My main beef with the NBA lockout is the promotion of the sport, or lack of it.
Last year, the NBA agreed to play 2 regular season games outside of North America, the first time this had ever happened. I was lucky enough to get tickets to the 2nd game, in which New Jersey Nets beat Toronto Raptors 137-136 in a triple-overtime thriller. The game happened at the O2 Arena in front of a full house.
These 2 games were a fantastic advert for the sport, and it attracted people from far and wide. It got many people interested in the game and the whole thing was a real success.
Sure the NBA gains publicity from the lockout, but nowhere near as much as it did from these 2 games. If the lockout isn't resolved quickly enough to save some of the season, many people who started following the sport would stop following it. They would quickly lose interest and give up on 'American Sports' as a whole. The only way to maintain this interest is to resolve the lockout, and hopefully schedule another couple of games in England.
There are 2 Team USA warm-up games being played in England next July, one involving the male team and one involving the female team, but people won't know about these games and won't watch them if there has been no season. Also there is a pre-season game being held in Manchester in 2013, but that is 2 years away nearly.
The sport is obviously huge in countries like Spain, Turkey and Lithuania, but it can become big in the UK IF the lockout ends. More and more people are getting interested in the sport, and it can gain the same interest levels in the UK as such sports as Rugby and Tennis.
Just let them play #StandUnited
Tuesday 18 October 2011
Monday 17 October 2011
Thierry Henry and MLS Playoffs
Why Thierry? Why? At such an important time in the season, for New York and for the MLS, he goes and does that. If you have no idea what I'm on about, go to Thierry Henry's red card vs Sporting Kansas City. It's not like the card was even debatable. He kicked a player whilst he was down, straight under the ref's nose; he had to go.
Massive game vs Sporting Kansas City. If Sporting win, they qualify for the playoffs. If Red Bulls win, they as good as qualify. They may even qualify. A draw puts both teams in a relatively good position.
27 minutes gone. Henry gets tackled, but Red Bulls win the ball back and the guy who tackled Henry gets floored (legally). Henry is p*ssed at the guy who tackled him, so he kicks him. With the ref standing 1/2 a yard away. Straight off, no arguments. Losing their best striker pretty much condemned New York to a loss, because he provided the pace and skill upfront.
It also means that Henry misses the season finale next week vs Philadelphia.
Kansas took full advantage and ran out 2-0 winners. This means they are qualified, and Red Bulls are occupying the final play-off spot, but are fighting with 3 other teams for the 4th and final playoff spot.
The playoff table currently stands at (just the 4 teams who can qualify)
Team Played Points GD
New York 33 43 +5
Portland 32 40 -8
Chicago 33 40 0
DC United 32 38 -2
Teams are separated by Head-to-Head record, not Goal Difference, for some bizarre reason.
Fixtures remaining:
DC United vs Portland Timbers, Wednesday October 19th
New York Red Bulls vs Philadelphia Union, Thursday October 20th
DC United vs Sporting Kansas City, Saturday October 22nd
Chicago Fire vs Colombus Crew, Saturday October 22nd
Real Salt Lake vs Portland Timbers, Saturday October 22nd
The first fixture is massive. If DC win, it puts all the teams in the hunt and anyone could still qualify. If DC fail to win, it puts them out. A draw will help Portland, who have to avoid defeat to stay in. A Timbers victory would put out DC and Chicago.
If Red Bulls avoid defeat AND DC avoid defeat vs Portland, New York go through. They also go through if they win. Red Bulls have the clear advantage of a +5 Goal Difference, but also have superior H2H records vs DC United and Portland, and they drew both games to Chicago.
This gives Chicago an extremely hard route. They have to beat Columbus Crew AND DC United have to avoid defeat vs Portland AND Red Bulls have to lose AND there has to be a 5 goal turnaround. Tough stuff.
DC have to win both their remaining games AND Red Bulls lose vs Philly AND Chicago don't win vs Columbus AND Portland don't win vs Real Salt Lake. That sounds harder than it is. They have a real chance of beating Portland, and being at home to Kansas could result in a victory. Philly are 2nd in East so they're obviously going to be tough to beat, and Columbus and Salt Lake are also qualified so they're all pretty good.
