Texas wins a close one with a big 11th inning

The Texas Rangers defeated the Detroit Tigers by the score of 7-3 on Wednesday night. The final score isn’t an indicator of how good of a game it was. The game was tied in the eleventh inning when Texas scored four runs and then held on for the win. Matt Harrison and Rick Porcello started and were both good. Alexi Ogando blew a save for the Rangers and Jose Valverde took the loss for the Tigers.
Harrison started for the Rangers and he pitched five innings giving up three hits and two runs. He walked two and struck out three. Ogando pitched two innings and blew the save. Ogando gave up a hit, run and a walk with two strikeouts. Mike Adams gave up a hit and a walk in one inning, Darren Oliver pitched a perfect inning and Scott Feldman picked up the win pitching a perfect inning with a strikeout. Neftali Feliz pitched a perfect inning. Porcello started for the Tigers and he pitched 6 2/3 innings giving up eight hits and three runs with two of them being earned. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out six. Al Alburquerque pitched 1/3 of an inning and walked a batter, Joaquim Benoit pitched two innings walking one and striking out two. Valverde took the loss pitching 1 1/3 innings giving up three hits and four runs with a walk and two strikeouts. Phil Coke faced two batters and retired them both.

The Texas offense was led by David Murphy and Mike Napoli and the big blow was from the bat of Nelson Cruz once again. Murphy had three hits, Napoli had two hits and an RBI and Cruz had a hit, three RBI and a walk. Ian Kinsler had a hit, RBI and a walk, Elvis Andrus had a hit and an RBI and Josh Hamilton had a hit. Michael Young had a hit and an RBI, Adrian Beltre had a walk and Yorveat Torrealba had a hit. Murphy, Kinsler and Hamilton each had a double. Cruz hit a homerun, the Rangers were 4-9 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base. Kinsler had a stolen base and Cruz was caught stealing. Cruz had an outfield assist.

Austin Jackson drew a walk, Ryan Raburn had a hit and Miguel Cabrera had a hit, two RBI and three walks. Victor Martinez had a hit, Brandon Inge had two hits and an RBI. Cabrera had a double, Inge had a homerun. The Tigers were 1-3 with runners in scoring position and they left five men on base. Jackson was caught stealing and Porcello made an error.

In the third inning Cabrera hit a two run double to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. In the sixth inning Kinsler hit an RBI double, Andrus hit an RBI single and Young had an RBI single to give Texas a 3-2 lead. In the seventh inning Inge hit a solo homerun to tie the game at three. In the eleventh inning Napoli hit an RBI single and Cruz hit a three run homerun to give Texas a 7-3 lead which they would hold onto for the victory.

The final score once again said 7-3 like the other night but the game was another great game. It was close and then in the end Texas broke out, just like the other night. You really need to watch these games to get a feel for it and see how good they have been. It has been an amazing postseason for baseball and even though Texas is one win away from the World Series this has been a good series. The Rangers lead the best of seven series three games to one and Game Five will be on Thursday afternoon at 3:19PM. If the Tigers win and stave off elimination there will be an off day on Friday and the series will resume back in Texas on Saturday. The Rangers got their first outfield assist in postseason history. The Texas manager walked Miguel Cabrera intentionally which will be talked about. Cabrera took out the catcher Napoli on the play but he was out anyway as Napoli held onto the ball. The pitching matchup on Thursday will be C.J. Wilson vs. Justin Verlander. Game Four was delayed by over two hours due to rain.

Detroit gets back in the series with a big win in Detroit

The Detroit Tigers defeated the Texas Rangers by the score of 5-2 on Tuesday night. Doug Fister continued his great run with the Tigers and the bullpen shut the high powered Texas offense down. Colby Lewis started for the Rangers and didn’t pitch very well at all. The bullpen did a pretty good job for the Rangers.
Fister for the Tigers pitched 7 1/3 innings giving up seven hits and two runs with three strikeouts. Joaquim Benoit pitched 2/3 of an inning and he struck out one batter and Jose Valverde pitched an inning giving up a hit and he struck out one batter. Lewis pitched 5 2/3 innings for the Rangers and he gave up eight hits and four runs with two walks and six strikeouts. Koji Uehara gave up two hits and a run and the other two pitchers, pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up a hit and he struck oujt one.

