The Rangers turn the tables on the Cardinals and win Game Two by One Run

The Texas Rangers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 2-1 in Game Two of the World Series on Thursday night. Jaime Garcia and Colby Lewis started and they were both great. The Rangers bullpen was a little better though and that is what decided the game. Jason Motte has been so good for St. Louis but not in this game and he took the loss. The offense once again was not there for either of the teams. It is amazing how everyone thought it would be an offensive series and so far that hasn’t been the case at all.
Lewis pitched 6 2/3 innings for the Rangers. He gave up four hits and one run with two walks and four strikeouts. Alexi Ogando pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit, Mike Adams who got the win pitched an inning giving up a hit and a walk but no runs and Neftali Feliz got the save pitching an inning and giving up a walk with two strikeouts.

Garcia pitched seven innings for the Cardinals. He gave up three hits and no runs with a walk and seven strikeouts. Fernando Salas struck out the one batter he faced, Marc Rzepczynski pitched 2/3 of an inning with a strikeout and Motte took the loss giving up two hits and two runs without recording an out. Arthur Rhodes got credit with a blown save, he pitched 1/3 of an inning getting an out and Lance Lynn retired both batters that he faced.

Ian Kinsler was the star of the offense for the Rangers. He had two hits and a walk. Elvis Andrus had a hit, Josh Hamilton had an RBI and Michael Young had a hit and an RBI. Adrian Beltre had a hit, the Rangers were 1-2 with runners in scoring position and they left three men on base. Kinsler had a stolen base and he made an error.

Nick Punto was the only player on the Cardinals with a multi-hit game. Punto had two hits, Rafael Furcal had a hit and Lance Berkman had a hit. David Freese had a hit and Allen Craig had a hit and an RBI. Furcal had a double and the Cardinals were 1-5 with runners in scoring position and they left nine men on base.

There was no scoring in the game until the seventh inning. The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead on an RBI single from Craig. In the ninth the Rangers scored two runs to take the lead. Hamilton hit a sacrifice fly and Young hit a sacrifice fly. Kinsler hit a bloop single and stole second just beating the throw to start the inning. Andrus singled and it was first and third no outs. Rhodes came on to replace Motte at that point which was a little peculiar considering Motte is the closer and has been so good in the postseason. The two sac flies followed and that was how the game would end after Feliz walked the leadoff hitter in the ninth and then got the next three batters out.

The World Series is tied at one game each with the series shifting to Texas now. The two teams will have an off day on Friday and then resume play on Saturday. The third game will be at 8:05PM Eastern time, 7:05 Central time. The win by the Rangers was the first win in the World Series by a team trailing in the ninth inning since Game Seven of the 2001 World Series by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Matt Harrison vs. Kyle Lohse will be the pitching matchup for Game Three. Young had this to say “For us to come back in the ninth there and win this ballgame, it’s huge for us. Going back home, we know what our ballpark’s like with 50,000 people, it goes crazy in the postseason. So we’re looking forward to being back there and I know we’re going to feed off of it.”

Milwaukee rallies to take Game One of the NLCS

The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 9-6 in Game One of the National League Championship Series. Zach Greinke and Jaime Garcia did not have their best stuff. The offenses both played well and the Brewers won with one big inning. The Brewers scored six runs in the fifth inning.
Greinke pitched six innings for the Brewers giving up eight hits and six runs. He walked two and struck out six. Garcia pitched four innings for the Cardinals giving up six hits and six runs with three walks and three strikeouts. Octavio Dotel for the Cardinals didn’t fare so well in relief of Garcia. Dotel gave up two hits and two runs with one of them being earned in one inning. The Brewers pen only gave up one hit and one walk in three innings of relief. Takashi Saito, Francisco Rodriguez and John Axford were the relievers for the Brewers and they put the Cardinals away without much of a fight. They struck out four batters. The bullpens were the difference in the game. The Cardinals pen gave up three runs and two earned in four innings. They walked two and struck out one.

