Major league baseball’s regular season ended recently with an exciting final night that saw the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox let playoff spots slip away. Meanwhile, the St. Louis Cardinals took advantage of the Braves’ fold to grab the National League wild card, and the Tampa Bay Rays staged a monumental comeback from 7-0 down to defeat the New York Yankees 8-7 and steal the AL wild card from Boston. The Red Sox collapse cost manager Terry Francona his job, which is a shame since he’s the best thing that ever happened to Red Sox baseball, winning 2 World Series titles.
The postseason is now well underway and it’s been just as exciting as the season’s final days. The overall favorites in both leagues have stumbled so far. In the AL, the Yankees won game one after rain delayed it a day, but the Tigers have stormed back to win the next 2 and take the Series lead. Detroit was red hot the second half of the season and if they hold on and beat the Yanks it won’t be a big shock. Still, I don’t think the Bronx Bombers are dead yet. If they can somehow win A.J. Burnett’s start tonight I feel they’ll win game 5 and take the series. In the NL, the Phillies cruised to a game one win over St. Louis, then held a 4-0 lead with Cliff Lee on the mound in game 2, so they were looking solid. Then the Cards stormed back to win 5-4 to tie the series. Philly is still the stronger club and one loss won’t fluster them, but in the Tony LaRussa era one thing has stayed consistent about the Cards – they are always a tough out. Some people said before the playoffs began that despite the Phils being the favorite, that the best team in the National League was the Milwaukee Brewers. They appear to be dispatching Arizona in quick order with a 2-0 lead in the series, so those experts may be right. The Brewers could be this year’s San Francisco Giants. Tampa got into the playoffs in dramatic fashion but they are now down 2-1 to Texas in the other AL series and may not have enough magic left to battle back against the reigning league champs. The Yankees and Phillies were clearly the strongest teams in the regular season, but in the short 5 game division series, anything can happen.