What is a "Pennant Race" and Why Should I Care?

Tonight we plow headlong into the middle and the meat of the Pennant Race.  What is the Pennant Race, you ask?  Before 1969, baseball only had two divisions:  The American League and the National League. The team with the best record from each advanced to the World Series.  Now, we have three divisions within the AL and NL.  The winners of each Division plus a Wildcard team (the fourth best overall score in each League) play through a set of playoffs to win "The Pennant" or the League title.  This in and of itself is a huge accomplishment.  Those two teams then square off in the Fall Classic, better known as The World Series.  The bracket this year looked like this:

We are right smack dab in the middle of this year's Pennant Race with a big night ahead of us:

This afternoon at 3pm CST, the San Francisco Giants travel to St. Louis for Game 3 in a best of 7 series to win the NL Pennant and advance to the World Series.  The series is TIED at 1-1.  The next three games are in St. Louis today, Thursday and Friday, then the series returns to SF if needed for games 6 & 7. 

TALKING POINTS:

1.  The Cards and Giants have met twice recently in the NLCS (National League Championship Series) in 1987 (Cards advanced) and 2002 (Giants advanced).  Baseball fans LOOOOOOVE history between teams.  THESE TWO TEAMS ARE THE WINNERS OF THE LAST TWO WORLD SERIES!!  (Cards - 2011, Giants - 2010)  The last time two back to back champs met this late in the Postseason was in 1958 when the Yankees took on the Braves.

2.  Monday night, Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday plowed into Giants 2nd Baseman Marco Scutaro, taking one of their stars out of the game.  He plans to return today!  And watch the Cards' Carlos Beltran.  He is their best hitter, AND he is also a former Giant.  Burn. Media darling, Buster Posey, is the best batter in the game for the Giants.....keep your eye on him!

3.  Matt Cain is the starting pitcher for SF today.  He is coming off 5 days rest after leading his team to victory in a do-or-die in Cincinatti.  (4-5 days rest is the minimum usually required to rest a starting pitcher's arm--starting him with less is a risk for injury and sub-par performance, but is sometimes done for strategy) He is 1-1 vs the Cardinals' batters this season, giving up 9 runs in 11 2/3 innings pitched.  The Cards think they have his number.  We'll see......

4.  Kyle Lohse "gets the start" (meaning he's the starting pitcher) for the Cardinals.  He is 3-2 vs the Giants this season with a 3.78 ERA against them.  (Earned Run Average:  avg of how many runs he lets the opponents score off his pitching, notwithstanding the errors of other fielders) The League avg is a 4.5 ERA.  Kyle had the 8th best ERA in all of baseball this season with a 2.86.  Anything under a 3.00 is considered to be really, really good. 

New York Yankees @ Detroit Tigers  GAME 4  7:07 PM CST on TBS

Baseball fans feel only one of two ways about the Yankees:  LOVE 'em or HATE 'em.  They have the most World Series victories of any team in History with 27.  (Cardinals are second with 11) They have consistently had the highest paid roster in all of baseball, the largest TV contracts and the highest merchandise sales.  So whether you can't get enough of those Yankees pinstripes or you're a diehard Tigers fan, here are the hot topics for the rest of this series:

1.  The Yankees face getting swept TONIGHT (losing in four straight games to be eliminated) for only the fifth time in 73 Postseason appearances (that's a TON of appearances, the most in baseball ever), with the last coming in a loss to George Brett and the Kansas City Royals in 1980.  (32 years ago......gulp).  

2.  Everyone is talking about how the Boston Red Sox came from behind in this exact scenario in the ALCS against the Yankees in 2004, and overcame their loooooooong drought to win the World Series (over the Cardinals) to end the curse of the Bambino.  (more on that another day)

3.  C. C. Sabathia gets the start for the Yankees.  He had a 3.38 ERA this season, but is 2-0 with a 1.53 ERA so far this postseason.  He is coming off a huge win for the Yanks in their Division clencher. 

4.  The Detroit Tigers lost the World Series to the Cardinals in 2006.  And they eliminated the Yankees in 5 games in this same series last year!

5.  Max Sherzer gets the start for Detroit tonight.  Enjoy!!!