Playoff Recap: Round 2

Playoff Recap- Round 2

            We had quite the oddities in this year ALCS and NLCS haven’t we.  Boston and Detroit were 2 favorites heading to the playoffs and so were LA and St. Louis.  All 4 teams were actually in the tops of a lot of categories leading to the playoffs; one of the few times I’ve seen that the top teams were in the 2^nd round all together.  Well without delay lets look at what happened during the series.

Boston Red Sox vs. Detroit Tigers- This was the battle of the best teams in the AL to be sure.  The only team that topped Boston in offensive categories was in fact Detroit so this had the potential to be a brawl, and neither team disappointed.  The pitching for both teams were spectacular, both teams ERA’s combined not topping 3.00 (2.91 to be exact).  What it came down to was the offense of both teams and who could get it done.  Pitching can win you a series but you can’t win 0-0, and this is where both teams struggled.  In fact Boston actually had a worse overall stat line than Detroit did this includes pitching.  In the end Boston’s bullpen and timely hits did just enough to topple the Tigers who’s defense ended up being just not up to the task of taking on Boston.

Boston Red Sox: Hitting

AVG	RISP	OBP	SLG	OPS	GPA	BABIP	SB%	K%	BB%	K/BB
.202	.180	.256	.332	.588	.198	.289	80%	27%	6%	4.7

Pitching

ERA	WHIP	FIP	K/9	BB/9	K/BB	GB/FB	HR/FB
3.06	1.28	3.06	4.7	2.0	2.3	1.45	4%

Detroit Tigers: Hitting

AVG	RISP	OBP	SLG	OPS	GPA	BABIP	SB%	K%	BB%	K/BB
.255	.260	.324	.332	.656	.229	.358	100%	20%	8%	2.3

Pitching

ERA	WHIP	FIP	K/9	BB/9	K/BB	GB/FB	HR/FB
2.77	1.10	2.37	8.1	2.0	4.1	1.08	10%

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers- Another series that pitted the best of the NL against each other and was one I watched very closely.  The Dodgers, much like Detroit, beat St. Louis in all the categories statistically.  Unlike Detroit and Boston though St. Louis won most of the pitching stats and was overall more dominate on the mound than LA.  LA was also unable to really capitalize on RISP, which is one of many factors to consider, the other major thing to consider is the bad defense of the Dodgers.  The team isn’t a bad defensive team but when it really counted the team seemed to make very simple errors that cost them runs.  Puig showed his inexperience many times and really did give the Cardinals a few more R’s than they should have had.  In the end St. Louis just hit when it counted and made sure that LA’s bats didn’t start anything.

St. Louis Cardinals: Hitting

AVG	RISP	OBP	SLG	OPS	GPA	BABIP	SB%	K%	BB%	K/BB
.211	.349	.277	.302	.579	.200	.310	100%	23%	8%	2.8

Pitching

ERA	WHIP	FIP	K/9	BB/9	K/BB	GB/FB	HR/FB
2.09	0.95	2.80	5.6	1.2	4.5	1.47	7%

Los Angeles Dodgers: Hitting

AVG	RISP	OBP	SLG	OPS	GPA	BABIP	SB%	K%	BB%	K/BB
.211	.200	.252	.337	.589	.198	.284	100%	24%	5%	4.5

Pitching

ERA	WHIP	FIP	K/9	BB/9	K/BB	GB/FB	HR/FB
3.27	1.09	2.71	5.6	2.0	2.8	1.30	4%