Road to the Ship: Day 4

Vincente Padilla pitched 7 shutout innings last night to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals right out of the NLDS....Not bad for a man who was not only pitching in his 1st ever playoff start, but also unemployed in August....

Sadly, this series was over when Matt Holliday dropped the ball in left field Thursday Night...It was nice to see the fans give Holliday a nice ovation when he came up to bat...Cards fans have to be the absolute best as far as class and passion in all of baseball....

The Dodgers held the mighty Albert Pujols to just one measly RBI in the 8th inning of a 5-0 game...the Cards also left over 30 men on base in three games...

Andre Ethier was a beast in this series with 2 HR and ya gotta love how Furcal ALWAYS shows up when it matters...both of these guys hit .500 in the NLDS....Bottom Line...this team is STACKED...they have over 7 starters that they can throw out there to start and succeed...I may have been flawed with my World Series pick, but I think it's a safe bet to say that the Dodgers have gotta be early favorites to become the NL Champs!

Road to the ship: Day 3

Wow...is it me or does it just seem like that it is the Yanks' destiny to make their 40th appearance in the fall classic?

The walk-off warrior of last night was Mark Teixeira who rocketed sent a Jose Mijares delivery off the top of the left field wall...

After only one rbi in 16 previous postseason games coming into this series, A-Rod is putting his woes behind him in a very big way with 3 more RBI's last night...including a 2- run blast off one of the game's premier closers to tie the game at 3 in the Bottom of the ninth....that's right A-ROD hit a bomb in the ninth of a big postseason game!....I could just tell Nathan didn't have it last night...how rediculous were those facial expressions of his?...he also nearly blew it in the tenth by airmailing a throw to second on a pickoff attempt...Jose Mijares came in to force a double play and save Nathan from a miserable night....only to blow it himself

Speaking of blowing calls, Phil Cuzzi may have made the WORST call I have ever seen in a big time game...The ball hit by Joe Mauer down the left field line hit off of Melky Cabrera's glove and fell to the ground...the ball was called foul, but the ball landed in fair territory by a good foot or so!!! Mauer ended up hitting a single, but that would have been a double for sure...Kubel followed Mauer with a single and then Cuddyer follwed him with another hit...now nobody knows what really would have happened if Mauer got the call, but we may have been talking about a series tied 1-1..

The Twins also failed to help themselves in the 4th when Gomez made a horrible baserunning blunder and Swish threw to Jeter for the out before Delmon Young could score...The Twinkies had several missed chances, but in the end, the Yanks did it with timely hitting and a solid effort from the bullpen...Mo, Aceves and Robertson saved the game last night..The Yanks are scary deep in the bullpen...A.J looked decent tonight with only a run on three hits in 6 innings, but he did have 5 walks and often put himself into jams....

Now it back to the Baggydome for Game 3 Sunday night where Andy Pettite will take on former Yankee great, Carl Pavano (note the sarcasm on that one)....from what we have seen in the past 3 weeks or so, the Twins will surely not go down quietly...They are definitely going to need some of that Metrodome magic...and maybe even a Metrodome Miracle to even make it back to New York for a possible game 5...

The Red Sox are 100% dead in the water...Jared Weaver followed the steps of John Lackey and tossed another seven innings of beauty...the Sox offense has been simply non-existent; managing just one run in the first two games of this series. If the Sox can throw Josh Beckett out there and still not manage to win a game....they're screwed

Road to the Ship: Day 2

I think it’s now officially safe to say that Cole Hamels is a shadow of the pitcher he was just one short year ago….Cole only managed to make it through five innings and gave up four runs; including a 2 run shot to a man who hasn’t gone yard since the 6th of May! He didn’t even stick around after he was pulled because his wife was in labor. Did it have anything to do with his subpar start? The event may have been on his mind, but it doesn’t make up for how poorly he’s pitched this year…












At least the Philthies have a red-hot Raul Ibanez, who already has 4 ribbies in the first 2 games…The Philthies got some momentum going after Jason Giambi and his foo-man-choo on roids’ struck out with the bases loaded and Jayson Werth blast. However, it wasn’t enough to get past Huston Street….It’s looking like Pedro’s gonna get the nod in what could be a snowy game 3…where was his ass in 2006? Regardless, dress warm….and maybe break out the sleds…I got Hammel and the Rocks taking game 3










In 63 games with St. Louis, Matt Holliday only made 1 error…In his last 21 games, he had not homered…2 streaks were snapped..While Holliday managed to go deep, he also managed to take a line drive into his gut that may have very well cost me my shot of calling the World Series winner this season…









After the botch that occurred with 2 outs in the 9th, the flood gates opened and the Dodgers capped off a 2-run bottom of the 9th with a Mark Loretta walk-off RBI single..his first career hit off of closer Ryan Franklin in 16 at-bats..It’s not all Matt Holliday’s fault seeing as how Franklin gave up 2 more walks and 2 rbi singles, but there is no excuse for that ball not being caught!! If that ball’s caught now it’s 1-1…now you’re facing elimination!









As predicted, Wainwright threw a gem by only giving up a run on 3 hits along with 7 punchouts in 8 innings of work…21 yr old Clayton Kershaw also pitched 6 2/3 strong innings….In the post-game Wainwright blamed the miss on the mass of white towels because it made it hard to see the ball….weird…nobody else seemed to have a problem catching the ball today… I felt going into this series that whoever won this NLDS matchup would be representing the NL in the World Series....presently, the Dodgers are looking like a pretty sexy pick....If L.A can sweep St. Louie, the Dodgers will have eliminated the N.L Central powerhouse for the second year in a row, last year being the Cubs…If you can’t find a way to win with Carpenter and Wainwright throwing…your done!









It took them 6 tries, but the Halos finally won a game 1 in the ALDS! Their 5-0 victory over the Sawx looked incredibly convincing and they, without a shadow of a doubt look like the better team out of the two…John Lackey hurled a gem...are you paying attention Mets' brass? If watching the reaction by Torii Hunter after he hit that 3-run shot failed to get you jacked up, you may not have a pulse…This team wants it and wants it in a big way..






The Sox counter, in game 2, with the Ace of the staff in Josh Beckett…When his team is down in the playoffs, his record is 3-0 with a miniscule e.r.a of 1.23…definitely the man you want on the mound in game 2…Like the cheerleaders say…if he can’t do it…nobody can…and the Sawx will be seein the brooms!






In an interesting move, Yankee mainstay Jorge Posada will be watching game 2 from the pine as Girardi has decided to go with Jose Molina as the battery mate to game 2 starter A.J Burnett…






When Molina has been the catcher, A.J has given up 2 less runs per game than he does with Posada, who was having difficulty catching fastballs the other night.. However, it’s absurd to think of starting a big playoff game without Posada as the go-to guy behind the dish. Jorge's bat can easily be lost in the Yanks' nasty lineup, but his leadership will be sorely missed on that field tonight. One would think that since A.J has never pitched in the playoffs that he would want to put his ego aside and have a seasoned postseason pro, such as Posada guide him through it...



I personally don’t expect him to have a good start tonight against a Twins team that was fianlly able to take a day off! Twins game 2 starter, Nick Blackburn, has looked filthy in his last 2 starts…starts that were make or break for the Twinkies’ playoff hopes…similar to tonight's clash in the Bronx….Twins in game 2