The Cleveland Indians with a historic comeback and the Houston Astros with their offensive power won consecutive victories that put them 2-0 ahead in the respective American League division series against the New York Yankees and Medias Boston Reds.
While in the National League played the first two games with the Chicago Cubs of great winners of visitors to the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers who also won the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The story was repeated, the Indians have won in any imaginable way during this season with comebacks, unstoppable agonies and beatings.
But the 104th win of the Indians was perhaps the most exciting of all and they achieved against the Yankees, who had everything in their favor to win.
Brazilian receiver Yan Gomes hit a single that propelled Austin Jackson from second base without outs in the thirteenth, and Cleveland rallied from a five-run draw to beat the Yankees 9-8 and take a 2-0 lead in his division series of the American League.
Jackson negotiated a passport at the start of the thirteenth inning for reliever Dellin Betances and stole the second.
Gomes extended his turn at bat to the maximum count before connecting his shot just above third base, easily sending Jackson to the plate.
The Indians left the dugout to welcome Gomes, who ended an exciting five-hour, eight-minute clash.
Cleveland rebounded from an 8-3 deficit, a terrible start to his ace Corey Kluber and a potentially serious injury to Edwin Encarnacion.
Puerto Rican short fielder Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam in the sixth to start Cleveland’s comeback, right after a controversial umpire’s decision over a pitch to Lonnie Chisenhall that the Yankees did not call for review.
His compatriot Carlos Correa, Venezuelan Jose Altuve and the rest of the Astros’ power bats led the majors in races, hits and batting average in the regular season.
Now that it’s playoff time, Houston keeps hitting the ball hard.
Correa came in for a run and double and drove in four runs, Altuve had two more hits and the Astros beat the Red Sox 8-2 to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five series.
George Springer also hit a homer to back the work of left-hand opener Dallas Keuchel (1-0) in Houston’s second consecutive beating to the Red Sox who can not decipher the Astros’ offensive power.
In the nation’s capital there was more precision than power, starter Kyle Hendricks made sure the Cubs reaped a new victory in October.
Hendricks overcame Stephen Strasburg in the pitching duel and Chicago was more than ready to defend the title that conjured a long curse by beating the Nationals 3-0 in the first game of the NL series.
Third baseman Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo of Italy produced runs in the sixth inning with single singles, the first hits that allowed Strasburg in the duel.
Hendricks was even better, tolerating just two singles in seven work chapters.
Chicago kicked off the postseason, seeking to revalidate the title of the last World Series, which broke a 108-year drought.
Strasburg did not tolerate unstoppable until there were two outs in the sixth. The Puerto Rican Javier Baez inaugurated the inning based on an error of the third baseman Anthony Rendón, and advanced to the intermediate in a sacrifice.
Quarterback Justin Turner showed power and productivity by homing and finishing with five RBI races for the Dodgers, who beat the Diamondbacks 9-5 and credited the first game of the NL Divisional Series.
The victory allows the Dodgers, West Division champions to leave 1-0 mark in their favor in the series that is played to the best of five against the Diamondbacks, who went on to the finals after winning the Match for the Joker.
Turner (1) was the best representative of the Dodgers’ drums, sending the ball off the field in the first episode, when he had two runners ahead.
Third base, who hit 3 of 4, finished with five RBIs to become the Los Angeles Novena’s most productive pick.
From the mound, the triumph was scored by left-handed pitcher Clayton Kershaw (1-0) in six 1/3 innings, taking five hits, including four homers and four runs, three walks and struck out seven batters.
The loss was for starter Taijuan Walker (0-1) in an inning, accepting punishment of four hits, home run and four runs.
