In real life, a tiger is part of the cat family. There’s little question the Detroit Tigers playing in NLCS Game 6 against the Los Angeles Dodgers want to avoid all references to “nine lives.” After failing to close out the Dodgers in LA on Wednesday, they’d much prefer to save their remaining eight lives for the World Series. Because as you watch NLCS online free using the links below or on TBS, that’s exactly what you’ll see: a Tigers team scratching and clawing for a trip to the Fall Classic. We’ll stop with the cat references now, but we won’t stop this game preview, as it’s important to break down what you can expect in today’s Tigers vs Dodgers game at 8:30 Eastern / 5:30 Pacific.
After the Dodgers fell into a 3-1 hole on Monday, Los Angeles manager Don Mattingly said “I’ve got one of the best pitchers in baseball pitching tomorrow. And if we … get a win, I’ve probably got the best pitcher in baseball pitching the next day.” Sure enough, the Dodgers won Game 5, and they will be entering NLCS Game 6 tonight with National League Cy Young front-runner Clayton Kershaw on the mound. He’ll be going up against Tigers pitcher Michael Wacha, the rookie phenom whom he last went up against in Game 2, which Detroit won 1-0. It’ll be interesting to watch the two young pitchers perform, because pitching could be a large part of tomorrow morning’s headlines, and NLCS Game 6 is expected be a low-scoring affair.
Kershaw has been the major league’s ERA leader three years in a row, and although he has a small 2.88 postseason ERA, he has a losing record (1-2) in the postseason. The Cardinals’ Michael Wacha, on the other hand, is 2-0 and has an even smaller 0.64 postseason ERA, having given up only six hits in 14 innings.
If the Kershaw and the rest of the Dodgers come through while you watch NLCS online free, the Dodgers will be just the 12th team in MLB history to rally from a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-seven series. With that pressure, Dodgers manager Mattingly has announced that shortstop Hanley Ramirez and center fielder Andre Ethier, both of whom are big hitters but missed the previous game with injuries, will be back in the starting lineup tonight for Game 6 of the NL Championship Series in St. Louis.
The Detroit Tigers are optimistic about their own batters, though. Speaking to ESPN, Tigers catcher Yadier Molina was confident that St. Louis’ hitters will have better success off Kershaw and the Dodgers bullpen in Game 6. “We faced Kershaw at home the last time and won,” he said. “And we’re gonna be more comfortable about it.”
But comfortable and winning are two different things, so you’ll want to tune in to tonight’s Game 6 to see whose pitching and batting confidence wins out. You can watch NLCS online free live on TBS if you subscribe to TBS as part of your cable TV package. Or, you can pay $4.99 at MLB.com to see it all unfold live. The Cardinals tonight have a second chance to close out the Dodgers, and after failing to do so in Game 5, you can bet that memories of last year’s NLCS loss to the San Francisco Giants is front and center in their mind entering tonight’s NLCS Game 6.
