McCoy: Trendy picks bounced from MLB playoffs

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

The trendy teams before the playoffs began were, if you paid attention to the baseball aficionados: The Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians and the San Diego Padres.

Take a peek at the bracket today and three are missing in action.

The Cincinnati Reds? Gone.

The Chicago White Sox? Gone.

The Cleveland Indians? Gone.

If your city begins with the letter ‘C,’ you are in mourning for your baseball team today.

And you can add the Chicago Cubs to the 'C' list, losers Friday to the Miami Marlins, 2-0. With their two straight wins over the Cubs, the Marlins join the Padres as the trendy teams.

The Cubs and Marlins played six scoreless inning in Wrigley Field, Yu Darvis against Miami’s Sixto Sanchez, a flame-throwing rookie who spent five innings throwing 100 and 101 mph fastballs past the Cubs.

The Marlins scored two off Darvish in the seventh and knocked him out of the box after he had two outs and nobody on. Miami first baseman Derrick Cooper did his version of Bob Seger’s song, 'Against The Wind." He drove a home run to left against a stiff breeze to give Miami a 1-0 lead.

Matt Joyce doubled and the Cubs elected to walk Miguel Rojas intentionally. Bad decision. The next batter, Magneuris Sierra, hit the first pitch for a run-scoring single and a 2-0 lead.

The Cubs nearly pulled the same trick as the Reds. They scored only one run in 18 innings, a fifth-inning home run by Ian Happ in Game 1.

The first week of the season, when the Marlins played the Philadelphia Phillies, a Phillies broadcaster said on the air, “You can’t lose games to the bottom feeders.”

The Marlins picked up on it and began wearing t-shirts that reads ‘Bottom Feeders.’ And while the Phillies didn’t even make the playoffs, the Marlins are off to the National League Division Series to play the Atlanta Braves.

The Padres remained upright Thursday by the depth of the lacquer on Fernando Tatis Jr.'s bat. After losing the first game in the best of three to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Padres were down 4-0 after three and 6-2 in the sixth inning of Game 2.

San Diego then committed baseball felony assault and battery against the St. Louis bullpen — nine runs in the last three innings for an 11-9 victory.

Tatis hit a three-run home run in the sixth to pull the Padres to within 6-5 and Wil Myers, next man up, tied it with a home run. Tatis and Myers later homered again.

The Reds were the trendiest of all entering the playoffs after winning 11 of their final 14 games to sneak into the postseason.

Then they went 22 straight innings without a run in two straight losses to the Atlanta Braves, 1-0 in 13 innings and 5-0.

It brought out some interesting comments, including this one from former Chicago Tribune/Los Angeles Times sports writer Mike Downey.

"One hundred and one years ago today, Morrie Rath was the leadoff batter in the 1919 World Series for the Cincinnati Reds. He was hit by a pitch by Chicago White Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte, a private signal to gambler Al Rothstein that the fix was on.

“The Reds scored one run in the first inning, which was one run more than the Reds scored in the entire 2020 postseason.”

And this one from former Columbus Dispatch sports writer Brad Schmaltz, who once covered the Reds: “I’m not sure which was the biggest waste, me spending eight hours watching the Reds or the money the Reds spent shipping their bats to Atlanta.”