Friday, October 1, 2004
Three Is A Magic Number
Yes, it is. It's a magic number.
No, three is not the actual magic number for the San Francisco Giants. What with all the possible wild card and division title implications, I won't be doing any math at the moment to find out exactly what a magic number might be for them. But I do know that there are three games left, and the Giants, in order to win the last bastion of purism, the division title, have to sweep three games from the Dodgers starting tonight in Los Angeles.
If that do that, then it's back to San Francisco for one game to determine the N.L. West champion. (After that, there might or might not be a playoff game for the wild-card spot, but let's stay focused.) I want the Giants to win the division first. It just looks better on the postseason resume, even though four of the last eight World Series participants have been wild cards. We'll settle for the wild card if it comes to that. Win the West first!
Daunting task? Maybe so. Then again, we look at the three starters slated to go for the Dodgers this weekend: Jeff Weaver, Edwin Jackson, and Kaz Ishii. Not exactly Spahn, Sain, or two days of rain. You wouldn't guess this would be a part of a playoff team's rotation. The Giants, meanwhile, are going with Rueter, Tomko and Schmidt. These are winnable games. Throw in a Monday playoff with, say, Noah Lowry going, and you may have yourself a division winner. We just need to be patient at the plate and make sure we have the lead before Eric Gagne comes in.
All this being said, I think the division title is our only shot. Houston, the team the Giants are tied with for the wild-card lead, gets to play Colorado to end the season. A bunch of rolling-over misfits against the hottest team in the National League? This doesn't leave a lot of room for error for the Giants, who are plenty capable of throwing a game away. Congrats, Houston. We here at E.K. Nation think you've made the playoffs, keeping E.K. Nation's preseason World Series pick of Yankees-over-Astros alive. Then again, stranger things have happened.
A.L. West: It's come down to a three-game set in Oakland, where the Angels and A's will in effect play a best-two-out-three series to see who advances to the "next" round. The pick here is the Angels, who will win tonight and tomorrow to take the flag. Sunday's game won't matter, although they will win that one too to take the second seed (and the BoSox in the first round). The Angels seem to be catching fire just at the right time (paging Dr. Guerrero), and the A's are just sluggish right now, struggling to get out of the Seattle series with their jugular still intact.
No, three is not the actual magic number for the San Francisco Giants. What with all the possible wild card and division title implications, I won't be doing any math at the moment to find out exactly what a magic number might be for them. But I do know that there are three games left, and the Giants, in order to win the last bastion of purism, the division title, have to sweep three games from the Dodgers starting tonight in Los Angeles.
If that do that, then it's back to San Francisco for one game to determine the N.L. West champion. (After that, there might or might not be a playoff game for the wild-card spot, but let's stay focused.) I want the Giants to win the division first. It just looks better on the postseason resume, even though four of the last eight World Series participants have been wild cards. We'll settle for the wild card if it comes to that. Win the West first!
Daunting task? Maybe so. Then again, we look at the three starters slated to go for the Dodgers this weekend: Jeff Weaver, Edwin Jackson, and Kaz Ishii. Not exactly Spahn, Sain, or two days of rain. You wouldn't guess this would be a part of a playoff team's rotation. The Giants, meanwhile, are going with Rueter, Tomko and Schmidt. These are winnable games. Throw in a Monday playoff with, say, Noah Lowry going, and you may have yourself a division winner. We just need to be patient at the plate and make sure we have the lead before Eric Gagne comes in.
All this being said, I think the division title is our only shot. Houston, the team the Giants are tied with for the wild-card lead, gets to play Colorado to end the season. A bunch of rolling-over misfits against the hottest team in the National League? This doesn't leave a lot of room for error for the Giants, who are plenty capable of throwing a game away. Congrats, Houston. We here at E.K. Nation think you've made the playoffs, keeping E.K. Nation's preseason World Series pick of Yankees-over-Astros alive. Then again, stranger things have happened.
A.L. West: It's come down to a three-game set in Oakland, where the Angels and A's will in effect play a best-two-out-three series to see who advances to the "next" round. The pick here is the Angels, who will win tonight and tomorrow to take the flag. Sunday's game won't matter, although they will win that one too to take the second seed (and the BoSox in the first round). The Angels seem to be catching fire just at the right time (paging Dr. Guerrero), and the A's are just sluggish right now, struggling to get out of the Seattle series with their jugular still intact.
