October 2, 2013

Playoffs Today

The Rays ended the seven-game win streak of Texas on Monday, and today they’ll try to end the ten-game win streak of Cleveland as the two meet in the AL Wild Card game near the shores of Lake Erie. Alex Cobb takes on Danny Salazar. Cobb improved on his 2012 campaign, lowering his ERA by over a run to 2.76 in 2013. He raised his strike out rate and lowered his walk rate. He also went deeper in games, upping his 5.9 IP per start in 2012 to 6.5 IP per start in 2013. Cobb was particularly tough down the stretch, posting a 2.41 ERA in nine starts dating from Aug. 1st. He allowed just four home runs in that time, none since Sept. 6th.

The rookie Salazar gets the call for Cleveland, as they needed to burn their more experienced pitchers to guarantee a wild card slot in the final days of the regular season. Danny showed strong strikeout and walk rates in his 52 major league innings, but was susceptible to the home run. A right-handed pitcher, Salazar did well against left-handed batters, holding them to a .219/.293/.295 slash line.

Managers Joe Maddon and Terry Francona participated in some bean-ball wars when Terry was managing the Red Sox. That didn’t spill over into this pair of teams in 2013, and there was only 1 HBP in the six games between the two squads this season.

It’s tough to decide which team I’d rather see move on. The Indians own the second longest World Championship drought in the majors, and it would be cool to see Francona break both the 3rd and fourth longest droughts of all time. On the other hand, the Rays have never won a World Series, and have a great organization. I guess this game is a win-win.

2 thoughts on “Playoffs Today

  1. TomFA

    The Rays have a great organization but also have no fans so a Championship would be wasted.

    ReplyReply
  2. pft

    The Rays play in an awful stadium in a poor location in an area that is economically depressed. They have fans, but the fans watch most of the games on TV, as most fans do. Teams like the Red Sox get a lot of pink hats, fans who want to see historical Fenway and sing Sweet Caroline, and those who go to the game as filler for dinner in town and drinks after the game, the college crowd, and an area where laying down 250 bucks for a family 3 to see a game is not a hardship.

    The Indians have been pretty awful against good teams this year. If I thought they could have a reasonable chance of beating the Red Sox I would root for them, but its probably best if the Rays win for a competitive ALDS.

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