MLB Bullets is all tied up

Everyone knows both League Championship Series are tied at one game apiece, correct?

• I’m going to start with the ALCS because that’s fresher in my mind at the moment and because it seems like the more titanic battle as well. Whitney McIntosh loves the ALCS because it’s being played by two very cocky teams.
• Jon Tayler breaks down the most critical at-bat of the Astros win in game 1 of the series.
• And here’s the double by Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. that bounced off every wall in Fenway Park. OK, it just seemed like it bounced off every wall. But it did bounce around enough.
• Red Sox ace Chris Sale wasn’t scheduled to pitch in game 2 after starting game 1, but he wasn’t at Fenway Park anyway because he was hospitalized with a stomach illness. He’s being kept overnight for observation. I wonder if they get TBS on the TVs in the hospital rooms?
• Astros outfielder George Springer is setting all kinds of records this October.
• And as Jeff Passan notes, Springer is doing all of this with the Axe Bat model MB50 that he got from Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts. (Not the same actual bat, but Betts let Springer try one out and Springer switched models after that.) The MB50 has an “axe handle” as opposed to the traditional knob at the end of the bat. (By the way, Passan is leaving Yahoo and moving to ESPN in 2019. So that’s the first free-agent signing of the offseason.)
• R.J. Anderson has the story, or more exactly, the lack of a story behind the Red Sox “shimmy shake” celebration.
• Astros pitcher Justin Verlander (and it still feels odd to type that over a year later) has no plans to retire anytime soon. Yeah, it’s not like he has anything waiting for him at home.
• If you’re not a fan of either the Red Sox or the Astros, the highlight of the ALCS so far has to be when umpire Joe West got nailed with a throw by Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez. Whitney McIntosh explains why it was so awesome.
• On to the National League. Bradford Doolittle explains that the NLCS has been chock-full o’ drama and that it will only get better.
• Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal is having a terrible NL Championship Series.
• Jack Baer offers another take on Grandal’s struggles. It’s so bad, Brewers broadcaster Bob Uecker is complaining that Grandal is breaking all of his records.
• Despite all that, Grandal will start game 3 for the Dodgers.
• The Dodgers are also wondering how to get Yasiel Puig’s bat going in the playoffs.
• This article came out Friday and it may seem a little silly to post it in light of the next two articles that I’m going to link to. Also, I’ve linked to a lot of articles about the Brewers bullpen. But Michael Baumann has what I think is so far the best profile on the dominant Brewers bullpen.
• That’s the problem with Monday’s Bullets. Brewers reliever Jeremy Jeffress explains what he meant when he said that Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner “got lucky” when he hit a go-ahead two-run home run that proved to be the difference in game two of the NLCS.
• Emma Baccellieri looks at how the Brewers bullpen has struggled in the NLCS so far but that the Brewers have little choice but to hope it returns to form.
• Speaking of lucky and the Brewers bullpen, Tim Brown profiles Brewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff, who homered off Clayton Kershaw in game 1. Woodruff says he learned to hit (and play baseball in general) from his older brother Blake, who died in an ATV accident two years ago.
• Craig Edwards notes that there is a method in the madness of Brewers manager Craig Counsell’s decisions not to go with his best starting pitchers to start the series, despite them being of full rest.
• And in the road not taken, Adam McCalvy looks back at the deal that would have sent Ryan Braun to the Dodgers that fell apart at the last minute in 2016. Puig would have gone back to the Brewers.
• Buster Olney begs that no playoff manager asks an umpire to check a pitcher for foreign substances. (ESPN+ subscription req.)
• Former Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully has declined the offer to appear in the Fox broadcast booth for the NLCS broadcasts.
• And because the Brewers won the Wild Card game, everyone in Milwaukee got a free Miller Lite on Friday. (Of legal drinking age, of course. I think the legal drinking age in Wisconsin when I was growing up there was ten. Have they raised it since then?)
• Sheryl Ring breaks down the Dodgers legal issues in the story I linked to on Friday about a minor leaguer who was credibly accused of sexually assaulting a maid at a team hotel in 2015. (If you missed Friday’s story, Ring has the links in this piece.)
• On to other teams. The Diamondbacks have finally given up on growing grass in the desert and will install an artificial turf in 2019. (The Athletic sub. req, but go here if you just want the basic story.) When was the last time a National League team had artificial turf on its home field? As far as I can tell, it was the last season the Phillies played at Veterans Stadium in 2003, but there might be one more recent. Still, it’s been a while.
• Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius will have Tommy John surgery.
• Jay Jaffe on what Gregorius’ surgery means for him, the Yankees and Manny Machado, who just may have a new suitor.
• The Yankees are interested in trading away pitcher Sonny Gray this winter.
• And Yankees reliever David Robertson is a free agent this winter and he has fired his agent and plans to represent himself in negotiations. Yeah, that’s probably a mistake.
• Tigers pitcher Jordan ZImmermann and catcher Chris Stewart both underwent core muscle repair surgery. Both players are expected to be ready for Spring Training.
• The Rangers reportedly plan to interview Joe Girardi for their vacant managerial job. Cubs bench coach Brandon Hyde is another candidate.
• Justin Klugh has a history of baseball, beer and Baltimore and how they all intersect.
• Staying with Baltimore, MLB.com Orioles beat writer Brittany Ghiroli has an essay about her biggest fan: her dad who passed away in 2015. The two bonded through baseball her entire life.
• Alex Rodriguez wore a full Red Sox uniform on camera after losing a bet to fellow Fox analyst David Ortiz.
• And finally, if you know me, you know my twin passions are baseball and literary criticism. They don’t get to intersect very often, but Colin Fleming has a new take on the meaning behind “Casey At The Bat.” It may be doggerel, as author Ernest Thayer called it, but Fleming writes that “it’s high-level doggerel, if the term ever fit.”

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