Tampa Bays Survives and Ends Cleveland's Season

Here’s your morning baseball briefing for Thursday October 3, 2013:

Wednesday Results:

Tampa Bay Rays 4, Cleveland Indians 0

Tampa Bay pitcher Alex Cobb pitched the game of his young life in Cleveland with the season on the line, hurling a shutout into the seventh inning and striking out five in the 4-0 win.  They advanced to play the Boston Red Sox in the best-of-five American League Division Series.  Cleveland had won ten in a row before this game, and fans were pumped up from the start trying to will the Indians to score, but they threatened to score only a few times, their season ended after just one post season game.

Schedule (Times EST)

Today:  National League Division Series – Best of 5

5:07pm – Pittsburgh Pirates (Burnett 10-11) @ St. Louis Cardinals (Wainwright 19-9)

8:07pm – Los Angeles Dodgers (Kershaw 16-9) @ Atlanta Braves (Medlen 15-12)

Predictions:  St. Louis and Los Angeles

Playoff Predictions Overall:  3-0

Friday

1:07pm - Pittsburgh Pirates @ St. Louis Cardinals

6:07pm – Los Angeles Dodgers @ Atlanta Braves

9:37pm – Detroit Tigers @ Oakland Athletics

History

2000 World Series – New York Yankees vs. New York Mets

          The 2000 World Series between the two New York clubs marked the first postseason Subway Series since 1956 when the Yankees beat Brooklyn in seven games.  This series electrified the Empire State, as the Yankees were gunning for their third straight championship, while the Mets, huge underdogs, made their first World Series appearance since beating Boston in 1986. 

          The Yankees had home field advantage and Game 1 started with a pitching duel between Andy Pettitte and Al Leiter from the Mets.  Yankee outfielder David Justice broke the shutout with a double that scored two runs in the sixth, but Pettitte quickly gave up the lead in the seventh and the Yankees trailed 3-2 in the ninth.  Mets closer Armando Benitez, known to Yankee fans for inciting a nasty brawl at Yankee Stadium in 1998 with the Orioles when he hit Tino Martinez in the back, took the mound to a chorus of boos and curses.  It worked as Benitez allowed the Yankees to score the tying run on Chuck Knoblauch’s sacrifice fly, and the game remained scoreless into the twelfth inning when Yankee second baseman Jose Vizcaino singled home Tino Martinez with the winning run.

          The drama from Game 1 carried over to Game 2 immediately, as Yankee starter Roger Clemens faced off against Mike Hampton.  Things got very heated right away when Clemens, who earlier in the year hit Mets catcher Mike Piazza in the head with a fastball, faced Piazza again in his first at-bat, and shattered his bat with an inside pitch that was fouled off.  The barrel of the bat caromed toward Clemens, who picked it up and threw at the feet of Piazza who was standing at the start of the first base line.  Piazza screamed back and the two exchanged heated words as both teams spilled from their dugouts to protect their players.  No punches were thrown, but this series became very personal and very weird. The Yankees scored the first six runs of the game and led 6-0 in the ninth, but the Mets rallied for five runs in their last at-bat, but fell short and lost 6-5 and they faced a 2-0 series deficit with it moving across the city to Queens.

In Game 3, the Mets broke open a 2-2 tie in the eighth when they scored twice, and eventually won 4-2 in front of their home crowd.  The loss ended the Yankees 14-game World Series winning streak, dating back to 1996.  In Game 4 the Yankees scored on the very first pitch as Derek Jeter belted a home run, and they scored once more in the next two innings as the three runs stood in a 3-2 win.  They now led the series 3-1. 

Jeter homered again in the sixth inning of Game 5 to tie the score at two, and the game remained tied into the top half of the ninth.  Mets started Al Leiter surrendered a two out single to Luis Sojo, and the throw from centerfield hit Jorge Posada in the back as he was sliding into home plate, and went into the Yankee dugout, allowing Scott Brosius to score the fourth run.  Yankee closer Mariano Rivera closed the game by getting Mike Piazza to fly out to deep center as the tying run, and New York had won their third straight World Series title to become the first team to three-peat since the Oakland Athletics from 1972-1974.

New York Wins 4-1

For the series, the Yankees outscored the Mets 19-16 and outhit them 47-40.  No current Hall of Famers played in the series.

Tomorrow:  2001 World Series – New York Yankees vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

Trivia

Today’s Question:  When was the last year the two World Series teams came from the same state?

Yesterday’s Question:  Who holds the record for winning the most consecutive batting titles in baseball history?

Answer:  Ty Cobb.  The Hall of Fame outfielder from the Detroit Tigers won the American League batting title 9 straight seasons from 1907 - 1915.

House Bet

Today:  Over/Under 16 combined strikeouts by Adam Wainwright and Clayton Kershaw today.

Yesterday:  Over/Under 4 innings pitched by Cleveland rookie Danny Salazar vs. Tampa Bay.

Result:  Push.  Salazar pitched just 4 innings.