Portland have to get a minimum of 4 points in their games AND Red Bulls have to lose vs Philly.
Likelihood of qualifying:
NY Red Bulls - Should probably do it (60% chance)
DC United - Depends on Wednesday (20% chance)
Portland Timbers - Depends on Wednesday (15% chance)
Chicago Fire - Extremely unlikely (5% chance)
Massive game vs Sporting Kansas City. If Sporting win, they qualify for the playoffs. If Red Bulls win, they as good as qualify. They may even qualify. A draw puts both teams in a relatively good position.
27 minutes gone. Henry gets tackled, but Red Bulls win the ball back and the guy who tackled Henry gets floored (legally). Henry is p*ssed at the guy who tackled him, so he kicks him. With the ref standing 1/2 a yard away. Straight off, no arguments. Losing their best striker pretty much condemned New York to a loss, because he provided the pace and skill upfront.
It also means that Henry misses the season finale next week vs Philadelphia.
Kansas took full advantage and ran out 2-0 winners. This means they are qualified, and Red Bulls are occupying the final play-off spot, but are fighting with 3 other teams for the 4th and final playoff spot.
The playoff table currently stands at (just the 4 teams who can qualify)
Team Played Points GD
New York 33 43 +5
Portland 32 40 -8
Chicago 33 40 0
DC United 32 38 -2
Teams are separated by Head-to-Head record, not Goal Difference, for some bizarre reason.
Fixtures remaining:
DC United vs Portland Timbers, Wednesday October 19th
New York Red Bulls vs Philadelphia Union, Thursday October 20th
DC United vs Sporting Kansas City, Saturday October 22nd
Chicago Fire vs Colombus Crew, Saturday October 22nd
Real Salt Lake vs Portland Timbers, Saturday October 22nd
The first fixture is massive. If DC win, it puts all the teams in the hunt and anyone could still qualify. If DC fail to win, it puts them out. A draw will help Portland, who have to avoid defeat to stay in. A Timbers victory would put out DC and Chicago.
If Red Bulls avoid defeat AND DC avoid defeat vs Portland, New York go through. They also go through if they win. Red Bulls have the clear advantage of a +5 Goal Difference, but also have superior H2H records vs DC United and Portland, and they drew both games to Chicago.
This gives Chicago an extremely hard route. They have to beat Columbus Crew AND DC United have to avoid defeat vs Portland AND Red Bulls have to lose AND there has to be a 5 goal turnaround. Tough stuff.
DC have to win both their remaining games AND Red Bulls lose vs Philly AND Chicago don't win vs Columbus AND Portland don't win vs Real Salt Lake. That sounds harder than it is. They have a real chance of beating Portland, and being at home to Kansas could result in a victory. Philly are 2nd in East so they're obviously going to be tough to beat, and Columbus and Salt Lake are also qualified so they're all pretty good.
Portland have to get a minimum of 4 points in their games AND Red Bulls have to lose vs Philly.
Likelihood of qualifying:
NY Red Bulls - Should probably do it (60% chance)
DC United - Depends on Wednesday (20% chance)
Portland Timbers - Depends on Wednesday (15% chance)
Chicago Fire - Extremely unlikely (5% chance)
Thursday 13 October 2011
Day 104 - and counting
Just a quick (in the loosest sense of the word) post on the NBA and it's lockout.
I think that both the players and the owners are to blame. The players are to blame for thinking it would sort itself out. They knew it was coming on July 1st, yet it took about 6 weeks after that date for the players to think "Hang on. We should probably do something about this lockout. I suppose we'll set up some meetings. But we'll just give it a week, in case it all blows over". How did that one work out for ya? Exactly. They should have taken a leaf out of the NFL's book; sure they took 130 days to sort it out, but they have a longer off-season, so they could afford to take longer.