Austin Jackson broke out of his postseason slump with three hits and an RBI. Ramon Santiago had a hit, Miguel Cabrera had two hits and two RBI and Victor Martinez had a hit, RBI and two walks. Jhonny Peralta had two hits and an RBI, Ryan Raburn and Andy Dirks each had a hit. Cabrera and Raburn had a double, Martinez, Cabrera and Peralta had a homerun. The Tigers were 2-7 with runners in scoring position and they left eight men on base. The Rangers got a double from Yorveat Torrealba and Hamilton. The Rangers were 1-10 with runners in scoring position and they left four men on base.

In the first Hamilton had an RBI single to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. In the fourth inning Martinez hit a solo homerun to tie the game at one. In the fifth inning Cabrera hit an RBI double to give Detroit a 2-1 lead. In the sixth Peralta hit a solo homerun and Jackson hit an RBI single to make it 4-1 Detroit. In the seventh inning Cabrera hit a solo homerun to give Detroit a 5-1 lead. In the eighth inning Kinsler grounded out to score a run and cut the lead. The Tigers had a 5-2 lead and that is how the game would end.

The two teams are tied at one game each in their best of seven series. The winner will advance to the World Series and take on the winner of each league. The Cardinals will have the next three games in St. Louis. The Cardinals of course would love to take all three in St. Louis but know with a couple of wins they will be in good shape going into the next couple of days.

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.

The Rangers take Game One despite the Rain

The Texas Rangers defeated the Detroit Tigers by the score of 3-2 in Game One of the 2011 American League Championship Series. The game was played in Arlington, Texas as the Texas Rangers had a better record then the Detroit Tigers and therefore have home field advantage. The game was delayed twice by rain and went deep into the night. I find the ironic thing being that in New York it was absolutely gorgeous and if the Yankees would of won that is where the games would have been played. New York had such bad weather this year and then Texas which hasn’t had rain in so long got a lot of rain for the first game of the ALCS and it is expected to be bad on Sunday for Game Two.
Justin Verlander and C.J. Wilson was the matchup. Wilson is the biggest name pitcher who will be on the free agent market this season and he did his job in Game One. He was shaky in the first game of the postseason against the Tampa Bay Rays but not in this game. The numbers look worse for the starting pitchers because of the rain, that is why they had short outings. Wilson pitched 4 2/3 innings giving up six hits and two runs. He walked five and struck out six. Wilson was cruising along until the rain came. Verlander pitched four innings giving up five hits and three runs with two walks and five strikeouts. Verlander is 0-1 in the postseason with a 6.75 ERA. He is going to win the CY young and may even win the MVP but he has had to deal with weather issues so far in the postseason. The bullpen for Detroit pitched four innings giving up one hit and no runs. They didn’t walk a batter and struck out two. The bullpen for Texas pitched 4 1/3 innings giving up one hit and no runs. They walked one and struck out eight. The bullpens for both teams did an excellent job but I am sure the managers will be looking for length out of their starters in Game Two.

Ramon Santiago had a big game for Detroit with three hits. Austin Jackson had the only RBI of the game for Detroit. Ryan Raburn, Miguel Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta each had a hit. The Tigers also drew six walks. Santiago and Jackson each had a double and the Tigers were 1-7 with runners in scoring position and they left nine men on base. Jackson made an error. Texas scattered six hits with Ian Kinsler, Adrian Beltre, Mike Napoli, Nelson Cruz, David Murphy and Mitch Moreland each getting a hit. Kinsler, Cruz and Murphy had the RBI. The Rangers drew two walks, Murphy had a triple and Cruz had a homerun. The Rangers were 1-4 with runners in scoring position and they left five men on base. Kinsler was caught stealing.

