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October 10, 2006
Bring on the LCS
Pair of AL darkhorses meet while NL chalk advances
While the Oakland Athletics looked most impressive in any of the divisional series, the Detroit Tigers made the loudest statement. Detroit, a team that held baseball’s best record for most of the season, ousted the World Series favorite Yankees in four games. Despite dropping Game 1 convincingly, the Tigers rallied around their skipper Jim Leyland like they have all year and split in the Bronx. They then returned to Motown and schooled the New York bats to show what October baseball is all about: Starting pitching.
The A’s will host the 2006 ALCS, scheduled to start on Tuesday night. This matchup will showcase the best two starting remaining rotations in baseball. The Tigers held the majors’ top mark for team ERA all year, but it is the up-and-coming young arms in Oakland that make this series very intriguing. The ‘Gambler’ Kenny Rogers, who is coming off quite possibly his single-most important performance ever, leads this unit along with 23-year old Jeremy Bonderman. Oddly enough, Bonderman started his career in Oakland but came over in a three-way trade when the Yankees acquired Jeff Weaver several years back. Like in Game 1 against New York, Nate Robertson will take the mound for Detroit in the opener.
For Oakland, Barry Zito is the staff ace. He masterfully outdueled the AL’s likely Cy Young winner Johan Santana in Game 1 of the ALDS and will get the nod in Tuesday’s opener. Oakland also has veteran arm Esteban Loaiza and 26-year-old Dan Haren. The wild card for Oakland is Rich Harden, who will be making his first ’06 postseason start likely in Game 4. This young power pitcher hasn’t pitched much this year, but arrived on the scene during the past couple of years with impressive stuff.
The National League Championship Series has the two teams most thought would be here at the beginning of the year. However, with the Mets’ pitching injuries to start its divisional series against Los Angeles, and St. Louis’ end to the regular season, most assumed that these two favorites would be gone by this point.
It was the bullpen of the Mets and the bat of Albert Pujols that carried their teams through to this point. As a whole, New York allowed just 11 earned runs against the Dodgers with a supreme effort from its entire group of arms. Along with last year’s Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter, the Cardinals survived San Diego with some clutch hitting by its star first baseman. Pujols’ home run in Game 1 put them in the scoring column to open the game, and in Game 2 his RBI single helped to solidify both games on the road. Carpenter won both of his starts and put W’s in the books for both the opener and the series clincher.
The Mets have home-field advantage, however they will need better outings from starters other than Tom Glavine against a rejuvenated Cardinals club that has found new life since struggling late in the regular season. The Padres made the mistake of giving Pujols too much to hit and that cost them dearly.
If New York can pitch more wisely, its offense should be able to outslug St. Louis. With Carpenter having pitched on Sunday, Jeff Weaver will take the ball for the Cards in Game 1 against Glavine. Both pitched extremely well in their first playoff starts this year and will need to do so again to give their teams a chance to take the important first game of this seven-game series.
25018 - Copyright 2006, BetJamaica.com, The Player's Paradise
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