Storylines to track as ALCS, NLCS stakes continue to rise

The Rays and Guardians, playing several hours earlier than anyone anticipated, have a pivotal Game 3 of a tied ALCS coming on Thursday afternoon in Cleveland. But the biggest story in baseball, in sports, may be happening in Los Angeles on Thursday night.

Is this Dodgers dynasty over? Are the Brewers about to reach their first World Series in 44 years? It’s a day full of baseball, and the historic stakes on every pitch have rarely felt higher.

Here are four questions leading into Thursday’s pair of LCS games.

ALCS Game 3: Rays at Guardians (Tied 1-1)
1 p.m. ET, TBS/HBO Max
SP: Griffin Jax (TB) vs. Gavin Williams (CLE)

When will Caminero tap into his power?
Junior Caminero is off to an absolutely ridiculous start to his career. He’s only 23 years old and he already has 94 homers and two All-Star appearances. He finished ninth in AL MVP voting last year and will likely be in the top three, at least, this year. He’s the centerpiece of everything this team will be doing for the next half-decade, and perhaps longer; as he goes, so will they.

So: When’s he gonna hit his first career postseason homer? Yes, of course, we’re being impatient here. Caminero has played just seven postseason games, and that includes two against the Rangers in the 2023 AL Wild Card Series, when he was only 20 years old and appeared as a pinch-hitter. In those seven games (22 plate appearances), he’s a respectable but hardly mind-blowing 5-for-19 (.263) with no home runs and exactly one RBI.

Obviously, hitting a home run is hard, and it’s particularly hard when you are facing the quality of pitching you see in the postseason. But a Junior Caminero homer is a gorgeous thing to witness and, more importantly, a signature Rays moment. It’s what makes this team go.

He’s got to have his postseason moment at some point. A pivotal Game 3 in a series that’s tied at 1 would be a terrific time for it.

Is Williams making himself a Cleveland legend?
You weren’t the only one who was surprised when Guardians manager Stephen Vogt brought in Gavin Williams -- who had been lined up to start Game 5 of the ALDS -- to close out Game 4 against the White Sox with a four-run lead in the ninth inning. Was that extra work going to cost him in the winner-take-all game just two days later? It turned out: Nope! Williams went out and threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out 12, and the Guardians were well on their way to advancing.

That’s to say: The Guardians, in a pinch, always see Williams as the guy to turn to -- in whatever capacity. It will be fascinating to see how Vogt uses him in this series going forward. Would he save Williams to start in a potential Game 7? Would he use him in relief before that? All of the above?

You can’t blame Vogt for wanting to put as much on Williams’ shoulders as possible; right now, the big right-hander is looking like the sort of pitcher you ride all the way through October. Despite closing the regular season with a clunker of a start in Kansas City, Williams has a 2.25 ERA in 40 innings since Sept. 1, with just 24 hits allowed and a whopping 68 strikeouts. Williams is at his peak right now, and in a postseason marked by pitching dominance, he’s Vogt’s ace … and, increasingly, his trump card.

NLCS Game 4: Brewers at Dodgers (MIL ahead 3-0)
8 p.m. ET, FS1/FOX One
SP: TBA (MIL) vs. Tyler Glasnow (LAD)

The champs aren’t gonna go out like this … are they?

The last team to win three consecutive World Series titles, the 1998-2000 Yankees, went down kicking and screaming: The 2001 World Series remains one of the best World Series of all time, with New York falling to Arizona on a walk-off hit in Game 7.

These Dodgers have been trying to join that exclusive three-peat list, but it sure looks like they’re in danger of going out with far more of a whimper. Even though they led after six innings in Wednesday’s Game 3 – they’ve actually led at some point in each game of this series – we probably shouldn’t pretend the Dodgers had done much to fix most of their problems. This team has scored only seven runs in three games, and the veteran stars have done next to nothing to give the Dodgers much of a chance. We all understand that this team is hobbled right now — with Shohei Ohtani, of course, being Exhibit A — but you don’t bring in all those superstars and expect this sort of result in October.

Only one team — rather famously, one should note — has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a postseason series. Do the Dodgers (whose manager knows a thing or two about it) look like they’re remotely close right now to being the next one? The Dodgers are a proud franchise, the jewel of the sport. They can’t possibly end their run by getting swept … right?

Is this the night Brewers fans have been waiting decades for?

The last time the Brewers clinched a trip to the World Series, they were playing in Milwaukee’s old County Stadium, in a game that featured five future Hall of Famers: Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson, Paul Molitor, Robin Yount and Ted Simmons. Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera were not born yet, nor was the current mayor of Milwaukee. That was 1982. It has been a long, hard 44 years since then; it would in fact be 26 years until the Brewers would even play another playoff game.

But now here they are. This team won more games, 103, than any other in franchise history. They have stopped the two-time defending champions cold in their tracks. This has felt like the culmination of something that has been, well, brewing for many moons now. Brewers fans are among the most loyal and dedicated and avid as any in professional sports. They have spent most, or all, of their lives dreaming of reaching the World Series again. Now they are just one win away. One win. One measly little win. Tonight could be the night. If it is, it’s one Brewers fans will never, ever forget.