Baseball playoffs: Day 3

7:05 AM
I: Questions for you:

1. Does the rain delay in the Yankees-Tigers series benefit one team more than the other?
2. Considering we both picked the Twins but the A's are up 2-0 going back to Oakland, what are the odds that we'll be correct? Remember, the A's have blown 2-0 leads to the Yanks and Sox in that opening best of 5 series. In fact, this run of A's teams has never even made it out of the ALDS.
3. Ha-yuge win for the Mets yesterday. Is this series split or at 2-0 heading to Los Angeles after today?
4. And in the series no one cares about, San Diego has to win 3 in a row in order to avoid Chris Carpenter in Game 5. How do you see that series going?
5. Arod hit 6th on Tuesday. Is he upset with this? What's his deal?



1:20pm

1. Not sure. I don't think the Tigers have much of a chance anyway. It's not like Verlander, with his week and a half off, really needed another day. He's either rested and sharp or rusty and erratic. Depending on his performance today, sportswriters will describe him as one or the other.

2. The way the Twins are hitting, not very good. And if the A's do collapse again, I think Billy Beane crushes Ken Macha's head in a carpenter's vice. Another reason to root for the Athletics: Macha is a nice guy and I don't want to see him get hurt.

3. I'm gonna go ahead and say 2-0 for the Mets/Dodgers series. I mean, have you seen Jose Reyes' smile??? That and Wilson Betemit was absolutely gunned at third base in the ninth last night by Beltran, except the throw nailed him right between the numbers. Watching Beltran play centerfield is like watching Heidi Klum in body paint. So unspeakably perfect that you feel bad masturbating to it (yes, I am aware that there are no degrees of perfection, and yes, I am aware that the masturbation joke was a little uncalled for.)

4. San Diego looked lost at the plate, but then again they were facing Chris Carpenter. After seeing Pujols do what he does best, I could see a Cardinals sweep with Pujols going 8-9 with 7 homers in the next two days (looks like La Russa didn't have to clone him after all.) Of course, I could also see San Diego sweeping the next three in spite of those 7 Pujols homers. What I'm trying to say is that I have no idea what's going to happen anymore. That last week of NFL games really did a number on my confidence in sports prognostication.

5. I never thought I'd say this, but people need to lay off Arod. His postseason numbers (granted in many, many fewer at bats) are identical if not slightly better than Jeter's. And Jeter's postseason numbers are actually WORSE than his regular season numbers. So Jeter went 5-5 last night in the opening game of the division series against Nate Robertson and the Tigers. But it was with Damon in front of him and Abreu, Sheffield, Giambi, Arod behind him. Where was Jeter's 5-5 in the last four games of the 2004 ALCS? You're crazy not to think that Jeter is, at best, the fifth most dangerous hitter on his own team. AT BEST, since cases can be made for Matsui and Damon as well.

On Arod: I bet he wishes he could redo his first, oh, twelve seasons as a professional baseball player. He could have re-signed with Seattle for less than that albatross of a contract Tom Hicks forked over, opened up Safeco, and been an absolute legend and savior to the championship-starved Seattle fanbase who would name some type of supper-latte after him. Instead he's one of the least liked players on a team full of players that are easy to dislike. Sure he's getting paid a lot, but everytime he wants to go relax in the park with his wife and daughter the New York sports media snaps a photograph of him with some assinine caption like "Arod takes woes at the plate lying down." You think Derek Jeter is in the batting cage 6 hours a day? While Arod is getting tailed through the park on his wholesome family outing, Jeter's probably lying in bed snorting cocaine off two supermodels. Now that's a photo I was printed in the papers. Whether or not Arod is upset with hitting sixth, I don't know. But he should be.