More Lives Than A Cat

Two years ago, we compared the Tampa Bay Rays to the early 20th century monk Rasputin, who seemingly could not be killed in spite of many attempts. Since that metaphor has been used on The Hat Trick already, I will go with something more simple and traditional. The 2013 Tampa Bay Rays appear to have nine lives.

September 29, 2013 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Rays 7 Blue Jays 6 

In the 162nd and final scheduled regular season game of the 2013 MLB season, the Rays entered the day tied with the Texas Rangers for the second and final American League Wild Card spot. The Rangers won that day, meaning the Rays would need to do the same for their season to continue beyond that day.

After taking a 7-0 lead on the Toronto Blue Jays in the 4th inning, the Blue Jays put on a furious rally and cut the Rays' lead down to one run in the 9th inning. Rays closer Fernando Rodney, with ice in his veins, shut down the Blue Jays and sent his team to Arlington, Texas for a 163rd game for the right to travel to Cleveland to play the Indians in the American League Wild Card Game.


September 30, 2013 - Arlington, Texas: Rays 5 Rangers 2

Playing for the right to play on, Rays ace pitcher and reigning American League Cy Young winner David Price put his team, and its season, on his back. Price was brilliant in a complete game, two earned runs allowed performance on the road. The Rays cruise on to to play for their lives, again, after snuffing out the life of the Rangers' season before their deflated fans.

David Price put the team on his back throughout the game. His teammates wrap their arms around him afterwards. 3

October 2, 2013 - Cleveland, Ohio: Rays 4 Indians 0

Playing in their third game in their third state away from home in their second country in just a little over 48 hours, one would think the travel and pressure would wear on the Rays. It just made them stronger. On paper, the Rays couldn't have a better pitcher, other than Price, on the mound with the season on the line than Alex Cobb (11-3, 2.76 ERA).

Still, the Indians were at home. The Indians were red hot. the Indians were...scalped. Cobb took a shutout into the 7th inning before the Rays' bullpen nailed it down for a 4-0 win and a trip to Boston for the American League Division Series. Three straight de facto or actual playoff elimination games...three straight contests on the road...three straight clutch wins.

The Rays celebrated their Wild Card Game win with silly string, but there was nothing silly about it. They lived to play another day...again! 2

October 7, 2013 - St. Petersburg, Florida: Rays 5 Red Sox 4

After being beaten soundly twice by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, the Rays returned home fighting for their playoff lives. The Rays trailed 3-0 in the bottom of the 5th inning with two outs, about to strand their fourth and fifth runners of the night. Rays Third baseman Evan Longoria comes through with a two-out three run homer to tie the score.

After taking the lead for only the second time in the entire series in the 8th inning, 4-3, Tampa surrendered the tying run in the top of the 9th inning with two outs. Fernando Rodney did not buckle. He struck out Mike Carp of the Red Sox, stranding Jacoby Ellsbury at third base. In the bottom of the 9th with the score tied, the Red Sox sent out their closer, Koji Uehara, and the reserve catcher Jose Lobaton of the Rays notched his first career postseason hit, which was also the first postseason walkoff home run in history of the franchise, the ball landing in the ray tank behind the outfield wall.

Jose Lobaton gets a Gatorade bath. Rachel Nichols, to his left, acts surprised. 1

Die Hard

Four do-or-die games...four wins. I don't know if the Rays can rally to push the series to a fifth game in Boston and pull off the road win. The Red Sox are very good on the mound and loaded with weapons from top-to-bottom at the plate. I don't know if the Rays have the bats to keep pace with Boston in the next two games, if they can even force two more games. But the decades-old cliche, "The game ain't over until the Fat Lady sings," could not be more applicable to a more fitting franchise.

At least we might get treated to Julianna Zobrist, wife of Rays second baseman Ben Zobrist, singing during the 7th inning stretch one more time. 4

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Even A Broken Clock Is Right Twice Per Day

If you are among the dozens of loyal readers and/or sympathetic friends that read The Daily Hat Trick regularly, I need not tell you how I feel about Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. He has been a TDHT favorite whipping boy throughout the history of the blog. Selig’s rare brand of cluelessness, callousness, incompetence, aloofness, and apathy about the demands of the average fan is legendary.

Even so, the man has had more lives than a cat. When it was announced, in 2010, that his contract was set to expire before this season and that he would (likely) retire, I thought we would be rid of this nincompoop by now. Yet he has stuck around to spite John Q. Fan, regardless.

