Royals/A's today. Winner plays Angels in ALDS. Pirates/Giants tomorrow. Winner plays Nats in NLDS. O's/Tigers already set up in ALDS. Cards/Dodgers already set up in NLDS.
California is a baseball state right now. 4 teams in the playoffs. The Freeway Series could get more interesting but I still have a feeling that St. Louis will make another wild and crazy postseason run again. My predictions: AL Wild Card - A's over Royals NL Wild Card - Giants over Pirates ALDS - Angels over A's, Orioles over Tigers NLDS - Nationals over Giants, Cardinals over Dodgers ALCS - Angels over Orioles NLCS - Cardinals over Nationals World Series - Angels over Cardinals
Intrigued by the A's... who went anti-moneyball in their regular season moves (which almost cost them a playoff spot), but has them set up for the playoffs with the pitchers they feel were going to give them a better chance to win post-season games. Certainly, with the flukeish nature of the playoffs, anything can happen... and Beane is trying to "opposite" his way into actually having some post-season success (which ultimately is what his teams will end up being judged on.... flukes and all).
My predictions: AL Wild Card - A's over Royals NL Wild Card - Pirates over Giants ALDS - A's over Angels, Tigers over Orioles NLDS - Nationals over Giants, Dodgers over Cardinals ALCS - Orioles over A's NLCS - Dodgers over Nationals World Series - Orioles over Dodgers
I'm strangely excited about this A's / Royals game. Semi-pulling for the A's, but it would be nice to see the Royals have some success in the post-season as well.
Loving this game so far. Those Lester career playoff ERA stats are pretty ridiculous..particulary considering his company in that category.
Agreed. Beane got him for games like this... games that go against every sabrmetric value/core of this game, as you condense averages/tendencies/patterns that should play out over 162 games into ONE game.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>First postseason game in 28 years, and the Royals are really making the Yost of it.</p>— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) <a href="https://twitter.com/LoganDobson/status/517134782279745536" data-datetime="2014-10-01T02:11:54+00:00">October 1, 2014</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Goodness, could Ned Yost manage this game any tighter? Bailed on Shields at the first sign of trouble and because he mostly refuses to use his late inning pitchers (you know, possibly the three most dominating relievers in MLB not named Dellin Betances) except in their designated inning, he turned the ball over to a rookie starting pitcher who pitched on Sunday. I think you know how that went.
Sorry Kansas City. Better luck next year. Spoiler <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Three straight singles for Oakland. Now up 7-3. If the stadium was a morgue before, its like Houston after the Pujols homer off Lidge now.</p>— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/517135262179008512">October 1, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Damn, this is tense! Guess I'm still not ready for baseball to matter here (but will gladly take it!)
The Astros still won the series after that happened. I despised Jim Leyritz more than Albert Pujols. He's the one player who was hitting homeruns and led the Padres eliminating the Astros back in the 1998 NLDS.
A game started by James Shields and Jon Lester, with both offenses being mediocre is tied 7-7 after 9. Crazy.