I'm still sick and tired so this will be short and sweet. The San Francisco Giants have won their first ever World Series. The Giants first Series victory since 1954, when they were in New York, came in grand fashion.
They beat the Texas Rangers 3-1 in game five to take the series 4-1. The only thing that would have been better would have been celebrating at home in front of their fans.
Edgar Renteria won MVP. Yes, that is correct, you read that right...
With the game-deciding three-run homer in the seventh, Renteria was 7-19 with six runs, six RBI and two homers in the Series. No one was particularly spectacular for San Fran, which is why they are such a great story. Lincecum was good, Cain was fantastic but only threw one game and there is no one really good on their offense.
Giants win the Series 4-1. Renteria = Series MVP. Crazy world we live in. Until next season.
To start, I just want to say that this Series could be the greatest pitching duel of my generation: Cliff Lee, C.J. Wilson and Colby Lewis vs. Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez
It is basically, old veterans who worked hard to get there vs. young studs taking over...
I'll come out and say it right now, I like to Giants to win the series and it is not because the Yanks lost to Texas.
I think the Giants pitching staff as a whole is a lot better than the Rangers, and I'll take a veteran closer in Brian Wilson over a rookie (Neftali Feliz) any day.
The pitching will probably determine the series because the over/under for the entire thing is probably about 13 because of the pitching. Lee will probably take game one because while Lincecum has been really good, Lee has been unstoppable. The guy had pinpoint control and absolutely wicked movement on his pitches.
Cain and Sanchez, I believe, are better than Wilson and Lewis. The Giants have had timely hitting and somehow have scored enough to win games. Five of the Giants post season wins have come when scoring three runs or less. The Rangers have yet to win a game when scoring that little.
Different players have risen to the top for San Fran, as Cody Ross caught fire against Philly pitching and had a great NLCS. Aubrey Huff is playing like he is in his 20s again, and "small ball" is proving to be a winning style of play.
I don't feel like talking too much about Texas, but I will praise their relentless and aggressive playing style. They run as much as they can, and Josh Hamilton can hit the crap out of the ball. Let it be known, if you walk him, Vlad and Cruz can also kill the ball.
Elvis Andrus will make a name for himself as one of the top young shortstops in the MLB in the World Series. Watch out for this kid.
Well, it's official...after winning game five and keeping their hopes alive, the Yanks lost game six in Texas 6-1. The Rangers advance to their first World Series in franchise history.
I don't really want to talk about it too much right now because of how upset I am, but it is important to get the news out. I am extremely disappointed in the Yankees and how they performed in the ALCS after sweeping the Twins in the ALDS.
I guess congrats to the Rangers...it will be a tough challenge for them whether it's in Philly or San Fran...should make for an interesting Series.
ALCS MVP: OF Josh Hamilton
As Chuck Tanner, manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates during the World Series championship in 1979, said, "It's hard to win a pennant, but it's harder losing one."
This is just a quickie to give some respect to MLB. My New York Yankees came back from five runs down last night to beat the Texas Rangers, in Texas, 6-5.
It was an unbelievable win for the Yanks and a crushing loss for the Rangers. C.J. Wilson threw a great game and was taken out when OF Brett Gardner beat out a ground ball to the first baseman. After that, the next six Yankees got basehits, totaling five runs in the eighth inning off of a combined five Texas pitchers.
Mariano Rivera came in, and we all know when he's in the game is as good as over. Game 1: Yankees win. Game 2: Today, should be interesting to see how the Rangers respond to the loss.
The NLCS is what everyone will be paying attention to today though because it is a phenomenal pitching duel. Probable Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay looks to teach a lesson to young phenom Tim Lincecum. Philly is hoping to continue their dominance in the post-season as the favorite to win the NL Pennant.
The Giants typically don't score a ton of runs and will be going against someone who threw a no-hitter in his first career post-season start. If the Giants can steal this one, Philly should get nervous, but I don't see it happening.
We have reached the midway point in the Major League Baseball season. The all-star break is approaching and every team has played about 80 or so games. The all-star lineups were listed today, but I will write another post on that closer to all-star weekend.
This post is for predictions the rest of the way.