NBA players only have 4 months (123 days) off from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expiring to the new season starting (not counting pre-season). NFL players were off from March to August. 5 months. The time between the CBA expiring and the new season starting was 181 days. 71% of their off-season was used to agree a new CBA. So far, NBA players have used 85% of their off-season to attempt to agree a new CBA. The other thing about the NFL was that they only lost 1 game, which was the Pro Football Hall of Fame game, which isn't important in terms of the actual season. The NBA so far has lost all of the pre-season games and the opening 2 weeks of the season. Sort it out, guys.
The players also recently made a stand on Twitter. It was arranged by NBPA (National Basketball Players Association) president Derek Fisher, who tweeted "LET US PLAY". A lot of other NBA players on Twitter, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, amongst others, soon followed with the same or a similar version of the tweet. They all used the hashtag #StandUnited.
Obviously the owners are also to blame. They refused to meet the players halfway during the initial meeting, and want ridiculous amounts of money to be cut from things like the Salary Cap. The owners were fully aware that they will gain money whether or not the NBA happens, so they can be excused for thinking it wasn't up to them to sort it out. But they really should attempt to do something about it and compromise slightly more than they have been.
Some of the players, who aren't involved with the NBPA and thus the meetings, have opted to play abroad. Many foreigners are playing in their native country, including Nicolas Batum (France), Leandro Barbosa (Brazil), Patrick Mills (Australia), Mehmet Okur (Turkey), Danilo Gallinari (Italy), Rudy Fernandez (Spain), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia), Tony Parker (France) and Yi Jianlian (China). Some other big names, mostly Americans, have also gone to play in other countries. These include Sonny Weems (Lithuania), Sasha Vujacic (Turkey), Deron Williams (Turkey), Ty Lawson (Lithuania), Alonzo Gee (Poland), Wilson Chandler (China), DeJuan Blair (Russia) and Thabo Sefolosha (Turkey). Kobe Bryant was also trying to negotiate a contract with Turkish club Besiktas Milangaz, but has now switched to negotiations with Italian club Virtus Bologna. He has not agreed to anything, but the contract in Italy must be awfully tempting. He will gain somewhere between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 (depending on which report you believe) to play a single exhibition game.Or maybe there is a 10-game contract worth $3 million.
I hate to say it, but LeBron James is showing all the other players up during this lockout (except maybe Dwayne Wade). He has organised
The majority of the players have an opt-out clause, stating that they players can return to the NBA when/if the lockout ends.
The point is, they have to get a new CBA sorted. And soon. If they don't get one sorted by the end of the month, you can pretty much wave goodbye to the 2011-12 season.
I think that both the players and the owners are to blame. The players are to blame for thinking it would sort itself out. They knew it was coming on July 1st, yet it took about 6 weeks after that date for the players to think "Hang on. We should probably do something about this lockout. I suppose we'll set up some meetings. But we'll just give it a week, in case it all blows over". How did that one work out for ya? Exactly. They should have taken a leaf out of the NFL's book; sure they took 130 days to sort it out, but they have a longer off-season, so they could afford to take longer.
NBA players only have 4 months (123 days) off from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expiring to the new season starting (not counting pre-season). NFL players were off from March to August. 5 months. The time between the CBA expiring and the new season starting was 181 days. 71% of their off-season was used to agree a new CBA. So far, NBA players have used 85% of their off-season to attempt to agree a new CBA. The other thing about the NFL was that they only lost 1 game, which was the Pro Football Hall of Fame game, which isn't important in terms of the actual season. The NBA so far has lost all of the pre-season games and the opening 2 weeks of the season. Sort it out, guys.
The players also recently made a stand on Twitter. It was arranged by NBPA (National Basketball Players Association) president Derek Fisher, who tweeted "LET US PLAY". A lot of other NBA players on Twitter, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, amongst others, soon followed with the same or a similar version of the tweet. They all used the hashtag #StandUnited.
Obviously the owners are also to blame. They refused to meet the players halfway during the initial meeting, and want ridiculous amounts of money to be cut from things like the Salary Cap. The owners were fully aware that they will gain money whether or not the NBA happens, so they can be excused for thinking it wasn't up to them to sort it out. But they really should attempt to do something about it and compromise slightly more than they have been.
