Players in the Postseason: #WinorGoHome #ItsBlackandWhite (Oct. 12)
Updated: Oct. 12
Trivial Pursuits
Hailing from the Dominican Republic, this player recently went back to school to finish his degree in general studies with a business concentration and a minor in entrepreneurship. His savvy business mind has led him to many off-the-field projects, including owning a Booster Juice store and becoming the first global ambassador for Silver Jeans Co. Who is he?
The Heroes
Making his postseason debut, Marco Estrada, one of the AL's top pitchers in the second half of the season and a potential free agent, allowed one run on five hits over 6 1/3 innings in his Game 3 win for the Blue Jays. The 32-year-old Mexican-born right-hander was 13-8 with a 3.13 ERA in the regular season, and was 5-2 with a 2.59 ERA over the last two months.
"He's the total package," Dickey said of Estrada. "I said it in Spring Training: In order to win a championship, any championship, a division, an AL championship, a world championship, you're going to have to have guys step up ... I mean he was as close to a cut in Spring Training and here he is probably one of our top two starters. Marco has proven to be an incredible asset for us."
Astros slugger Chris Carter came alive with a single, a double and a homer. The single and double were the first two hits off Edinson Volquez. He came around to score Houston's first run after his fifth-inning double. In the seventh, he homered to put Houston ahead, 4-1.
Troy Tulowitzki snapped an 0-for-11 postseason hitless streak with his two-out, full-count, three-run homer in the sixth inning of Game 3 for the Blue Jays.
Yeah, Dallas Keuchel was brilliant again in leading the Astros to a 2-1 series lead. He's now 17-0 in Minute Maid Park. Keuchel pitched seven innings, allowing five hits, a walk and one run -- on Lorenzo Cain's fourth-inning home run. He threw a season-high 124 pitches and worked out of several jams.
The End of an O'fer
Josh Hamilton snapped an 0-for-31 postseason hitless streak that dated back to 2011 when he singled in the fifth inning of Game 3. It was the longest hitless streak in the postseason since Billy North went 0-for-34 with Oakland and Los Angeles from 1974-78. Dan Wilson has the longest streak on record: 42 at-bats between 1995 and 2000 with Seattle.
The Double Plays
The Blue Jays had even more scoring opportunities. They got their leadoff runner on and in scoring position in each of four straight innings, from the third to the sixth, only to have the rallies killed by double plays by the Rangers. It was just the eighth time in postseason history that a team had four double plays in a game. The Braves turned five in an 11-inning game in 1995.
The Other Bearded Ace
No pitcher in baseball has been more dominant in recent months than Cubs Game 3 starter Jake Arrieta, who is 9-0 with a 0.24 ERA and a .132 opponents' batting average over his past 10 starts, including his shutout in the Wild Card game against Pittsburgh. In fact, no other pitcher has had an ERA and OBA that low over a 10-game stretch since ERA was introduced as a statistic in 1913.
The Philosophical Knuckleballer
Forty-year-old R.A. Dickey was scheduled to finally make his postseason debut in Game 4 -- against the club with which he began his career -- after 13 seasons in the big leagues.
"It's poetic, that's what it is for me," said Dickey, who won the Cy Young Award in 2012. "It's a neat narrative."
Dickey wasn't sure it would happen until the Blue Jays beat the Astros in Game 3 on Sunday, but he was his usual philosophical self in describing the Blue Jays' situation:
"Look, you had to win three games anyway, right? The order in which you've won those games is insignificant to winning them. So if you won the first one, lost the next two and won the next two, it doesn't matter. If you won three in a row, it doesn't matter. You've got to win three. Here we have to win three. We've had an 11-game win streak this year. Nobody in (the clubhouse) is thinking that we have some kind of insurmountable mountain that we can't climb."
The Beltre Watch
The Rangers are cautiously optimistic about the return of superstar Adrian Beltre to their lineup. Manager Jeff Banister reported before Game 3 that the 36-year-old third baseman was responding to treatment and moving better.
"We want him to be in good shape to help us,'' shortstop Elvis Andrus said. "He's going to take as much time as he needs, especially now that we have two games of the series.''
#ICYMIM
Our #ICYMIM delivers you one-stop shopping for some of the social media posts from Major Leaguers that you may have missed over the past few days! So, in case you missed it, here is a collection of recent tweets and posts.
The Viewing Lineup
Monday's games:
Kanas City Royals @ Houston Astros; 1 p.m. ET; TV: FS1
Starters: Yordano Ventura vs. Lance McCullers
Toronto Blue Jays @ Texas Rangers; 4 p.m. ET; TV: FS1
Starters: R.A. Dickey vs. Derek Holland
St. Louis Cardinals @ Chicago Cubs; 6 p.m. ET; TV: TBS
Starters: Michael Wacha vs. Jake Arrieta
Los Angeles Dodgers @ New York Mets; 8:30 p.m. ET; TV: TBS
Starters: Brett Anderson vs. Matt Harvey
The Trivia Answer
Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista
Follow us @MLB_Players and to catch our postseason social media series, titled #WinOrGoHome #ItsBlackandWhite, featuring some up-close photos courtesy of Getty Sports.