Card Game http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey , but the Colorado Rockies' dreams of a first World Series title are still alive.Colorado defeated the Chicago Cubs, 2-1, in a 13-inning showdown Tuesday at Wrigley Field. It was the longest win-or-go-home playoff game in MLB history, and it prevented the Cubs from reaching their fourth straight National League Championship Series.Tony Wolters, who did not start the game, delivered the game-winning RBI single in the top of the 13th, and Scott Oberg closed the door on the North Siders in the bottom of the frame. Rockies Bats Must Find Road Magic for World Series RunColorado's offensive struggles on the road were a primary talking point entering the playoffs, for good reason.According toESPN.com,the Rockies led MLB in OPS at home but were an ugly 27thawayfrom Coors Field. Those issues were on full display during Monday's National League West tiebreaker loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers,as they didn't score until the ninth inning, and they looked to rear their ugly head again Tuesday when Nolan Arenado's sacrifice fly in the first inning was their only run until the 13th.However, October often comes down to unexpected heroes, as Colorado can now attest.ESPN espnBIGGEST HIT OF HIS CAREER!Tony Wolters comes up CLUTCH to give the Rockies the lead. Za9rxVoWyTJeff Passan JeffPassanOf course its the Rockies third catcher who gives them the lead. Tony Wolters, two-strike single, Rockies up 2-1.With two outs and nobody on base, Trevor Story and Gerardo Parra singled before Wolters drove home the winner. While Story is a notable name, Parra and Wolters were not exactly the expected heroes in a lineup featuring Arenado Maikel Franco Jersey , Charlie Blackmon, DJ LeMahieu, Carlos Gonzalez and Ian Desmond.The Rockies will need that type of October magic to deliver a championship to Colorado. Otherwise, their pitchers will need to be brilliant, like starter Kyle Freeland was against the Cubs with 6.2 scoreless innings and six strikeouts.The Rockies' road issues aren't going to disappear overnight, but a timely hit in clutch moments can be the difference between an early exit and a deep postseason run.Toothless Cubs Must Find Offensive Answers Next SeasonJon Lester deserved better.The three-time World Series champion entered Tuesday's contest with a 2.55 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in 25 playoff appearances, and he threw another masterpiece, allowing one run, four hits and one walk while striking out nine in six brilliant innings. He was the emotional leader for the team, consistently imploring the offense and crowd to deliver.James Neveau JamesNeveauJon Lester is on the Mount Rushmore of Chicago free agent signings and I will hear no protest on the matter.Sahadev Sharma sahadevsharmaWhat a great performance by Lester. Sure, he was a little lucky with some hard contact finding gloves, but man, 9 Ks, just 1 walk and 1 run allowed in six strong. Thats usually enough to win a game. Usually... Happ is going to pinch-hit for him. Impressive performance.It was all for naught, as one of the worst offenses in baseball over the final month put up one measly run.Chicago ranked 24th in OPS in September, perESPN.com, which is a primary reason the Milwaukee Brewers caught them and won the National League Central. There was also a power outage on the North Side http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey , as an offense that was third in the National League in homers in 2017 was a mere 11th this year.Javier Baez鈥攊n a fitting metaphor for a season in which he carried Chicago's offense on his back for extended stretches鈥攄elivered a game-tying double in the eighth, but that was the Cubs' only run.Jason Patt Bulls_JayTheo is probably writing up a $500M contract for Bryce Harper in his suite right now.The offense on display in the most important games of the year will not cut it for a win-now team with a number of core pieces still in place. The Cubs must find offensive answers this offseason, whether it is signing Bryce Harper, changing some of the coaching staff, adding lower-profile but impactful bats or rehabbing Kris Bryant after he dealt with injuries throughout the season.Otherwise, they won't be World Series contenders in 2019.Brewers Bullpen vs. Rockies Starters Will Determine NLDSThe battle within the battle in the Division Series between the Rockies and Brewers will be which team can beat the other's strength.Milwaukee can build an early lead with Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain and the rest of the offense and then drastically shorten contests with a dominant bullpen featuring the likes of Josh Hader, Joakim Soria, Corey Knebel and Jeremy Jeffress. All manager Craig Counsell needs is four or five effective innings from the starters, and the bullpen can do the rest.That was the blueprint the Brewers used to beat the Cubs in Monday's divisional tiebreaker game when Jhoulys Chacin allowed one run in 5.2 innings before the bullpen slammed the door.On the other side, Freeland and German Marquez form a daunting one-two punch of starting pitchers who can dictate the series with three starts between them. Freeland's prowess