Playoff Baseball

What a game that was today! If the playoffs can equal that game then baseball fans are in for quite a ride this month. I hope every playoff game is that exciting.

 

The Twins-Tigers game was an exciting game. For the first time I actually stayed with the game the whole time.

Twins got into NYC at 3 am this morning and now have to face the Yankees this afternoon!

 

I disagree. The Twins are the luckiest, most mediocre team to make the playoffs in forever. The Yankees will sweep.

 

They should've won. The ump blew two crucial calls that cost them. Leyland also cost them, but that's beside the point.

 

CCROB is absolutely right. Let me quote what I wrote in the other thread:

Re Tigers vs Twins, the bad calls went both ways. Rodney was given a generous strike zone. But no question the Tigers got bad luck. The worst luck the Tigers had? Leyland being their manager. Pulled the SP too quick. Worked Rodney too long. Fundamental flaws, baserunning errors...the Tigers doomed themselves. They could've blown this thing open a time or two and let the Twins off the hook.

I replayed the Inge play a dozen times in slo mo. It was questionable, and I don't want a questionable call to decide a series. But even if the run had scored. Let's say the Tigers were up a run, I don't think Rodney could've held it and Leyland was going to sink or swim with him. The Twins had much more energy and emotion. At times I thought the Tigers were going through the motions. No wonder they coughed up a 7 game lead.

Now, my feeble predictions:

Twins upset the Yankees in 4.
Angels over the Red Sox in 5
Angels over Twins in 6

Cardinals over Dodgers in 4
Phils over Rockies in 5
Phillies over Cardinals in 7.

Angels over Phillies in 7.

Now, ask me 30 mins from now and I'll have a completely different take

I agree with CCROB. I think these playoffs are wide open and the best in recent times.

 

Inge was hit by the ball without a doubt, but I can see how the ump would miss it. Too bad Inge was so quick to get out of the way; if he were less athletic it would have hit him solid.

You guys are way off on the Twins. In their recent run, they feasted on awful teams like the Royals, Indians and White Sox. They are not that good; they will get swept. They will embarrass the AL Central. The Tigers had the pitching to give the Yankees a run.

 

Maybe so. But if so, what does that say about the Tigers?

 

It says that the Tigers choked and did not beat those weaker teams like they should have. The Twins were better (by a game) at beating bad teams than the Tigers were. It's all about matchups. If the Tigers and Twins played in the tough AL East, neither team would make the playoffs, but the Tigers would finish ahead of the Twins in the standings by a good 5 games or more.

The weaker team won the AL Central, and it will be apparent after the Twins are swept.

 

CCROB took the words out of my mouth. I haven't heard anyone yet not wearing a D on their cap that said anything but that the HBP on Inge was questionable. As I stated earlier, I replayed the thing in slo mo almost a dozen times and I couldn't tell if it hit his jersey or not. If it's that questionable, it shouldn't decide a game, and it DID NOT decide the game.

While MIN did play KCR, CLE, CHW, DET played these same teams and did not fare as well. Also, MIN took series from TEX, et.al, and went 5-3 against DET head to head during the last month of the season. There's no getting around it. MIN ran down a slumping team that folded at all the wrong times.

Teams do play in the division they're in. That said, it is worth pondering what DET would've done if they'd played in the AL East. Would they have broken .500? I think not. The Reds might not have won the given 54 games, as the saying goes

 

Sure Minn. ended up with 1 more win after 163 so they get to represent, but I know without a doubt that the Tigers would have given the Yankees a better series. The Twins were good at beating bad teams, and that's about it.

 

The Tigers won only 7 out of 18 games against the Twins during the 162 game season. If this MLB just went by head-to-head competition then the Twins would have been the division champions without an extra game being played.

The Tigers have no one to blame but themselves for their misery.

Head-to-head in 2009 the Twins were the better team.

 

But that's my prediction - a Yankees sweep, and I'm quite confident that I'll be right. If they played this series 100 times, the Yankees would sweep 65 of them.

 

I just can't imagine the Tigers would give the Yankees a better series when they couldn't give the White Sox a better series to clinch, the Twins a better run down the stretch, and went 1-5 against the Royals in Sept, or went 1-6 against the BoSox.

And I must be living in the same time-space continum that CCROB is. The Twins are down 1-0.

I did not see the Cards being down 0-2 at this point. I thought they'd take one from the Dodgers at LA.

 

Like I said, it's about match-ups. The Twins were good at beating bad teams, the Tigers weren't. The Tigers like to choke against teams they should beat, but when they are dogs they seem to do well (ala '06 when they beat the Yankees). The Tigers had the pitching to potentially stop the Yankees (not saying the would, but the potential was there), but the Twins have no pitching whatsoever, except for Nathan who won't even get to pitch this series, since there won't be anything to save.