Last Friday, October 7, an unprecedented post-season began, as for the first time a series for the wild cards was played in a multiple way, involving 8 teams, in the past only a couple of series were played under this modality, but now a total of 4 are played, two games for each league, to then give way to the divisional series, Guardians, Rays, Phillies, Cardinals, Jays, Mariners, Padres and Mets were in charge of the premiere of this new format, making up a very attractive series, as to give more opportunity to the teams to have a better chance, Rays, Phillies, Cardinals, Jays, Mariners, Padres and Mets were in charge of the premiere of this new format, achieving very attractive series, as to give more opportunity to teams that in the past were left by the wayside, for not reaching the necessary victories, due to the small number of available slots to advance further in the tournament.

LOS DUEÑOS DEL PITCHEO / THE OWNERS OF PITCHING

The team with the lowest average collective age, and whose roster is inferior to that of many teams present at this stage of the championship, is the one that is given the least chance to reach the title, led by renowned manager Terry Francona, the Cleveland Guardians, have adopted a style of play that closely resembles the team from that city that in 2016 reached the World Series against all odds.

Supported by a very young talent, Francona would reach the title of the ''Center'' of the American League and would open the doors to start the wild card series against the Tampa Rays, his main card is his pitching staff, who have executed their work plan very efficiently, leaving that demonstrated against the team from North Florida, resulting in something very important, because in these instances of short series, pitching and defense are a very important factor for the obtaining of victories.

When we go to practice, we see that in the first game held at ''Progressive Field'' home of the Guardians, lasted only 2 hours and 17 minutes, giving evidence of the dominance of the pitchers of both sides, a monticular work of Shane Bieber of 7. 2, where he only allowed 3 hits and only one run, managing to fan 8 opponents, this was enough to lead the Guardians to their first victory 2 runs to 1, also relying on only one hit, that of its main figure Jose Ramirez, who with a home run with one on board in the bottom of the 6th inning, would make the difference that would ultimately be the definitive one.

Para el segundo de la serie, la cosa se enfoco nuevamente en el pitcheo, se necesitarían al rededor de 15 entradas para no solo definir el ganador de este partido, si no para anotar la primera y única carrera del compromiso, la que le daría la victoria a los de casa, 1 carrera por 0, y la clasificación a la series divisionales, esto! gracias al cuadrangular del novato Dominicano Oscar González, quien llevo la pelota hasta lo mas profundo del jardín izquierdo para acabar con la sequía de anotaciones que había en casi 5 horas de juego.

For the second inning of the series, the focus was again on pitching, it would take about 15 innings to not only define the winner of this game, but also to score the first and only run of the game, which would give the victory to the home team, 1 run for 0, and the classification to the divisional series, thanks to the home run of the Dominican rookie Oscar Gonzalez, who took the ball to deep left field to end the drought of scores that had in almost 5 hours of play.

Game 1 Stats
Game 2 Stats

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EN LOS NÚMEROS / IN NUMBERS

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In such a short series, we can observe the numbers more accurately, and more in this one, where only 4 runs were scored in 2 games between the 2 sets, also playing a fundamental role the defense, in the second commitment on more than one occasion the set of the Tampa Rays, left runners in circulation, staying to nothing to score, but it was only thanks to the great defense of the Guardian set, which prevented that from happening.

On both sides the pitchers were the protagonists in this contest, which leads us to analyze that it was a purely pitching series, the evidence in the statistics is sufficient and although not all games are the same, we can conclude that it was small details that made the difference, leading Cleveland in combination with a good defensive performance to obtain the ticket to go to face the Yankees in the next round.

SIGUIENTE PARADA, EL BRONX / NEXT STOP, THE BRONX

Once again the boys from Cleveland and New York will face each other in a divisional series, one more confrontation between Terry Francona and the New York Yankees in what will be a new chapter between these 2 towards the championship series, on paper everything favors the Bronx, but as the games have to be played, anything can happen, anything can happen, if we go to what we have actually seen on the field, everything will be very even, because if your pitching staff in 24 innings only allowed you 1 run, and you have spent a whole season belittling them, as is the case of the former Indians now Guardians, and they are where they are, it must be for something.

HASTA LA PRÓXIMA / SEE YOU NEXT TIME