ONE TRICK PONY

In spite of my continued expression of contempt for Selig's administration of Major League Baseball, I have always said that he got it right with the playoffs (and the 1994 realignment that facilitates the modern MLB playoff structure). Prior to the 1995 MLB Playoffs, Major League Baseball had 28 teams in four divisions. Only the four division winners reached the playoffs.

The old structure, in such a large sports entity, had a number of undesirable consequences that were out of line with the demands of the late 20th century American sports spectator. The majority of MLB teams were out of postseason contention shortly after the All-Star Game, reducing the significance of a substantial portion of the regular season to exhibition games on the record. A single significant injury could torpedo the season of an otherwise viable contender. Finally, the fewer divisions in each league contributed to greater and more concentrated scheduling inequity.

The three division structure and the Wild Card changed all of that. The majority of MLB teams typically have a dog in the “hunt for October” during the month of September. More regular season games have more significance. More playoff games with more meaning/impact per pitch (with a best of five first round structure) were available for the baseball fan’s consumption. In short, the game was made profoundly and permanently better.

This was the sight at many an MLB park in late July before realignment and the Wild Card. 1

GOING BACK TO THE WELL

Of course, Selig added the second Wild Card qualifier to each league and a single elimination Wild Card game to each league. It pains me to give this man credit, but the move was absolutely brilliant. It placed a very heavy emphasis on the importance of a team winning a division outright.

Gone is the (seemingly) annual tradition of two out of the same three American League East teams – the New York Yankees, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Boston Red Sox – playing with very little sense of urgency in late September because two of those teams were often running away with the two best records in the league; the result being no consequences for the division runner up except for having one less home game in a best-of-five first round series (which often ended in four or fewer games). Now, all but the most lowly and hapless of cellar dwellers and losing organizations are figuratively in the ball park heading into the September stretch. Division leaders in divisions with strong records had to play hard until the final day(s) of the regular season or risk a single win or go home game. It is “unfair”? It’s cold, but it’s fair and it is great for the collective fans of the game.

The Orioles got to continue a 90+ win season thanks to the additional Wild Card spot. 2

FIRST TEST RUN

So what has the first season of four round MLB Playoffs brought us? A two time defending pennant winner, the Texas Rangers, took its foot off the gas in September was eliminated, in one day, from any chance of a third consecutive American League championship while their Cinderella opponent, the Baltimore Orioles; they will play the Yankees in a Game 4 tonight.

The defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, who came close to circling the drain in September, rose to the occasion when the chips were down, clinched the second Wild Card berth in the final week of the season, and beat the favored Atlanta Braves at Atlanta in the career finale of a future Hall of Famer, Chipper Jones. They are now on the brink of picking up their “never say die” theme from the 2011 playoffs, which led them to their world championship. The Cardinals are one game away from eliminating the upstart Washington Nationals (whom the Cards play this afternoon).

The very hot Oakland A’s, who rallied from 13 games back in the A.L. West to win the division on the final day of the regular season, rallied from a two games to none deficit to force the very star-studded and talented Detroit Tigers to a deciding Game 5 tonight. And the Cincinnati Reds, possibly the best team in baseball from top to bottom, were forced into a Game 5 by the San Francisco Giants by the Giants taking two straight on the road after losing the first two games at home. The deciding game between the Giants and Reds is just underway, in the second inning, with no score.

Oakland Athletics outfielder Coco Crisp robs Prince Fielder of a homerun in Game 3 of the ALDS. The Tigers likely would have won otherwise and swept the A's from the playoffs. The two teams play a deciding Game 5 tonight. 3

HE’S STILL BUD

Foul balls will be called fair. Outs will be called safe. Perfect games will be taken away. No hitters will be awarded to the undeserving. The absence of a salary cap will ensure that some teams have a limitless competitive window while others need to be magicians in scouting and accounting to have a prayer of reaching the postseason. An All-Star exhibition will tip the home field advantage in a World Series in which half of the players involved know that they have no realistic chance of seeing without a ticket or a television. But for the playoffs, Bud got this one right.

Bud's explanation for ridiculous MLB rules: "It's in the book!" What do you want him to do? (smh) 4

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Déjà vu All Over Again?

Tonight is the final night of the Major League Baseball regular season. Last year’s season finale was arguably the greatest night in the history of regular season Major League Baseball. Four games, three of which were very close and one of which was decided by a walk-off home run to cap a seven run comeback, decided the playoff fates of four different teams. Even the casual sports fan already at home, realizing what was happening, was probably glued to his television set.

