Extra Innings

Well I guess I spoke too soon about the AL Playoffs.

Now we have the Rays V the White Sox. I think the White sox have great pop in their lineup, but can it go up against the Rays outstanding young arms? I have to go with pitching in this case. The White Sox are a hit or miss offensive team so against talented arms, its going to be a miss here. Rays all the way

Now on to the NL Playoffs:

Brew v Phillies. Wow this is probably the most exciting of all 4 series. I can’t wait to see CC go up against the lefty bats of Howard and Utley. But it all comes down to pitching, and while the Brew have CC, he’s been going on 3 days rest for almost forever now, and the rest of the pitching staff is in shambles. They have Gallardo, who has been out all year long, as a Game 1 starter. Sheets is a “I dunno”, and the bullpen is just bad. The Phillies have an ace in Hamels, a solid staff, and a true stopper. The Phillies are the pick here.

Blue v Cubbies. Wow this is a tough one to call. You just never know with the Blue in the playoffs. Of course the same can be said about the Cubs. So you have two teams that are novices when it comes to October baseball. So you see where this is going. The Blue have World Series stalwarts Manny, Lowe, and Torre. So the two main things that win playoff series are pitching and experience, and since pitching is relatively equal (as Zambrano is a question mark) it comes down to the experience of the Dodgers marquee players. Go Blue!

First off we have Twins v White Sox: Going on my prediction that I made at the All-Star break, I have to go with the Twins. There is just something about that team. They always put out a very solid and consistent product and I would rather see that consistency than the Sox’s up and downs. It is quite amazing that they are able to make it this far after trading off Santana. Think of the powerhouse they could be with Johan. Twins win tomorrow but the atmosphere at Chicago should be amazing. I always wonder what a do or die MLB game would feel like.

In the series yet to be determined we have the Rays and my pick the Twins. I’ll go with the Twins here because the Rays are just too young. They will be back riding Evan Longoria’s future MVP assaults. I just really like the Twins. Heh.

Angels and Red Sox. The pick here is the Halos as the Sox just don’t have the aura around them anymore. They are definitely a good team but gone is Manny, not 100% are Ortiz and Beckett, and their bullpen doesn’t look dominating this year. Pedroia, Youk, and Bay are nice players that give hustle and grit but they are not superstar talents.

Even though the Dodgers lost to the Giants today, it was all good for me. I was relying on Tim Lincecum for a win and he looked fantastic. He struck out the side in the first 3 innings but amazingly was losing 1-0. It was still 1-0 Dodgers when Tim left the game, than the Giants amazingly scored a couple runs to put Tim in line for the win. After a shaky ninth by Brian Wilson, I had won my big-boy fantasy league. A tie in the win column would have resulted in a victory by my opponent as he had ERA (the tiebreaker) covered. So for one day, it was good that the Giants won. Of course, I could have also got a save by John Broxton to win also, and to be honest I would have preferred this, but a win by Cy Young candidate Lincecum is fine.

On to Chicago the Blue go. I would rather the Dodgers play the cubs in a 5 game series than a 7 gamer. The Cubs are the most talented and the most deep team in the playoffs so this usually wins out in a longer series. But in a short series, a single player that hits .400, 17 homers, and has 50+ RBIs in 53 games, can really make a difference in such a series.

Wow what a game by future Hall of famer Madd-Dogg. He pitched 6 innings and only threw a remarkable 48 pitches. It has been this way from Maddux ever since we got him. However, most of the time his living in the strike zone cost the Dodgers dearly. Maddux hasn’t been the great pickup that we envisioned, but he was today.

I do have a couple questions on whether or not he will be part of the Dodger roster (yes I said roster, not rotation) when the playoffs ensue. The analysts on the Dodger pre-game did give great insight on this, as they noted that Maddux has been lit up by the Phils all year long, so he probably will not get a start if we face them. Instead it looks like Kershaw would be a better matchup against the Phillies lefty bats of Howard and Utley. Of course it also means throwing out a rookie instead of a veteran hall of famer. Knowing Torre, he will go with the vet.

Speaking of vets, it looks like Saito may be the closer instead of Broxton. I don’t really like this move, as Broxton has almost been lights out lately, with the only hiccup coming yesterday due to a Russ Martin throwing error.

Its the bottom of the 10th as I write this and there is nothing really important to write about. The Dodgers seem content to get swept by the feisty Giants as they… just lost 6-5! Wow what a poor performance by the Blue. Although I have to say that Lowe was excellent in his 3 innings. He probably could have gone all 9 against that lineup if he wanted to. But since the Dodgers have given up on the regular season, lets take a look at games that actually mean something. In the Wild Card chase, it looks like the Brew Crew have the upper hand now with their win and the Mets need some help. Typical of the Mets to show this level of inconsistency. And the AL Central race comes down to whoever can not lose games as both the Twins and Chisox lose. I guess I gave up on my Twins pick too soon as it looks like the ChiSox are going to choke like those Mets.

