Well, there was a save opportunity already for the Twins and Nathan did pitch - but maybe he shouldn't have. Maybe Alex Rodriguez is finally shedding his image as "Mr. May".
Maybe the experts are right about the Yankees being a juggernaut.
Well, the Yankees took the night off and still escaped with a win.
Good thing for them they are playing one of worst playoff teams ever.
Tigers would have won this game 2 (Verlander would have shut them down since they couldn't hit the mediocre Blackburn) and gone back to Comerica tied 1-1.
Yes, we all get it.
You hate the Twins and are blind to anything they might do well, but the hyperbole is getting a little ridiculous.
Right, because the Yankees are notorious for taking playoff games off.
:rolleyes:
I heard that Jeter was actually sitting in a lounge chair while playing shortstop and Arod was hitting with one hand tied behind his back until the 9th inning.
The Twins had the 11th ranked pitching in the AL this year all while playing not only in the worst division period, but by far the worst offensive division with anemic hitting teams like the Royals, Tigers and White Sox (and even the Indians were below average).
It is not hyperbole to say their pitching is awful.
It just is.
You said no pitching whatsoever.
The fact is that, overall, their pitching isn't good, but that is a different thing than saying they have no pitching whatsoever.
I loved seeing the Angels sweep the Sox, and of course, I loved seeing the Yankees sweep the Twins as I predicted. (Tigers would probably be up 2-1 on the Yankees right now.)
I'm rooting for a Dodgers-Angels series, so that we can see W.S. games during the day (games will likely start 8 EST, 5 PST) for the first time in decades, and also the weather will be nice. Dodgers-Yankees would also be intriguing with Torre going against his old team.
I love Andy's world. It's such a colorful place. I'm going to join in......
The Reds would definitely have fared better against the Dodgers. No way the Reds would've gotten swept. After all, the Tigers would be up 2-1 against the Yanks and DET and CIN had the exact same RS record against their LDS foe (1-5), all the while, the Reds had a much better record in Sept/Oct than the Tigers. The Reds would be up 2-1 and would be ready to clinch in game four.
Hey Andy...this is FUN! :thumbsup:
Back to reality.
The Yanks/Angels will give us an entertaining series. After all of us have talked about how even these series are, three of the four ended in sweeps. Such is the nature of five game series. I still look for some fireworks out of the Phils-Rocks.
The angels have had the Yankees number this year so it should be a good series.
I am old enough to remember running home from elementary school to catch the last few innings of the world series games when they were played in the afternoon. Wish they would start earlier so that east coast fans would not be so bleary eyed the next morning.
Conspiracy theory alert:
MLB would love to see a Dodgers-Yankees World Series to lock up both of those major TV markets. :)
I'm not sure how two LA teams in the World Series would work ratings wise.
Outside of the west coast I'm not sure how many people in the rest of the country would care.
All I'm saying is that the Tigers were a better built team for short-series, playoff baseball than the Twins.
The Twins were 1 game better over 163 at beating bad teams, so props to them - they are the AL Central Champs.
But the Tigers would've given the Yankees a more challenging series, because the Tigers had far better pitching than the Twins.
I'm not sure who I'm picking yet.
I think the Angels have the edge in starting pitching depth, which typically doesn't help that much in a short series, but will be an advantage for them if the Yankees decide to pitch Sabathia 3 times.
If the Yankees struggled against the so-called inferior Twins pitching, I'm not sure what they're going to be able to do against Lackey and company.
They better not take a game off like they did against Minnesota.
Better?
Yes.
Far better?
Not sure about that.
The Tigers have Verlander and that's about it.
Edwin Jackson was awful in the 2nd half and Porcello's a rookie who struggled down the stretch as well.
Had the Tigers been in the series, the only way Verlander would have done better than Blackburn is if Verlander pitched a complete game.
Barring that, the Twins had a better closer on the mound in Nathan and the Yankees still beat him.
I'll be interested to see the excuses next year when the Twins beat the Tigers again.
:tongue3:
Ok, if everyone thinks I'm nuts, let me give a recent example.
In 2006, the Twins also bested the Tigers in the Central by a mere 1 game.
However, the Tigers got the wild card, so both made the playoffs.
The Twins got swept by a decent (but not great) A's team, while the Tigers beat the no. 1 seed Yankees and then swept the A's to make the W.S.
The Tigers proved to be the better playoff team than the Twins, while the Twins were 1 game better over 162.
The same thing would've proved out to be true again this year.
Of course, we'll never know, since the Tigers didn't make the playoffs, but most people agree that a team with better starting pitching (and better bullpen) will fare better in the playoffs than a team with lesser pitching.
And the Tigers pitching was far superior to the Twins this year.