If you had told me a few months ago that the Cards would win a Game 5 of the NLDS against the friggin’ Phillies because of defense, I would have never believed you.
Wow.
sluggo
2022
And what the hell happened to Howard? If that ball had gotten through to the outfield, he might still have been thrown out, as he injured something trying to get out of the box and just fell down.
Man, that was a good series. Now it’s time to play Dark Souls!
Condolences Phillies fans. That was a crazy ballgame. Glad the Cardinals won, but much respect for a class team and organization in Philadelphia.
Two of my root againsts gone in consecutive days. That’s good. I’ll root against the Cards/for the Brewers in the NLCS. Indifferent to the ALCS.
sluggo
2027
I have to admit, the playoffs take a big hit for me now. Rangers/Tigers and Cards/Brewers are not exactly the sexy series we were hoping for this summer.
And I’m sure someone will claim I feel that way because the Yankees are out, but more than anything – and no disrespect to the Cardinals – having the Phillies with that pitching staff not even make the NLCS is what feels the weirdest to me.
You breeze through the season with 100+ wins, get knocked out by a team who qualified on the last day of the season, and that’s just par for the course in baseball these days. There’s so much parity now, all that matters is making the playoffs and it’s a crapshoot from there. It just feels weird to me somehow.
Thought that was a nickname for Milwaukee there at first.
Lorini
2029
First time ever, the best teams in both the MLB and the NBA lose in the first round. And yes I researched it myself :).
I’m biased of course, but I would certainly not call what happened a crapshoot. In any of these series.
We’d rather have easy breezes through the divisional rounds than hard-fought, gritty contests? I think it only gets better from here.
nKoan
2031
This is shaping up to be an epic post-season.
It’s not about parity, it’s about playing with heart, brains and passion. The Phillies and Yankees lack that.
— Alan
Yeah, but the difference between the best and another playoff contender isn’t a huge gap. And in baseball all it takes is an average pitcher to have an unusually good day to tilt a series.
Short series are tough. In a seven game series the Phillies might very well come back and win the next two.
sluggo
2034
Come on, dude. You’re better than that.
So you’re saying that they hit the 80th percentile or so of athlete interviews?
There’s no downside to shortening the regular season by about 4 games and making the first round 7 games, is there? Besides the owners losing about 60 games of revenue, of course. Not a fan of the five game series.
Sarkus
2037
I don’t think I ever expected a Brewers/Cardinals NLCS this year. Or Rangers/Tigers, to be honest.
I think Brewers/Tigers would be my preference out of this turn of events. Sorry to our resident Cardinals and Rangers fans. ;-)
Cards and Brewers have a good rivalry – two beer brewing towns going at it. Should be a great series.
Detroit fans must be pinching themselves. The Lions undefeated and the Tigers in the ALCS.
I have a feeling this is gonna be a hard-fought ALCS; Rangers went 3-6 against the Tigers this year and will need to figure out Verlander early. The good news at least is that Game 1 an a potential Game 7 is in Arlington, while Texas generally does not travel well to Comerica. Wilson has been a mess in nearly all of his post-season starts and really needs to step it up, in a free agent year of all years, if he wants to boost his value to other teams (like the Yankees, who will try to gobble him up in the offseason if at all possible). The other pitchers… hrmm they could do really well or collapse completely. They have to step up as well, especially Colby Lewis, who has been very up and down this year. The only starting pitcher who actually won against Detroit all season, Ogando (3-0), is in the bullpen. Speaking of which, the bullpen seems a bit more solid now, though I don’t see Uehara should not pitch unless we have a giant lead. The dude just doesn’t know how to pitch in Arlington. The Rangers might get rid of him in the offseason, I think, and Ogando will be used in that kind of role instead, where he can just mow folks down.
Yeah I’m nervous but… I’m ready… it’s ALCS time.
— Alan
They need to get in as much of this game as possible with the lead because once the rain starts it’s not going to stop all night if the main system pushes east a bit more. There’s 200 miles of rain behind it.
— Alan