Some of the players, who aren't involved with the NBPA and thus the meetings, have opted to play abroad. Many foreigners are playing in their native country, including Nicolas Batum (France), Leandro Barbosa (Brazil), Patrick Mills (Australia), Mehmet Okur (Turkey), Danilo Gallinari (Italy), Rudy Fernandez (Spain), Andrei Kirilenko (Russia), Tony Parker (France) and Yi Jianlian (China). Some other big names, mostly Americans, have also gone to play in other countries. These include Sonny Weems (Lithuania), Sasha Vujacic (Turkey), Deron Williams (Turkey), Ty Lawson (Lithuania), Alonzo Gee (Poland), Wilson Chandler (China), DeJuan Blair (Russia) and Thabo Sefolosha (Turkey). Kobe Bryant was also trying to negotiate a contract with Turkish club Besiktas Milangaz, but has now switched to negotiations with Italian club Virtus Bologna. He has not agreed to anything, but the contract in Italy must be awfully tempting. He will gain somewhere between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 (depending on which report you believe) to play a single exhibition game.Or maybe there is a 10-game contract worth $3 million.
I hate to say it, but LeBron James is showing all the other players up during this lockout (except maybe Dwayne Wade). He has organised
The majority of the players have an opt-out clause, stating that they players can return to the NBA when/if the lockout ends.
The point is, they have to get a new CBA sorted. And soon. If they don't get one sorted by the end of the month, you can pretty much wave goodbye to the 2011-12 season.
Wednesday 5 October 2011
Who would have thought it?
That is a genuine question. On September 2nd, even the die-hardest of Rays fans and Cardinals fans could have been excused for thinking their season would finish on September 28th. And by stark contrast, Red Sox fans and Braves fans could have been excused for thinking their respective teams were going to the playoffs. They probably already had their bags packed.
On that day, St. Louis were 8.5 games back from Atlanta, and Tampa Bay were 9 games back from Boston. Surely not, even in their wildest dreams, did the Tampa and St. Louis fans think their respective team would make the playoffs. But what a September we had.
Atlanta Braves were cruising their way to the postseason before 2nd September. They had a record of 81-56 and a month of games which were all mostly winnable, bar the 2 series' against rivals Philadelphia Phillies. They had a rocky start, going 2-5 in the first week of September (including a 3-0 series loss against Phillies), but won both games in a double-header against New York Mets on the 8th to ease the pressure before their next series. The next series was probably their downfall. A hat-trick of losses against the one team they really didn't want to face. St. Louis Cardinals. Cards had won 7 of their last 10, and kept their streak with a pair of 4-3 victories and a 6-3 win. Atlanta were still in the driving seat; 4.5 games ahead with just 16 games left. That series will have given hope to Cards fans and made Braves fans quite anxious.
It wasn't that Braves played badly for the rest of September; they went 5-7 before the final series of their regular season (and ultimately their whole season) against Phillies. It's just that Cards played better in that time. They went 9-4, including a 2-1 series victory against the slowly collapsing Phillies.
Braves could probably not have had a worse team to end their season against when they desperately needed to win. A finally-winning-again Phillies team were the opposition for their final 3 games. Phillies, who had gone on an 8-game losing streak since confirming their place in the postseason on September 14th, were fired up and looking to beat their franchise record for most victories in a season. That record stood at 101. Phillies had 99. But this isn't about how Philadelphia achieved a new franchise record. It's about how Atlanta lost their playoff place.
Game 1: Atlanta scored in both the first 2 innnings to take a 2-0 lead, but Phillies showed why they have an awesome record as they scored 1 run in the 4th, 5th and 6th innings to take the lead. Another homer in the 8th secured an Atlanta loss, but it didn't really matter as St. Louis narrowly lost 5-4 in the 10th innings at Houston. A walk-off bunt by Bogusevic gave Astros victory to keep the Cards 1 game behind.
Game 2: The Braves-Phillies was over just as half the innings had been completed. At mid 5th, Phillies had a commanding 6-0 lead and were not going to throw it away. Phillies scored again in the 7th to make it 7-0, and an Atlanta score in the 9th offered a small glimmer of hope to the Braves. But Kendrick extinguished the spark of hope when he struck out Freeman to give Phillies victory, and their franchise-tying 101st victory of the season (they last got this many victories in the 1976 and 1977 seasons).
