MLB Playoffs: Day 12

The single best thing that can happen to a team in the post-season is to get a hot starting pitcher -- especially if it's a pitcher you don't normally expect to do well.

Doug Fister is a 27-year-old pitcher who has never done all that much. From 2009 until August of this year, he was a starter for the dreadful Seattle Mariners, and his record with them was 12-30. But his ERA was only 3.81, so it made sense for Detroit to pick him up at the trade deadline in the hopes that he could do better on a winning team. (Moneyball teaches that won-loss records are meaningless anyway.)

That may have been the most important deal of the year. Fister started 10 regular-season games for Detroit after they picked him up at the beginning of August. In those games he went 8-1 with an ERA of 1.79. He played a major role in Detroit's strong finish. In Game 1 of the LDS, the Yankees battered him pretty well, and it looked as though his Cinderella season was over. But Fister pitched five solid innings in game 5 to pick up the win in that game, and last night he gave up only two runs in 7 1/3 innings to carry the Tigers to a 5-3 victory that got them back into the series.

The NL had the day off, but they will return to action in St. Louis tonight.

National League Championship Series (Best of 7):
Milwaukee and St. Louis tied 1-1

American League Championship Series (Best of 7):
Texas leads Detroit 2-1