The first round of the MLB Playoffs are in the book, and boy do we have some good matchups on the way. There were two sweeps so far, where the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies took out the Minnesota Twins and the Cincinnati Reds respectively with little trouble. The Tampa Bay Rays made an early exit in five games at the hands of the surging Texas Rangers as the Rangers achieved a postseason series victory for the first time in the club's history. The San Francisco Giants pulled out an absolutely incredible pitching performance by their staff as they took down the Atlanta Braves in four games and effectively ended the storied career of one of the managerial greats of the game, Bobby Cox. Overall, the predictions I had were mediocre at best. I was correct in predicting the Phillies and the Yankees would advance, though not by the actual game margin. I said the Rays and Rangers would go 5 games and could go either way, but predicted that the Rays would come out on top, so I was incorrect there. I also was incorrect on the Giants and Braves result, where I said the Braves would advance in 5 games. Turns out, I didn't expect the Giant's pitching staff to absolutely silence the Braves lineup, and was very much wrong about all aspects of that result. So, 2 for 4 in advances, with none being the correct number of games. Anywho, let's get into the Championship Series of matchups where the best of each league go at it to earn a spot in the World Series.
- Here is the Breakdown of the matchups -
San Francisco Giants vs Philadelphia Phillies
New York Yankees vs Texas Rangers