St. Louis, meanwhile, destroyed Houston 13-6 to tie it up at the top of the NL Wild card race. Cards went down 5-0 inside 3 innings, but in the 4th they tied it up at 5, mainly thanks to a 3-run double from Schumaker. Houston scored in the 5th to regain the lead, but Cardinals finished the final 3 innings with a flurry of runs to take the game.
Game 3: This is what the season came down to. 161 games, and we still didn't know who was going to make the playoffs. Braves were up first. Phillies showed their intent to achieve a club-record 102nd victory as they opened the scoring in the first. Braves also scored in the 1st to square it up, and then an Uggla 2-run homer in the 3rd gave them a 3-1 lead. Phillies brought it back to a 1-run deficit in the 7th, and then in the 9th Utley hit a sacrifice fly to take the game into extra innings. Phillies then went on to ensure that Braves would not be qualifying without playing a playoff game, or not qualifying at all, as they scored 1 run in the 13th innings.
St. Louis fared a lot better. A 5-run 1st innings pretty much put the game in the bag straight away, to be honest. Astros only had 2 hits in the whole game and did not look like winning. Runs in the 3rd, 5th and 9th innings gave Cardinals a comfortable 8-0 victory, and also a place in the playoffs. They will have known in about the 6th inning that Phillies had won and all they had to do was hold on to their 6-0 lead, which they did remarkably well I might add.
The downfall of the Boston Red Sox is probably more shocking than Atlanta's. Boston, a franchise steeped in history, have never done anything like this in their 110-year tenure.
The key team in this Wild Card race was not Boston. Or Tampa. Or Toronto or New York Yankees (although both did do a lot to influence it). It was in fact the team with the worst record in the American League: Baltimore Orioles. In September, they had 7 games against Boston and 6 against Rays.
Red Sox didn't start September badly. They started it horrifically. In their 1st 11 games, they won 2. 3 of the losses came against Rays. It's like the start of the season all over again (if you can't remember that far back, they started 2-10). It's not that they weren't scoring plenty of runs (In those 11 games, they scored 52 runs. This included 3 games where they scored 10 or more); it's just that their opponents were scoring more (they conceded 73, including 3 games where they conceded 10 or more). Clearly the problem wasn't the offence. It was the defence. The problem continued through the rest of September, as they went 3-9 until the final series against Baltimore. During these games, there was a 3-1 series loss to Orioles and a 3-1 series loss against Tampa. They also lost 3 of 5 games against Blue Jays and 2 of 3 against NYY. Going in to the final 3 games of the season, Red Sox had a record of 89-70.
Tampa started September much better, winning 8 of their first 11 games. This included a 2-1 series victory against Baltimore and the aforementioned 3-0 series drubbing of Boston, which was pretty key. The next games before the final series were not quite as good as the opening 11, but still better than Boston. They went 6-7. During this time, they beat Sox 3-1 at Fenway (as I mentioned earlier) in a potentially huge series. They also lost a series 3-1 to Yankees. Then came the final series. At New York. Against the Yankees. The AL leaders had a 97-60 record, and will have been clear favourites. Rays on the other hand, were 88-71 and 1 game back.
Despite their awful streak, Red Sox will have been expected to beat Baltimore and Rays will have been expected to lose to Yankees.
Game 1: I already analyzed game 1 in my previous post, so I'm not going to do it again.
Game 2: Rays started well in game 2, taking an early 2-0 lead, but Yankees hit back with single homers in the 3rd, 5th and 6th to take a 3-2 advantage. Then in the 7th, Rays took the lead back in style. Upton had already walked to 1st when Longoria came to the plate. Upton subsequently stole second and then Longoria also walked. Up step Matt Joyce. On his second pitch, he smashed the ball straight back over Yankees pitcher Soriano's head to give Tampa a 5-3 lead, and ultimately the game.
