” the former Met said. “You just have to put your head down and just do the best that you can, play hard. Fans respect that. Once you mess up, you have to take ownership for it. I think that’s the biggest thing. You have to have respect for the fans, and they’ll have respect for you for the most part.”
Nick Castellanos became the first player to hit multiple homers in consecutive postseason games, and the Philadelphia eliminated the Atlanta Braves for the second straight year, winning their Division Series in four games.
Arizona is making its first NLCS appearance since 2007 following a surprising sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
BETTING FAVORITES
The Astros are the current betting favorites to win the World Series at +180, followed by the Phillies (+195), Rangers (+290) and Diamondbacks (+500), according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
BYE, BYE?
After getting five days off, the top four playoff seeds went a combined 2-6 on their home fields to start the division round.
Two of them were eliminated in three-game sweeps: the Baltimore Orioles and Dodgers. Atlanta, which led the majors with 104 wins during the regular season, was bounced in four games by Philadelphia.
“We thought we did everything possible during the delay, recreated things the best we could. And we can do everything right and all that and you start a series, and you know what, your offense doesn’t get traction. I mean, it could happen anytime,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I don’t know that we could have done anything any better or been more thorough in what we did with our time off to get us ready to play.”
But clearly, the time off did those clubs little good. Which begs the question: Is it time to say goodbye to the bye?
“It’s not ideal,” Snitker said. “I’m not going to say that’s an excuse for us. I look at the Astros. It didn’t bother them. They kind of kept hitting on all cylinders.
“I never liked two days off as a team or whatever. I think one day is plenty,” he added. “But you know what? It’s what it is, and we’ve got to figure it out.”
READY-MADE ROOKIE
Evan Carter is 7 for 18 (.389) with four doubles, one home run and three RBIs in six playoff games for Texas — all wins. He has has walked six times and has a .560 on-base percentage and .778 slugging percentage.
At 21 years, 40 days old, he became the youngest player to reach base 12 or more times in his first four postseason games. He was the second-youngest to achieve the feat in any four-game span in the postseason behind Freddie Lindstrom, who was 18 years, 319 days old in 1924.
PHILLY SPECIAL
Should the Phillies win the World Series, save a spot at the end of the Broad Street parade route for Calum Scott.
The British singer with the pop hit about loneliness and heartbreak insists he’s coming to Philly and wearing the jersey the team sent him last season as a thank you for his part in making “ Dancing On My Own ” a staple of the postseason soundtrack at Citizens Bank Park.
Scott is as amazed as anyone the song has improbably bloomed into a playoff anthem for the Phillies, who won the National League pennant last year before losing to Houston in the World Series.
“They win the World Series, I’m there, man,” Scott said. “I think at that point, you’ll have to hold me back.”
HOW TO WATCH
TBS will broadcast the NLCS. Fox and FS1 will carry the ALCS.
POSTSEASON SCHEDULE
League Championship Series: Oct. 15-24
World Series: Oct. 27-Nov. 4
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
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