The Minnesota Twins recently fired manager Ron Gardenhire and are now looking for their first manager since 1986. They had a disappointing season, going 70-92, and continuing the streak of four straight seasons without making the playoffs. They will need a new voice in the clubhouse and have many options out on the table.
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What a game. The Kansas City Royals will get to move on into the postseason and advance to the American League Division Series after defeating the Oakland Athletics 9-8 in 12 innings on Tuesday night. Now, they take on the AL's best Los Angeles Angels and they continue to fight in their first postseason birth since 1985. Here is my American League Division Series preview.
The Detroit Tigers over the Baltimore Orioles Max Scherzer. Justin Verlander. Rick Porcello. David Price. The amount of aces the Tigers have with postseason experience is astounding. Their pitching staff has been solid all season long, but has come to the right place, the postseason, where pitching staffs thrive. While Verlander may be a question mark, I always feel that he comes up big in big games, regardless of how tough of a season he had. On the offensive, the Tigers boast Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera, a one-two punch that is ridiculously hot right now. The Orioles aren't that lucky when it comes to a fantastic pitching staff. They have Chris Tillman going in game one, a guy who had a good year. However, I'd rather have any Tigers starter over him. We don't know who will start the rest of the series yet, but Ubaldo Jimenez, Kevin Gausman, Wei-Yin Chen, Bud Norris, or Miguel Gonzalez are their other starters. They do have a high flying offense, with the likes of Nelson Cruz (40 HR), but the Tigers staff could easily shut them down. Their offense appears to be their only hope right now. The Los Angeles Angels over the Kansas City Royals The Los Angeles Angels finished with the American League's best record, so they should get at least to the American League Championship Series. I'm very excited about seeing Mike Trout in the postseason, while Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton return to the big stage. The Angels attack is one of the most balanced, as a rotation with Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson, Matt Shoemaker, and Hector Santiago isn't too shabby either. Imagine if Garrett Richards wasn't hurt. As for the Royals, it looks like they will be falling into a whole in game one with Jason Vargas on the hill against Weaver. They won't get James Shields back to pitch until game two or three, so that is a real liability, especially if he cannot start a game five. The Royals showed an exceptional amount of resilience in the Wild Card game, so that may be able to push them past the Angels. But other than that, things look bleak for the team from Kansas City. --Devan F. If your name is Brandon and you play for the San Francisco Giants, then yesterday was a great day for you. Not only did the Brandon's team win its one-game Wild Card playoff to advance to the National League Division Series, but Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford combined for seven runs batted in. Edinson Volquez and Madison Bumgarner were shadowing each other through the first three innings, shutting down their opponent. In the top of the fourth, Brandon Crawford hit a deep fly ball to right field, appearing to be a sacrifice fly. It wasn't. The ball kept carrying, and before you knew it, Crawford was circling the bases, providing the Giants a 4-0 lead. Crawford became the first shortstop in major league history to hit a grand slam in the postseason. That 4-0 lead was what all Madison Bumgarner needed. He looked locked in from the start, and while his composure definitely got better throughout the game, so did he. Bumgarner gave the Giants bullpen a day of rest. He tossed a complete game shutout, allowing four hits, and striking out ten. Brandon Belt got on the board in the sixth with an RBI single that scored Hunter Pence. He added to the Giants lead again in the seventh with a two-RBI single, scoring Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval. Then, Buster Posey wrapped up the scoring with a single to center, plating Gregor Blanco. As for Edinson Volquez, yesterday was far from perfect. He went five innings, allowed five hits, five earned runs, struck out three, and walked three. It is hard to know if manager Clint Hurdle had used Gerrit Cole in tonight's game it would have been any different. Cole pitched on Sunday, therefore was not rested, to try to clinch the division crown. The Giants looked really good last night, but they now have to face the Washington Nationals, my World Series prediction, in the NLDS. It's going to be a very tough series, especially since they cannot have Madison Bumgarner pitching game one. The Giants have won World Series championships in 2010 and 2012, so we will see if they can rise to the challenge in another even year. Giants 8, Pirates 0 --Devan F. Every game has it's own storyline. Coming into this one, fans were hyped up about the Jon Lester-James Shields pitching matchup. We could be watching one of the lowest scoring postseason games, with many people predicting this would be a one run game, in favor of either ball club. It's amazing how much this game diverted from that story. In the top of the first, Coco Crisp hit a one-out single off Shields, starting an Athletics rally that would net them two runs on a Brandon Moss homer to right. But Jon Lester would not be able to hold that lead, as after the Royals got one back in the bottom of the inning, they scored two more, on back-to-back hits - a Lorenzo Cain RBI double and a Eric Hosmer RBI single. Lester was acquired by the Athletics back in July, in a trade that sent Yoenis Cespedes to Boston. With Lester likely to be gone in free agency this winter, the Red Sox are looking like the real winners now. But they didn't know that at that time last night. James Shields had come into the sixth inning with a 3-2 lead and was determined to keep it that way. However, things exploded. Sam Fuld led off with a single, followed by a Josh Donaldson walk, putting two runners on with nobody out. Then, Royals manager Ned Yost made a questionable decision by taking Shields out of the game after 88 pitches, and bringing rookie pitcher Yordano Ventura into the game. Ventura had already thrown 77 pitches back on Sunday. Many were questionable of the move and they had a right to feel that way. The first batter Ventura faced, Brandon Moss, hit a three-run homer to center, his second of the game, to give the Athletics the lead once again. When the dust finally settled, the A's had a 7-3 lead, and had just about shut the Royals party down. The Royals had only scored eight runs or more 14 times during the regular season. That remained the score until the bottom of the eighth. But the Royals had one more fight in them. An RBI single from Lorenzo Cain and an Eric Hosmer walk took Jon Lester out of the game in favor of Luke Gregerson. A Billy Butler RBI single made it a two run game and a wild pitch from Gregerson cut the deficit to one. In the ninth, Nori Aoki hit a sacrifice fly to right, and tied the game at seven apiece. The Athletics played this game like their season. They started off slow, then got really hot, and collapsed at the end. With two out in the bottom of the twelfth, and Christian Colon on second base, Royals catcher Salvador Perez finished the Athletics off, with a walk-off single to left. Do you believe in miracles? The Royals certainly do. They're now headed to Los Angeles to take on the Los Angeles Angels in the American League Division Series. Royals 9, Athletics 8 FINAL/12 --Devan F. |
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