Milwaukee looks to be the better team in this series. I thought that it would be closer, but Milwaukee looks to have the better starting pitching, better bullpen, and better offense. They only need to win one of the next three games to take the series. The only hope Arizona has is that the series now shifts back to Chase Field. Milwaukee plays much better at home than they do on the road, so I think that Arizona could get back into the series. In oder for Arizona to win the series, they need strong performances from Joe Saunders and Josh Collmenter. They also need to out slug the Brewers. Milwaukee has the advantage on game three with Shaun Marcum on the hill, but if they lose that game, it's not hard to see a scenario where they also lose game four and have to win game five back at home. Overall though, Milwaukee looks like the better team, and looks like they will eventually make it to the NLCS.
The Texas vs Tampa series has been fun to watch thus far. Game one might have been rough if you're a Rangers fan, but we got to see Matt Moore in Arlington shut down a good offense. Tampa is hitting the Texas lefties better than I expected, but Texas's bats also came alive in game two. Every game is important in a five game series, but I think that game three is more important for Texas. They have their only lefty in Colby Lewis on the mound, while the Rays' starter, David Price, hasn't looked good of late. Since getting hit in the chest with a line drive on September 18th against the Red Sox, Price hasn't been as effective as normal. He's left the ball up in the zone, and has walked more batters than normal. This would be a bigger issue if the game were in Texas, but in Tampa, with the Rays outfield defense, they might be able to hide this flaw if it continues. I originality thought that Texas would win this series easily, but it's been closer than I expected. I still think that the Rangers are the better team, but it's all going to come down to how well the Rangers can hit the Rays pitching. These two games in Tampa should be lower scoring, and in that scenario, the Rays would have the advantage.
The Philadelphia vs St. Louis series has been a strange one. In both games, a team has gotten out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, and then gone on to lose the game. The Cardinals bullpen, which gave away the lead in game one, was lights out in game two. Tony La Russa made a lot of good moves, and navigated his bullpen through the Phillies lineup almost perfectly. He still let Octavio Dotel pitch to two left handed batters, but he managed to get them both out. I still think that the Cardinals will be over matched by the starting pitching of the Phillies in the long run, but if the Philly offense struggles, it can only take one swing of the bat for Albert Pujols or Lance Berkman off of a Brad Lidge or Antonio Bastardo to change the outlook of a game. I don't think that the Cardinals will beat both Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt, which will set up a game five matchup of Kyle Loshe vs Roy Halladay on Philadelphia. All of the starting match ups favor the Phillies, and I don't see a scenario where they win this series.
The Yankees and Tigers are also split right now, with Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia set to pitch tonight. Ivan Nova pitched well in the second day of game one, but Max Scherzer pitched just as well in game two. I think that both teams are going to view tonight's game as a must win, because I can't imagine either has all that much confidence in their game four starters A.J. Burnett or Rick Porcello. I think that the biggest blunder of this series was made by the Yankees in game two so far. Joe Girardi pinch hit Eric Chavez for Brett Gardner with runners on first and second and one out in the seventh inning. Girardi said he was hoping that Chavez would hit a home run, but he apparently didn't realize that Gardner has more home runs this year than Chavez has in the past four seasons. With one out in the inning, I would have kept Gardner out there because he's a good on base guy, and a hard guy to double up. At this point, Detroit was up four to nothing, so even if Chavez did hit a home run, they still wouldn't have tied it. It also cost them defensively, as Andruw Jones had to take the place of Brett Gardner in the field. Jose Valverde came in for the ninth inning to get three outs, and did, but also gave up two runs during that time. His fastball isn't what is used to be, and he was having trouble locating it on the outer half of the plate to righties. Valverde and Joaquin Benoit threw a lot of pitches Sunday, and they seem to be the only relievers that Jim Leyland trusts these days. It will be interesting to see how long Leyland goes with Verlander tonight, especially if he gets into any trouble in the middle to late innings and it's close.
Other Notes:
One thing I've noticed this post season so far is that the umpiring has been very sub-par. The strike zone is many games has been inconsistent, Aaron Hill got two hits in an at bat after a ball that was clearly fair was called foul. Postseason umpiring assignments are supposed to be given on to umpires who do well in the regular season, but that's a load of crap. Jerry Meals, who made the worst call of the season in the 13th inning game that started the Pirates collapse was behind the plate for game two of the St. Louis vs Philadelphia series. He seemed to have a different strike zone every half inning, with no consistency what so ever. Umpiring is recent years is messed up, and I bet that the MLB wished it would have cleaned house in 1999 during the umpire strike, and changed the rules to increase accountability, or do anything to avoid what we have now.
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