The playoffs get off to a catchy start

Defense abounds, as do empty seats in St. Petersburg.

Evan Longoria

Royce Lewis clubbed a home run in his first postseason at-bat. On his second postseason at-bat, he did it again. This was happening in Minneapolis, where Lewis’ Twins were beating Toronto in Game 1 of the wild-card series, and Evan Longoria was in Milwaukee, getting ready for Arizona’s playoff opener. Longoria could have related. Once upon a time, he too was 24.

Actually Longoria was 22 when he and Tampa Bay staged a takeover of the American League playoffs. He was Rookie of the Year, with 28 home runs. In his first October game against Texas, he hit a home run, and then he hit another, just like Lewis did. Near the end of that 2008 season, David Price came up from Vanderbilt and began striking out the world for the Rays. Now Price is retired. Teammate Rocco Baldelli is managing the Twins. Teammates Cliff Floyd and Carlos Pena can be seen on the MLB Network set, every now and then, And Longoria, 37, is still playing third base, every now and then.

When Longoria left the Giants and signed with the Diamondbacks, he quickly made it clear this was no ceremonial move, that he hadn’t joined the club’s mentoring program. He was there to play. But he only played 74 games and hit .223. He was in the lineup Tuesday against Milwaukee’s Corbin Burnes, and he left the offensive strokes to Corbin Carroll, this year’s probable Rookie of the Year in the National League. Instead, he channeled Brooks Robinson, who passed away last week.

Arizona led 4-3 in the fifth. It had shrugged off Milwaukee’s 3-0 lead and gotten homers from Carroll, Ketel Marte and the BLT (Broke The Last Tie) shot from catcher Gabriel Moreno. Now the Brewers loaded the bases, and Tyrone Taylor, who had homered, hit a seed off Ryan Thompson. But Longoria dived on his chest, the way Robinson had done in the 1970 Series. He not only caught Taylor’s drive, he threw to second for a double play, and Thompson screamed like a schoolgirl at a 1964 Beatles concert.

Later, Longoria ranged left, slapped around a bouncer by William Contreras, finally controlled it, realized it was too late to get Contreras, but pivoted to see Christian Yelich in a perilous position at second. Longoria quickly fired to second and got him.

And when Longoria again sprawled to keep Willy Adames’ single in the infield, he took the very next pitch and turned it into a double play on fellow geezer Josh Donaldson.

Things like that happened throughout Day 1 of these playoffs. You could take your exit velocity and, if you added $13 or so, might afford a ballpark beer. Rookie Evan Carter started it for Texas with a diving grab near the left field line. Jordan Montgomery, the Texas lefty who was in the midst of baffling the Rays, dived on his sternum and snatched a bunt out of the sky.

The Twins’ Michael A. Taylor sprinted in, then sprinted back to take away a base hit and a possible homer from Toronto batsmen. His teammate Carlos Correa, the big-buck shortstop who looks ready to  revert to an All-Star level, saw Bo Bichette try to score from second on an infield single by Kevin Kiermaier. Correa, off-balance, still had enough arm to erase Bichette at the plate.

All of this leathery magic contrasted, jarringly, with the baseball satire that Tampa Bay performed. The Rays made four errors in their loss to the Rangers. Not that you could round up many witnesses. Game 1 attendance in Tropicana Field was a ghastly 19,704, worst in postseason history since Game 7 of the 1919 Black Sox World Series. This was a hard but familiar slap to a team that had won its first 13 games and won 99 overall. Yet the apathy will be rewarded with a new ballpark at another site in St. Petersburg, apparently.

Milwaukee was the other home loser, 6- 3, to Arizona. It was worse than the usual loss because the Brewers found out Brandon Woodruff was unable to pitch in the series, and because manager Craig Counsell trotted out closer Devin Williams when Milwaukee was down 4-3.  Williams then demonstrated why such closers can’t be trusted to pitch when they’re behind. They operate on far less adrenalin in those spots. It makes no sense but it’s real. Williams got only two outs and gave up a two-run double by Christian Parker. Worse yet, he needed 31 pitches, which means he’s iffy for Game 2 and a possible Game 3.

The Rangers hadn’t been in the playoffs since 2016 and the Diamondbacks hadn’t been since 2017. But in Philadelphia it was like the Wayback Machine was stuck on 2022. Another fearsome crowd greeted the Phillies as they beat back Miami, 3-1, and it gave injured first baseman Rhys Hoskins a huge hand as he threw out the first pitch.

It was also a case of same time, last year for Zack Wheeler, who threw a five-hitter for six innings. Wheeler has been such a force that his career postseason WHIP actually rose, to 0.750, which is still brilliant. Bryce Harper was playing feral baseball again, charging through a ‘stop’ sign from third base coach Dusty Wathan to score, and up-and-down reliever Jose Alvarado was as poisonous as we remembered him, at least until ;ast year’s final game and an unfortunate brush with Yordan Alvarez.

Tuesday night will seem as distant as the Truman administration, once all the October stories are told. But for one night, the playoffs fulfilled the promise that baseball purports to make every day. It connected generations, even though Lewis and Longoria would claim brotherhood, once removed.