Tag: MLB

Championship Series

Do I suck at predicting the outcome of playoff series in baseball? You betcha. Do I care? Nope. Why? Because the one series I picked correctly involved the Red Sox winning. Who gives a toss about the rest of the league when the Red Sox win.

I was 1 of 2 in the wild card games. That is not good. I was 1 of 4 in the Divisional series. That flat out sucks.

I picked the Red Sox over the Rays. Thank the baseball gods I was right.

I picked the A’s over the Tiggers. Nope.
I picked the Pirates over the Cardinals. Nope.
I picked the Braves over the Dodgers. Nope.

That puts me at 2 out of 6. I am wrong 2/3 of the time. Again, who cares so long as the Sox keep winning.

Here are my picks for the League Championship Series.

Boston Red Sox vs Detroit Tigers. Obviously I am picking the Red Sox, but that Tiggers pitching staff scares the holy hell out of me. The only possible chance for Boston is that Detroit had to use their two stud starters in games four and five against Oakland, and maybe there is a chance that we won’t have to face at least one of them twice. Slim chance. Really, no chance. Still, I have faith in the Red Sox. I believe in the beards. The Red Sox will rise to the challenge and take the series, although it’s probably going to be in seven supremely painful games.

St. Louis Cardinals vs Los Angeles Dodgers. I hate the Dodgers. At the same time, I keep finding myself forced to back the Cardinals and while they have come through, they have also let me down. Still… I freakin’ hate the Dodgers. I am going to pick the Cards once again in the hopes of getting a rematch of the 2004, 1967, and 1946 World Series. Sure the Red Sox lost two of those three match ups, but they won the most recent one, and winning this year would even up the history. That would be nice, eh?

Here’s to a Boston/St. Louis World Series… again.

The Red Sox Win!

It took four hours, yet again, and thanks to the assholes at TBS it’s already well into Wednesday morning, but the Red Sox have defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS.

They will face whichever team wins the Oakland vs Detroit series. The American League Championship Series will start at Fenway Park.

Apart from the fact that Tampa Bay used NINE pitchers and the game took four hours, yet again, that was an awesome game!

Bring on that Pennant, Red Sox!

Red Sox vs Rays Game Four

Second inning, the Red Sox had bases loaded and no outs…

And they failed to score.

What, me? Worry?

On a side note, I noticed last night that “firm” seems to be John Smoltz’s favorite word. It’s weird though, it’s almost like he doesn’t know what it means and keeps using it in ways that don’t quite make sense. What’s the deal, John. Are you messing with us?

Get ’em Tomorrow

Sure losing to a crapfest like Tampa Bay on a walk off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning is heartbreaking, but it’s only game three.  We still have the lead in the series.  So we beat them in four, or even five.  No biggie.

It’s okay, Red Sox.  Just go out there tomorrow and kick their sorry asses.

 

(pretty please?)

Game Three

Tonight at 6:00pm Eastern time… Game three of the ALDS Between the vile, evil, twisted, perverse Tampa Bay Rays and the Heroic, Majestic, Knights in Shining Armor known as the Boston Red Sox.

It’s another great pitching match up with Buchholz going against Cobb (not Ty). If the Red Sox keep playing the way they have been they should be able to win. If the Rays keep making bone head plays in the field, they should continue to lose. Some of the idiot moves in their outfield have me on the verge of wondering if any of them are wearing black socks.

One philosophical question: if the Rays play a home game in the playoffs and there are no fans in the stands to see it, does it really happen? I’m curious to see their attendance today.

Go Red Sox!

MLB Goes More to Plan

After two of my picks got trounced in the first two games of the divisional series, things went more to plan tonight. The Pirates won game two. So did the Braves. The A’s are blowing my good day as they are losing 3-0 in the fourth inning.

Most important though, the Mighty Bearded Red Sox blew out the Rays in game one. Tampa Bay’s defense was just plain awful and Boston took constant advantage of the miscues. The final score was 12-2.

And all was right in Red Sox Nation.

MLB Playoffs

I made my divisional series picks yesterday. Both NL series played game one. Both teams I picked got beaten badly. Pittsburgh got trounced. Ah, can I pick ’em or can I pick ’em? The Cardinals and Pirates are just starting the second inning now. Incredibly, the Cardinals failed to score in the first.

Of course the big deal starts at 3:00. Tampa Bay at Boston in game one. The Rays scare me. Sure, they weren’t all that great down the stretch but they won when they needed to. They also have some awesome starting pitching. Yeah, I’m nervous.

Please, Red Sox, destroy them so that I can stop feeling nervous.

Thanks. Go Red Sox.

Division Series Match Ups

Well now that the wild card games are over, I am officially 1-1 on baseball post season predictions. Yippee. I really wanted Cleveland, but I knew Tampa Bay was going to win. Damn it.

Now for the Division Series picks.

Boston Red Sox vs Tampa Bay Rays. Oh good, the team I didn’t want to see the Red Sox face in the first round is the team the Red Sox will face in the first round. It doesn’t matter though, the bearded Bostonians will rain down pain and suffering upon the Rays like Grant raining cannon fire into Vicksburg. (see what I did there? Long beards equals civil war references. Get used to it) As if there was any doubt, I am picking the Red Sox.

