Joey Votto and the Reds did not bring Cincinnati much to smile about during their first post-season in 15 years.
One week into the 2010 MLB playoffs and we have seen quite a few exciting, controversial, and historic moments. Roy Halladay threw a no-hitter, Tim Lincecum made the Braves look silly during his 2-hit, 14-strikeout, complete game shutout, the Yankees swept the Twins, extending Minnesota’s playoff losing streak to 12 games (they haven’t won a playoff series since they won it all in 1991 – maybe Kirby Puckett needs to put on a uniform again for the Twins to win in October), the umpires clearly need expanded replay, and the American League teams decided they didn’t want to win at home (The Twins, Rays, and Rangers all lost consecutive home games). With all that to follow this past week, the main thing that stood out to me has been how much the ‘underdog’ teams have been under-performing.
The general consensus headed into the playoffs by most ‘baseball analysts’ was that the AL playoffs were up for grabs; however, I think a lot of people at the same time saw the Yankees and Rays as favorites to come out of their respective series’ against the Twins and Rangers. The Twins looked awful, posting a team ERA of 5.88 against the Yankees – and the Bronx Bombers’ 3-game sweep of Minnesota marked the 4th time in the last 10 years that the Yankees have beat the Twins in the first round of the playoffs. Although the Rangers jumped out to a 2-0 lead with consecutive road wins against Tampa Bay, the Rays flipped the switch, winning two straight in Texas and putting the odds back in their favor to win the series.
In the National League, the Reds lost 3 straight to the Phillies. They probably should have simply tipped their caps to the best pitcher in baseball after Doc’s performance in game 1; however, Jay Bruce losing a ball in the lights definitely did not rest easy in Reds fans’ stomachs Friday night. The Reds made 7 errors during their short 3-game post-season run: no wonder it all ended so quickly. Similarly, the Braves lost a sloppy game Sunday when their bullpen imploded in the 9th and Brooks Conrad allowed the go ahead run to score when a routine grounder went through his legs. Oh, did I mention that that was Conrad’s 3rd error of the day! Who would of known that the Braves would miss Martin Prado’s glove more than his bat? For the sake of Bobby Cox’s heart here at the end of his Hall of Fame managerial career, lets hope the Braves get their act together.
When the 2010 MLB season began, most teams did not expect the Rangers, Twins, Braves and Reds to make the playoffs – that’s right, even the Twins weren’t picked by most to be able to stack up against the almighty White Sox pitching staff, especially with closer Joe Nathan going down for the year before the season started. I love a Cinderella. The ’06 Cardinals, the ’07 Rockies, the ’08 Rays – maybe those low-payroll small market teams don’t generate a lot of viewers, but the true baseball fans know that sending a new mix of teams to the playoffs benefits the sport (5 of the 8 playoff teams in 2010 were not playing October baseball last season). I just hope they aren’t all knocked out here in the first round. If all those surprise teams do get beat early, I’ll be praying for anything but a Phillies-Yankees World Series; because in the words of Yogi Berra, that would be déjà-vu all over again.
No comments:
Post a Comment