I said that the baseball playoffs were random (just ask Billy Beane), and the randomness started today. The Yankees, coming off an easy win in Game 1, looked likely to take control of the series as they were up against Max Scherzer -- a fairly ordinary (15-9, 4.43 ERA) starter for Detroit. But Scherzer gave up no runs and only 2 hits through six innings, and although the Yankees made a game of it with two runs in the ninth, the Tigers hung on for a 5-3 victory. Then, up in Philadelphia, the Phillies jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings, and they had Cliff Lee (17-8, 2.4 ERA) on the mound to protect that lead. It looked like another sure win for the Phils, but the Cardinals fought back with three runs in the 4th, another in the 6th, and another in the 7th to upset Philadelphia (and Lee) 5-4 and tie that series.
So now the two best teams in baseball -- the Yankees and the Phillies -- have to win one of their next two games on the road in order to save their season. It's not fair and it doesn't make sense, but that's baseball.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee cruised to another win over Arizona by 9-4. I still don't know how Arizona made the playoffs.
National League Divisional Series (Best of 5):
Philadelphia and St. Louis are tied 1-1
Milwaukee leads Arizona 2-0
American League Divisional Series (Best of 5):
New York and Detroit are tied 1-1
Texas and Tampa Bay are tied 1-1
I personally feel that baseball fans, by and large, have always done about as good of a job as one could expect them to to respect those teams that were dominant regular season after regular season but failed to win multiple championships. The late '80s A's and '90s Braves, for example, get a fair amount of love.
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