[Sundance]

In the AL Wildcard game, the Red Sox took on the Royals. Kansas City entered the series as the highest scoring team in the AL, but you wouldn’t know that based on the scoreline. Boston, ranked 14th in the AL in runs scored, took down the Royals 4-0.

In the NL Wildcard game, we took on the Braves. Going into this series, we knew this game would be all about the pitching. The Braves gave up the 2nd fewest runs in the NL and sent young star pitcher Ken Phipps out on the hill. We gave up the 3rd fewest runs and opted for the former NL Cy Young runner-up Gustavo Spotelli as our starter. Both starters were solid with Phipps going 7.0 IP with 5 K and 1 run, and Spotelli going 8.0 IP with 9 K and 1 run. Things got a bit more interesting when we went to the pens. We took a 1 run lead in the 8th, but had a bit of a scare when we went to close things out. The pressure got to our closer a bit, as he gave up 2 walks before eventually retiring the side. We took the game, 2-1.

Divisional Series

Baltimore wins the series 3-2 over Boston
Seattle wins the series 3-1 over Minnesota
Cincinnati wins the series 3-2 over Philadelphia

San Diego vs. Los Angeles

BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA!

The battle for SoCal – San Diego vs. Los Angeles. This was another series for the pitchers as LA was the toughest team in the NL to score against. This was a tight series, but it was our pitching staff that stepped up to the challenge – only allowing 1 LA hitter to bat over .250. Our lineup, on the other hand, was feast or famine. We had some great performances from the likes of Miranda (.364), DeWitt (.389), Delgado (.353), and Rodgers (.294/.400/.353). But we also had our struggles with Alvarado batting .105 and Kieffer going a horrendous 1 for 20. In the end, it was a close series, but we took it 3-2.

League Series

Baltimore wins the series 4-3 over Seattle

San Diego vs. Cincinnati

The classic battle between good pitching and good hitting. As I mentioned before, we gave up the 3rd fewest runs in the NL. The Reds, on the other hand, scored the 4th most runs in the league. We both finished the season with the same record, so this was shaping up to be a pretty tight series.

This was definitely not the pitcher’s duels of the previous series – Spotelli pitched 3 games and got knocked around for 5 HR. Our pen struggled at times, with both Lee and Maeda posting ERAs over 9. Their guys didn’t do a whole lot better, with two of their starters posting ERAs over 5, and two of their relievers with ERAs over 11.

Alvarado had a monster series, holding a line of .419/.419/.677. Kieffer finally decided to show up and hit .321 with a couple of dingers. Jean-Philippe Gras proved once again that he lives for the postseason - .348/.400/.565 with 6 RBI. Rodriguez has continued to struggle mightily this postseason. He’s only managed to hit .200 over the last two series, but he’s racked up 10 RBI over that period, so at least his hits are counting I suppose.

We ended up taking the series, 4-3.

Championship Series

San Diego vs. Baltimore

This series was set up to be another close one. Baltimore was, by far, the best team in the AL, and they have a team that is tough to deal with on both sides of the ball. However, our boys are not ones to be intimidated, and seeing as how we had already knocked off one top team, we were up for the challenge.

Neither team had a particularly great series. They had three players get hot, but we had four. In the end, that was all we needed. Miranda, Delgado, Gras once again, and a couple of solo shots from Rodriguez. Between the four of them, we were able to string some victories together and take the series, 4-1.