Sox still managed to stay in touch with Rays at the top as they squeaked past Baltimore 8-7. The real hero in the match was Ryan Lavarnway, who cracked 2 homers and also scored 4 RBIs. Orioles opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, but Boston stormed into a 5-1 lead thanks to a 2-run homer in the 3rd from Ellsbury and a 3-run homer from Lavarnway in the 4th. Baltimore hit back with a 2-run homer of their own in the 4th, but by the time they scored again, in the 6th, Boston had a 7-3 lead. But it wasn't all over yet as the 8th innings saw Sox score 1 (Lavarnway with a homer) and Orioles score 2 (a Chris Davies single sent Wieters home and then a Reimold triple sent Davies round) to make the score 8-6. Papelbon came in for Boston in the 9th to close the game out, but Hardy scored for Orioles to make it an anxious finish for Boston. Fortunately for Red Sox, Papelbon held his nerve and Jones grounded out to hand Sox the victory. With just one game left each, both teams had identical records of 90-71.
Game 3: It took 12 innings to separate Yankees and Rays in Game 3. Yankees should have had the game wrapped up way before then, and it looked for all the world like they had. A 4-run 2nd innings contributed to a 7-0 advantage which should have been held on to. But Rays kept fighting and their reward came in the 8th innings. With Damon on 3rd, Zobrist on 2nd and Kotchman on 1st, Sam Fuld walked to give Rays their first score. Then the next batter, Sean Rodriguez, was hit by a wild pitch so that resulted in another run and still bases were loaded with 0 outs. Jennings struck out next, but Upton took one for the team as he hit a sacrifice fly to send Kotchman home from 3rd and make the score 7-3. Evan Longoria was up next. He smashed a 3-run homer on his first ball to well and truly bring Tampa back in to the match at 7-6. Yankees failed to score in the 9th, and Dan Johnson tied it up at 7 with a solo homer. This game paralelled Rays' season. Down by a lot early on, they rallied and rallied and went on to nick it at the death. Longoria secured his second homer of the night with a line drive that just missed the foul zone and give Tampa an incredible victory. Chaos ensued as earlier on in the game the Red Sox loss had popped up on the screen, which meant that Rays victory ensured a post season place without an extra playoff game against Boston.
Boston started OK in their game, and found themselves 3-2 up at the 5th, and that was the way it stayed. Until innnings 9. Sox failed to score, meaning they had to hold on to a narrow lead to either qualify outright or force a playoff game. They thought they had done enough. But they hadn't. Orioles hadn't read the script and scored twice in the bottom of the 9th to win 4-3. The first score came when Reimold doubled to allow Hudson (who was pinch running for Chris Davies) to score, and then the next batter Andino hit a single to the left which brought home Reimold. The thing with Andino's RBI was that it should have been caught. Crawford almost had it in his glove then it dropped down as he opened the mitt. His panicky throw was well short which allowed Reimold to slide home.
So that's how the Wild Card races shaped up. I'll probably do another post about the ALDS, NLDS, ALCS and NLCS before the World Series.
On that day, St. Louis were 8.5 games back from Atlanta, and Tampa Bay were 9 games back from Boston. Surely not, even in their wildest dreams, did the Tampa and St. Louis fans think their respective team would make the playoffs. But what a September we had.
Atlanta Braves were cruising their way to the postseason before 2nd September. They had a record of 81-56 and a month of games which were all mostly winnable, bar the 2 series' against rivals Philadelphia Phillies. They had a rocky start, going 2-5 in the first week of September (including a 3-0 series loss against Phillies), but won both games in a double-header against New York Mets on the 8th to ease the pressure before their next series. The next series was probably their downfall. A hat-trick of losses against the one team they really didn't want to face. St. Louis Cardinals. Cards had won 7 of their last 10, and kept their streak with a pair of 4-3 victories and a 6-3 win. Atlanta were still in the driving seat; 4.5 games ahead with just 16 games left. That series will have given hope to Cards fans and made Braves fans quite anxious.
It wasn't that Braves played badly for the rest of September; they went 5-7 before the final series of their regular season (and ultimately their whole season) against Phillies. It's just that Cards played better in that time. They went 9-4, including a 2-1 series victory against the slowly collapsing Phillies.
