It was all so different in 2005. The NL West division was a figure of fun, except for supporters of the teams involved. The Padres \u00e2\u20ac\u0153won\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the pennant with an 82-80 record before being swept by the Cardinals in the division series. It was difficult to know who should feel the most ashamed: the Padres for claiming the division with such a paltry record or the Rockies for finishing bottom of a historically terrible heap?<\/p>\n
How times change. The NL \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Worst\u00e2\u20ac\u009d provides both teams in this year’s NLCS and Colorado’s finest are one of them. There’s hope for Pittsburgh and the other lowly Central teams yet.<\/p>\n
Is there a favourite in this contest? It seems as though most of the pundits are jumping on the Rockies’ bandwagon and there’s no doubt that they are in stunning (possibly unstoppable?) form. But don’t discount the D-Backs: Arizona finished ahead of their NLCS rivals over the 162 game campaign (admittedly by just 0.5 games, but it counts all the same) and they’ve just swept the much-touted Cubs. Could it be that both teams have flown into the post-season under the radar of many of the major sports network experts and the Rockies are getting the votes simply because their late-season streak caught their attention? Bearing in mind some of the condescending comments being made about the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153second series\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, it wouldn’t be a surprise. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Flip a coin. Who cares? They’ll get pummelled by Boston or Cleveland anyway\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
Whichever two teams make it to the World Series, the AL representative will be the favourite to take home the trophy and rightfully so. Overall, the NL is the weaker of the two leagues and, when you look at the rosters, it’s hard to argue that the Red Sox and the Indians don’t have the upper hand. The same was said about the Tigers last year though and they were the ones left bemoaning their luck over the winter while the Cardinals were still celebrating.<\/p>\n
Like a lot of baseball fans, I’m just as excited about the NLCS as I am about the ALCS, possibly a bit more so. It promises to be an evenly matched contest between two young, unheralded sides and it would be no surprise if the disrespectful comments help to generate a classic, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one-for-the-ages\u00e2\u20ac\u009d series. With the ALCS not starting until Friday, the Senior circuit pair have the stage all to themselves, a prime opportunity to make the baseball world sit up and take notice of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153other series\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Jeff Francis and Brandon Webb are more than capable of making a statement, that’s for sure. <\/p>\n
In a best-of-seven series, it’s not quite so important to win the opener as it seems to be in the best-of-five division series. Both teams are on a roll though so snapping the other’s momentum might prove more crucial this time around. The NLCS starts off in Arizona and for the opening match-up that might tilt things in the Rockies’ favour. Francis pitched brilliantly in his only start at Chase Field this season back in May, earning the win by throwing seven scoreless frames and giving up just four hits. Webb meanwhile was 0-2 with a 6.00 ERA in his three home starts against the Rockies. However, of the last eighteen starters to face Colorado, Webb is the only one who has managed to beat them (with Francis taking the loss that afternoon), so maybe his sinkerball pitch is the kryptonite that can quell those fearsome bats?<\/p>\n
We will find out soon enough. Game one starts at 01.30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was all so different in 2005. The NL West division was a figure of fun, except for supporters of the teams involved. The Padres \u00e2\u20ac\u0153won\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the pennant with an 82-80 record before being swept by the Cardinals in the division series. It was difficult to know who should feel the most ashamed: the Padres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4408,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions\/4408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}