Grading Sunday's big day of postseason baseball

Pitching ruled the day on Sunday, but two starters -- CC Sabathia and Bronson Arroyo -- shined brighter than the others.

By Eye on Baseball staff

Oct 8, 2012 at 2:30 am ET • 3 min read

CC Sabathia got out of a jam in the eighth inning and the Yankees won Game 1 in Baltimore. (Getty Images)

Sunday was the only day of the postseason we're guaranteed to have four games -- and we got three close games and a masterful pitching performance in the Reds' rout of the Giants. Let's hand out the grades...

Starting Pitchers: Every starter on Sunday, minus San Francisco's Madison Bumgarner, gave his team a shot to win, but the winning pitchers in the two late games -- the Yankees' CC Sabathia and the Reds' Bronson Arroyo -- were fantastic. Sabathia was an out from a complete game, striking out seven while giving up eight hits. The two runs came on a second-inning single. In the eighth inning of a tie game, Sabathia worked around a leadoff double by J.J. Hardy to get out of the inning and set up the Yankees' fifth-run ninth. As good as Sabathia was, Arroyo was better. The Reds starter didn't allow a baserunner until he had two outs in the fifth, when Brandon Belt singled. He walked another batter in the seventh, but that was it. Of his 91 pitches, just seven were from the stretch. He could have pitched deeper, but after the Reds scored five in the eighth inning, Dusty Baker pulled him and let his bench and bullpen finish off the game.

Joey Votto: In the first two games of the NLCS between the Giants and Reds, the TBS announcers have harped on Votto's "struggles" since coming back from his knee surgery. What they mean is he's struggling driving the ball -- but it's hard to see what other kind of struggles he's having. Votto had three hits on Saturday, all singles. The Reds first baseman also scored two runs in the 9-0 Cincinnati victory. He hasn't homered since June 24 at home against the Twins. He played in 15 more games before deciding on surgery and then he didn't homer in his 25 games after returning. He did hit eight doubles in that time, despite not homering, and put up a .316/.505/.421 line. That's quite the struggle.

Jayson Werth: The Nationals' high-priced leadoff man -- and wearer of a great beard -- struck out three times and left seven men on base. His strikeout to end the sixth inning left the bases loaded as the Nationals trailed 2-1. It felt like a pivotal out in the game for the Cardinals at the time and Werth was well on his way to collecting an F -- or at least a D -- in the game. And then, in the bottom half of the sixth inning, Werth battled the sun and made an outstanding catch while he slammed against the right-field wall in Busch Stadium. The snag robbed Daniel Descalso of a two-run homer, which may have buried the Nationals. Instead, Werth's grab kept the deficit at one and the Nationals would later rally to win.

The Oakland bullpen: The pen was a strong point down the stretch as the A's shocked the Rangers in stealing away the AL West title, but that same group let the club down Sunday afternoon. It wasn't the deep bullpen guys, either, it was the main components. Sean Doolittle, Ryan Cook and Grant Balfour combined for two blown saves, the loss, six hits, four runs and a game-tying wild pitch in 2 2/3 innings. One mitigating factor? If Coco Crisp hauls in Miguel Cabrera's soft liner in the seventh, Doolittle would have posted a scoreless inning and we may be talking about an A's victory. That's why only two of those aforementioned four runs were earned.

Catchers: It wasn't a good day for those wearing the tools of ignorance in Detroit. In top of the eighth, it was Detroit's Gerald Laird, who allowed a pitch to scoot past him, which in turn allowed the tying run to score. Yes, it was ruled a wild pitch, but it was a stoppable wild pitch. In the bottom of the eighth, it was Oakland's George Kottaras who did the same, when he attempted to backhand a 55-foot pitch from Ryan Cook. Again, the tying run scored. On top of all that, Oakland and Detroit catchers (Laird and Kottaras, plus Alex Avila and Derek Norris) combined to go 0-for-6 with five Ks and four runners left on base."