October baseball full of thrills

You’ve got to love October baseball.
Through the year, Major League Baseball can be a slog. The regular-season lasts a full six months. Teams play nearly every day.
It takes some real dedication and love of the sport to watch 162 games.
But come October — playoff time — everything changes. The marathon of the regular season is over. The competition for the World Series title is a sprint.
Every game matters, every hit, every pitch. There is virtually constant tension.
Just look at what we’ve had already this year.
Five of the 14 playoff games have been decided by a single run. And that doesn’t even count a couple of extra-inning affairs.
Just look:

NL Wild Card
Giants 3, Mets 0
This was a showcase for anyone who loves pitching.
Two of the best in the game — San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner and New York’s Noah Syndergaard — spent the first seven innings locked in a scoreless duel.
Then the Mets went to their bullpen, eventually turning to Jeurys Familia in the ninth inning, while the Giants chose to ride Bumgarner.
Brandon Crawford greeted the Mets’ closer with a double. And after an Angel Pagan strikeout, Joe Panik walked.
Then it was time for the unlikely hero. Conor Gillaspie, a utility man who had just six home runs in 191 at bats this year, went deep.
Had Gillaspie made an out, the Giants would have likely lifted Bumgarner, the next batter in the order, for a pinch hitter. Instead, Bumgarner stayed in, popped out and proceeded to retire the Mets in order in the bottom of the ninth for the win.

AL Wild Card
Blue Jays 5, Orioles 2, 11 innings
It’s another three-run game, but it was tied after the fifth inning, and the sixth and the seventh …
You get the point.
Toronto threatened in the ninth, but it wouldn’t be until the 11th, as both teams were digging deep into their bullpens, that the tie would finally be broken.
After Francisco Liriano retired the Orioles in order in the top of the 11th, a one-out single by Devon Travis in the bottom of the inning opened the door for Toronto. Josh Donaldson added a single, putting runners on the corner.
Any hit, or even a fly ball to the outfield, would have likely done the trick for the Blue Jays. But Edwin Encarnacion continued the team’s postseason home run magic — remember Jose Bautista last year, or Joe Carter with the 1993 World Series clincher — hitting a three-run blast to end the game.

AL Division Series
Indians sweep
While Cleveland finished off the Red Sox in the minimum three games, the series was far from a blowout.
The first and third games were both decided by a single run, and Boston had the tying and winning runs on base in the bottom of the ninth Monday.
The opening game of the series set a record for home runs (six, all solo) in an ALDS game. Boston had a chance when Andrew Benintendi hit a two-out single in the ninth, but Tribe closer Cody Allen struck out Dustin Pedroia to secure the win.
The Red Sox again had an opportunity against Allen with their season, and David Ortiz’s career, on the line Monday. This time, they got two runners on, only to have Travis Shaw fly out to end the series.

NLDS game 3
Giants 6, Cubs 5
A look at the box score says everything.
Twenty players saw action for Chicago. Eighteen took the field for the Giants.
San Francisco snagged the lead with three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, highlighted by a Gillaspie triple and a Crawford single. The Cubs wasted no time coming back, as Dexter Fowler drew a leadoff walk in the ninth and Kris Bryant blasted a two-run home run to tie the game.
Tension mounted over the next four innings, with each team missing on at least one scoring chance. Finally, in the bottom of the 13th, Crawford and Panik struck again. The former led off the inning with a double, and the latter smacked a hit to right field to bring home the game-winning run.
••••••••••
If you’ve been watching playoff baseball, you’ve been treated to plenty of excitement over the last week. If you haven’t, there’s still time.
Fourteen games have been played thus far. We’re guaranteed at least 14 more.
That is a recipe for a fun October.