was on full display at Wrigley, while Marquez wasnamedNational League Pitcher of the Month in September with a 2.14 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 33.2 innings.Jeff Passan JeffPassanKyle Freeland is a boss. The pitch after David Dahls egregious not-an-error-but-totally-was-an-error in right field, Freeland induces a double-play groundball from Anthony Rizzo to escape a jam. Hes at just 71 pitches through six shutout innings. Rockies still lead, 1-0.Jerry Crasnick jcrasnickHow impressive is Kyle Freeland? Kid has no pulse.Joel Sherman Joelsherman1Jon Lester was terrific as usual in October. But he is a familiar face. It is good for baseball that the past 2 days those who do not pay deep attention during the season have gotten introduced to Walker Buehler and Kyle Freeland. #Dodgers #Rockies #TheFutureThe Brewers have plenty of potent bats, but Marquez and Freeland are talented enough to take over the short series and send the NL Central champions home quickly.Colorado knows it has to get to Milwaukee's starters early before the bullpen, while the Brewers have to battle the Rockies' one-two punch and force the bullpen to throw plenty of innings.Game on.What's Next?The Rockies turn their attention toward a National League Division Series showdown with the Brewers. The best-of-five series starts Thursday in Milwaukee. Yusei Kikuchi will make his Major League debut for the Seattle Mariners against the Oakland A's (Thursday, 5:35 a.m. ET).What should we expect from the Japanese left-hander in front of a sellout crowd at the Tokyo Dome.Sean Zerillo runs the numbers through his model to provide two small edges on the First 5 Innings odds.I awoke at 5:28 AM this morning Pete Rose Jersey , two minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I had action on the Mariners five-inning moneyline, after all, and regular season baseball served as the smelling salts that I needed to start my day early on very little sleep.Within minutes, the sweat was on and I was regretting major life decisions — Marco Gonzales served up a long home run to Stephen Piscotty and then Ryon Healy (unsurprisingly) threw wildly into left field from a shifted position (on a potential double-play ball) sending the Athletics out to a two-run lead.Seattle rallied in the third, highlighted by an opposite-field grand slam from Domingo Santana to move ahead 5-2. In a fit of joy, I took my dog for her morning walk, abandoning all superstitious caution.Once outside, I checked my phone to see that Khris Davis had cut the score to 5-4 with a two-run shot of his own. Feeling guilty for leaving, I tugged on the leash a bit and muttered, “come on girl, Marco needs us,” before we hustled back inside.Gonzales settled in and the Mariners added two insurance runs before Tim Beckham put all doubt to bed and made my morning much flipping better:Adjusting for Yusei KikuchiYesterday (or this morning? last night? what day is it? what day is it in Japan?) I discussed how you can use xwOBA for pitchers (as provided by Statcast through Baseball Savant) to make a rough ERA calculation.The pitching matchup in Game 2 of this series features popup specialist Marco Estrada for Oakland, and Japanese signee Yusei Kikuchi for the Mariners. With an xwOBA of .329, Estrada rates a shade better than Game 1 starter Mike Fiers (.333). His .329 xwOBA converts to an ERA of around 4.91.Without any batted ball data for Kikuchi, I’ll use a composite projection. That projection places his wOBA a tick better (.307) than his teammate Gonzales (.308), and translates to a 4.27 ERA.Kikuchi averaged 8 strikeouts per nine innings (K/9) and 3.3 walks per nine innings (BB/9) over 1,035 innings in Japan. He posted one outlier season in 2017 http://www.philliesfanproshop.com/authentic-pat-neshek-jersey , with a 10.4 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9, when he also saw an uptick in velocity.However, there is no way to know how he will adjust to throwing an MLB baseball 鈥?which is slightly bigger than the ball in Japan.Scouting Yusei KikuchiKikuchi sits聽92-94 mph with his fastball, above average (91.4) for a left-handed MLB starter. Although he was touching as high as 98 mph in 2017, I never saw that extra gear on the fastball during the three 2018 starts that I watched.This is the fastball at its best: His secondary arsenal consists of a slider, slow curveball, and changeup, though he seems to prefer the breaking balls to the offspeed pitch.聽The slider is the true money maker: The curveball works as an offspeed version of the slider: Certain MLB scouts believe that Kikuchi can be a number two starter at the MLB level. As I have mentioned before, Kikuchi reminds me of Patrick Corbin with more durability concerns (shoulder issues in May of 2018).Reportedly, he preferred the Mariners over other clubs because they were the team most willing to adhere to his request to pitch every six days, as is customary in Japan, instead of MLB’s typical five-day schedule.Here are my projections and suggested bets for Mariners-A’s:聽Get The EdgeLIMITED TIME OFFER - 60% OFFUnlock this article for more betting analysis for Seattle Mariners vs. Oakland A's.TRY EDGE TODAYNow accepting&Already an EDGE member?聽Sign In