2010 MLB Playoffs

After a long, exciting month of October baseball, the San Francisco Giants win their first World Series title since 1954. The Giants defeated the Texas Rangers in 5 games to take the title back to San Fran. Let’s quickly recap the Divisional and Championship rounds before we get more in depth into the World Series.

Coming into this postseason, the big stories were how dominant Cliff Lee will be, how will Roy Halladay fair in his first postseason start, can the Rangers win their first postseason series in franchise history, and are the Yankees able to repeat as world champs? These questions helped hype up the excitement of the postseason, so let’s break down some of the things that happened.

ALDS:

Rangers win in 5 over Rays

Rangers took the first two games at Tropicana Field with great baserunning, timely hitting and superb pitching from Cliff Lee and C.J. Wilson. The Rays came back to win two out in Texas to push it to a fifth and final game back in Tropicana. It was a rematch of David Price and Cliff Lee, but at the end of the day, Lee proved that he was the more dominant pitcher that night as he tossed a complete game victory and clinched the first series win in postseason history for the Texas Rangers.

Yankees win in 3 over Twins

The Yankees clinched the wildcard in the American League, so they were on the road against the Minnesota Twins who were playing their first postseason series in their new ballpark. The Yankees trailed in each of the first two games, but good enough starting pitching by C.C. Sabathia and Andy Pettitte kept them in the game long enough for the Yankee bats to rally and take a lead. Game 3 was highlighted by a great pitching performance from youngster Phil Hughes as he shutdown the Twins and helped lead the Yankees back to the ALCS.

NLDS:

Phillies win in 3 over Reds

H2O won this series for the Phillies. Halladay, Oswalt, and Hamels pitched great this series and shutdown an excellent hitting lineup of the Reds. This series will be most remembered by Roy Halladay pitching a no-hitter in Game 1 of the series, which helped set the tone for the rest of the series. Reds could not get anything going offensively and the Phillies sent them home.

Giants win in 4 over Braves

Both teams spilt at San Francisco as in Game 1 Tim Lincecum pitched a complete game victory with 14 strikeouts and in Game 2 the Braves came back to win in extra innings. When the series went back to Atlanta, we saw greater starting pitching in Game 3 by Jonathon Sanchez as he tossed 7+ innings with 11 strikeouts and Giants clinched the series with a victory in Game 4 ending the career of coaching great Bobby Cox.

ALCS:

Rangers win in 6 over Yankees

The big stories of this series was could the Yankees starting rotation shutdown the potent Ranger offense and will Cliff Lee starting Game 3 instead of Game 1 hurt the Rangers? Well these questions were answered quickly as in Game 1 the Rangers tattooed Sabathia and chased him from the game in the 5^th inning, but the Yankees would still prevail in Game 1 as their bats pushed across enough run against the Rangers bullpen. Game 2 was won by the Rangers behind strong starting pitching from Colby Lewis. The Rangers took Games 3 and 4 with an offensive outburst against the Yankees bullpen. Yankees bounced back in Game 5 to push the series back to Texas, but Game 6 would prove to just be a formality as once again Colby Lewis stunned the Yankee bats by going 8 strong innings before handing the ball off to flame-throwing closer Nefatli Feliz to close out the series.

Giants win in 6 over Phillies

Going into this series, all the experts thought this would be a match-up of pitching duels. Both teams have 3 top tier pitchers in their starting rotations, but the pitching did not live up to all the hype. Game 1 was won by the Giants as Lincecum out dueled Halladay 4-3. Game 2 was the Roy Oswalt show as he pitched 8 strong innings of 1 run ball. Matt Cain turned in another stellar performance in Game 3 as he did not allow a run and led the Giants to victory. Game 4 was won by the Giants and in Game 5 the Phillies squeaked out enough runs to earn a victory and push the series back to Philadelphia. Game 6 was a wild game as Sanchez for the Giants only went 2 innings and from there Bruce Bochy pieced it together out of the bullpen. The Giants bullpen pitched 7 scoreless innings that game and Oswalt turned in another good performance, but the Phillies bullpen could not close the door. Giants win Game 6 3-2.

World Series:

Giants win in 5 over Rangers

This series featured great pitching by the Giants, but no offensive outbursts from the Rangers. The Giants pitched proved to be too much for the Rangers to handle as they only managed to score 10 runs off 29 hits during the series. Game 1 was supposed to be a pitching match-up of the ages between Lee and Lincecum, but both we tattooed and chased from the game. The Giants offense scored 11 runs to take Game 1. Game 2 featured a shutout performance by Matt Cain as he pitched the Giants to a 9-0 victory. Once again, Colby Lewis rose to the occasion and pitched a masterpiece against the Giants to steal Game 3 from the Giants. The story of Game 4 was the pitching performance turned in by 21 year old Madison Bumgarner for the Giants. Bumgarner tossed 8 shutout innings in the victory. Game 5 was a re-match of Lee and Lincecum and for the first six innings, it was the pitching duel we all expected it to be. When the 7^th inning came around, Edgar Renteria stepped up to the plate and belted a 3-run home run, which eventually would prove to be the game winning runs as Brian Wilson closed the door on the World Series with a save in the 9^th inning.

Most Memorable Moments of the Postseason:

5. San Francisco Giants clinch series victory wins on the road. This is a really hard feat to accomplish by the Giants played well together as a team and have a good head coach in Bruce Bochy.

4. Cliff Lee’s pitching performances prior to the World Series. In those three games he complied over 40 K’s. Lee baffled both the Rays and Yankees as he made them look like little leaguers.

3. Roy Halladay’s No Hitter in Game 1 of the NLDS. If you missed this performance then I am sorry for you because Halladay was literally un-hittable this game. He had all his pitches working and made the Reds hitter look silly. Halladay tossed the first no-no since Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series.

2. Giants salute and say farewell to Bobby Cox. After the Giants clinched the Divisional series in Game 4 with a win at Turner Field, the Giants stop mid celebration and turn towards the Braves dugout and salute Manager Bobby Cox who was in his last season as a manger in the majors. That was a heartwarming moment to watch that and it show how unselfish the Giants as a team are because they took the time to pay tribute to a coaching legend.

1. Rangers celebrate with Hamilton using Ginger Ale. It is hard to trump the Bobby Cox moment, but the Rangers Organization takes the cake. Hamilton with his prior substance abuse in years past did not celebrate with his team after they clinched a spot in the postseason. His teammates wanted to include him in the celebration as it was Hamilton’s first time in the postseason as well. After the Rangers defeated the Rays in the ALDS, Hamilton’s teammates had cases of ginger ale on ice and dumped it all over him so he could be included. For me, that was the most memorable moment in the postseason as the team as a whole would go out of their way for their star player.