Pocket Pair 7/16/12

This was a fun weekend for baseball fans.  The season is now headed toward the playoffs, we are two weeks away from the trade deadline and teams are on a 14 day sprint to establish themselves as playoff contenders or pretenders.  I highlighted five series from this weekend that were very important for this time of year, so lets take a look at them and see what transpired.

5. Pittsburgh Pirates at Milwaukee Brewers

This was an entertaining series where both teams held a lead in each of the three games.  The Brewers took two of three despite Andrew McCutchen blistering the ball by going 7-12 with 3 runs scored and 4 RBI while hitting a home run in each of the three games.  Friday nights pitching match up of McDonald vs Greinke  fizzled out, but Milwaukee starter Yovani Gallardo dominated on Sunday striking out 14 Pirates while walking none in 7 near perfect innings.  Each team seems to be short a piece or two for contending.  The Pirates need another bat to protect McCutchen while the Brewers have the Leagues third worst bullpen ERA.

4. Detroit Tigers at Baltimore Orioles

I think we might be seeing the beginning of the end for the Orioles strong run this year.  What little pitching depth they had in the rotation took yet another hit with Jason Hammel exiting his start early with an injured knee.  Baltimore is now 3-4 starters short of a true rotation and they are running out of steam fast.  The Tigers on the other hand are finally playing like they should have from day one.  By winning 2 of 3 this weekend (only losing in 13 innings) they have vaulted the Cleveland Indians into second place and now can squarely shift their focus to the Chicago White Sox.  Justin Verlander erased his memory from his disastrous All-Star game appearance to dominate the Orioles striking out eight over 8 scoreless innings Sunday.

3. St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds

On Friday I wrote: "Both teams are just waiting to pounce on the the Pirates at the first sign of trouble and a series win this weekend could find that team in first place by Monday."  Apparently the Reds were paying attention as they swept away their bitter rivals thanks in large part to a couple of ex-Cardinals and a Cuban missile.  Ryan Ludwick had the game winning hit on Saturday and Scott Rolen did the same on Sunday to help vault Cincinnati into first place in the N.L. Central.  Aroldis Chapman struck out 8 batters in his 3 innings of work this weekend touching 100 MPH on the final pitch of the series.  The Cardinals did get Lance Berkman back from injury, but this weekend belonged to the Reds.

2. Washington Nationals at Miami Marlins

As a rare wraparound series, the Nationals and Marlins still have one game to play tonight to finish their 4 game set, but the drama is already boiling over.  Ozzie Guillen couldn't resist getting himself into the spotlight by challenging the amount of pine tar on Bryce Harpers' bat yesterday.  He unleashed a foul-mouthed tirade towards the 19 year old overshadowing another dominant performance by Stephen Strasburg.  The Nationals were also able to finally solve Josh Johnson, giving him a loss for the first time in franchise history.  Mark Buehrle out dueled Gio Gonzalez on Saturday to give the fish a chance at splitting the series tonight.  There have been 13 total runs scored in the series so far, but we may see that many tonight with the unpredictable entities that are Carlos Zambrano and Edwin Jackson.

1. LA Angels of Anaheim at New York Yankees

The trio of Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Mark Trumbo combined for 16 hits for the Angels while Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano had 12 hits for the Yankees.  There is so much star power up and the down the rosters for these teams that fans of baseball would be treated to excellent post season play if they met up in October.  Angels reliever Scott Downs had given up only 1 ER this season until the Yankees roughed him up for 4 on Friday night for the loss and he nearly blew a 3 run ninth inning lead having to be relieved with the bases loaded.  At this point in the season I think both teams are virtual locks to play in the postseason although the Angels will have to climb past the Rangers to avoid a 1 game play-in game.

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I didn't highlight the series between the Oakland Athletics and the Minnesota Twins for a reason.  I didn't know the reason would be that my beloved A's would trounce the home team by hitting moon shots after moon shots.  They hit 9 home runs in the series and none of them were cheap shots.  Target field is not the easiest place to hit a home run in, but Oakland made it look like Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.  The Athletics are one of the hottest teams in baseball winning 9 of their last 10 games climbing to a season high 3 games over .500.  This could all come crashing down this week as they have six games at home against the Rangers and Yankees.  

The two series should be a battle of the immovable object (Oakland's pitching in the Coliseum at a 2.81 ERA) vs the unstoppable force (the hitting of Texas and New York, ranked 1&2 in road OPS).  I never thought this years version of the Athletics would contend for any sort of playoff spot, but they sit only 0.5 game out of the newly minted 2nd Wild Card spot.

If the Athletics can somehow manage a 4-2 record this week I will be in full 'buy' mode for this team making a run this season even if they still unload Brandon McCarthy and Bartolo Colon for more young prospects.  If only they could get a new stadium and keep some of this young talent for more than a three year stretch.