In the bottom of the second inning Murphy hit an RBI triple and Kinsler had an RBI single. Texas had a 2-0 lead which they would expand to 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning on a Cruz solo homerun. In the fifth inning Jackson hit an RBI double for the Tigers to make it 3-1 and a wild pitch scored Jackson to make it 3-2. Wilson got Magglio Ordonez to ground out and then the bullpen took over and shut down the Tigers the rest of the way. The final score was 3-2 in favor of the Rangers.

The best of seven series started with a bang as these two teams battled it out and the pitching especially out of the bullpen was outstanding. The two teams will play game two on Sunday night in Texas weather permitting. The series will resume in Detroit on Tuesday after an off day with Games 3, 4 and 5 if necessary in Detoit before the final two games are played back in Texas if necessary. The Rangers are trying to make the World Series for the second straight year while the Tigers are trying to reach the World Series for the first time since 2006 when they also knocked out the Yankees in the first round of the playoffs.

Yankees Post Game and Post Series notes

Obviously these next few days are going to be spent looking back on what exactly happened this week, and what might happen going forward. For now, there was only disappointment around the Yankees.  They of course are a team that expects to win the World Series every year and if they don't it is a failure.  The Yankees this year had a great season in where they fought all the way to the end and finished first with home field advantage when most picked against them.  I think because of that this first round loss is a huge disappointment but they just didn't get the job done.  The Tigers deserve some credit as they pitched well and hit when they needed too. 


“It’s terrible,” Joe Girardi said. “We only accomplished one goal when the season ended. We had to fight like crazy to get there. It’s a really empty feeling. It’s an empty feeling for everyone in that room, and it hurts.”

The problem was the offense, but that was largely a problem of timing rather than raw production. The Yankees outscored the Tigers 28-17 this series, and 28 runs were the second-most in franchise history for a single division series. The Yankees scored at least nine runs in each of their two wins.  The Yankees score runs in bunches and that is my problem with them.  In the regular season you can get away with it because you are facing bad teams and bad pitching more times then not.  In the postseason there are no bad teams and you face a lot better pitching. 

Problem was, they scored a total of nine runs in their three loses. The Tigers won those three games by a total of four runs.  The Yankees just needed a couple of more big hits and they would of won the series. 

“I tell you every time you go to the playoffs, it’s about pitching,” Derek Jeter said. “You’re not going to sit back and hit home runs, score 10 runs. I mean, we scored a lot of runs two days ago, but it was really one inning. You don’t just come out here and take BP in the playoffs. Teams you’re facing have good pitching. That’s why they’re at this point. So you can get away with a lot of things in the regular season that you can’t get away with in the playoffs.”

As in, a team can get away with its fourth, fifth and sixth hitters going a combined 9-for-55 during a five-game stretch in the regular season, but that doesn’t work in a five-game series. The Yankees middle three hitters, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher killed them and in the case of Teixeira and Swisher they haven't done a think in the postseason for three straight years now.  When those three failed to get a big hit with the bases loaded in the seventh inning, that was basically the turning point of the game and the story of the series.

“It was 3-1 and I said, ‘I’m going to get a pitch to crush right here,’” Teixeira said. “You almost start thinking about the bases clearing, the crowd cheering. I walked there, but it wasn’t enough. Not enough to get the job done… If we were one at-bat better, we might win the game. If we get one hit with the bases loaded, but every single game you play, there’s going to be five or 10 things you can look at and say, ‘If we did this’ or ‘If we did that.’ Unfortunately, we had a couple of those this series.”

 Ivan Nova said his forearm got tight in the second inning. He didn’t feel it at all during the first inning, so it was a non-factor on the home runs. “We didn’t like the way the ball was coming out of his hand,” Girardi said. “I think it was directly related to that. Some of his fastballs were cutting, and we never saw that. So I had to make a change, and I had to, you know, try to get our bullpen through it.”
 Nova was the first Yankees rookie to start a winner-take-all postseason game since Mel Stottlemyre in the 1964 World Series against St. Louis. “It’s hard,” Nova said. “We lost and we’ve got to go home now. You don’t want to be in this situation. You want to keep going, going to the World Series.”

