Taking the Fifth

The Tigers victory in five games vs the Oakland A’s (I predicted an A’s series victory) reversed the ALCS result 40 years ago, when the A’s won in five games. Both series resulted in the home team winning the first four games and the road team taking the decisive fifth game. Bask then, the A’s, en route to their first Oakland title, won a tense (2-1) game, losing Reggie Jackson to injury in the process. This time, the Tigers eased in Game Five on the road over the A’s behind the pitching of Justin Verlander. He will not pitch until game three of the ALCS.

The San Francisco Giants became the first team in big league history to win a best of five series with the two/three format by winning the last three games on the road, after losing the first two games at home. Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker has suffered three terrible post season series defeats and still never won a World Series as a manager. Twice Baker’s teams, this Reds team and the 2003 Chicago Cubs, needed one win out of three to advance but failed losing three straight games both times. Five of the six losses were at home. Worse, because victory meant the World Title, Baker’s Giants dissipated a five run lead in the sixth game of the 2002 World Series with the Giants up three games to two. They led by five runs in the seventh inning at Anaheim. The Angels won that game and game seven the next night for their only title.

The New York Yankees never let Buck Showalter and the Orioles end a day ahead of them down the stretch of the regular season nor in the post season. The result was that Raul Ibanez, a big reason the Yankees won the AL East, and C.C. Sabathia, led the Yankees to their 49th post-season series win dispatching the Orioles in five games. The Yankees, surprisingly considering their incredible winning history, are just (8-8) in decisive games of a series, but (5-6) at home. They open the ALCS vs the Detroit Tigers at home beginning Saturday night. No team has ever beaten the Yankees in three consecutive post season series. The Tigers will be underdogs in their bid to become the first team to accomplish that feat.

The Cardinals won their fourth decisive game in the past two seasons (they are (6-0) facing elimination in those years) staging an incredible four run rally in the top of the ninth inning to eliminate the Washington Nationals, winning (9-7). Daniel Descalso, who also delivered a big hit in the Cardinals’ incredible Game 6 2011 triumph, delivered a two out, two run single to tie the game at seven. Shortstop Pete Kozma followed with a two run single and the Cardinals were on their way to San Francisco where they will begin NLCS rematches of both 25 and 10 years ago vs the San Francisco Giants.

The Washington Senators won Washington’s only World Series in 1924, beating the New York Giants. The great Walter Johnson was the winning pitcher in relief. The next year, the Pirates overcame a (3-1) series deficit, overcoming a three run Washington lead with five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to win (9-7). They beat Walter Johnson in the process. Now, 87 years later, the Washington D.C. area loses another deciding game by the same (9-7) score.

The Seattle “Washington state” Mariners have never even made the World Series. The once Seattle Pilots, now the Milwaukee Brewers have never won one, losing in their only one.