American League Wild Card game

Oakland A’s (88-74) @ Kansas City Royals (89-73)

Kaufman Stadium, KC (37,903)

Tonight: 8:07 ET/7:07 CT; WTBS

Starting pitchers: A’s: Jon Lester (16-11, 2.46 ERA, 48 walks, 220 strikeouts) vs. Royals: James Shields (14-8, 3.21 ERA, 44 walks, 180 K’s)

A’s throwing  Lester, who has a 2.11 ERA in 13 postseason outings, which includes two victories and an 0.59 ERA for the Red Sox in their World Series championship series last season.  “Big Game James” Shields is going for the Royals. Shields registered a 2.31 ERA in September for the surprising and impressive Royals, but his career postseason numbers, all with the Tampa Bay Rays– he came over in a trade to the Royals in 2012–are 2-4, 4.98 ERA. So I’m going with the A’s to take this win or you’re done scenario in the wild card game. Pretty exciting with a one game deal in the AL and NL wild card games.

A’s 3, Royals 2

 

National League Wild Card game

San Francisco Giants (88-74) @ Pittsburgh Pirates (88-74)

** the Pirates get home field due to a 4-2 head to head advantage this season

PNC Park, Pittsburgh (38,496)

Wednesday(tomorrow): 8:07 PM ET/7:07 PM CT

ESPN

Giants Madison Bumgarner (18-10, 2.98, 43 walks/219 K’s) vs. Pirates Edinson Volquez (13-7, 3.04, 71/140)

The Giants usually raise their game in the postseason, but I’m going with superstar center fielder Andrew McCutchen and the Bucs in this one.

Pirates 5, Giants 3

 

American League Division Series

Detroit Tigers (90-72) @ Baltimore Orioles (96-66)

Best of 5 games series: 2 @ Baltimore, 2 @ Detroit and game five, if necessary, @ Baltimore

First game: Thursday, either 5:37 PM ET/4:37 CT or 6:07 PM ET/5:07 CT-will update on blog after wild card games

Oriole Park @ Camden Yards, Baltimore ( 45,971)

All games on WTBS

Thursday’s starters: Tigers: Max Scherzer (stud, 18-5, 3.15 ERA, 63/252) vs. O’s Chris Tillman (13-6, 3.34, 66/150)

Prediction:

With the Tigers starting Sherzer, then Justin Verlander then David Price, wow, I like that rotation to get it done. Rick Porcello goes in game four for the Tigers. The O’s are undecided about their pitchers after Tillman tonight. Like the Tigers pitching to get this done though the Birds can hit it. The Tigers might lose one with one of their studs going, but I don’t think it’ll be in the first game with Scherzer going. Like the Tigres to move on to the ALCS

Tigers in 4

 

ALDS @ LA Angels

Oakland A’s (predicted wild card winner)  @ LA Angels (98-64)

Best of 5

First game: this Thursday, Oct.2 :  9:07 PM ET/ 8:07 PM CT or 9:37 PM ET/8:37 PM CT; will update

All games on WTBS

Pitchers:  To be announced: Jared Weaver (18-9, 3.59 ERA)  most likely for Halos; Sonny Gray ( 14-10, 3.08 ERA) most likely for A’s.

The A’s have excellent arms and the Angels have excellent bats. Oakland general manager may, for a while at least, regret trading Yoenis Cespedes, without a doubt the A’s best hitter, before the July 31st trade deadline to the Red Sox for Jon Lester. While Lester is stellar, The A’s haven’t been able to hit a lick since trading their star left fielder. He set the tone for the lineup. After Aug.1, the A’s hit .225 as a team. They were never prolific hitting, but Cespedes just gave them that added punch that really helped them offensively. The A’s had  the best record in baseball before the All-Star break, but after the break and the trade of Cespedes they stumbled and went 29-38. The Angels are on fire with their all world center fielder Mike Trout (.287, 36 homers, 111 RBIs, 39 doubles, 9 triples and 16 stolen bases),  and the rejuvanated Albert Pujols (.272, 28 homers, 105 Ribeyes) at first base. Trout had the highest WAR (Wins Above Replacement) rating in baseball @ 7.87. That’s almost eight wins that Trout provides versus a replacement for him. Very significant and interesting number in baseball. Like the Angels bats, a pretty good starting staff, good defense and a good bullpen to get the job done here.

Angels in 4

 

 

National League Division Series:

St. Louis Cardinals (90-72)  @LA Dodgers (94-68)

Best of five series

First game: Friday 6:37 PM ET/5:37 PM CT

Dodger Stadium (56,000)

Games on Fox Sports 1 and MLB Network; Friday night’s game on Fox Sports 1

Pitchers Friday night: Cards; Adam Wainwright (20-9, 2.38 ERA, 50/179) vs. Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw (21-3, 1.77 ERA 31/239)

Can one pitcher make that big a difference in a series? When it’s Clayton Kershaw, who is the best in the business and there are a lot of good ones, yes. Kershaw’s fast ball comes in at 93 and his curve is just electric and almost impossible to hit. Kershaw has the second highest WAR in baseball @7.54. Can’t stress how significant that number is. Kershaw gives you seven and a half more wins when he’s in the lineup than when a substitute pitches for him. Pretty cool stuff. Wainwright-Kershaw is quite a matchup, but I barley like Kershaw and the Dodgers to take game one and win the series with Kershaw closing it out in game 5 again.

Dodgers in 5

 

NLDS

Pirates (predicted wild card winner) @ Washington Nationals (96-66)

Nationals Park (D.C.)

Best of five

Game one: Friday, Oct.3 12:07 PM ET/11:07 AM CT or 3:07 PM ET/2:07 PM CT; will update on blog

Pitchers: To be determined: Pirates may go with Gerritt Cole (11-5, 3.65) vs Nationals Jordan Zimmerman (14-5, 2.66)

***Note: Zimmerman pitched a no-hitter Sunday against the Miami Marlins. Walked one and struck out 10 and got a beautiful diving catch in left center by backup left fielder Steven Souza for the third out in the ninth that clinched the no hitter for Zimmerman. Zimmerman said he would have Souza over for dinner any time he wanted.  If I was Zimmerman, I’d take him out for steaks for the next week and a half. The catch was unreal.

The Nationals hit it well and pitch well. Like them here.

Nats in 4

 

ALCS: Best 4 out of 7

Angels vs. Tigers

WTBS to televise

Angels over Tigers in 7

Angels home field, pitching, defense and hitting overcome the Tigers stellar pitching rotation but suspect defense.

NLCS: Best 4 out of 7

Dodgers vs. Nationals

FOX and Fox Sports 1 to televise

Dodgers over Nationals in 7

The Kershaw factor prevails again here.

 

2014 World Series-Home field American League

Angels vs. Dodgers

Begins Tuesday, Oct. 21

FOX will televise entire series

 

In an LA Freeway series (Jim Morrison and the Doors would love this), those bats and enough pitching give the Angels their second world series title in franchise history over the storied history of the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The Angels won it as the Anaheim Angels in 2002. Mike Trout and company deliver the Commissioner’s Trophy to Anaheim and the Angels organization.

Angels in 6