MLB Notebook: Dodgers, Giants set for final clash

Wednesday was an off day during the Major League Baseball playoffs, and it provided a chance to take a breath. Three of the four division series have concluded, and the one that has gone to a decisive Game 5 top this week’s MLB roundup!

Dodgers, Giants Set For Final Clash

The NLDS has provided another entry in one of baseball’s most bitter rivalries. The San Francisco Giants will host the Los Angeles Dodgers Thursday night, with the winners moving on to the NLCS and the losers heading to the golf course.

The Dodgers forced this contest with a 7-2 win in Game 4 and will send Julio Urias to the hill. Meanwhile, the Giants, who shut out the Dodgers in both of their victories during the series, will counter with Logan Webb, who threw 7 2/3 innings of shutout ball Friday night.

Braves Beat Back Brewers

Waiting for the Dodgers or Giants are the Atlanta Braves, who rebounded from a Game 1 defeat to knock out the Milwaukee Brewers in four. Fittingly, Freddie Freeman was the hero in Game 4, as the all-world slugger slammed a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 4-4 tie.

The Braves, of course, fell in the 2020 NLCS, which was won by the Dodgers in seven games before LA won the World Series.

Red Sox, Astros Advance to ALCS

The Junior Circuit saw Boston and Houston win a pair of ALDS encounters in four games each. The Red Sox, who sent the Yankees home in the Wild Card game, won three straight contests over the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays, while the Astros topped the AL Central-winning Chicago White Sox.

The ALCS starts Friday in Houston and will head to Boston early next week.

Ray Fosse Passes Away

We’ll finish the roundup on a sad note, as former catcher and longtime baseball ambassador Ray Fosse passed away this week after a long, private battle with cancer.

Fosse was an All-Star in his playing days, and (unfortunately) was probably best known as the player steamrolled by Pete Rose in the 1970 contest. He went on to win a pair of World Series rings with Oakland in the 1970s and spent more than three decades in the announcer’s booth after his retirement.