Lights Out

The Boston Red Sox took a 1-0 series lead over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last night behind a "lights out" performance from starting pitcher Josh Beckett. The Angels were shutout on four hits as Beckett threw a complete game.

Beckett was just straight dealing last night. The NL and AL allstar team could have been in the batter's box last night against Beckett and still would have managed only four hits. He was getting ahead of batters all night and only had one Angels player reach third base.

The sports world is giving the Angels no shot to win this series, and this start with Beckett did nothing to help win the Angels any supporters.

The other two games featured excellent pitching as well; no team scored more than four runs yesterday.

Lou Piniella may have wanted to leave Carlos Zambrano in the game longer as the Cubs' relievers gave up the winning runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks as soon as Zambrano left the game. Not that keeping Zambrano may have helped though, because Brandon Webb pitched just as well, holding the Cubs to one run over seven innings.

It was just one game, and I still like the Cubs in this series because of their starting pitching.

And the Colorado Rockies continued to ride their emotions as they beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 behind Jeff Francis. The Phillies were swinging at everything, striking out a total of ten times, four of which by Chase Utley.

Matt Holliday can just rack. He carried the Rockies throughout the season, "scored" the winning run in the one-game playoff, and is continuing his clutch hitting into the NLDS. He hit a homerun off of Tom Gordon in the eighth inning to add an insurance run for the Rockies relievers. NL MVP anybody?

The MLB Playoffs Are Set!

The Colorado Rockies completed the job of making me look smart by winning their one-game playoff against the San Diego Padres in 13 innings to punch their ticket to the playoffs with their wild card bid.

Did Matt Holliday really touch homeplate on the winning run though? The camera angles I saw showed that Padres catcher Michael Barrett had blocked the plate and prevented Holliday from tagging the plate. But I think the atmosphere at Coors Field got the better of homeplate umpire Tim McClelland as he gave a delayed safe call to end the game.

The Rockies will now face another team on a hot streak, the Philadelphia Phillies (and the lovable Phanatic).

Series picks:

Philadelphia Phillies v. Colorado Rockies
Both teams come into the series as the hottest teams in all of baseball. The Rockies are coming off an emotional run that included a one-game playoff with the Padres to earn the wild card berth. Meanwhile, the Phillies are coming off a incredible run to catch the New York Mets, who led by seven games on September 12.

Both teams have a great batting lineup that can put numbers on the board, but I think the Phillies have a little more to work with.

I wanted the Phillies in, so I am going to stay with them: Phillies in five games.

Chicago Cubs v. Arizona Diamondbacks
Game one is going to be big for both teams, as Brandon Webb and Carlos Zambrano will be on the mound for their respective teams. I like the Cubs chances because they have the bats in their lineup that make a difference in a game. I also like the two Cubs starters following Zambrano, Ted Lilly and Rich Hill, I think they will be the difference in this series.

Cubs in four games.

Cleveland Indians v. New York Yankees
The Yankees have not faced Indians ace, C.C. Sabathia since 2004, uh oh. In this shorter series I like the Indians based on their pitching. If this series goes the distance the Indians will be able to throw Sabathia twice against big bats of New York. Sabathia will be matched up against Chien-Ming Wang in game one. Pitching matchups: Fausto Carmona will face Andy Pettitte in game two; Jake Westbrook against Roger Clemens in game three; Paul Byrd and Mike Mussina in game four.

Bob Uecker, take it: "The Indians win it, the indians win it! Oh my God, the Indians win it!"
Indians in five games.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim v. Boston Red Sox
Due to superstitious beliefs, I cannot and will not pick the winner of this series. Sorry.
Pitching matchups:
Game one - Beckett v. Lackey
Game two - Matsuzaka v. Escobar
Game three - Schilling v. Weaver
Game four (probables) - Beckett v. Lackey
Game five (probables) - ? v. Escobar

All I know is Josh Beckett just said "asshole" in his press conference that was aired on ESPN News, awesome! He also seemed like he was in a bad mood as well.

If you want to tailgate in Anaheim for game one, I will be there at 8 a.m., cooking morning burgers, sausages, and dogs.