Well, Now We Know

And frankly, once the Indians lost Game 5, I wasn't too surprised. They had a chance to close it out at home with their ace on the mound, and choked, then went to Fenway and lost again with their other ace on the mound, and neither of them impressed at all. You just kind of knew the Sox were going to win tonight, no matter how much you hoped otherwise, and well, they did. The Boston Yankees, I should say. Arrogant fans, arrogant jerkwad players, buying up everything they need, no longer the lovable underdog, they're just the Evil Empire redux. May they be pwninated in four.

I'm sure everyone and his brother will pick the Sox in four or five. Hell, I hope they pick the Sox in "three" -- we know how well that worked for the Tigers last year. Because they're the big, bad, AL, because ESPN loves that one of their media juggernauts made it, because they have Josh Freakin' Beckett. Well, anybody bother to check the stats? Seems to me we outscored the Sawx 20-5 at Fenway in June, put a world of hurt on Schilling and Beckett, and took two out of three. See, we've been playing well since BEFORE September.

A few reasons the Rockies are going to rock the Sox:

-- Since May 22, we've had baseball's best record at 79-45; we just had to turn on the afterburners for that final hump into September.

-- We were 21-12 against the AL the past two seasons, a .636 winning percentage, and that was before we were razing everything in our path.

-- The Red Sox play in the AL, sure. They also play in the East. I bet we could have won 96 games if we got to face the Blue Jays, Devil Rays, and Orioles (the first one mediocre, the latter two totally inept) 50 or 60 times a year.

-- The Rockies have lost exactly one game since the middle of September. Why are we going to lose four in a week and a half?

-- We have better speed and defense.

-- The Red Sox aren't equipped to play at Coors. Manny in the cavernous left field? Ortiz at first base? Wakefield's knuckler isn't going to break in the thin air, and Dice-K will be thrown off by pitching at altitude. Let's not tell him about the humidor.

The one problem: the hitting. We have a .242 average in the postseason and we're going to need to turn it on against the Beantown Bombers. Hopefully, the pitching can continue the trend of damping the fuse against high-octane offenses, but the hitting is going to need to bring the sticks. But all year, and especially in October, they've found a way to get it done, however and whenever. National League Champion Rockies sounds surreal enough, but it's not the final stop for the Purple Express. I expect they'll drop the first one against Beckett (but then again, who knows?) then turn on the jets, rip off four, and win the damn thing at home in a game that Denver will always remember.

Rockies in five.

Playoffs, Day 7: Green and Gold Train Derailed

Not that it was ever really on the tracks for the ALCS. The Kats just flat outplayed them. Hitting, pitching, defense, and fire, the Tigers played like world champions and the A's...well...didn't. I'm not as upset as I thought I might be, because after watching the travesty of a Game 1, I was really irritated and thought, "If they win the next game, they have a chance. If they don't, they're done." That proved to be the case and saved me from probably severe emotional trauma. So they're done for the season now, and I have to wait until 2007 for them to play meaningful games again.

The Cards, meanwhile, are deviously going about surprising people. After a pathetic showing Game 1, they rebounded by winning Games 2 and 3, one on a clutch homer by So Taguchi and one on a brilliant effort from Jeff Suppan. They are making an actual series out of what many people predicted would be a Mets sweep. Anthony Reyes goes against Oliver Perez today with a chance to bump the edge to 3-1. Let's hope that Good Reyes shows up - the one that shut out the White Sox for eight innings after the Pale Hose had scored an ungodly amount of runs against the Cards (33) in the past two games, and not the Reyes that allowed 7 runs in 2 innings against the Diamondbacks. Reyes is talented, but totally unpredictable.

As for Perez... that may be interesting. I actually like him, and have for a while, despite his mercurial nature and propensity to suck after a brilliant 2004 season, but I hope the Cardinals pummel him. I really want at least one of my teams to do the deed. Although, if it's a Cardinals/Tigers World Series... cats eat birds, you know. Erp.

Might post some other stuff later.

Playoffs, Day 4: Screw Adam (Yes Please!) I Want To Marry Marco!

Amazing. Simply amazing. The Miracle A's hopped on the "If The Fucking Red Sox Can Win The World Series, I Want To As Well!" wagon! And while they haven't made it to the WS yet, they have a chance if they make it through their next destination - the American League Championship Series.

It feel SO GOOD to write that.

Either my mortal fear of the Twinks was unwarranted, or this Athletics ballclub is scenting victory and wants it desperately. They steamrolled the Twins today, 8-3, in a game that was much closer than it looked - until the bottom of the seventh.

Quick digression. I swore that I couldn't watch the game at all. Around the bottom of the fourth inning (as it turned out) I snuck over to AN (Athletics Nation) to see if the general consensus was good, bad, what have you. It was good, so I opened Gameday and watched the A's bat. It was too stressful to watch the Twins bat, so I turned it off. Came back a little later, watched the A's bat, turned it off again, rocked back and forth neurotically.

Top of the seventh, 4-2 A's, I couldn't take it. I walked up and down my hallway, too nervous to breathe, shaking wildly and scared to death. Then I said to myself, "Hilary. You love this team. Get your ass to the computer and find out what's going on."

Then, in the bottom of the inning, with two outs, none on, and the A's frantically nursing their lead and putting their hopes in the hands of elite setup man Justin Duchscherer (who is truly amazing) the Twinks made the bad decision to intentionally walk Frank Thomas. That brought up Eric Chavez, who'd been having a great game, and he walked.

Pitching change. Jay Payton swings at the first pitch, as usual, but Justin Morneau, A's Killer, can't come up with it and the break comes in our direction instead. Nick Swisher takes a walk, but not before fouling a ball off his foot in a scene scarily reminiscent of Jermaine Dye breaking his leg in one of the A's previous failed ALDS attempts. He's all right, takes ball 4, and forces in a run to make it 5-2.

This brings up Oakland's magical little man, Marco Scutaro, who had already been having a great series. The electricity in the Coliseum is amazing. The entire place is chanting "MARCO! SCUTARO!" at the top of their lungs, but after the fourth pitch, they can't go on. They're screaming too hard. Marco lines a double into the rightfield corner and everybody scores.

I was watching it on Gameday. I was absolutely stunned. I teared up and then I started to cry, sitting at my computer, completely overcome with shock and euphoria. I sobbed, blew my nose, wiped my eyes, delirious and disbelieving.

When Morneau cranked a home run in the top of the eighth, it was just like, "Whatever, Justin, if it makes you feel better." The ninth came along, Huston got a runner on, then a DP, then another runner, then a pop-out, and the deal was done.

The Oakland Athletics are going to the American League Championship Series.

HALLELUJAH!

I can't decide if I want them to face the Tiggers or the Crank Yankers. If it was the Tiggers, the A's would have homefield, since the Kitties were the wild card and therefore don't get homefield advantage. If it was the Yanks... a) I could walk around NY in my A's gear and annoy all the rapper-hat-wearing faux-NY fans, and that would be fun, and b) an A's/Yanks series would be classic. However, I may need to pull for the Kitties. Just to make sure that A-Rod doesn't accidentally get a ring.

Monsieur Rodriguez's line for the postseason: AB: 10. BA: .100. HR: 0. RBI: o. OPS: .200.

HAHAHAHAHAHA! And he's batting cleanup!

I'm too happy to care about anything else.