Post time
Welcome to October.
Sorry, “Soxtober.”
Or…wait, “Rocktober?”
There’s still some business to be sorted out, of course, in the cavernous thin air of LoDo Denver, where the Padres and Rockies will battle it out tonight for NL wild card, but baseball’s playoffs are indeed upon us on this Yahoo …sorry, Rally Monday, an afternoon presented by Major League Baseball for “alternative” hats across the country.
A salute to the 1967 Red Sox? How novel.
As dozens of fans line City Hall Plaza this afternoon for a forced party (and give the Yankees some credit, they seem to be laying off the whole thing), they’ll still be playing baseball two time zones to the left, as the rolling Rockies and Lynn boy Josh Fogg hope to complete an improbable comeback against the San Diego Padres and probable Cy Young winner Jake Peavy. If they win, it will be veteran Todd Helton’s first trip ever to the postseason.
Funny how it all works out. Helton doesn’t get traded to Boston in the offseason. Mike Lowell, who would have gone to the Rockies, has an MVP-caliber season for the Red Sox, and now they both might be in the playoffs anyhow.
At some point today we might finally have some inkling as to when they’re going to play these games, but our guess is a pair of twilight starts in Boston later this week.
Wednesday’s TBS schedule lists game times at 1:30, 5, and 8:30 p.m. If we assume that the Cubs and Diamondbacks would likely get the late start playing in Arizona, with the Phillies and the winner of tonight’s play-in grabbing the early game, that leaves the 5 p.m. opening ready for Boston (again, just a guess). On Friday, TBS has games at 5 and 8:30, with the Yankees and Indians more than likely to get the prime time slot leaving Boston-Los Angeles at 5 once again.
Ted Robinson and Steve Stone will call the Red Sox games for TBS.
Uh, Ted Robinson and Steve Stone, everybody.
(Look, it’s not anyone named Berman, Morgan, or McCarver, OK? Little appreciation please.)
Tonight it will be NESN’s Don Orsillo (or Orsilla, according to USA Today) and Joe Simpson calling Rockies-Padres. That team will get the winner of that series vs. the Phillies starting on Wednesday as well.
If the Rockies (71-46 since May 22) can pull it out this evening, it will be only the second postseason appearance in franchise history, first since 1995, which happens to be the last time the Red Sox won the AL East prior to Friday night’s blowout bubbly celebration. And just like in ’95, there will be a one-game playoff to determine who goes and who stays home. Back then, it was the Angels who suffered a historic collapse down the stretch to award the Mariners the AL West. This year it was the Mets, who blew the NL East in amazing fashion, looking visually defeated with every swing they took, emotionally beaten with every pitch they threw.
And yet for some reason, unlike in ’95, I don’t think Boston’s 3-4 hitters are going to put up a collective 0-fer in the ALDS.
As solid as the Angels are, there are plenty of questions surrounding them as they prepare to fly east to take on the Red Sox. And first and foremost is their uncanny ability to play just downright awfully at Fenway, where they are just 14-22 since 2000. The Orange County Halos have never beaten the Red Sox in a playoff series, losing in dramatic fashion in 1986, and swept in 2004.
The Yankees and Indians will get going Thursday with a pair of 19-game winners, C.C. Sabathia and Chien-Ming Wang, going head-to-head at Jacobs Field. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona give Cleveland a dynamic 1-2 punch, but it remains to be seen how their playoff pedigree turns out. While the Yankees haven’t won a playoff series since their ’04 ALDS matchup with the Twins, it’s hard to believe it has been nine years since the Indians — at one time an October staple — have won one. They haven’t been to the playoffs since 2001.
Yes, the 1-2 punch worked wonders for Arizona in ’01 and the Red Sox in ’04, but those teams also had tested veterans with playoff experience, something the Indians are lacking to a certain degree. Plus, there are lingering concerns about the Indians rotation going up against the slugging Yankees. Cleveland runs into New York having lost every one of its six meetings with the Yanks this season. Sabathia didn’t face the Yankees in ’07, but is an alarming 1-7 with a 7.13 ERA against them in his career. Carmona, who won his last five starts of the year, was 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA against New York in a pair of outings.
The Yankees out-hit the Indians, .348 to .228 and outscored them, 47-17. Indians pitchers had an 8.19 ERA vs. New York this season.
Like it or not, get ready for another Red Sox-Yankees ALCS. Red Sox in three. Yankees in four.
In the NL, we’re riding the Rockies train. Colorado wins tonight then gets past the Phillies in five. Even though it would mean Fox obsessing us with curse talk for three more weeks, would anything be better or more fun than a Cubs-Red Sox World Series? You’d better believe that’s the big market matchup the TV suits are rooting for. Cubs sneak past the Diamondbacks in five.
It all starts tonight with the first one-game playoff since 1999. Oh yeah, and some football game too.
