As a SF Giants fan, all I can say is - Wait 'til next (even) year ...
Posted on 10/07/2015 5:39:35 AM PDT by Artemis Webb
NEW YORK (AP) -- A year ago, no one could've pictured this. Yet here they were, Dallas Keuchel and the Houston Astros, soaking in champagne, merrily posing for a victory shot on the mound at Yankee Stadium.
After all that losing, this was one October win to remember.
Pitching on three days' rest for the first time in his career, Keuchel baffled New York for six innings of three-hit ball. Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez homered, and the Astros beat the Yankees 3-0 Tuesday night in the American League wild-card game.
"Nobody really gave us anything at the start of the year. And I don't think anybody gave us a shot at the end of the year," said Keuchel, the AL's only 20-game winner.
The orange-clad Astros, who secured their spot in this winner-take-all game on the last day of the regular season, advanced to the Division Series against the defending AL champion Royals starting Thursday night in Kansas City.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Red Sox fans are glad it was only one game rather than three, maybe. Other than maybe some who may fondly remember Yogi Berra, we know how RS fans feel about the pinstripes. Sweet. I’m from New England and am a Sox fan but kinda fell in love with the city of Pittsburgh in recent years, visit there twice a year and see Pirate games, so I’m cheering for them too.
But tonight they’re playing the 1908 World Champions, and the Cubs winning and perhaps going all the way would be interesting too. “But you, the living, you’re stuck with the Cubs, so it’s me that feels sorry for you”—Steve Goodman, “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request”. Goodman also notes “The last time the Cubs won a National League pennant was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan”.
Steve Bartman...2003. Had it not been for him, some say, and for Red Sox manager Grady Little, the ‘03 WS could have been Red Sox v. Cubs. (Stephen King once imagined—pre Red Sox WS wins—a WS of Red Sox v. Cubs. “Each of them would win three games. And then the world would end.”) Instead, the Marlins feat. future Red Sox Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett beat the Yankees.
So tonight the Northsiders of Chicago face the Northsiders of Pittsburgh. (Trivia: who was the first major league baseball team to play its home games in Oakland? Answer, the Pirates. I didn’t say which Oakland.
Forbes Field was in the Oakland section of the Steel City. Yinz ‘burghers knew that one...)
Toronto Blue Jays—last playoff game was the final one of the 1993 world series. Joe Carter HR to beat Phillies, right? The previous year they beat the Braves and it ended on a groundout... IIRC.
KC Royals—will face Astros. Winners in recent years.
Texas Rangers—will play Tor.
NY Mets—meet the Mets, greet the Mets; even though they beat Red Sox in ‘86, still kinda like them because doing so ticks off Yankee fans.
St. Louis—I believe tonight’s winner faces the Cards, pretty successful last decade.
Yinzers v. Cubbies—see above. Will the Pirates raise the Jolly Roger?
L.A. Dodgers—only team west coast team in playoffs
2013. Wiki: “The Astros played in the NL from 1962–2012. They played in the West division from 1969–1993, and the Central division from 1994–2012.” I think 94 may have been when Central Div. in each league was established, right?
Pirates moved from NL East to NL Central.
Meanwhile, “In 1998, the [Milw.] Brewers changed leagues, going from the American League to the National League.”
Congrats to the Astros. However, I would have been a lot happier if it were the Angels instead.
A-Roid was playing and at least twice managed to kill a rally.(One was being caught looking.)
Trout and Pujols and the Angels are watching the post season from home. There’s something wrong there.
So last year the Astros were next to last in their division, and the only team that kept them from the cellar was the Rangers. Now the two are one and two in their division. Are they that improved? Or that lucky?
Baseball commissioner was discussing that possibility this week. One of the arguments against it is that it forces the division winners into a one week layoff...which is not always a good thing. Also, the chance of bad weather is greater in the fall...if there’s a rain out, or two...then the next series gets delayed..or the WC winner has to play the next day...also..with a best of three series..and the good chance you can have teams on both coasts in the WC..then that’s a tough travel schedule...
Girardi is not the problem. Top of the order didn’t hit (or steal) after the all star break. None of the big money players 3-5 in the order hit for average. Beltran decent but the others not. Ellsbury doesn’t hit left handers as well as Young and he was in a slump. He pinch hit him and he popped out. Team was built to hit home runs in Yankee stadium and didn’t come through. Besides 2009 the Yankee post season has been much the same. Their big hitters fold when they see really good pitching, and recently the Yankees haven’t had really good pitching themselves. And I’m the husband of a rabid Yankee fan.
In hind sight they should have kept Russel Martin, signed Donaldson and/or Tuolowitski to keep them from the Blue Jays. Getting Price would have been good enough alone to win the division. But then that’s baseball.
Trout and Pujols and the Angels are watching the post season from home. There’s something wrong there
Indeed, especially given the mammoth payroll of the Angels dwarfs the Astros. And a rookie manager taking a team of less than well known players to the playoffs while a veteran manager and his star studded lineup fails to even qualify for a second wildcard position while playing for the weakest division in MLB.
Must be all that golf the owner did with Obama...
Ah...things like that do my cynical old heart good. :)
You must not have been following the Yankees this season. They looked awful down the stretch, especially at the plate. I don't think any of the baseball pundits here in New York thought they had a chance against Houston with Keuchel on the mound.
It was actually a very good season for the Yankees. Last spring, the consensus here was that they wouldn't even be a .500 team.
That wouldn’t, by any chance, be Al Smith watching Charlie Neal’s homer in the 1959 World Series, would it?
Toronto has a dome :)
If I was a baseball GM I would never sign a free agent position player who didn't average at least 155 games over his career. Between Texeira and Ellsbury, it's ridiculous how much money the Yankees are paying to injury-prone players.
Guilty.
I don't follow the AL much. When I found out Toronto was in the post season I was blindsided.
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