Elephant Rumblings: Playoffs begin

Happy Tuesday everyone. Sadly no A’s baseball today but we get some good postseason action starting today.

First up we’ll have a matchup between the Texas Rangers against the Tampa Bay Rays in Florida. Since ace Max Scherzer is out for the foreseeable future, the Rangers are going with fellow deadline acquisition Jordan Montgomery for G1. Tampa on the other hand will send out their own ace in Tyler Glasnow. This game starts at noon so a lot of people are going to miss this game while at work.

Just an hour and change later, the Toronto Blue Jays visit Minnesota for their series against the Twins. It’ll be Kevin Gausman versus Pablo Lopez. Both have had tremendous seasons and deserve to start G1 for their respective teams. Runs could be at a premium in this one.

At 4:08 the third game of the day kicks off. The Arizona Diamondbacks, who just snuck into the playoffs right at the end of the season, travel to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers. Arizona used their top two starters over the final games of the year just to get to this point, but now that is coming back to haunt them. They’ll be starting rookie Brandon Pfaadt, and he’s had a difficult rookie season to say the least. The Brewers will counter with ace Corbin Burnes. Feels lopsided, but hey, anything can happen in baseball.

And finally, the day ends with a interdivisional playoff series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Miami Marlins. A’s fans will definitely recognize one of the starters: lefty Jesus Luzardo is getting the nod for G1. He’s earned it too, finally growing into the pitcher the A’s thought he would. Philadelphia will counter with Zack Wheeler, who has had yet another superb season. Again, you’ll need every run you can get in this one.

For the lucky ones who can sit back and watch baseball all day, the rest of us are very jealous. But oh well. Playoff baseball. Best time of the year.

A’s Coverage:

• Why the A’s on-field struggles could last for years
• Off-season outlook: Oakland Athletics
• Athletics players set for free agency
• A’s using unconventional process for planning their new Vegas ballpark

MLB News & Interest:

• Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff out WC round, could miss postseason
• Padres manager Bob Melvin appears ‘safe’ in San Diego
• Angels part ways with manager Phil Nevin
• Trevor Bauer, accuser settle lawsuit in sexual assault case
• Starter Rich Hill considering joining team midway through 2024
• Average MLB game drops to 2:40 with pitch clock
• Jim Caple, former national MLB writer, passes away at 61
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

An A’s prospect is having a tremendous start to his AFL:

Some late love for an A’s rookie from one of the best writers in the game:

Glad to hear I wasn’t the only one surprised by him forgetting a couple others though:

Wish he was doing it in an A’s jersey…