Who are these teams?
When the baseball season reaches the playoffs, when the big dogs hop in the cage and face off, fans see the fullest revealing of the teams' true identities. Strengths and weaknesses are all laid bare because at this point that's all they have. There's no regular season grind and few distractions; there's nothing to recover from or hold out for.
Some weak performances can be tied to post-season jitters, but in a team game there's still much left to judge.
In early reviews:
The Yankees had zero spark yesterday despite playing at home. They looked like what they gave us last year in the playoffs and in the early rounds of the year before that.
Cubs and Twins had big wins in tough opposing ballparks, showing themselves to better underdogs than the Marlins. My mom described the leaping catch by the Twins' Shannon Stewart's against the Yankees yesterday, "Sometimes you're robbed. Sometimes you're beaten up and robbed." True, true. And although Chicago had thousands of their own fans in the Atlanta stands, they still had to deal with history. The Braves are used to a half-empty home field and seem to win regardless of crowd support.
The Fish lost yesterday and won today, but I think it says more about the Giants pitching today than anything else. Sir Sidney Ponson was uneven and the relievers seemed off balance before throwing more than a few pitches. If the Marlins are going to take the round, Dontrelle Willis will need to keep up his good work. They can't give up five runs everyday and knock out the Giants.
One of the most interesting but least noted aspects of the wildcard is that the rotations function differently than the league champsionship series and the World Series. Here on the division level, the rotations are still coming around from the regular season's end and preparing to line up for the higher rounds. Today we had Sir Sidney pitching game two for the Giants, and he certainly hasn't settled into their number two role.
But whether your team has pulled it together or not yet, October's a great month for a baseball fan. I love it. The playoffs these years are the real deal, with money and all the extras coming down to pure competition.
