With the Yankees taking on the Phillies, we will see a real battle between the Titans in the MLB World Series. The Yankees are a 103 win team that is one of the best in baseball and no stranger to postseason play. They missed the playoffs last year, but that was a kind of fluke, it would seem. They have a huge payroll that includes both strong hitters and great pitchers. Their manager change seems to also have been crucial. The Phillies, though, have a strong lineup and good pitching as well. They will be throwing some good stuff at the Yankees and they play with the kind of attitude that you need to have to win World Series every year. The Dodgers didn’t have anything for them. The Yankees have been consistent but the Phillies have been rising all year. This week we will finally get so see this great matchup!

The Dodgers went back to the West Coast, having lost the last game of the NLCS. We were hoping that the series would get a little more interesting, but they went out with a whimper. There wasn’t much actual batting from the team, with Manny Ramirez becoming unable to do anything big and all those powerful players that they’ve been scooping up throughout the year made practically no difference. The Phillies just dominated LA, who had been first in the NL for a large part of the season. The Phillies go back to the World Series to try and win their second in a row. They became the losing-est team in pro sports a couple years ago, but now they’re back and doing a great job. They await the winner of the ALCS where the Yankees are ahead of the Angels at this point.

Let’s start in the NLCS. The Phillies won on a 2 out, 2 run double from Jimmy Rollins in the bottom of the 9th. This is only the 3rd postseason to end with a walk-off extra base hit that brought the team from being within an out of losing to winning the game. The Phillies now have a much safer lead of 3-1 in the series and might be able to close it out on Wednesday. In the ALCS, the Angels have come back to trail only 2-1 in their series, after last night’s walk-off double. By the backup catcher. It’s been a strange series so far, and it does start to feel like the Yankees will actually have to play a real series rather than “saving themselves” for the World Series. Only a few games remain in either series, so it’s going to be extra exciting in the next few days. Maybe by Friday we’ll even know out two teams for the championship.

When the Phillies took the field against the Dodgers last night, no one was completely sure what to expect. After all, there had been talk for the last week about the Phillies pitching staff and what we were to anticipate from them. There had been some major changes in it at a time of the year that generally sees no changes at all. But last night, Brad Lidge showed that he was still at the top of his game and Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz were able to get themselves back into the kind of playoff hitting that we’ve expected to see for a few weeks now. This is a team that’s looking more and more like the team that we saw in last year’s championship run. The Dodgers and the ALCS winners should beware, because it might be a bumpy ride. The Dodgers lost 8-6 but it wasn’t as close as it seems for most of the game, and now they lead 1-0 in the series.

They were ahead in the 9th inning. They looked like they could push the team to either a game 4 or a game 5. But both teams gave up several runs in the last inning of their season to fall out of the playoffs. For St. Louis, there were several events that happened that essentially ended the season. One of them was the Holliday dropped ball in the 9th inning. It bounced off his glove and stomach, leading to the team giving up several runs in the 9th of Game 2. Then there was the bullpen not holding down the closing part of the rotation. The Rockies had a decent series, but were unable to get the job done, as Houston Street lost the lead in the top of the 9th in Game 4 last night. His team was up 2, having scored 3 runs the previous inning, but he gave up three on a sacrifice fly and a Ryan Howard two run double. It will be a long offseason for these two teams, since both might find themselves making big changes before spring training starts up again.

While there have been other games since then, I feel like the most interesting thing so far is the play-in game between the Twins and Tigers. The battle was fierce. The game was a lot like the season: it was tied for a long time, with the Tigers taking a short lead and then losing it. The Tigers completed their several-week-long skid and lost in 12 innnings to the Twins. The Twins have extended the lifespan of their stadium with this win and had to take on the Yankees the next evening in New York. They lost. They have had another day to regroup, so they might be able to even up the series here at the end. What a difficult time, but the Twins couldn’t play their one-game playoff any sooner, because of the Vikings’ Monday Night Football game in Minneapolis. We wish the best to the Twins as the playoffs move on.

Tonight’s the big night for the Tigers and the Twins. They will be battling for the only spot left in the MLB playoffs for this year: the AL Central championship. We will be watching these two teams tonight, because it might be one of the most exciting games of the year. Certainly the two pitchers stomachs are churning right now, getting ready for the game. Everything for 2009 is at stake in this game for these two teams. Whoever wins will move on to play the Yankees, which isn’t an enviable position to be in, that’s for sure. Hopefully, the game tonight will actually show the teams’ best sides and give a fair win to everyone. No controversial calls, just honest ones and everything.

The Rockies and Dodgers are both in the playoffs officially. But it hasn’t been decided which of the teams will be the winner of the NL West and which one will be the Wild Card team. They are playing each other this weekend, but it’s going to be interesting. It’s also possible that the Wild Card team gets the better deal, but it hasn’t been said yet who they will be playing against along the way. It’s a good year for both teams, and very few people had anticipated that the West would yield two playoff teams this year. Now, with some fun teams going forwards, it’s going to be a great year for the MLB. No one knows who’s going to win, but a lot of fun will be had by all.