Tag: 2011 MLB Playoffs

“Don’t you think she looks tired?”

Those are the six words The Doctor uses to bring down Harriet Jones and they are what some people are saying about the Phillies.

Until reading that analysis I hadn’t realized how much they are like the Yankees and as we saw last night, All-Star teams are not as invulnerable as they look on paper.

Phillies fans might take solace from the fact that the team is working hard to keep any rogue Cardinal rally squirrels off the field.

Brewers fans are looking for a repeat of Game 1, what with Gallardo pitching against Kennedy at Miller Park and all.  The Diamondbacks are betting the momentum of 2 straight victories will carry them through to the next round.

That kind of magical thinking didn’t much work for the Brewers.

Bud Selig will be throwing out the first pitch tonight, so there will be a natural inclination to root against the Brewers just to spite him.  It’s an interesting bit of sports trivia that tonight’s double, double elimination game is the third time this has happened in Baseball history and the Brewers were involved in the first of those in 1981 when they lost to the Yankees.

Likewise the Phillies lost that same day to the Expos.

For you completeness fanatics the third double elimination game that day was Dodgers over the Astros and the other double, double was 2001 when the Yankees beat the As and the Mariners beat the Indians.

It’s kind of easy to dump on the Yankees because they are the most expensive team in the biggest market.

The problem with that kind of thinking is that it doesn’t recognize the most important part of professional athletics which is that these teams are not businesses in the traditional sense (profits, losses, dividends, shareholders) but rather gigantic masturbatory ego advertisements for billionaires like Lamborghinis and yachts, the next best thing to Potlach bonfires of cash.

Say what you like about George and the machine he built, at least he put his money where his mouth was and invested in producing winners instead of milking every last dime he could out of gullible rubes.

The big fail for the Diamondbacks is that they haven’t sold out a Playoff game.  A PLAYOFF GAME!  You know, one in which they could be eliminated too.

And they deserve it.  Not just because of lack of fan support (there are plenty of cities that would gladly steal from their taxpayers to land a major league franchise, many in better media markets than yours), but also because their front office is looking to invoke the blackout rule so they can sell the last of those overpriced so-called luxury boxes to rubes and suckers.

Way to show community spirit you amoral corporatist leeches.

The Brewers are starting Randy Wolf who’s a statistical twin of Joe Saunders, but the worst thing that can happen to them is they return to Milwaukee and get to celebrate (or commiserate) in front of a crowd that loves them.

The Diamondbacks are a team without a home.

Many Phillies fans are unhappy with the decisiveness of last night’s 3 – 2 win, but as I said yesterday any time you’re facing elimination it’s always a tough game as you watch out after out of the 27 you have left tick away.

The local critics point at a lackluster offense and a poor performance by Hamels who took 117 pitches to last a mere six innings, leaving the game up to their questionable bullpen.

So what the Cardinals need to do tonight in order to continue playing is get to Oswalt early and either light him up or chase him which is much easier to diagnose than do though the Cardinals have had pretty good success against him.

For their part they’re sending up Edwin Jackson who, while not the greatest, is good enough for most part and is backed by a bullpen of Salas, Dotel, Rhodes, and Motte who have collectively held the Phillies scoreless over the 8 combined innings they’ve pitched.

So this may be a more closely contested game than you’d think.

This is the one series that has gone exactly as I had hoped.  With any luck at all Jan will be sending Scott a box of rattlesnakes tomorrow.

It works out for everybody.

Collmenter of the Diamondbacks has been a Brewers killer this season and Marcum has deteriorated recently so it’s distinctly possible that the Diamondbacks can stave off elimination tonight.

Despite that I’ll only have to cover the 2 Senior League games tomorrow even if every team survives the day so it’s all good as far as I’m concerned.

No Damn Yankees tonight, not because I think it’s bad luck, just because I can’t find anything but High School productions.

The Yankees are in the position they’d least like to be in, facing elimination with the at best unreliable A.J. Burnett on the mound.  The Tigers counter with Rick Porchello who’s marginally better on paper.

Like most Junior League games this one will turn on offense and Rodriguez and Teixeira have been notably unproductive.

Fresh Water Economists might expect things to revert to the historical mean without intervention but as a Modern Monetarist Keynesian I’m fully aware that there are states of equilibrium that do not represent the most efficient utilization of resources, particularly human capital.

If the Yankees lose you can be sure the New York market will demand changes in management.

#occupye161st

This is the only game today where the teams have some breathing room, nobody goes home if they lose.

The Cardinals are sending out Jaime Garcia and he is a Phillies killer with a 0.96 ERA in 4 starts against them.  Opposed is Cole Hamels, 2008 World Series MVP.

Cards Left Fielder Matt Holliday will sit with a hand injury that is getting worse and could be placed on injured reserve and replaced.

Not encouraging for the Phillies is that everyone is already talking about Oswalt’s appearance tomorrow.  Lohse has been sent to the Bullpen after his Game 1 loss.  Carpenter and Lee will face each other again in Game 5 if the series goes that long.

Whenever you’re facing elimination it’s tough because you win or go home and clean out your locker, so the teams with a 2 – 1 lead today have a distinct advantage.

In our first game the Devil Rays face the Rangers at home.  They’ll be sending up a rookie, Jeremy Hellickson, but they had good luck with that in Game 1 with Moore.

Hellickson also has a lower ERA (ERA is the number of runs allowed per 9 innings, not that pitchers complete games anymore) than his opponent, Harrison, but Harrison has been better than his average in his last 4 starts.  He also pitched 2/3rds of an inning in relief in Game 1 which may have tuned him up or tired him out.

TheMomCat reports her Aunt (a Rays fan) will be at the game so I hope she has a good experience and a Playoff victory to celebrate.