Baseball's best-of-five Division Series -- the mini-playoffs, if you will -- are over (and rather quickly, with three sweeps and a four-gamer). Now it gets serious. The National League Championship Series starts in less than 20 hours, and the American League series gets under way a day later. I correctly predicted three of the four participants. Let's see if I can get both of these right...
AL: New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Angels -- I keep going back and forth. The Yankees have the best closer, which is important, but I think the Angels might have better pitching overall. The media will hype up the Yankees, and Alex Rodriguez in particular, but I'm still not convinced. The Minnesota Twins barely showed up for the ALDS after scratching and clawing their way into the playoffs. The Angels took care of Boston, and I think they'll take care of the other AL East team. Angels in 6.
NL: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Phillies -- Here we go again. For the second year in a row the Dodgers swept the highly-touted NL Central champs, while the Phillies took out the Wild Card team in four games. Some circumstances are different. For one, the Dodgers have home-field advantage. Needless to say, it probably comes down to the Phillies' bullpen. Does Brad Lidge's two saves in those two terrific wins in Denver mean he's back? No one can say that and really, truly believe it. With Pedro Martinez starting Game 2, J.A. Happ is back in the bullpen and Chan Ho Park is on the NLCS roster (replacing Brett Myers, who isn't happy about it). I'm going to stick with what I said about the last round: I'm giving the defending champs the benefit of the doubt. Phillies in 7.
3 comments:
odd picks. yanks are set to pitch sabathia and burnett in 5 of 7 games if it goes that long, and if there's a game 7 it'll be in ny. i don't think there will be, though - yankees in 6. the dodgers are the 4th best team in baseball after the yankees, angels and red sox, and they should handle philly's triple a bullpen - doders in 5.
And who are the Red Sox playing this weekend?
Angels/Phillies WS I can handle; Yankees/Dodgers, sure, that'd be fun. But Phillies/Yankees? I love both teams but would love the Phillies to repeat just so the effin Red Sox won't be the only team to win twice this decade.
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