Braves could probably not have had a worse team to end their season against when they desperately needed to win. A finally-winning-again Phillies team were the opposition for their final 3 games. Phillies, who had gone on an 8-game losing streak since confirming their place in the postseason on September 14th, were fired up and looking to beat their franchise record for most victories in a season. That record stood at 101. Phillies had 99. But this isn't about how Philadelphia achieved a new franchise record. It's about how Atlanta lost their playoff place.
Game 1: Atlanta scored in both the first 2 innnings to take a 2-0 lead, but Phillies showed why they have an awesome record as they scored 1 run in the 4th, 5th and 6th innings to take the lead. Another homer in the 8th secured an Atlanta loss, but it didn't really matter as St. Louis narrowly lost 5-4 in the 10th innings at Houston. A walk-off bunt by Bogusevic gave Astros victory to keep the Cards 1 game behind.
Game 2: The Braves-Phillies was over just as half the innings had been completed. At mid 5th, Phillies had a commanding 6-0 lead and were not going to throw it away. Phillies scored again in the 7th to make it 7-0, and an Atlanta score in the 9th offered a small glimmer of hope to the Braves. But Kendrick extinguished the spark of hope when he struck out Freeman to give Phillies victory, and their franchise-tying 101st victory of the season (they last got this many victories in the 1976 and 1977 seasons).
St. Louis, meanwhile, destroyed Houston 13-6 to tie it up at the top of the NL Wild card race. Cards went down 5-0 inside 3 innings, but in the 4th they tied it up at 5, mainly thanks to a 3-run double from Schumaker. Houston scored in the 5th to regain the lead, but Cardinals finished the final 3 innings with a flurry of runs to take the game.
Game 3: This is what the season came down to. 161 games, and we still didn't know who was going to make the playoffs. Braves were up first. Phillies showed their intent to achieve a club-record 102nd victory as they opened the scoring in the first. Braves also scored in the 1st to square it up, and then an Uggla 2-run homer in the 3rd gave them a 3-1 lead. Phillies brought it back to a 1-run deficit in the 7th, and then in the 9th Utley hit a sacrifice fly to take the game into extra innings. Phillies then went on to ensure that Braves would not be qualifying without playing a playoff game, or not qualifying at all, as they scored 1 run in the 13th innings.
St. Louis fared a lot better. A 5-run 1st innings pretty much put the game in the bag straight away, to be honest. Astros only had 2 hits in the whole game and did not look like winning. Runs in the 3rd, 5th and 9th innings gave Cardinals a comfortable 8-0 victory, and also a place in the playoffs. They will have known in about the 6th inning that Phillies had won and all they had to do was hold on to their 6-0 lead, which they did remarkably well I might add.
The downfall of the Boston Red Sox is probably more shocking than Atlanta's. Boston, a franchise steeped in history, have never done anything like this in their 110-year tenure.
The key team in this Wild Card race was not Boston. Or Tampa. Or Toronto or New York Yankees (although both did do a lot to influence it). It was in fact the team with the worst record in the American League: Baltimore Orioles. In September, they had 7 games against Boston and 6 against Rays.
Red Sox didn't start September badly. They started it horrifically. In their 1st 11 games, they won 2. 3 of the losses came against Rays. It's like the start of the season all over again (if you can't remember that far back, they started 2-10). It's not that they weren't scoring plenty of runs (In those 11 games, they scored 52 runs. This included 3 games where they scored 10 or more); it's just that their opponents were scoring more (they conceded 73, including 3 games where they conceded 10 or more). Clearly the problem wasn't the offence. It was the defence. The problem continued through the rest of September, as they went 3-9 until the final series against Baltimore. During these games, there was a 3-1 series loss to Orioles and a 3-1 series loss against Tampa. They also lost 3 of 5 games against Blue Jays and 2 of 3 against NYY. Going in to the final 3 games of the season, Red Sox had a record of 89-70.
