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The race to the finish line: The MLB playoffs are underway | Israel today

2022-10-06T19:02:52.195Z


The regular season ended with future Hall of Famers, championship aspirations, stars with incredible performances, a 61-year-old record broken, a massive contract signed in the middle of the season and more • Review of the significant moments


The MLB baseball season counts the most number of games among the professional leagues in the United States and this season has provided a lot of stories and records that leave the fans with a taste for more.

The Neverending:

At age 42, Albert Poholz returned to the St. Louis Cardinals team where he played for most of his early career.

Parting ways with players can be awkward but in this case he delivered exactly the goods.

He entered the top 4 all-time in home runs by the end of the season and the entire league was crossing their fingers that he would cross the 700 mark, making every hit of his an event, while the entire crowd was on their feet with an open camera.

Finally it happened one night in Los Angeles where he hit two home runs in one game and officially entered the exclusive club.

Along the way, he became only the second player with 700 home runs and 3,000 career hits.

His path to the Hall of Fame is guaranteed.

The judge had his say:

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees started the season in a crazy way, with 33 home runs before the All-Star break (the record is 39), breaking Roger Maris' 1961 American League record (61) and finishing the season led by the three main offensive categories.

He weakened a bit in the second half of the season and yet it is likely that he will take the title of MVP this season following the historic display of power. 

Aron Judge, photo: I.P

Showtime:

Japanese Shohei Otani from the Los Angeles Angels is a true natural phenomenon.

Most pitchers are not successful hitters, and as of this season are not obligated to hit at all.

Ohtani continues to hit anyway - and does it in a great way.

He will finish the season with a very high number of home runs, but what is really impressive is that the player leads his team in every serious category in the fields of hitting and serving.

He also became the first player ever with 10 wins and 30 home runs.

He is a serious candidate for MVP, and in my eyes is the most correct player to carry the title in light of the performance in both aspects of the game.

Shohei Ohtani, photo: AP

Undeciphered:

Arizona Diamondbacks shutout pitcher Zach Gallen broke a 15-year-old club record and joined an exclusive list of players who have kept zero points for an extended period of time.

Gallen pitched over 40 scoreless innings against him, an almost impossible feat in a league where outstanding hitters are around every corner.

Zak Gallen, photo: AFP

Friends forever:

Yadir Molina and Adam Wainwright play together for a long time and it is very possible that this is the last season of their careers.

The St. Louis Cardinals pitcher and catcher first played in 2007, and since then they have amassed 325 games as a duo, a record that will likely never be broken.

Yadir Molina (left) and Adam Wainwright, photo: AP

Explosive power:

Mike Trout suffered during the season from an injury that many expected would limit the rest of his career.

Instead, the Los Angeles Angels player came back full of energy, so much so that he created a 7-game home run streak, a feat accomplished by only 6 players over the years.

Only 3 crossed it.

Mike Trout, photo: USA TODAY Sports

Cross-border quality:

serving successfully for an entire game is quite a challenge.

To do that in 25 games in a row is almost inhuman.

This season, pitcher Framber Valdez from the Houston Astros managed to achieve the impressive feat of breaking the all-time record for consecutive games of quality pitching with 25. In light of his success this season, he is considered one of the finalists for the title of Cy Young's Outstanding Pitcher of the Season.

Framber Valdez, photo: USA TODAY Sports

Young and kicking:

Julio Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners is at the height of an impressive rookie season and has been signed to a contract that may turn out to be the longest and most expensive in American sports already in his first year in the league.

He also became the youngest rookie ever to be named to the All-Star team at the age of 21, is the first player ever to hit over 25 home runs and steal 25 bases in his first season, and is the ninth player to do both at the age of 21 or younger.

Probably a bright future ahead.

Julio Rodriguez, photo: AFP

Mr. 3,000:

There are only 33 players who have managed to collect 3,000 successful hits in a career and this season they were joined by 39-year-old Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers.

