Hello Fans,
Well our Wild Card games, the instant Game 7 win-or-go-home style games definitely lived up to the billing of wilder than perhaps we imagined. After a most entertaining and dramatic game between Oakland and Kansas City that saw the A’s blow a late 7-3 lead, score once in the top of the 12th, and then allow two runs by the Royals in the bottom half of the same inning to lose 9-8. Frame, Game, Season for the A’s. For the record, I hate the overuse of ‘frame’ for ‘inning’, but it seemed appropriate here. Anyway, going out that way hurts even more I’m sure. The game had a little bit of everything from homers (Brandon Moss, 2) to steals (Royals, 7, all by different players) to extra innings of course. For the record, the Catcher, Salvador Perez came up with the winning hit. K.C. is now on to the Angels. The second WIld Card game was tight for three innings as Madison Bumgarner and Edinson Volquez shut down the offenses. However, in the top of the fourth, San Francisco was led by Pablo Sandoval and before you knew it, there were three hits and the bases jacked when the underrated shortstop, Brandon Crawford came to the plate. He got behind 1-2 in the count and then smashed a hanging breaking ball over the high rightfield fence. BAM! 4-0. He hit the FIRST postseason grandslam by a shortstop EVER. The way Bumgarner was locked into dealing and throwing strike after strike, a sacrifice fly would have won the game. A salami though? Game over right there. Bumgarner cruised to a complete game 4-hit shutout while throwing just 109 pitches and a miniscule 30 balls while racking up 10 K’s. WOW!!!!!!
Well tonight starts the A.L. Divisional Round. We have the Baltimore Orioles hosting the Detroit Tigers in the early game. The Tigers have the experience, arms, and Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera in their corner. The Orioles have a well rounded lineup, unsung and unexpected heroes in Caleb Joseph and Steve Pearce, and of course, great manager Buck Showalter. I love the resiliency of the Orioles after overcoming season ending injuries to Matt Wieters and Manny Machado and the suspension of Chris Davis to still win 96 games. However, you can’t replace those guys on defense or offense forever. The Tigers are grizzly and hungry as they’ve taken some lumps in recent postseasons. I’ll take the Tigers in six games. I was wrong about both Wild Card games so I’m hoping to keep the streak alive here. Go O’s!
In the late game, it’s the upstart K.C. Royals and Los Angeles Angels. L.A. manager and former masked man Mike Scioscia and Co. will have to find a way to slow down that running game of K.C. The best way to do that is HIT. Well that company has Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and a healthy and revived Josh Hamilton in it. They can shutdown any running game. The Angels have been playing great, great baseball the entire second half of the season. I don’t think the Royals have many, if any, answers. The Angels will head to the A.L.C.S. after a game 5 victory.
Later Fans.