Detroit Tigers vs Oakland Athletics. Do I follow my brain or do I follow my gut? My brain tells me that the logical choice is the Tiggers (T-I-Double guh-Rrrrr). My gut, however, says to go with the A’s. I’m pretty sure I went with the A’s last year and got burned. This year… I think I am going with the A’s again.

St. Louis Cardinals vs Pittsburgh Pirates. Again, I’m going with my gut over my head. I am picking the Pirates. We are family and all that. I am on the wagon. Officially. That pretty much guarantees that the Cardinals will win in a sweep, but I am sticking with the Pirates.

Los Angeles Dodgers vs Atlanta Braves. There is no way on this Earth or any other that I will ever root for this Dodgers team. No offense to Nick Punto, but Hell No. I am picking the Braves. Do you think if the Sox and the Braves meet in the World Series we might see some sort of exhibition game at the site of the old Braves Feild? I didn’t think so either.

So I am on record as rooting for a Boston/Oakland ALCS, and a Pittsburgh/Atlanta NLCS. You heard it here first.

Game #163

For the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers the 162 game major league baseball season has 163 games. The two teams face off tonight in Texas to break the tie for the second AL wild card slot. The winner then gets to play a second one game playoff, this time against the Cleveland Indians. The winner of that games faces the triumphant, glorious, freakishly bearded, civil war re-enactors knows as the Boston Red Sox.

So as a Boston fan, who do I want to win? Honestly, I don’t know. The Rays’ pitching scares me. I’ve been saying for weeks that I don’t want to face them. Now though, are they in better shape than Texas and their current seven game winning streak, or Cleveland who have also been playing well lately? Tampa Bay is kind of a mess right now. Hell, they almost blew their chance at the post season yesterday by blowing a 7-0 lead to the last place Blue Jays. On top of all that, the Red Sox have dominated the Rays in recent weeks.

I don’t know. I guess I really don’t care who wins today or tomorrow, just so long as they use up their entire bull pen and waste their best starting pitchers, and maybe have the stress of the play in games launch their hitters into terrible slumps. It doesn’t matter who the Red Sox face, so long as the Red Sox win three straight to sweep themselves into the American League Championship Series. I’ll settle for that, for now.

Home Field Advantage

Hello and welcome to the final day of the Major League Baseball regular season. As of yesterday, there is nothing left for the Red Sox to play for. Just as the Sox vs Orioles game was starting, the A’s lost their game. That guaranteed the Red Sox home field advantage through the American League playoffs. The AL’s win at the all star game guarantees the AL pennant winners home field in the World Series. So the Sox could potentially have home field all the way through the post season. That has a nice ring to it.

Boston has 97 wins with one game left to play. After the nightmare horror of last season, I was optimistic that they could win 81 games. Let’s look at the current standings and see where an 81 win season would have placed us. How does second to last in the AL East ahead of only Toronto sound? It sounds like a huge improvement over last year, that’s what it sounds like. It also looks really depressing to finish behind the Yankees yet again. Fortunately, we’re just cruising our way to the best record in the entire American League. I cannot overstate how happy I am with this team. What a great season, and hopefully the best is yet to come.

As for the Division Series match ups, they are set for the Division winners. Oakland plays Detroit and Boston plays the wild card winner. The wild card race is still up in the air. Neither spot in the AL has been clinched yet. With one game still to be played, Cleveland (91-70) has a one game lead over Texas and Tampa Bay (both at 90-71). Tampa Bay plays Toronto today at 1:00, Cleveland plays the Twins at 2:00, and Texas plays the Angels at 3:00 (all times are Eastern). If the race ends with two teams tied for the second wild card spot, there will be a one game playoff on Monday (to decide who gets to play in the one game playoff… confusing, eh? Just wait, it gets worse) with the team that won the season series hosting. If the race ends in a three way tie it gets really strange.

The league has a formula where they designate the three teams as Teams A, B, and C. I am not sure about this, but I think the slotting is based on winning percentage against the other two teams, with the team with the best record getting to chose which slot they want. Cleveland is team A, Tampa Bay is team B, and Texas is team C. What does that mean? On Monday, Cleveland would host Tampa Bay. The winner gets the first wild card slot. On Tuesday, Texas would host the team that lost on Monday with the winner getting the second wild card slot, and the loser getting the opportunity to start Christmas shopping a little early. Then of course, the two wild card teams play each other to determine who wins the chance to lose to the Red Sox in the Division Series.

Part of me is rooting for that three way tie! Imagine having to play three one game playoffs on three consecutive days (I think, the wild card game might be Thursday, but I am pretty sure it’s going to be Wednesday), talk about stress, huh? I don’t really care who wins what, just as long as Tampa Bay doesn’t advance to the Division Series. As far as a Red Sox opponent goes, all three teams scare me, but Tampa Bay’s pitching scares me the most. I would much rather facing the Indians or the Rangers.

We’ll have to hang on and see how it all turns out over the next few days. It definitely looks to be a fun finish to the regular season in the American League, and I haven’t even looked at what’s happening in the National League yet.