{"id":17380,"date":"2013-10-03T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=17380"},"modified":"2013-10-12T15:34:20","modified_gmt":"2013-10-12T14:34:20","slug":"wild-cards-won-onto-the-division-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=17380","title":{"rendered":"Wild Cards Won, onto the Division Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It clearly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay to be a team beginning with \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 from Ohio in the two Wild Card \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcplay-in\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 games.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati and Cleveland both came a-cropper and had to suffer the harsh fate of their playoff hopes being dashed in a single game at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays respectively.<\/p>\n

The two defeated teams will view their seasons differently: for Cincinnati it was a depressing end to a relatively disappointing year, whilst for Cleveland it was a tremendous \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and frankly unexpected \u00e2\u20ac\u201c achievement even to get as far as they did.<\/p>\n

As for the victors, they will march into their Division Series match-ups with a real spring in their step.<\/p>\n

The Rays have now come through two win-or-go-home contests, three if you include their must-win 162nd game of the regular season. Although that means they haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been able to set up their starting pitching rotation quite as they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like, they are razor-sharp and will go into their series against Boston believing that they may be able to take advantage of a slightly under-cooked Red Sox team, who will have gone four days without a game before they take the field on Friday.<\/p>\n

The St. Louis Cardinals have only had three days off prior to their Game One against Pittsburgh on Thursday night but they also know they are facing a team bursting with energy thanks to their Wild Card game victory. We all expected the Pittsburgh home crowd to be excited about their team being in the playoffs for the first time in over two decades, but the atmosphere generated at PNC Park was incredible and something that will live long in the memory, especially for Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto.<\/p>\n