Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Games 160 - 162

Final Scores:

Game 160: Boston Red Sox 7, Baltimore Orioles 5
Game 161: Boston Red Sox 7, Baltimore Orioles 5
Game 162: Boston Red Sox 2, Baltimore Orioles 3

Wow. Until Sunday, that loss to Tampa Bay was looking pretty important, as the Yankees lost two in a row to Toronto before taking the last game of season. Of course, the pressure of the situation would have been much different if the Sox were still in the race on Sunday - one wonders what sort of gambles Francona would have taken to try and secure a homefield advantage to start the divisional series. Didn't get a chance to listen to the last regular season game of the year (I know, shame on me), but the previous two were pretty exciting - Sox took an early lead in game 160 and let it slip with the bullpen and then gave up four runs in the first inning of the second game of the day before coming back to win it with a classic rally.

Meanwhile, the Cubs couldn't pull off a win against Atlanta, Oakland lost to Anaheim, the Twins lost to Cleveland, the Dodgers took the NL West and the Astros (by FAR the comeback kids of the season) took the NL Wildcard. I like the idea of a Wildcard World Series myself, but we'll see. I listened to most of the first Cardinals/Dodgers game in St. Louis and the Cards won 8 - 3 with FIVE homeruns, the first time since 1984. Clearly the St. Louis offense is still pretty nasty. The Yankees and Twins got at it tonight and the Astros and Braves start tomorrow afternoon. Robin made me a playoff brackets sheet that's up in my office and is pretty sweet; we'll see how it's filled in tomorrow. GO SOX!!!