By the end of the day yesterday, both the NLCS and the ALCS matchups were set, and Chicago is excluded from both of them.
Following up on the Dodgers sweep of the Cubs, the Phillies beat the Brewers on Sunday to win their series 3 games to 1:
MILWAUKEE — Their friendship goes back nearly 15 years, since Jimmy Rollins and Pat Burrell were teenagers in Northern California. It has been strengthened by all those lean seasons in a Philadelphia organization that had been synonymous with futility.
They are the longest-tenured Phillies, and their patience is being rewarded. On Sunday, the Phillies beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-2, to win their best-of-five division series in four games and vault into the National League Championship Series for the first time since 1993. Rollins led off the game with a home run, stifling the earsplitting crowd, and Burrell blasted two, a three-run shot in the third inning and a bases-empty homer in the eighth.
So it will be the Dodgers vs. the Phillies in the National League Championship Series.
Then yesterday, the ALCS was set.
First, the Rays beat the White Sox and ended Chicago’s dreams:
CHICAGO — Cliff Floyd thought he was safe. He found a spot in a hallway, several feet removed from the Champagne- and beer-soaked mayhem of the Tampa Bay Rays’ clubhouse, to speak with a small group of reporters.
But another Rays veteran, Eric Hinske, found him. Hinske dribbled a little beer on Floyd’s shaved head, then ducked back into the clubhouse, where the celebration of Tampa Bay’s American League division series victory over the Chicago White Sox roared on.
“Look in there,” Floyd said. “This is crazy.”
No crazier than this: Tampa Bay, for 10 years the designated doormat of the American League, made its first postseason appearance a joyous one. With a 6-2 victory over the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field on Monday, the Rays wrapped up this American League division series, three games to one.
Then the defending World Champion (ugh) Red Sox beat the Angels:
BOSTON — Before Manny Delcarmen had thrown a pitch to Erick Aybar in the ninth inning Monday night, catcher Jason Varitek reminded him to be aware that Aybar might attempt a squeeze bunt to push in the go-ahead run from third base. Delcarmen appreciated the reminder, but he did not need it.
During a game between the Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels last season, Delcarmen explained, the Angels successfully used a squeeze bunt against him. In the most pivotal game of the 2008 season, Delcarmen did not plan to let the Angels victimize him with their small ball again.
Once the Red Sox stopped the squeeze play in the ninth, Jed Lowrie’s two-out single in the bottom of the inning delivered Jason Bay and guided them to a 3-2 victory and a four-game conquest in their American League division series. The Red Sox, the defending World Series champions, will oppose the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Championship starting Friday.
Go Tampa ! Beat Boston !
Go Dodgers ! Beat Philly !
