Verlander to start Game 1of ALDS
Justin Verlander will start Game 1 of the AL Division Series against the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.
It will be the 35th career postseason start for Verlander, who returned to the AL West champion Astros in a trade from the New York Mets this summer.
Manager Dusty Baker made the announcement Thursday and added that left-hander Framber Valdez would start Game 2 Sunday night.
Verlander, 40, was 13-8 with a 3.22 ERA in 27 starts this season. The three-time Cy Young Award winner was 7-3 with a 3.31 ERA in 11 starts for Houston after the trade.
The Twins, who won two games over the Blue Jays in the Wild Card Series to advance, have not announced their starters for the series.
Brewers’ exit leaves Consell’s future uncertain: Craig Counsell grew up in the Milwaukee area, and his father worked for the Brewers. The younger Counsell also played for the team before he became the most successful manager in franchise history.
He has guided the Brewers to five playoff berths in the last six years, but his hometown team remains in search of its first World Series title.
Counsell’s remarkable run has reached a crossroads.
The Brewers’ season is over after they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL Wild Card Series, making Counsell a free agent of sorts. He doesn’t have a contract beyond this season and wasn’t interested in discussing his future after the team’s 5-2 loss on Wednesday.
“That ain’t for tonight, man,” Counsell said.
Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio has said the team wants him to stay. Counsell owns a 707-625 record, giving him the franchise record for wins and games managed.
“Craig and I spoke right around Labor Day, and we decided we had a chance to do something special this year, and we were going to just focus on that and pick up the conversation once the season was over,” Attanasio said before the Wild Card Series. “I think that conversation will be open-ended, and we’ll see how he wants to handle it. I think he has earned that right.
“Clearly we want him back, and we’ll see what he wants to do.”
Brewers officials have mentioned the possibility that Counsell might want to step away from the game and watch his sons play college baseball. Brady Counsell plays for Minnesota, and Jack Counsell is at Michigan.
There also is the possibility he could try managing a team with a higher payroll.
Florida flop: Josh Bell warned his young Miami Marlins of the dangers that lurked in Philadelphia.
Yes, the Phillies’ big bats of Bryce Harper and Bryson Stott and aces Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola certainly played a factor in why the Marlins should have been wary.
But it was the noise that Bell feared might rattle the Marlins.
That Red October cacophony of rapturous cheering, constant clapping, ear-pounding roars that have turned Citizens Bank Park into one of the biggest menaces for visiting teams in all of sports.
“I was trying to prepare the guys for it just on the flight over,” Bell said before a 7-1 loss Wednsday night completed Philadelphia’s two-game Wild Card Series sweep.
Bell was in the lineup a year ago for San Diego when Harper hit a decisive two-run homer that ushered the Phillies into the World Series. About a year later, Bell was back in the postseason, this time a helpless bystander at first base for the Marlins as Bryson Scott hit a grand slam that turned the ballpark into a madhouse.
The Marlins couldn’t solve Wheeler or Nola. Their pitching couldn’t shut down Philly’s big boppers. And the Marlins sure couldn’t quiet a Phillies crowd that came primed for another postseason party.
Big league batting champion Luis Arraez, playing on a sprained left ankle, was 1 for 8 with no RBIs, as was Jorge Soler. Jazz Chisholm Jr. was 0 for 8 with four strikeouts. The Marlins hit .194 and scored just two runs.