ON THE TABLE

This year will not be as dramatic as all 10 playoff spots in Major League Baseball have been clinched. However, there will be a lot at stake in three games today, one of which is underway. The winner of the Texas Rangers at the Oakland Athletics will win the American League West – Oakland leads 8-5 in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The New York Yankees could clinch the American League East with a win at home over the tragic-comic Boston Red Sox. The Baltimore Orioles could clinch the top American League Wild Card spot with a win at the bitterly disappointed and eager-to-play-spoiler Tampa Bay Rays. The Red Sox are playing their bitter archrivals and the Rays, I am sure, would like to take someone down (a little) with them after coming so close to October baseball but falling short.


POSSIBILITIES

Here are the possibilities for the teams with skin in the game today.

New York Yankees

The Yankees clinch the A.L. East with either a win over Boston or a loss by Baltimore to Tampa. Should the Yanks lose and the O’s win, then the Yankees and Orioles will play a 163rd regular season game at Baltimore to determine the division winner. In addition, the Yankees are battling for seeding. A win over the Red Sox guarantees the top seed in the American League playoffs to the Yankees.


Baltimore Orioles

It would behoove the Orioles to win today at The Trop against the Rays. A win would ensure the Orioles of nothing less than the top Wild Card spot, meaning they would host the loser of the Rangers-A’s game should they not win the A.L. East. An O’s win and a Yankees loss will allow Baltimore to host the Yankees for a one game playoff to determine the division champion. A loss to the Rays would lock Baltimore into the second and final Wild Card spot in the American League, meaning they would travel to either Texas or Oakland for one game to fight for their playoff lives.


Texas Rangers

The Rangers win the American League West and the second seed in the American League playoffs with a win in Oakland this afternoon. Should Texas lose and the Orioles defeat the Rays, Texas would be forced to travel to either Baltimore or New York for the Wild Card game, depending on which team does not win the A.L. East. If both the O’s and Rangers lose, the Rangers would host the Wild Card game.


Oakland Athletics

Oakland is in the drivers’ seat, leading the Rangers in the late innings of a winner-take-all game for the A.L. West championship. Should the A’s collapse and lose, their Wild Card position would be determined identically to the aforementioned scenarios for the Rangers.


SAME SCRIPT

While all of the A.L. teams playing in October have been decided, only the Detroit Tigers know in which round they will begin play. All the chips are in the air today. While teams will not be sent packing, the high drama on the final day of the regular season is what Commissioner Bud Selig wanted by adding a second Wild Card. For once, what he did worked.

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Silent But Deadly

Welcome to the show, Brandon Hicks! 1

Earlier this evening, Oakland Athletics shortstop Brandon Hicks (.171, 1 HR, 3 RBI) hit the first home run of his major league career against the first place American League West rival Texas Rangers. It was a walk-off, solo home run to center field. It has the A's, winners of 10 of their last 12 games, tied for the second American League Wild Card spot at the time the game ended. 


BACK IN THE GAME, BABY!

The Hat Trick has briefly commented on the A's in our pre-season, one-quarter season point, and halfway point evaluations of the American League's teams. I predicted a mediocre season, and the A's were less than mediocre at the time of the one quarter-point evaluation (actually in last place, slightly behind the woeful Seattle Mariners). What has happened since that point is amazing.

By the All-Star break, the Athletics had played themselves back into contention. I hear the A's getting very little attention in sports media. However, should the Athletics, behind stellar pitching and right fielder Josh Reddick's (.271, 26 HR, 46 RBI) base-clearing bat, continue to play .500-plus baseball it will be impossible to ignore them in September, and possibly October.


RETURNING TO THEIR ROOTS

The Athletics were once a proud franchise, dominating the American League in the late 1980s and early 1990s with three pennants and a 1989 World Series championship under future Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa. The A's last playoff appearance was in 2006, when they were swept from the American League Championship Series by the Detroit Tigers. The American League Divisional Series sweep of the Minnesota Twins in that 2006 season was the Athletics' first playoff series win in 16 years. During that 16 year drought, the A's only had a heart-breaking string of four consecutive Game 5 losses in the best-of-five first round of the playoffs between 2000 and 2003.

There has not been much to celebrate on the other side of the Bay in a very long time. Manager Bob Melvin, in his first full season as the Athletics' manager, could be just two months away from bringing the magic back to O.co Colosseum. If so, he may enjoy the biggest "I told you so," in the faces of myself and every other sports writer who wrote them off in March.  


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