Rodriguez hasn’t been productive since coming back from knee surgery, but he said health was a non-factor this series. “Everything this postseason is on me,” he said. “Let’s make that crystal clear. There’s no excuses for what happened these five games. I was healthy enough to do whatever I needed to do.”

 The Yankees went down in order in the ninth inning. Really, their last gasp was the ball that Jeter drove to the wall in the eighth inning. Off the bat, I thought he might have hit it out. It would have been a go-ahead, two-run homer with Mariano Rivera coming in to shut the door in the ninth. “I thought it had a chance,” Jeter said. “It was too high, but you never know here.”

CC Sabathia seemed especially dejected at his locker. He’d never pitched in relief and said he tried not to change his usual approach. “I try not to,” he said. “I tried to get ahead with the fastball, and that didn’t really work, so I went to my secondary pitches.”  He is a guy that takes his role very seriously and he knows the final month and into the postseason he was not at his best for whatever reason. 

 Sabathia had gone 370 consecutive appearances in the regular season and postseason before finally pitching out of the bullpen. Among the pitchers whose first career relief appearance came in the postseason, Sabathia had the third-longest streak. Mike Mussina went 400 starts before pitching in relief in the 2003 ALCS, and John Smoltz went 380 starts before his first relief appearance in the 1999 NLCS.

 Sabathia wouldn’t commit one way or the other about his opt-out. “I can’t even wrap my head around that right now,” he said. “I’m just thinking about what I didn’t do to help us win. In the next couple of days, next couple of weeks I’ll think about that and we’ll see what happens.”

 Robinson Cano set a Yankees division series record with nine RBI. The previous record was seven by Paul O’Neill. It’s the most RBI by a Yankee in a single postseason series — any round — since Hideki Matsui and Bernie Williams had 10 each in the 2004 ALCS.

Jorge Posada had a .579 on-base percentage this series. He batted .429, his third-highest single-series postseason batting average behind the 2006 ALDS (.500) and the 2001 ALDS (.444).

 Rivera lowered his career postseason ERA to 0.70, the lowest mark all-time for a pitcher with at least 30 postseason innings. This was his 96th career postseason game, passing Kenny Lofton for sole possession of seventh place on baseball’s all-time list (pitcher or position player).

Rivera threw eight pitches this series and got four outs. All of his pitches were strikes.  He continues to add to his legend and it is simply amazing. 

 Weird situation with Benoit and the band-aid on his face. Jim Leyland said it was an in-grown hair, and the band-aid was to keep it from being infected. Girardi asked the home plate umpire to have it removed. “I’m not trying to play a mind game or anything,” Girardi said. “But it was pretty big band-aid and it was somewhat distracting, I think. It’s hard not to look at. And I’m sure he had a legitimate reason, and it’s not something I necessarily wanted to do, but to me it would have been a distraction.”

 The final world of the night goes to Jim Leyland the Tigers manager.  “The Yankees are so good that I would be lying if I said it didn’t give me a little extra satisfaction to be able to do it here in the fifth game,” Leyland said. “I don’t mean that disrespectfully, I mean that respectfully. It gave me a great thrill to be able to do it here in Yankee Stadium in Game 5. Unbelievable. I was just talking to Dave Dombrowski, other than the American League pennant and that time in the World Series, this will be a game I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”

There won't be any Yankees game stories and there won't be any notes for a while, the Yankees will be on break and I will be on a Yankees break until after the World Series.  This is a very disappointing end to the season.  Baseball though is doing well and there are a lot of middle of the pack teams in terms of dollars.  It is good to see not just the big markets making it, but now some of the smaller ones, parity is at an all-time high in the sport.