To make a long story short, and to turn great suspense and theater into a dull summary, my beloved Braves completed their month-long choke job at the hands of the hated Phillies in 13 innings, while the Cardinals thwomped my hometown Astros to secure the NL wild card. Overall, not a great night for teams I root for. On the AL side of things, the Red Sox choked away the biggest September 1st lead in MLB history by losing in heartbreaking fashion to the previously-irrelevant Orioles, only to have the Tampa Bay Rays come from 7 runs down in the bottom of the 8th inning to win in 12 innings and punch their ticket to the playoffs.
With those great games as well as the regular season as a whole in the past, we head to October. Here's my thoughts going into the American League Division Series.
Matchup: Tampa Bay Rays (91-71) vs. Texas Rangers (96-66)
Breakdown: The Rays are hot off their sizzling September, and they seem to be playing at their absolute best. If they can play their best baseball for the duration of this series, they can absolutely win it. Between James Shields, David Price, and Jeremy Hellickson, the Rays can really reduce some offenses to rubble. They'll definitely need to do that going up against the buzzsaw known as the Rangers offense: they have 3 players with 30 home runs (Adrian Beltre, Mike Napoli, and Ian Kinsler), and that doesn't include former MVP Josh Hamilton, masher Nelson Cruz, and 34-year old hitting machine Michael Young. Needless to say this series will be strength against strength.
Key Players: For Tampa, their struggles are going to come at the plate. The linchpin for the Rays machine, in my opinion, is BJ Upton. If he can come out hot, steal bases, hit home runs, and be a focal point of the offense, then that will put that team in the best position to succeed. For Texas, the key spot of their team has to be the bullpen. The offense almost always clicks, and the starters are a herd of young, power arms that can stretch into the 7th and 8th innings pretty consistently. Once they reach the final, clutch innings, it's going to be interesting to see if Koji Uehara, Mike Adams, and Neftali Feliz can slam the door shut or if they let this surprising Rays team back into a few games.
My Pick: Rangers in 5
Matchup: Detroit Tigers (95-67) vs. New York Yankees (97-65)
Breakdown: The Tigers are the survivors of a pretty bad AL Central division. No other team out of the Central finished above .500, so their record is a little deceiving since they got to beat up on those rivals so much. However, ace pitcher and Cy Young-in-waiting Justin Verlander is the real deal, and his gaudy pitching stats would undoubtedly still be very impressive even if he was in the cutthroat AL East. Their offense is good enough, featuring MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera. However, the Yankees definitely have the better offense in this series: Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and the gang have been here before - and they know every trick in the book. However, pickings are slim among the pitching staff for quality playoff arms, so the onus is on CC Sabathia to provide ace-type stuff.
Key Players: For the Tigers, the crux to winning the series lies with...Doug Fister. The 6'8'' starter has pitched lights-out since being brought over from Seattle at the trade deadline, and if he can wheel-and-deal like he has, he could provide the necessary third win to go along with Verlander's inevitable two starts in the series. As for the Yankees, there is an all points bulletin out in The Bronx for another ace. The Yankees astronomical payroll has managed to bring....Ivan Nova as the #2 and AJ Burnett/Freddy Garcia/Bartolo Colon as some conglomerate of the rest of the series. If any of these four pitchers can step up to the big-time and provide a bridge to the ageless "one-pitch wonder" Mariano Rivera in the 9th inning, the Yankees can sidestep a potential pothole in Detroit on their road trip to the World Series.
My Pick: Tigers in 5
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