Major League Baseball Playoffs Recap

Twenty-seven games ago, 8 teams kicked off baseball’s second season.

The Division playoffs promised to be hard fought and exciting, but that promise certainly wasn’t kept.

The Milwaukee Brewers entered the playoffs on the back of CC Sabathia and were ready to take on the Philadelphia Phillies.

Cole Hamels proved to be the ace of the series with a gem in Game 1. Hamels pitched 8 innings and allowed only 2 hits while striking out 9 batters. He didn’t allow a run.

Sabathia was roughed up in Game 2, possibly due to the amount of pitches he threw in the last week of the regular season. He was pulled in the 4^th inning after surrendering 6 hits, 5 runs and 4 walks.

The Phillies went on the win the series, 4-1.

In the other National League series, the Chicago Cubs were set to play host to Manny and the Dodgers in what was supposed to be the least exciting of the 4 series.

It certainly wasn’t exciting, if you’re a Cubs fan.

Ryan Dempster, Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden were lit up during the Dodgers sweep. Chicago was embarrassed at home and were outscored 20-6 for the series.

On the American League side, the Tampa Bay Rays cinderella story wasn’t finished just yet as they welcomed the Chicago White Sox to Florida.

Ozzie was able to guide his boys into the postseason in grand fashion and the White Sox were poised to used their playoff experience to end the Rays season.

Someone forgot to tell the Rays about that plan. James Shields, Scott Kazmir and Andy Sonnanstine all picked up victories for Tampa Bay, while BJ Upton and Evan Longoria proved the offense as Tampa went on to finish off Chicago in 4 games.

The Los Angeles Angels hadn’t had anything to play for in close to a month, so they were happy to get started when the Boston Red Sox came to town.

Jon Lester proved to be too much for the Angels as he hurled 14 innings of shutout ball and led the Sox to 2 victories. This was probably the most exciting series of the first round, as Games 2, 3 and 4 were hard fought contests.

So the Championship round was set. The Philadelphia Phillies would face the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays would host their hated rivals from Boston.

In the Phillies-Dodgers series, it came down to Cole Hamels vs. Chad Billingsley. Hamels won the series MVP by notching 2 wins, going 14 innings and allowing just 3 runs. Billingsley on the other hand failed to escape the 3^rd inning in Games 1 and 5. He allowed 11 runs and the series was never in doubt. The Phillies are headed to the World Series courtesy of a 4-1 series win.

The American League Championship couldn’t have been much different.

In what was sure to be a series of emotional swings, Boston went into St. Petersburg and took Game 1 by shutting out the red hot Rays. Tampa battled back in Game 2 and won the game in extra innings. Boston still had the advantage, having split on the road, and now they were headed back to the friendly confines of Fenway Park.

The Rays showed the baseball world that they weren’t intimidated as they took Games 3 and 4 by a combined score of 22-5. They were well on their way to wrapping up the series when they led 7-0 after 6 innings in Game 5, but the Sox mounted one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history when they scored 8 runs over the next 3 innings to win 8-7.

The series swung back to Florida and Boston proceeded to win Game 6 and force the pivotal Game 7.

Tampa Bay wasn’t about to let the dream die on their home turf and rookie phenom David Price stole the show and earned the save by striking out 3 of 4 batters to close out the game.

So here we are…The Philadelphia Phillies will open up the World Series in Florida as they take on the Tampa Bay Rays.