ALDS: Tampa Bay 1 - 5 Texas (Texas wins series 3-2)

If there were any Tampa Bay fans, they would undoubtedly be heartbroken -- and somewhat enraged -- over how their season ended. In many ways, Tampa Bay is a model franchise. Despite having virtually no fans, and a hideous domed stadium, the Rays built up a wonderful team of players that they developed themselves -- a team good enough to best the lordly Yankees and Red Sox to win the AL East (and the AL pennant) in 2008, and to win the AL East again in 2010. That team will be broken up after this year because the Rays have no money to resign their free agents. So this may have been their last shot for some time. And there is no doubt that the Rays were better than the Rangers. Although the Rays played in a much tougher division than Texas, they won six more games during the regular season. In a fair world, therefore, it would seem that Tampa Bay -- not Texas -- should have won this series.

But post-season baseball does not reward the best team over 162 games, or the best and most clever organization. It rewards great starting pitchers, and it ruthlessly punishes teams that make mistakes. Tonight Tampa Bay made serious mistakes. Once they allowed a run to score because their catcher made a throwing error on an attempted steal of third base. Twice the Tampa Bay pitcher, David Price, got distracted trying to make a put out at first and allowed Texas runners to score all the way from second. And Texas had a great starting pitcher. The last time we all saw Cliff Lee, he won the only two games taken by the Phillies in the 2009 World Series. The Phillies chose not to resign him, so he went off to Seattle to await the July trading deadline. When the time game, he was duly traded to the Rangers, who somehow beat out the Yankees to get his rights. And today he buried the Rays. Here was his line:

Innings pitched: 9

Hits: 6

Runs: 1

Earned runs: 1

Walks: 0

Strikeouts: 11

Lee also won game one of this series. Both times he went up against Tampa Bay's ace -- David Price -- a leading candidate for the Cy Young. Both times he won with ease. In the two games, he pitched 16 innings, walked no one, struck out 21 men, and had an ERA of 1.13. Viewed from that perspective, it seems clear that he, at least, deserved to advance to the next round.