Morning Rundown: Dodgers shutout Padres, head to NLCS, Termarr Johnson walks three times
Morning Rundown: Dodgers shutout Padres, head to NLCS, Termarr Johnson walks three times
NLCS matchup decided, Tigers and Guardians play game five
Termarr Johnson walks three times, Scottsdale drops another game
Recap by John Dreker
The Scottsdale Scorpions visited the Glendale Desert Dogs on Friday night in their fourth game of the Arizona Fall League season. Termarr Johnson was in the lead-off spot and playing shortstop. Geovanny Planchart was also in the lineup representing the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was catching and batting ninth. Valentin Linarez came in on relief during the third inning. Coming into this game, he was the only Pirates player who had not yet made his fall debut.
Johnson was retired on a ground out to first base to begin the game. Planchart led off the third inning with a single. That was followed by a walk to Johnson. Both Pirates were left stranded when the next three batters made outs.
Linarez needed just one pitch to get out of the third inning. He came on with two outs, a man on second, and Glendale leading by a 2-0 score. He recorded a fly out to right field on a 93.9 MPH fastball. Linarez remained on for the fourth inning, then made quick work of the opposition by getting a ground out to second base and two fly balls to center field. He threw a total of eight pitches in the frame, with six going for strikes. Working mostly with his fastball, he topped out at 96.8 MPH.
Planchart was retired on a pop-out to third base in the fourth inning. Johnson followed him with a ground out to second base. Planchart struck out for the second out of the seventh inning. Johnson then drew his second walk.
Planchart was retired on a ground out to second base to end the eighth inning. He finished up 1-for-4 with a single after going 1-for-3 in his first game. The defensive side for Planchart couldn't have been much worse on Friday. Glendale went 5-for-5 in steals while he committed two throwing errors. He also had an error in his first game.
Johnson walked on four pitches to start the ninth inning, with Scottsdale trailing 6-1 at the time. It was his third walk of the day. He has reached base three times during each of the first three games this fall. The game ended 6-1, as he was erased on the bases by a game-ending double play. Johnson had just one chance in the field, which he handled cleanly.
Scottsdale (1-3) will be at home on Saturday to take on Glendale (3-1) again. First pitch is set for 6:30 PM EST.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, backed by Yoshunobu Yamamoto, tossed a two-hit shutout to advance to the NLCS to face the New York Mets.
Enrique Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez hit solo home runs, giving the home team enough offense to get the win.
With the matchup set, the NLCS will start on Sunday, with game one scheduled for an 8:15 pm ET start. The Mets have been off since Wednesday, giving them plenty of options—outside of Jose Quintana—to start game one.
The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians play a decisive game five on Saturday, with potential weather pushing the start of the game up to 1:08 pm ET.
Cleveland won game four to extend the series, with the Tigers having Tarik Skubal on the mound for the winner-take-all contest.
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Top Exit Velocity
Enrique Hernandez - LAD - 109.2 mph - Home Run
Teoscar Hernandez - LAD - 108.8 mph - Home Run
Will Smith - LAD - 106.5 mph - Single
Fernando Tatis Jr. - SD - 105.5 mph - Groundout
Gavin Lux - LAD - 105.3 mph - Groundout
Top Pitch Velocity
Michael Kopech - LAD - 101.6 mph
Tanner Scott - SD - 100.1 mph
Michael Kopech - LAD - 99.6 mph
Tanner Scott - SD - 99.4 mph
Michael Kopech - LAD - 99.2 mph
Most Whiffs
Yu Darvish - SD - 9
Yoshinobu Yamamoto - LAD - 4
Evan Phillips - LAD - 4
Alex Vesia - LAD - 3
Tanner Scott - SD - 2
I think both Yean and Linarez are MiLB free agents after the 2024 season. Does sending them to the AFL imply they have signed MiLB deals for next year? I wonder where such information can be found.
I'm fine with the Dodgers-Mets matchup and will be for Betts and the Dodgers. I'm guessing the celebration of a NY-LA NLCS was about as wild in MLB offices as in the Dodgers clubhouse.
Today I'm for the Guards and their example of consistent winning in a small market. If you have smart people in charge, you don't have to tank, you don't have to spend (the Guardians were 28th going into the season; we were 29th). And Neal Huntington is part of Cleveland's FO. He probably hasn't had much of an impact on this team but again, Cleveland knows what they're doing, and grabbed him almost as soon as he was available.