Tampa started September much better, winning 8 of their first 11 games. This included a 2-1 series victory against Baltimore and the aforementioned 3-0 series drubbing of Boston, which was pretty key. The next games before the final series were not quite as good as the opening 11, but still better than Boston. They went 6-7. During this time, they beat Sox 3-1 at Fenway (as I mentioned earlier) in a potentially huge series. They also lost a series 3-1 to Yankees. Then came the final series. At New York. Against the Yankees. The AL leaders had a 97-60 record, and will have been clear favourites. Rays on the other hand, were 88-71 and 1 game back.
Despite their awful streak, Red Sox will have been expected to beat Baltimore and Rays will have been expected to lose to Yankees.
Game 1: I already analyzed game 1 in my previous post, so I'm not going to do it again.
Game 2: Rays started well in game 2, taking an early 2-0 lead, but Yankees hit back with single homers in the 3rd, 5th and 6th to take a 3-2 advantage. Then in the 7th, Rays took the lead back in style. Upton had already walked to 1st when Longoria came to the plate. Upton subsequently stole second and then Longoria also walked. Up step Matt Joyce. On his second pitch, he smashed the ball straight back over Yankees pitcher Soriano's head to give Tampa a 5-3 lead, and ultimately the game.
Sox still managed to stay in touch with Rays at the top as they squeaked past Baltimore 8-7. The real hero in the match was Ryan Lavarnway, who cracked 2 homers and also scored 4 RBIs. Orioles opened the scoring in the bottom of the first, but Boston stormed into a 5-1 lead thanks to a 2-run homer in the 3rd from Ellsbury and a 3-run homer from Lavarnway in the 4th. Baltimore hit back with a 2-run homer of their own in the 4th, but by the time they scored again, in the 6th, Boston had a 7-3 lead. But it wasn't all over yet as the 8th innings saw Sox score 1 (Lavarnway with a homer) and Orioles score 2 (a Chris Davies single sent Wieters home and then a Reimold triple sent Davies round) to make the score 8-6. Papelbon came in for Boston in the 9th to close the game out, but Hardy scored for Orioles to make it an anxious finish for Boston. Fortunately for Red Sox, Papelbon held his nerve and Jones grounded out to hand Sox the victory. With just one game left each, both teams had identical records of 90-71.
Game 3: It took 12 innings to separate Yankees and Rays in Game 3. Yankees should have had the game wrapped up way before then, and it looked for all the world like they had. A 4-run 2nd innings contributed to a 7-0 advantage which should have been held on to. But Rays kept fighting and their reward came in the 8th innings. With Damon on 3rd, Zobrist on 2nd and Kotchman on 1st, Sam Fuld walked to give Rays their first score. Then the next batter, Sean Rodriguez, was hit by a wild pitch so that resulted in another run and still bases were loaded with 0 outs. Jennings struck out next, but Upton took one for the team as he hit a sacrifice fly to send Kotchman home from 3rd and make the score 7-3. Evan Longoria was up next. He smashed a 3-run homer on his first ball to well and truly bring Tampa back in to the match at 7-6. Yankees failed to score in the 9th, and Dan Johnson tied it up at 7 with a solo homer. This game paralelled Rays' season. Down by a lot early on, they rallied and rallied and went on to nick it at the death. Longoria secured his second homer of the night with a line drive that just missed the foul zone and give Tampa an incredible victory. Chaos ensued as earlier on in the game the Red Sox loss had popped up on the screen, which meant that Rays victory ensured a post season place without an extra playoff game against Boston.
Boston started OK in their game, and found themselves 3-2 up at the 5th, and that was the way it stayed. Until innnings 9. Sox failed to score, meaning they had to hold on to a narrow lead to either qualify outright or force a playoff game. They thought they had done enough. But they hadn't. Orioles hadn't read the script and scored twice in the bottom of the 9th to win 4-3. The first score came when Reimold doubled to allow Hudson (who was pinch running for Chris Davies) to score, and then the next batter Andino hit a single to the left which brought home Reimold. The thing with Andino's RBI was that it should have been caught. Crawford almost had it in his glove then it dropped down as he opened the mitt. His panicky throw was well short which allowed Reimold to slide home.
So that's how the Wild Card races shaped up. I'll probably do another post about the ALDS, NLDS, ALCS and NLCS before the World Series.
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