AL EAST 1. New York (1 seed) 2. Boston / Tampa Bay (tiebreaker for 3 seed) 4. Toronto 5. Baltimore
AL CENTRAL 1. Minnesota (4 seed) 2. Detroit 3. Chicago 4. Kansas City 5. Cleveland
AL WEST 1. Texas (2 seed) 2. Los Angeles 3. Seattle 4. Oakland
NL EAST 1. New York (2 seed) 2. Atlanta (3 seed) 3. Philadelphia 4. Washington 5. Florida
NL CENTRAL 1. Cincinnati (4 seed) 2. St. Louis 3. Milwaukee 4. Chicago 5. Houston 6. Pittsburgh
NL WEST 1. Los Angeles (1 seed) 2. San Diego 3. San Francisco 4. Colorado 5. Arizona
Divisional Round New York (AL) over Minnesota Tampa Bay over Texas Los Angeles over Cincinnati New York (NL) over Atlanta
Championship Round New York (AL) over Tampa Bay Los Angeles over New York (NL)
World Series New York (AL) over Los Angeles ^Six game series in a rematch of the classic New York Yankee/Brooklyn Dodger series.
A weekly feature on the good, the bad, and the ugly happening around the diamond.
Single: A nice little win streak, mostly the sweep of the Rays, have the Red Sox dreaming of a turnaround.Yes, they’re better than .500.But no, they’re not good enough to sweep the Rays all year round.Look for a regress to the norm, but way to stave off selling the farm boys!
Double: The Cincinnati Reds are in sole possession of first place.This is not a misprint.The loveable losers (sorry, not you Cubs fans), are atop the NL Central podium for what feels like the first time in years, and they’re celebrating.And why not?It’s been 20 years since a World Series ring and they haven’t made the playoffs since ’95.With Phat Albert doing his best disappearing act (and still hitting over .300), the big boy at first has torn things up.The Central is going to be won on sheer power, and with Pujols struggling, there’s no power outage for the Reds.
Triple: Even though he can’t leg ‘em out anymore, and he was considered a wash-up and the odd man out in a very crowded outfield, Vlad The Impaler is back and doing what he does best for the not surprisingly AL West front running Rangers: raking.Leading baseball in RBI’s and amongst the leaders in homers, Vlad is taking a nice little victory lap in Arlington, giving the league a friendly reminder of why he’s so, so good.
Home Run: Ozzie Guillen, no matter what you do in your career as a manager (now that you have that ring, of course), you will always be quotable and entertaining.This little tirade following your ejection just goes to show your passion, drive, and really, just how funny it is to watch you blow up.No matter how relevant the state of your team, you, Mr. Guillen, will always hold a place in our hearts.
Strikin’ them out: Josh Johnson, the unheralded pitcher on the we-only-win-every-7-years Florida Marlins, is trying to bring some peace to the OTHER team from the sunshine state.Sitting pretty at 5-1 with an ERA under 2.50, Johnson is reminding us all of why the Marlins are able to go on the little tears that they do.With the Phillies recent struggles, the NL East is more open then ever (the Marlins are in LAST and still above .500 and down in the standings by under 5 games).If the fish are going to make a swim for the division title, look for JJ to be reelin’ um in (ok, I get it, too many fish jokes).
Popping Up: It’s not shocking that the Toronto Blue Jays are having trouble keeping pace in the 3-legged race that is the AL East.They’re still clobbering the ball like nobody’s business, leading the league in team homers, but the average is tinkering near the bottom.It was a nice little run from our Canadian friends, but without a truly stable pitching rotation and so many free swingers at the plate, it’ll take a bat and another arm for them to stay within striking distance as summer rolls in.
Caught Looking: If you missed baseball’s night games this week, you’re hardly at fault.With series finales of great shows like Lost and 24, there was plenty going on to excuse yourself.I mean, that’s what the Cubs did.Just a few days after celebrating the anniversary of the night time baseball game, the folks at Wrigley reminded us of why we couldn’t do so in the first place, treating us to a lovely blackout on the ivy.Of course, Wrigley wasn’t at fault, but this may be the most exciting thing to happen to the Cubs all year.
