MLB Bullets can’t get a hit

Good morning. I’m just finishing this piece up when Carlos Correa hit the extra-inning, walk-off home run to win Game 2 of the American League Championship Series for the Astros and tie the series, so there won’t be anything on that today. Next time.

• The big news over the weekend didn’t come from the League Championship Series, unfortunately, but from a report from T.J. Quinn about the death of former Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. In it, Angels’ director of communications Eric Kay said that he had provided opioids to Skaggs for several years and that he had told other members of the Angels front office about it. Kay also said that he believed that at least five other players were abusing opioids while they were on the team. Kay is cooperating with a federal investigation into Skaggs’ death. It should be noted that the Angels deny that they were ever told about Skaggs’ opioid use. Kay is currently on leave from the team as he is in treatment for his own opioid addiction.
• Kay later said he went public about this information because “it was the right thing to do” and said that it’s time for everyone to step up and take responsibility for this tragedy, before there are more tragedies.
• Michael McCann explains the legal issues surrounding Skaggs’ death and Kay’s comments.
• Craig Calcaterra writes that it’s now clear that baseball has an opioids problem and it’s not clear how they should proceed to deal with it. But he says the wrong way to deal with it is the way MLB dealt with cocaine in the 1980s and PEDs in the 2000s.
• The other controversy is much less deadly and far more stupid. Nationals reliever Daniel Hudson missed Game 1 of the National League Championship Series because he went on paternity leave as his wife was giving birth. Former Marlins team president David Samson blasted Hudson (as did many others on social media) for missing the game. It should be noted that Samson was one of the biggest scuzzballs in the game in his time with the Expos and Marlins and some of his dirty and probably illegal activities are listed in that link. But Samson wasn’t the only one who said it.
• Hudson returned to the Nationals for Game 2 and said that his family was his first priority. Also, as it turned out, the Nationals had no need for Hudson in Game 1 anyway.
• Brittany Ghiroli speaks with Hudson about his decision as well as Yankees pitcher Zack Britton, who faced a similar decision in 2014. (The Athletic sub. req.) She also got a nice off-color quote from fellow Nats reliever Sean Doolittle defending Hudson. (If you want to read the quote and you don’t have a subscription to The Athletic, it’s repeated here.)
• Barry Svrluga writes that Hudson taking paternity leave indicates that both Hudson and the Nats have their priorities in the right order. Also, that David Samson is a scuzzball. (OK, he doesn’t write “scuzzball” but does call Samson “a small-minded thief of a washed-up former baseball executive.” “Scuzzball” is much more succinct.)
• The Nationals are in good spirits as they go back to DC up two games to none on the Cardinals, thanks to two incredible pitching performances by Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer. Both pitchers took no-hitters into at least the seventh inning and Sanchez’s no-hitter was broken up with two outs in the eighth. How incredibly rare it is for teammates to take no-hitters into the sixth inning or later in back-to-back games? It’s only happened once before in the playoffs when Tigers pitchers Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer did it in the 2013 ALCS. You gotta be kidding me. The same two guys for a different team? What are the odds of that? Jayson Stark looks at what an incredible feat this is. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• This seems kind of obvious, but Michael Baumann writes that the Cardinals can’t beat the Nationals if they can’t get any hits. Baumann is pessimistic that the Cardinals will learn to hit the Nationals before the end of the series.
• The Nats are two wins away from the World Series and Thomas Boswell writes that when it comes to World Series droughts, no fans have suffered more than DC fans. Washington hasn’t been in the World Series since 1933 and haven’t won one since 1924, which is 24 years longer than Cleveland. To the point that the drought isn’t as long as Cleveland’s because Washington didn’t have a team from 1972 to 2004, Boswell just points out that that just makes it worse for the long-suffering Washington fan.
• Nats outfielder Adam Eaton claims he got a big two-run single in Game 2 of the NLCS when he decided to “George Costanza it.” What he means by that is the episode of Seinfeld when George had great success by always doing the opposite of what he thought he should do. Eaton said his instincts said “Fastball” so he decided to look for the curve.
• Cardinals manager Mike Shildt has come under a lot of criticism for his managing in the NLCS and David Schoenfield examines whether such criticism is justified.
• Joe Trezza has three keys for the Nationals to wrap up the NLCS in Washington.
• And AJ Cassavell has three keys for the Cardinals to get the series back to St. Louis. One would be to get a hit before the seventh inning.
• Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright has a massive home/road split this season. Craig Edwards looks at this strange split and concludes that it’s mostly just the result of luck.
• The ball is definitely traveling less in the postseason, although MLB insists that they haven’t made any alterations to the baseball. Ben Lindbergh looks at the controversy and whether it cost the Dodgers the Division Series against the Nats.
• Mike Axisa thinks the Yankees could benefit from an “un-juiced” baseball in the playoffs. Could have benefitted a little more if it had been more “un-juiced” on Correa’s walk-off.
• Neil Paine looks at the titanic matchup between the Yankees and Astros and concludes that this was the the matchup that was always going to happen.
• Another pitch-tipping controversy as Yankees starter James Paxton left in the third inning of Game 2 under the suspicion that he was tipping his pitches.
• There was a scary situation in Game 2 when a paramedic in the Astros dugout was taken to the hospital after being hit by a foul ball.
• Tom Verducci profiles emerging superstar Gleyber Torres, the hero of Game 1 of the ALCS.
• Ben Clemens believes that the public will always unfairly associate Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw with postseason failures.
• Buster Olney looks ahead at the Dodgers offseason priorities. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Dodgers infielder David Freese announced his retirement after the NLDS.
• Mark Feinsand has 12 “surprising” candidates to be non-tendered this off-season.
• Craig Calcaterra ranks all the open managerial jobs on how desirable they are. That’s a change from how he normally ranks managers on how handsome they are.
• The Phillies are reportedly planning to interview Dusty Baker for their vacant managerial position. That’s one of those moves that sounds crazy, but when you look closer at it, it just might be crazy like a fox. Or maybe it’s just crazy. It would be fun to find out!
• Carlos Beltran said he will only consider becoming the manager of the Mets, which has got to go down under just plain crazy.
• The qualifying offer for free agents this winter will go down, which is just another sign that a work stoppage is on the horizon.
• White Sox broadcaster Jason Benetti talks about being a broadcaster and about living with cerebral palsy. Benetti doesn’t claim to be an activist, but he knows that his story can make a difference to others.
• And finally, a Texas high school choir did a choral version of the 1980s Astros fight song to cheer on the Astros. It must have worked.

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