mathematically eliminated #7 the Oakland Athletics

It was such a magical glorious run for the A's, to not only fire up from nothing to challenge for the wild card, but to actually steal the AL West title on the last day of the season. They did not lead the division all year long until the very end of the last game. That is amazing. Then they drop the first two to Detroit and it looks like the magic was over. But no, the A's are cocksure assholes who looked at Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder's giant auras and said, "Fuck you Jobus, I do this for us," and they did it.
But then along comes Justin Verlander, who does what only he can do - shut a fucking team down for a complete game 4-hitter, on the road, like a boss. But those scrappy Athletics, who were supposed to be in some sort of pretend rebuilding process - which is what you are required to say the year after you trade away all your good players for a bunch of unknown dudes, had a great run, one that the poor tormented and cockteased fans of Oakland will long remember as the latest and greatest underdog moment of near glory. And as much as I dig the Tigers, I have to admit, it would've been pretty awesome to see an As/Os ALCS, not only for the double underdog factor, but also because of the beautiful uniform colors on display. Dark blue and white is so fucking boring, with pinstripes and old english Ds. Baseball doesn't need more of that. It needs more oranges and yellows and greens and craziness and magic. Alas, the magic came to an end, at least on the west coast.

Tigers 7, Rangers 5: Baseball Is The Weirdest

Home Run King Delmon Young

If Adrian Beltre had gotten around on Justin Verlander's 102 MPH fastball the merest fraction of a second earlier with two on and two out in the fifth inning, and curled it just inside the foul pole down the right field line rather than just outside it, the Tigers are probably finished for the season. If, in the bottom of the sixth, Miguel Cabrera's tailor-made (like, we are talking bespoke) double play grounder hadn't bounced off of third base itself and hopped over the head of the sure-handed Beltre, the Tigers would not have hit for the first natural cycle in postseason history, capped by Delmon Young (of all people)'s second home run of the day. But all of these things happened, because baseball is the weirdest. And also the best! 

Jim Leyland came into the game saying there would be no Benoit and no Valverde, so it was going to be almost entirely up to Justin Verlander, who had not yet been sharp in this postseason. But Verlander lasted a borderline heroic 133 pitches, packing it in midway through the eighth inning, after Nelson Cruz hit a two-run shot, his record fifth home run of the ALCS. Phil Coke made things somewhat ticklish in relief, but nevertheless sealed the deal, which is all that can be asked of Phil Coke in my view.

And so now it's back to Texas, and while I've kind of got a bad feeling about this, I also kind of can't wait.

KS 

Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 4: Knuckleballers Own

Tim Wakefield, shown here owning.

Either the Red Sox had some killer scouting report on Ricky Romero, or Romero was just junk out there, because the Sox were uncharacteristically free-swingers last night. They were not at all their usual patient selves, but they knocked the ball all over the place, so I am not dissing so much as noting. A night after Brett Cecil went the distance in a loss, Romero was out of the game in the fifth, so it was kind of a long night for the bullpen, who actually totally shut the door the rest of the way (nice job, bullpen). I didn't stay up through the forty-minute rain delay so I can't even act like I was heartbroken when the Blue Jays brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth or anything. I was resting comfortably. 


There's kind of an interesting thing going on with Travis Snider right now, I should mention. Since being recalled from Las Vegas, he's hit four doubles in three games. One would think that everything is cool, then, right? But both Gregg Zaun (who I loathe) and Alan Ashby (who I admire) have said that his swing is still not quite right in the way that it was not quite right before: he's still taking these basically one-handed hacks at breaking balls, and right now they're falling in, but over the long haul he's going to have the same problems that got him sent down, they say. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Some guys have pretty solid careers with kind of mechanically awful swings, but not many.


Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the WAR leader boards at Baseball Reference, where you can plainly see that Jose Bautista sits not only atop these standings but also the haters. Also, as much as everyone is making of Justin Verlander, I am not sure we are making enough of Justin Verlander. And maybe, maybe Andrew McCutcheon should have made the NL All-Star team.


A.L. WAR Bat / Pitch

	Tm	WAR
J.Bautista	TOR	6.1
J.Verlander	DET	4.8
A.Gonzalez	BOS	4.5
J.Weaver	LAA	4.4
J.Beckett	BOS	4.1

N.L. WAR Bat / Pitch

	Tm	WAR
M.Kemp	LAD	5.4
A.McCutchen	PIT	5.0
R.Halladay	PHI	4.5
R.Braun	MIL	4.2
C.Hamels	PHI	4.2

KS

Tigers 10, Blue Jays 5: Toronto I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down

Brandon Morrow, throwing up a little.

You see 10-5, and you think, hey, a wacky shootout! No. This sucked and was never close after the fourth.


The Blue Jays went up in the first when Jose Bautista plated Corey Patterson on a double and then scurried to third on the throw home -- Jose Bautista is the best, by the way -- and added another run on a Yunel Escobar solo shot in the third. Everything was cool. But then Brandon Morrow got into trouble in the fourth, and with his velocity and arm angle both getting kind of weird, according to manager John Farrell, out came the early hook with two runs already in and the bases loaded. Morrow obviously wasn't wild about getting pulled that early, nor should he have been, but at least he didn't Kevin Gregg his way off the mound (cursing the hook that came from without rather than coming to terms with the hook that dwelt within). Shawn Camp, who has been excellent thus far, allowed all three of those runs to score and threw another one of his own in there for good measure.


It was grim, so with the score 6-2, I decided I would take a break from the action, set my soul at ease with slow songs on the piano, and come back a few innings later when hopefully the Blue Jays had made a game of it, and watch the dramatic conclusion. Except when I came back it was 10-2, because Octavio "Don't Ask" Dotel got ripped in the seventh. I didn't even stick around for the Blue Jays' three runs in the bottom of the ninth. Because who could care.


This team is awful right now, just absolutely brutal. This is a shit-storm with, like, gale-force shit winds; better haul the jib in, lest it grow shittier still. And yet there's Jose Bautista, being utterly amazing despite the futility (and haters) around him, as dialed-in as any hitter I have seen since Barry Bonds retired. Can this last a whole season? Almost certainly not. But Baseball Reference has him as a 3.1 WAR player through twenty-six games this season. And it totally feels that way. This is insane.  


I would like to clumsily add, before bidding the Tigers adieu, that I heard on the radio that the only Detroit Tiger other than Justin Verlander to have two no-hitters is the impeccably named Virgil Trucks, who pitched both in the 1952 season, a year he finished with a 5-19 record. Baseball, man. There is nothing else even a little bit like it.


KS
   

16-18 BUT FUCK ALL THAT A NO HITTER Y'ALL