Rafael Furcal had two hits for the Cardinals, John Jay had a hit and a walk and Albert Pujols had a hit. Lance Berkman had two hits and an RBI, Matt Holliday had two hits and an RBI and Yadier Molina had a walk. David Freese had a hit, walk and three RBI, Furcal had a double and Freese had a homerun. The Cardinals were 3-9 with runners in scoring position and they left five men on base. Dotel made a throwing error.

Cory Hart had a hit and a walk for the Brewers. Jerry Hairston had two hits and a walk, Ryan Braun had two hits and four RBI and Prince Fielder had a hit, walk and two RBI. Rickie Weeks had a hit and a walk, Yuniesky Betancourt had two hits and two RBI and Jonathan Lucroy had two hits and an RBI. Weeks, Hairston, Braun, Lucroy and Betancourt each had a double. Braun, Fielder and Betancourt all had a homerun. The Brewers were 4-11 with runners in scoring position and they left eight men on base.

The Cardinals took the lead in the first inning on a Holliday RBI single. In the bottom of the first Braun hit a two run homerun to give the Brewers a 2-1 lead. In the fourth Freese hit a three run homerun to give the Cardinals a 4-2 lead. Berkman hit an RBI single in the fifth to extend the Cardinals lead to 5-2. In the bottom of the fifth the Brewers had a big inning where they would take the lead and not relinquish it. Braun hit a two run double, Fielder hit a two run homerun and Betancourt hit a two run homerun to give the Brewers a 8-5 lead. In the seventh Pujols grounded into a double play but a run scored making it 8-6. Lucroy hit an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to make it 9-6 and that would conclude the scoring in the game.

The Brewers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the best of seven National League Championship Series. Game Two will take place on Monday night in Milwaukee. This NLCS was the first time since 1982 the Brewers are in a LCS. They of course back then were in the American League. The Brewers had the leagues best home record and they look to go up 2-0 before heading to St. Louis for the middle three games of the series.

Todays awards-Mangers of the Year

I misspoke yesterday when I said today would be the NL Cy Young, that will be tomorrow. Today the AL and NL manger of the years will be announced. The awards will be announced at 2:00PM. I know a lot of people especially Yankee fans will say that Joe Girardi deserves it and if you are going by on field accomplishment only well then of course especially after missing the playoffs last year and then bringing them back to a World Championship this year. He will get consideration but I think Mike Scioscia will win the award and I do think he deserves it. I don't particularly like the guy but you have to look at what the Angels went through this year and see that he did a wonderful job with them. It all started with the tragic death of Angels Pitcher Nick Adenhart and then they had a lot of injuries especially early on and came back from all of that to make the ALCS and lose to the Yankees in 6 games. I think Ron Gardenhire will get a lot of votes and he deserves it also bringing them to the playoffs after chasing the Tigers all year and then finally catching them and defeating them in the classic one game playoff. He had a limited roster especially with all that young pitching and got them to the playoffs but I don't think anyone will be able to overcome the fact that Mike Scioscia dealt with something that no one else did and no one else could even imagine having to deal with. I do think Joe Girardi will get some votes but there will be a lot that would never vote for the Yankees manager because of the resources. Ron Washington of the Texas Rangers and also Don Wakimatsu of the Seattle Mariners deserve consideration but I don't think they will get much. The National League is an interesting one as Freddi Gonzales did a good job with the Florida Marlins, Charlie Manuel will get some consideration for taking his team to a second straight NL Pennant and doing it with no bullpen at all. I think Jim Tracey of the Colorado Rockies will win this award, they were a dead team that he took over for in May and took them to the postseason which is a great job by him. I think Tony Larussa will also get some consideration for taking a St Louis team that no one was predicting to 91 wins and a postseason spot. I am going to go with Jim Tracey though. I was 0-2 with the rookie of the years and I did get the Cy Young right yesterday so i am 1-2 overall and hope to get on the winning side with these two picks, we will find out shortly. I will be back with the announcement and some reaction later on.