4 October 03
Playoff Ordeals
Everything was peachy the first day of the playoffs, with the Giants winning, the Cubs winning, and the Yankees losing, but it has gone downhill since then. The SF Giants were the first team eliminated from the playoffs today, they losing three in a row to the Florida Marlins. The Yankees have taken the next two games from the Minnesota Twins, and are now poised to win the series tomorrow. The Cubs will play the Atlanta Braves in the deciding game of their series.
Meanwhile the Red Sox in a heartbreaking duel lost their opening game with Oakland in the 12th inning, and lost the second game as well, never threatening. Both teams are hitting very poorly, the A’s pitching successfully containing the Red Sox’s powerful lineup. The Red Sox managed to stay alive in tonight’s game, winning it in the bottom of the 11th with a two-run home run from Trot Nixon. It was a very bizarre game, with 6 errors between the two teams, and baserunning snafus by the A’s, including one where Miguel Tejada of the A’s was running from 2nd to 3rd, got obstructed by the Red Sox’s third baseman, ran around third, then stopped between third and home figuring he’d be awarded home anyway after the obstruction. Or something like that. Confusion reigned at that point. He was tagged by the catcher, and the umpiring crew ruled him out, since he should have kept running to home.
The poor Giants. It’s a sad day in Giantsland. The Red Sox avoided the sweep today, but they have to win the next two in a row, so they have their work cut out for them. It might help if their sluggers were to start hitting.
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the teams that would get into the playoffs and you’d pray they wouldn’t be found out-that the lucky pitching staff would hold out, or that nobody would look behind the curtain and see the string cheese holding it all together.This loss was almost as hard as losing in the World Series last year, except the blow was sustained over several days.
The only consolation-
there really isn’t any consolation except spring-but just saying for a moment that there was consolation, it would be that the Florida Marlins really did play “like little leaguers in big league uniforms”. They were fun to watch, some of them looking as young as little leaguers. I hope they do well …er, well, the best part of me hopes they do well.