MLB Postseason Recap

The Tampa Bay Rays took a 2-1 lead in the ALCS and the Philadelphia Phillies take a commanding 3-1 lead in the NLCS:

Tampa Bay Rays 9 Boston Red Sox 1: The Tampa Bay Rays did what many thought they wouldn't be able to by beating Jon Lester. Tampa Bay got three big home runs from B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria, and Rocco Baldelli to drop a 9 spot on the Red Sox and take a 2-1 series lead. How good have B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria been in these playoffs? Both have been outstanding with the bats in key situations and Longoria is a great fielder at third. The one double play he turned was an incredibly good play and the whole Rays defense has been solid. You can really notice the difference between the Rays defense in the infield compared to the Angels defense. It is one of the reasons why I felt the Rays had a good chance to beat the Red Sox in this series.
Matt Garza was phenomenal for the Rays pitching 6 innings and giving up just 1 run. Garza had electric stuff tonight and did a great job of attacking the Boston hitters. I was very impressed with the way he threw the baseball. Garza's pitching set the tone for what was a huge victory for the Rays. Jon Lester was the Red Sox big advantage in this series that I think the Red Sox were counting on and the Rays just took that advatange away. This sets up a huge Game 4, which I already felt was going to be the key game in the series. However, I thought it was going to be key for the Rays, but turns out it's almost a must win for the Red Sox instead. The Rays should definitely by geared up for this game, because they will be facing Boston's weakest pitcher in Tim Wakefield and they should take advantage of that if they can. To go up 3 games to 1 in this series for the Rays would be huge, because it means they would have to beat just one of Boston's best three pitchers to win the series instead of having to beat 2 of them. If the Rays lose Game 4, I think the momentum swings back to the Red Sox with Dice-K on the mound for Game 5. The Rays need to go for the kill in Game 4 and I think they should pull out all the stops.

Put On Notice: Tim Wakefield, Andy Sonnanstine

Philadelphia Phillies 7 Los Angeles Dodgers 5: I thought for sure with the Dodgers up 5-3 they were going to win this game and tie up the series at 2 games a piece. However, Shane Victorino, Matt Stairs, and Joe Torre had other ideas. Joe Torre has been known to overwork a bullpen and he made an interesting move by bringing in reliever Cory Wade to replace Hong-Chih Kuo after Wade had just pitched two innings the day before. He proceeded to give up a line drive 2-run homer to the Flyin' Hawaiian Shane Victorino and another base hit to Carlos Ruiz before getting pulled for Jonathon Broxton. Now Jonathon Broxton throws gas, but Matt Stairs is a dead fast ball pull hitter and wow what a home run he crushed off a fastball that was middle of the plate in. It looked like catcher Russell Martin was setup on the outside corner, so Broxton missed his spot with the fastball, but I think I would have thrown Stairs nothing but breaking pitches in that situation. I think the Dodgers certainly blew this game and probably threw away their postseason hopes in the process.

Cole Hamels goes for the Phillies in Game 5 and the Dodgers will counter with Chad Billingsley, who got lit up in Game 2 of this series. It's possible that this series could be over pretty quickly now after it looked like the Dodgers were going to tie the series. I was certain this series was going to drag out to 6 or 7 games right up until Matt Stairs hit that friggen' bomb to win the game last night. Now the Phillies might be waiting around for a few days to see who will win the Red Sox-Rays series.

Put On Notice: Chad Billingsley