Congratulations to the Tigers and their fans for an exciting, well-fought series and season.
I agree with lieu. The Tigers were awesome. Thanks for making this an exciting and challenging series. You guys are a class act all the way.
This game seems to have been decided by hitting. Texas 9 run inning took all the fun out of it.
I don’t mean to be picky but how can you be “awesome” and make that many fielding errors? I felt very sorry for Leland. Looked to me like the Tigers self-destructed. They gave the Rangers a much tougher fight in the regular season games.
Nelson Cruz, the first player to hit 6 home runs in a playoff series, and the first player to drive in 13 runs in a playoff series. Wow.
Think of it; it took until their 50th season as a franchise to win a pennant, and now the Rangers have won two in a row. And in pretty convincing fashion, I might add; they were definitely the better team in this series.
I’m rooting for them in the World Series. They’re a hell of a team.
They might have had more fielding errors than they’d have liked, but until tonight, each game was very hard fought. Only this one was a blowout. I mean, they were either all extra innings or just a couple of run wins for the Rangers, so yes, I think the Tigers did an awesome job.
Kudos to them.
Great so we get to watch Ron Washington dry hump the dugout for 4-7 more games?
Congrats to the Rangers, they simply outplayed us.
Finally, I get to sit back and watch an entire game and, my goodness, what a game. I posted earlier in the thread that the middle of the Ranger’s lineup needed to wake up and start hitting. Last night, you saw what happens when they do.
Congratulations to the Tigers for a well fought series. There are several admirable players on that team. Avilla, Inge, Jackson - they played their hearts out. Cabrerra was awesome.
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Is bringing in Brad Penny the same as conceding?
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I was worried that the Tigers might still might be able to claw their way back into the game until Leland put Penny in. I said to myself, “The Rangers are going to tattoo his ass,” and I stopped worrying. I think Leland simply ran out of pitchers.
Earlier in the game, when the Tigers were hitting their homers, I was thinking, you are going to give up homers to first rate hitters like Cabrerra, Martinez, and Peralta. The trick is to make it more likely that the homers are solos by not walking the guy in front of him or giving up the cheap single because the pitcher lost his concentration and left a curve ball hanging over the middle of the plate.
The other guy in the broadcast booth (the not-Joe Buck guy) made one of my favorite points. This is not the Rangers of old. The Olde Rangers would stand at the plate and flail away and if they got on base, would stand at the base waiting for the next guy to homer them home. The bull-pen used to be a crapshoot. The closer would usually be some other team’s cast-off that had a few good games left in him.
The New Rangers are a more well-rounded team. If the hitting is off (like it was until last night) or if the opposing pitcher is having a first rate game (like Porcello did a few nights ago), the Rangers have other aspects to their game to keep themselves in the game.
Now that the Rangers have ended that series, the NLCS game is being moved to tonight, so perhaps I will get a change to watch it. It should be a dandy game.
Perhaps I will get to repeat the memorable Halloween that I had last year, sitting in the driveway on a beautiful fall evening handing out candy to kids in costumes and listening to the Rangers play in the World Series on the radio.
How cold will St. Louis be in October?
I think Milwaukee has a dome, so it does not matter. But I hate baseball in cold weather.
It’s been an extremely warm autumn here so far, so of course it’s going to cool down to the mid-50s Wednesday and Thursday, and dry. The last two, if needed, are beyond the 10-day forecast, but the Tuesday before them is supposed to be around 70 and rainy.
I thought Milwaukee was not actually enclosed, but has a retractable cover? I don’t know what difference that might make on game temperatures.
They’re still largely successful because they crush the ball. All the baserunning stuff is nice but they’re not exactly the 1985 Cardinals, and it doesn’t usually have anything to do with who wins or loses - if you think about it, it didn’t have any impact in this series.
The Rangers simply hit. They batted .283 as a team, which in a league that batted .258 is pretty amazing, and were second in the league in homers. They just flat out mash the baseball. Last night their #9 hitter was a .301 hitter. Nelson Cruz, the guy who just hit six home runs in one series, is the #7 hitter, and the amazing thing is that #7 is pretty much where he deserves to hit in this lineup.
It is certainly true, however, that they are a better pitching and defensive team than the teams of the late 90s. The 1999 team, which won the division and was the winningest Rangers team up until this year, had, quite literally, no good starting pitchers at all; the best ERA in the rotation was 4.79. (The closer was John Wetteland, though, and he was pretty good.) I think you would have a lot of trouble finding a 95-win team in baseball history with a worse rotation than the 1999 Rangers. Contrast that with this edition, which pretty much puts a good starter out there every night. Who’s their worst starter? I guess it’s Colby Lewis, and I’ll take Colby Lewis on any team.
I’ll say this; the Rangers look like a way, way better team than St. Louis or Milwaukee.
It’s retractable, and climate controlled.
By the way, it’s SUNDAY. Why in the name of Christ’s nutsack is the NLCS game not on until 8? Would it be that much to ask that we get to watch a little afternoon baseball instead of staying up to 11 on a school/work night?
The Tigers did have a great season, and I hope Verlander bounces back. He threw 251 innings in the regular season and was not as good in his 20 playoff innings, and he seemed understandably worn out. Before that he had an unreal year. Whoever wins tonight, I think we’re looking at a very high-scoring Series.
Amen, Brother Rick. It’s ludicrous that they didn’t just keep the NLCS game at 3pm local like it was originally scheduled. Now I have to wait 5 more hours before the game even starts… I’m not sure my nerves can take it.
No way to tell (forecast notwithstanding; generally useless more than a day out). Could be 80, could be 50. Could be both in the same game.
Because I work until 7:30, so I can still watch most of the game. About time television schedules were tailored specifically to me.
Well, OK, it’s really because they figure they’ll get more viewers in prime time, especially given that there’s football on in the afternoon (there’s football on at night, too, but only one game).
That probably means they’re doomed.
4-zip.
Well, let’s see how Jackson does. The primary goal of that three-way trade in late July was to get rid of the clubhouse cancer Rasmus; if Jackson gets the Cards to the Series, I imagine that even the Rasmus defenders can live with it.
4-1.
Nice start.
Speaking of clubhouse cancers, Nyjer Morgan really is as loved in Milwaukee as he was hated in Washington? That’s an interesting reversal if true.
Geez, a lot of serious contact early tonite.