Yeeaaaahhhh Rangers clinch, it’s a good day. Now we can rest up and give the Angels a big middle finger.
— Alan
nKoan
1782
And now that the Giants are officially out of it, I guess its time for me to pick a team to follow throughout the playoffs. Not necessarily the team I think will win, but the one I’ll be semi-rooting for.
I really liked what I saw of the Rangers last year, and they’ve only gotten better. The Brewers are a pretty awesome story too. Detroit would be a good candidate too. Since the DBacks AAA affiliate is here in Reno, I could almost root for them, since I’ve been watching some of the guys for a little while now. But, I don’t think I could come out rooting for another NL West team right now.
Decisions, decisions.
Thongsy
1783
I’m rooting for Verlander and the Tigers. That kid is going to have a great career someday. Maybe even win a Cy Young or two.
I’m still holding out hope that the Angels can make it in so I can root for Jerome Williams too.
sluggo
1784
Matt Kemp: Possibly the first Triple Crown winner in nearly 50 years, and the first NL player to do it in nearly 75 years?
He’s currently leading the NL with 119 RBI, tied with Pujols with 37 HR, and at .326, is only three points out of the batting title. It’ll be fun to see how close he comes over the next week.
Sarkus
1785
Its going to be interesting to see if Kemp gets the MVP. Looks like the other major NL candidate is Braun, who’s having a great year for a better team.
Sarkus
1786
Buster Olney has some stuff to say about Ethier, namely that he doesn’t think he wants to resign with the Dodgers after his contract ends next year (so Lorini was right about that). So maybe it would be in the best interest of the team to trade him, though that may not be until the trade deadline.
In expanded playoff news, apparently the new proposal is for a second wildcard team but with the two wildcard teams simply playing a one game playoff to determine who goes on. Supposedly this is all but agreed to as part of the current CBA negotiations.
Thongsy
1787
That’s not really all that surprising. I remember reading stuff earlier in the season, maybe even before it began about how Ethier was unhappy with the Dodgers and wanted to get out as soon as he could. Unhappy with the ownership, unhappy with losing, etc.
Sarkus
1788
It sounds like a resolution to the A’s stadium/future situation could be moving forward shortly. The A’s have been asking MLB to let them build a new stadium in San Jose but that has been opposed by the Giants (the rights issues between the teams are complicated and completely different then every other shared market for some reason). Selig sent a committee to look at the various options more then two years ago but has never revealed the recommendation or made any decision. It sounds like he’s going to do that once the CBA is signed. Then the A’s will know what their options are.
sluggo
1789
Both games are still early, but if the current scores were to hold up and the Yankees and Rays won their afternoon games, the Red Sox lead would be down to a half game heading into the back half of the doubleheader tonight. Crazy.
Edit: And the scores do hold up, which basically puts Boston in desperation mode tonight. Not that they weren’t already, but with 3 games left after tonight, there’s going to be a huge difference between a 1 game lead and being all tied up.
Cardinals 1 game back of Atlanta now.
The Braves are 8-15 over their last 23 games. In their last 15 games they’ve scored a total of 49 runs.
They play at Philadelphia. Charlie Manuel has already expressed that with playoff implications, he’ll play many of his starters, and has announced that Lee, Oswalt, and Hamels will start the three games there.
Cardinals in Houston.
And so, of course, baseball being a funny game that it is…the Braves will score like crazy and the Cardinals will go down flailing to the Astros. You watch.
Lorini
1791
Hey tc, what happened with Furcal?
He redeemed himself today?
On Thursday, the Cardinals were leading 6-2 in the ninth. Runner on first, and Raffy kicked an easy double play ball, his 3 or 4th error in a week. Mets ended up scoring 6 runs and won. Got a nice fitting for goat horns.
Today he came up in the bottom of the 8th with the score tied 2-2 and hit a monster HR deep to rightfield for the winning run. Goat horns removed.
The Phillies/Braves series is in Atlanta this week, tc.
Charlie Manual would do well to try and knock out the Braves.
sluggo
1795
What a meltdown by the Angels today.
With a 5-2 lead over the A’s in the 9th, Walden gives up a leadoff HR to make it 5-3. After a K, Walden gives up 2 singles and then takes a comebacker and throws should have been a game-ending double play ball into centerfield, making it 5-4.
Suzuki doubles, Crisp hits a sac fly, Angels lose 6-5 on a day they probably could have cut the wild card to 1. Now, 2 back of both the Red Sox and Rays, they’re probably finished.
Lorini
1796
They wouldn’t get out of the first round anyway with that bullpen. So they might as well save the wear and tear for next year.
Don’t know about that. If I were Charlie I’d love to face those guys in the playoffs. No Jurrjens, Hanson ouchy, and Hudson and Lowe haven’t been pitching like it’s 2004 either.
Bah.
Need your Phils to win a couple. Please?
sluggo
1799
And Ellisbury may have just saved the Red Sox season, hitting a 3 run HR in the 14th inning to avoid a Yankees sweep and stay 1 game ahead of the Rays.
Yeah, on the one hand I think I’d rather see the Braves in the playoffs but on the other hand I’m kind of sick of seeing the Phillies lose even if the games are meaningless. Either way I’m kinda worried that these guys have been on coasting mode for way too long.
Went to my first Phillies road game this weekend at Citi Field. Got a good burger and shake at the Shake Shack with very little wait because we got there early, two thumbs up for that place. I’ve seen only two Phillies losses in person this year and they were both well pitched games by Cole Hamels where he got no run support. Poor Cole.
Most of the Mets fans were pretty nice. I talked to the Pinman, a Mets superfan who wears a jersey covered in Mets pins and the name “Pinman” on the back. Nice guy. There was one clown wearing a “LOLidge” shirt which really worked out well for him since Brad got the loss. He laughed at us so we asked him who the Mets were playing next week and suggested he go home and cry himself to sleep with his VHS tapes of the '86 Mets. Good times, good times.
