Napoli and Holiday Awake From the Dead

I made the executive decision to basically do the MLB Playoffs like I did with the Brewers this season. Meaning the previews will be the same, highlights and lowlights will show up plus some recaps and bigger pieces. Hope you enjoy.

Boston 1 Detroit 0 - The Tigers suffered a tough loss on Sunday evening that everyone talked about for 48 hours. People talked a bit about Los Angeles yesterday, yet it still focused on David Ortiz's grand slam. It did not help Tom Brady also had a game-winning touchdown meaning they were showing both clips back-to-back all day long. But the Tigers sent Justin Verlander to the mound whose been absolutely great in the last several stars. He delivered again with a great performance against Boston showing why he is still one of the best in the league except for one bad pitch.

No one will remember Verlander had 10 strikeouts and only gave up four hits because one of those hits was a home run surrendered to Mike Napoli, a player whose been horrible for the greater part of the series. Napoli smacked a solo home run to left center giving the Red Sox a lead. Thanks to John Lackey's equally good pitching performance and the Red Sox bullpen, they held the lead.  It felt like Lackey pitched like a man hearing all of these things about Verlander and went out there to prove a point. Also Jonny Gomes's comments made me feel the same way.

The eighth inning came back to bite Detroit again, but this time with their offense. Junichi Tazawa came into the game for Craig Breslow after he had allowed a walk to Austin Jackson. Torii Hunter lined a shot to right putting runners on first and third with one out and the two big bats in the lineup coming up, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. All the Tigers needed was a fly ball to tie the ball game up and they could not get it. Tazawa strikes out Cabrera and Koji Uehara came in and did the same with Prince Fielder. Brutal feeling for Detroit when their two biggest bats come up short when they needed it the most.  

St. Louis 4 Los Angeles 2 - For the second straight year, St. Louis has a 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series (They also lost a 3-1 lead against Atlanta in 1996 where they gave up a combined 29 runs in Game 5 and Game 7... CHOKE). Although this time they have homefield advantage versus heading back to San Francisco for Game 6 (Or Atlanta for that matter).  Matt Holiday hit a big two-run homer blasted halfway to San Diego putting the Dodgers up 3-0 in the fourth inning. Holiday has been a zombie at the plate before he figured it out for one at-bat on Tuesday night. Holiday came up with the big hit and Shane Robinson, yes Shane Robinson, he might have done your taxes in April, but he hit an insurance home run pushing St. Louis' lead out to 4-2.

I would be remiss if I did not mention Nick Punto's baserunning error in the seventh inning.  Punto hits a double with two outs and the top of the order was coming up. He somehow gets picked off of second base. You never know what could happen if Punto stays on-base there. This is not the first time in the postseason when Punto had a great f-- up.

After playing such a harebrained game on Monday night, St. Louis did the complete inverse on Tuesday. They played a clean game in all facets of the game. Los Angeles has never came back from a 3-1 deficit for their entire franchise. I will say this though Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw going for Los Angles in the next two games are what I want as a baseball team and then when it goes to Game 7, anything can happen.

Charlie.