It came early in the day. The Rangers beat the Rays by a score of 4-3 in a game that didn't seem that close. Jeremy Hellickson only pitched four innings, and gave up three solo home runs. It seemed like the Rangers hit the ball hard all day, but a lot of balls found the Rays gloves, except the ones that went over the fence. Matt Harrison actually looked dominant for most of his five innings of work. He struck out nine, but gave up two runs. Matt Moore came in to relieve Hellickson and only allowed two base runners, although one of them was Adrian Beltre who hit his third home run of the game in the seventh inning. The Rays never really mounted a comeback, as the Rangers bullpen shut them down for the most part. The Rangers now get to wait to see if they'll play the Yankees or Tigers in the ALCS.
The Tigers and Yankees will have a game five in New York on Thursday as the Yankees took care of business tonight. The Tigers looked almost disinterested and went down with only four hits. Rick Porcello and A.J. Burnett both pitched well, and were aided by a strange strike zone. The zone looked like it extended up to the letters, and a half foot outside for both right and left handed hitters. There were some very strange calls. Burnett walked four batters in his 5.3 innings of work, but was helped by some good defense behind him. The bullpen for the Yankees was very good, and recorded six of their ten outs by strikeout. The Yankees offense tagged Porcello for four runs in six innings, but then exploded for six runs in the eight to seal the game. I think it's time that Jim Leyland starts to get some criticism for his lineup construction. His first three hitters had on base percentages of .317, .311, and .302 this year during the regular season. He admitted that he had Ramon Santiago batting second to bunt runners over. His #2 hitters job is to make outs. He also had Don Kelly, owner of a career .240/.291/.381 batting sixth in front of Jhonny Peralta and Alex Avila. Both Peralta and Alex Avila should be in the upper third of that lineup in front of Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez. Alex Avila's dad is the vice president and assistant general manager, you'd think they'd be able to put their third best hitter somewhere higher in the order than 8th.
The earlier of the two National League games was game three of the Cardinals Phillies series. It was the only game of the day that didn't have one team playing for their season, but it was still an interesting game. This game had what I think were some strange managerial decisions by Tony La Russa. In a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the sixth with runners on first and second, Tony La Russa let Jaime Garcia bat. I didn't really mind the move at the time, because Garcia was throwing well, and had a low pitch count. I wouldn't have been against it though if La Russa would have pinch hit, especially with Matt Holliday at his disposal. In the top of the seventh though, Garcia allowed a leadoff single to Shane Victorino, and the St. Louis bullpen immediately got busy. If you're going to have that short of a leash in the next half inning, I think Garcia should have been pinch hit for in the previous half inning. Garcia then got the first two outs of the inning, with Octavio Dotel warming up in the bullpen. In the process of getting those two outs though, Victorino advanced to second on a wild pitch, leaving first base open. Garcia then intentionally walked Carlos Ruiz before giving up a three run pinch hit home run to Ben Francisco. With Dotel in the bullpen, he should have been brought in to pitch to Placido Polanco (who made the second out of the inning), Carlos Ruiz, or Ben Francisco. Tony left Garcia in too long, and it ended up costing them the game. The Cardinals did try to overcome the deficit though, as they had eight base runners in the final three innings, but only plated two runs. Manuel went to his closer Ryan Madsen for a five out save, and it paid off as he got out of a jam in the eight with a double play ball.
The final game of the night was the Brewers dropping a game to the Diamondbacks. I didn't really focus on this game until the Yankees game turned into a blowout, but I did tune in in time to see Shaun Marcum intentionally walk Miguel Montero to load the bases for Paul Goldschmidt. Paul Goldschmidt has big time power, but not big time bat speed. Marcum though, with his low-to-mid eighties fastball is a great matchup for Goldschmidt. Paul hit a grand slam which made the game 7-1 at the time, and with a 2-0 lead, Milwaukee pretty much packed it in right then. Not much happened in the final four innings with only four total base runners, as Arizona had this one in hand.
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