MLB Bullets is heading for a showdown

This is a USMNT-free zone. For the next four years.

• The Astros defeated the Red Sox 3 games to 1 to win their American League Division Series. Grant Brisbee went down to Houston and has an essay about how a city that is rebuilding itself from a natural disaster connects with a team that rebuilt itself after years of losing.
• The Astros are managed by A.J. Hinch, and as Richard Justice writes, Hinch has learned in his second chance to manage a team what it takes to build a connection with his players.
• Mark Townsend notes that the Astros dismantling of the Red Sox shows just how potent Houston’s offense can be.
• Let’s be honest here. In a series between the Astros and Red Sox, the bigger story in the national press is always going to be what happened to the Red Sox. Zach Kram notes that losing in the playoffs has become a habit for Boston and that the Red Sox future doesn’t look very bright, at least in relationship to the high expectations of the New England fan base.
• Mike Axisa notes that the Red Sox have a lot of questions to answer before the 2018 season starts.
• One of those questions is whether John Farrell should continue to manage the BoSox. Scott Lauber looks at the issues surrounding Farrell’s continued tenure.
• Jeff Passan thinks it’s just a matter of time before Farrell is shown the door and that the Boston fans won’t accept all these playoff missteps.
• This video of a Red Sox fan’s despair while watching the game during a class after the team lost has gone viral.
• The Dodgers swept the Diamondbacks to win their National League Division Series. Tim Brown notes that this is the fifth time the Dodgers have been the the Championship Series this decade, but the team believes that their fate will be different this time.
• Joe Posnanski notes that the team has gone back to formula that had some people calling them the “greatest team ever” around mid-season.
• Dave Cameron agrees and calls the Dodgers “frightening” again.
• Michael Baumann writes in praise of the defensive wizardry of rookie first baseman Cody Bellinger during the NLDS.
• Kevin Baxter notes how the Dodgers’ diverse roster perfectly reflects the metropolis that they represent. Well. almost perfectly. As Baxter notes, you have to go into the front office to find Jewish and Muslim representation. But it is there.
• Bernie Pleskoff breaks down the strategies that both the Dodgers and D-Backs used in the NLDS.
• Grant Brisbee believes that the Dodgers sweep sets them up perfectly for the NLCS, whomever they face. Ehh, Brisbee’s just a Dodgers-lover. (No, not really. He’s a rabid Giants fan. I have to add these disclaimers these days.)
• The Diamondbacks had mounted police officers to make sure no one celebrated in the Chase Field swimming pool.
• Bradford Doolittle weighs whether the Dodgers should want to face the Cubs or the Nationals in the NLCS. (Spoiler alert: it’s the Nats.)
• We’ve talked enough already around here about the ramifications of Game 3 of the other NLDS around here and the decision to start Tanner Roark instead of Stephen Strasburg in Game 4. But Chris Cwik notes that Nats manager Dusty Baker finds himself in a familiar role this postseason: that of scapegoat. In a way, I agree. Baker has made a lot of mistakes in the series (Maddon’s made a few bloopers too) but Dusty is also getting blamed for things that weren’t mistakes and that just didn’t work out.
• Dave Cameron looks at Baker’s handling of the Nationals pitching staff in Game 3 and agrees with what I just wrote: while some of Baker’s moves may not have been optimal, there were no “what in the world are you doing?” decisions. Everything Baker did was at least reasonable, if perhaps not always optimal.
• Howard Bryant thinks that Baker’s job should not hinge on whether or not the Nationals win the next two games. If the playoffs are a crapshoot, and for the most part they are, no one should be punished for coming up snake-eyes. (And honestly, with what the Nats are willing to pay, who are they going to get that would be any better? Baker is at least better than Matt Williams was.)
• For Cubs fans who think that the Cubs have a huge pitching edge in today’s game, Jeff Sullivan argues that there isn’t much difference, at least statistically, between Roark and Jake Arrieta.
• There’s one other Division Series still going on and Cliff Corcoran previews Game 5 of the ALDS between the Indians and Yankees.
• Bob Klapisch writes that the Yankees need the game of CC Sabathia’s life today.
• Jerry Crasnick notes that the Indians sure picked a bad time not to win every game they played. I can promise you that if they got to play the White Sox, Tigers or Royals all the time like they did during that win streak, they’d have swept their ALDS. (They did have a series sweep of the Yankees during the 22-game winning streak, to be fair.)
• The Indians are “optimistic” that DH Edwin Encarnacion will be able to play in Game 5.
• Will Leitch argues that the outcome of the ALDS between Cleveland and New York could have some long-lasting ramifications for the two teams. He lists what the stakes are for each team.
• Whatever happens, I think this may be the least-controversial column that Mike Lupica will ever write: There has been some terrific, thrilling and dramatic baseball played this October.
• Most baseball fans outside of Northern California don’t consider Barry Bonds a hero, but that’s just what he was this week as he helped evacuate dozens of people from a hotel before it was consumed by the Wine Country fires this week. Bonds wasn’t the only retired baseball player who was helping out: Bret Saberhagen, Joe Carter and Eric Gagne were also there for a charity event and helped evacuate people.
• The Phillies are considering bringing back their former general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., although this time to be their new manager.
• Former Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria is supposed to hand over some money to Miami-Dade County if he sold the team in a certain time period after Marlins Park was built, but Craig Calcaterra figures that Loria is going to find a way to get out of handing over the money. It’s the American way.
• The Mets have purchased the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs, who will become their new affiliate in 2019.
• The Columbia Fireflies, the Mets High-A affiliate, was sad when New York governor Andrew Cuomo called the Mets “an All-New York team” with the move. Maybe the Fireflies can change their name to the “Cinderellas” and the Chiefs can become the “Wicked Stepsisters.”
• On the 20th anniversary of its release, Zach Kram talks to the creators of the baseball video game “Backyard Baseball” and the phenomenon that it became.
• And finally, here’s a fascinating little video about how a baseball gets made. I always thought the baseball stork brought them.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Fly the W.