Most of them have already been elected to the Hall of Fame, Cabrera is on the safe way to join them, after a wonderful career in which he hit more than 500 home runs.

Next season will probably be the last.

Miguel Cabrera, photo: AFP

A rare team move:

A game without a successful hit is a rare thing.

A game in which a team of pitchers prevents the team opposite from getting a successful hit is even rarer.

Throughout MLB history this has only happened 18 times, two of them this season.

One of them was performed by three pitchers on behalf of the Houston Astros, and the other was performed by no less than five on behalf of the New York Mets in an impressive team display.

A league of her own:

During a game between the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres, after the first base coach was thrown out, Alyssa Naken became the first woman in MLB history to coach the field.

She did this 30 years after the movie 'A League of Their Own' was released, inspired by the women who kept the pulse of the industry during World War II, which this year also became a series on Amazon Prime.

Alisa Naken, photo: AFP

The playoffs will start today and some of those who made the season so special will take part in it with expectations for the championship.

Those who followed during the season got to see unforgettable moments that will be remembered for years.

It's amazing to see that despite the MLB's many years of activity, records continue to be broken and there are many more that continue to stand.

We seem to be in one of the best eras of a game that only gets better with time and evolves to more and more audiences around the world.

A combination of impressive athletic displays and setting historical precedents alongside a variety of international players continue to promote the game that creates special memories for all fans.

 The most prominent groups

Favorite: Los Angeles Dodgers -

The team finished the season with one of the best records seen in the National League of all time.

It has an almost unstoppable offense and a defense that did not allow the opposition to score 10 points against it, except in two games throughout the season.

The Dodgers set the highest number of victories in their history, and managed to collect the most points while absorbing the fewest of them in the entire league.

A deep team led by Freddie Freeman who never missed a game, superstar Mookie Betts and a variety of other elite players. 

The surprising one: Seattle Mariners -

a team in whose ranks plays one of the interesting stars of the league, the rookie Julio Rodriguez who leads the attack alongside a strong pitching staff.

Together they lead the team to its fifth playoff since its inception in 1977 and end a 20-year drought, a record among all active teams.

The exciting one: St. Louis Cardinals -

The team finished the second half of the season with the second best record, after making several significant moves before the closing of the transfer window.

The team is nearing the end of an era, with Albert Poholz (42), Yadier Molina (40) and Adam Wainwright (41) expected to retire at the end of the current season.

They hope to end it with one final championship along with two of the three front-runners for this season's MVP, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arando.

The dangerous one: San Diego Padres -

although it faltered throughout most of the season, it barely made it into the playoffs.

Just before the closing of the transfer window, the team transferred one of the most promising players in the league, Juan Soto, along with Josh Bell, who joined the power hitter Manny Machado and a talented pitching staff.

can surprise in the playoffs, when Soto already has one championship under his belt.

The mystery: New York Yankees -

The team started the season in a wonderful way behind the offensive displays of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo.

They returned from the All-Star break, to which they arrived with the best record in the league, broken - physically and metaphorically, and suffered a brutal streak of losses.

Thanks to the good start, they secured their place in the playoffs relatively easily, it will be interesting to see how they will perform at the moment of truth after a season that will be remembered as lame.

Will get a boost with the return of several key players when the playoffs begin.

The young: Cleveland Guardians -

the team that just at the beginning of the current season changed its name after years of criticism about racism and that has not won a championship since 1948 started the season with low expectations and a minimal budget for serving.

Still, it secured its place in the playoffs with the youngest team ever to qualify for the state (average age 26.2).

The team no one built on turns out to be the discovery of the season behind All-Star Jose Ramirez and impressive rookie Stephen Cowan.

The Disappointment: Los Angeles Angels -

Despite having two of MLB's top players (Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani), they will miss the playoffs for the eighth straight year, a season in which they have the longest losing streak of any team at 14 The reviews are flowing at a pace and it is very possible that the fall will lead to the transfer of one of the two during the summer break.

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Source: israelhayom

All sports articles on 2022-10-06

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