Fittingly, the Dodgers got their NL West title on a loss by the D’backs. It was just the right circumstances for the Dodgers to make the playoffs this season. Even though a couple of weeks ago it might have seemed that we were out of the playoff picture, it was only a matter of time before Arizona collapsed. They are just too inexperienced a lineup to make it there. Zona definitely looked like they had the pitching staff for the ages, but apparently that faltered also. Webb and Haren didn’t look like elite pitchers anymore and Johnson was just too old to last the entire season. But on to today’s game, which pretty much didn’t mean much. Everybody was ready for their champagne baths and celebration. It did look very wild out there in Chavez Ravine. I only hope that they Dodgers don’t relax too much as there is much more work to do.

The good: We win the NL West.

The bad: We lost to the Pads.

Great win by the Blue today. They easily dispatched of the Pads and coupled with the D’backs loss, we are just unofficially a lock for the playoffs. With 4 games to go in the season, we are 4 games up on Arizona, making any win or D’back loss a clincher for a Dodger NL West title. Today’s game was highlighted by another clutch Nomar homer and yet another blast by Manny. Can Manny be the NL MVP? He has 17 homers and 53 RBIs in 50 games as a Dodger. The other two potential candidates have to be Ryan Howard and Prince Albert. I think Pujols gets it this year but I think Manny would be fine with trading away the award for a big fat contract.

The good: The powerful slugging Dodger offense.

The bad: Furcal is back and he struck out. Will he disrupt the chemistry?

Well that was a quick cure to the Dodgers’ recent woes wasn’t it? The Blue jumped all over LeBlanc and the Pads for 6 runs in the first, highlighted by Nomars’ 3 run shot. The rest of the game was cakewalk and Billingsley was his solid self. The Blue have beaten up on the Pads all year long and today was no different. Tomorrow’s game will be especially important so that we can win the series against the Pads. We beat up on all Pads except Jake Peavy who goes on Thursday. Peavy has 3 wins and a 1.71 ERA in 3 starts against the Dodgers so I think it is safe to say that the Blue might have to take that one off. But a win tomorrow helps big time especially with the huge Giant series coming up.

The good: Nomar’s always good for some of these big late season homers.

The bad: Nothing is bad when you play the Peavy-less Pads.

Here were my picks at the all-star break:

NL East: Phils

NL Central: Cubs with Brewers/Cards as Wild card

NL West: Dodgers

AL East: Red Sox

AL Central: Twins! with Sox as Wild Card

AL West: Angels

Well how did they turn out? Looks like the Mets are hitting the tank of inconsistency and lost out on the East title. If its any consolation, they still have a shot at the wild card. That’s because the Brew have been as pitiful as the Mets lately. The Cubs are an obvious pick and the Dodgers, while still shaky, have a good shot. Big surprise in the AL East, as its looking like the Rays have the stranglehold on the division and the BoSox are getting the wild card. Well the Twins put up a good fight but the ChiSox are going to hold them off and the Halos are the Halos.

Here are the playoff matchups that I am looking forward to:

Cubs v Dodgers: The Blue have a much better shot at beating the Cubs in a short series. A couple swings from Manny’s bat can change the entire series. Plus I forsee a complete collapse for the Mets again.

Phils v Brewers: Sabathia v Howard is going to be fun and Hamels v Fielder also.

Halos v Red Sox: Wow this is going to be a tough matchup for the Halos. It could also result in an early exit after an outstanding regular season.

Rays v Chi Sox: I guess you should root for the underdog right?

What a weekend it was for the Blue. They tangled with the Hated Ones again and came out on the short end. It seems to be the case every time we match up against them. In today’s game, we had two solid pitchers going at it. Each team’s offense attempted to threaten but were pushed back by Cain and Lowe. And again it came down to the bullpens and amazingly the Giant’s pen came through while the Dodger offense tanked it. It’s hard to believe that we couldn’t scratch at least once today, but I guess that’s what happens when its Dodgers versus Giants. The Dodgers will need to beat up on the Pads, which they have done very well against this year to prepare for the final series versus these guys. There are now 6 games left in the season and we are up 2.5 on the D’backs. It’s not panic mode yet, but we can begin to worry in this Wild NL West.

The good: We only gave up 1 run. That means good pitching right?

The bad: We didn’t score a single run.