Wildcard Teams Advance!
In two very exciting, low-scoring games, the Washington Nationals and the Chicago White Sox won their wildcard series games and move on to the divisional series with game 1 slated to be played on Friday night.
The Nationals sent 20 game winner Stephen Strasburg to the mound while the Rockies sent 19 game winner Kris Medlen who was acquired from the Atlanta Braves prior to the 2013 trade deadline. Strasburg was amazing as expected, giving up just one run while Medlen was strong as well but giving up 3 runs in his 7 innings of work. 3B Ryan Zimmerman lead off the scoring for the Nationals in the bottom of the 2nd with a solo home run. Entering the 9th inning, the Nationals led 4-1 and the Rockies made a valiant effort to force the game to the bottom of the 9th with Wilin Rosario hitting a 2-run home run off reliever Rafael Soriano but the Rockies could get the tying 3rd run and the Nationals advanced with a 4-3 victory.
The White Sox sent their ace, Chris Sale to the mound against the Angels Jerome Williams. The game was scoreless until the 7th inning when the White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers hit a solo home run to put the Sox up 1-0. The Angels immediately responded in the bottom of the 7th inning with 3 runs of their own highlighted by a 2-run blast by DH Mark Trumbo. The Angels entered the 9th inning with a 3-1 lead as Angels closer Ryan Madsen entered the game to close out a great game by Angels pitcher Jerome Williams. Unfortunately, the Angels have struggled all season with their closer situation and before the dust settled, the White Sox would score 3 runs in the top of the 9th to take a 4-3 lead. Sox closer Addisson Reed would come in to close down the Angels and send the White Sox to the divisional series with a 4-3 victory.
The divisional series are slated to start this Friday with game 1. In the NL, the Washington Nationals will go to Atlanta, the NL East division winners, to take on the Braves and the NL West division winners, the Los Angeles Dodgers will travel to St. Louis to take on the NL Central division winners, the Cardinals. In the AL, the Chicago White Sox will go to Tampa to take on the AL East division champions Rays while the AL West division champion Oakland Athletics will travel to Detroit to play the AL Central division champion Tigers.
