MLB 2011!!

[Imran Siddiqui]

And the Giants go up 2 games to 1 on a masterful Cain pitching performance, and Texas is up 3 games to 1 on the Yankees! Could it be a Giants-Rangers World Series (and how many will watch)?!

[SlowwHand]

I heard an interesting stat this morning... the Yankees have been down 2 - 1 games 11 times in the past for post season play... and they've won 8 of those series. I wouldn't count the Yankees out yet, but the Rangers are sure playing better than most of the talking heads expected

Best moment of the game. Molina hitting a homer and A-Rod just crouched over, not wanting to look. He knew.
I don't doubt your stats, but this time, "It's time" ~ Nolan.

[Arrian]

Girardi messed up. IBBs are often bad ideas. He either needed to bring in Logan to pitch to Murphy or, if he just HAD to do the IBB thing, fine, but bring in a reliever. Burnett was done, and it was obvious. Nearly throwing the ball away while walking Murphy should have hammered that home.

That said, the offense had the opportunity to blow the game open early and failed. Hunter was on the ropes, but they couldn't get the big hit.

Now they're down 3-1 and Tex is hurt. It's certainly not impossible, but it's not a good place to be. At least today's game starts at 4pm. I'll be able to catch up on some sleep, win or lose.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

Indeed. Underrated guy. Though has also never pitched more than 128 innings in a season, which does bode in his favor this postseason, but makes it interesting to see what he'll do next year with likely close to 200 innings.

It all depends, really, on how much you buy into FIP. If you go solely by ERA, Hunter looks pretty good. His underlying stats strongly suggest he's been very hit-lucky this season (some of which is probably due to good D behind him, but some of it's just plain 'ole chance). He lasted what, 3 innings last night?

I'm not saying he's terrible by any means. But I'd be surprised if his ERA next season isn't significantly higher. Hey, if he's your 4th stater, that's probably just fine.

The big question, for me, would be CJ Wilson. I'm really, really impressed with what they've gotten from him. The guy was a short reliever. What he has done this year is amazing. Can he sustain it?

Lewis... I guess something just clicked over there in Japan?

All in all, the Rangers managed to find some real diamonds in the rough, pitching-wise. It stands in start contrast to Burnett and Vazguez (wtf, Javy? WTF?).

-Arrian

[SandMonkey]

And the Giants go up 2 games to 1 on a masterful Cain pitching performance, and Texas is up 3 games to 1 on the Yankees! Could it be a Giants-Rangers World Series (and how many will watch)?!

Take this with a grain of salt (I'm a Phillies fan) but I was talking about the same exact thing with a bunch of coworkers that are Yankees fans. Other than tuning in to watch Lee against Lincecum, who would want to watch that series?

That's assuming of course that a Phillies-Rangers series would be any more interesting.

[-Jrabbit]

I would LOVE to see a Texas-SF World Series. More likely to watch a pair of underdogs than any other combo of teams.

But I'm different that way.

[OzzyKP]

Same here.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yankees fight to prevent getting eliminated and the Giants push the Phillies to the brink with a 9th inning sac fly!

Great stuff!

[SlowwHand]

The Rangers really need to win Friday so that Cliff Lee isn't needed until the World Series. Then he can do 2 games easily.

[-Jrabbit]

Great game tonight.

[Arrian]

The offense shows signs of life. CC wasn't very good, but got through it. Yay win.

Ok, so now it's Hughes vs. Lewis in Arlington again. If they manage to win that, Lee looms. At this point, I'm pleased they pushed the series back to Texas. More would be gravy.

-Arrian

[SlowwHand]

Something like an extra 80 million for each game.

[SlowwHand]

The Ranger players don't care squat about the extra money generated. Need 4 more games.

[OzzyKP]

[SlowwHand]

They outscored the Yankees 2-1 over the series. Every time they walked a Ranger batter, it turned out to be the wrong thing to do. You can only walk so many. Give away so many bases.
Yankee management goes by stats. Ron Washington goes by gut feeling. I like that approach. I know some won't agree, and that's fine.