Round 2 starts today. And if was anything like Round 1, or the preliminary double header on Monday, it’s going to be a great day of baseball watching.
They call it the Divisional Series, and this time that’s almost correct.
In the National League, New York plays divisional rival Philadelphia, while San Diego takes on divisional rival Los Angeles. There is no Central division team.
In the American League, Detroit plays divisional rival Cleveland, and Kansas City from the Central takes on New York from the East. There is no West division team.
This best-of-five round should be intense because in three of the four matchups, you have teams that have played one another thirteen times already this season. They are heated rivals and they are very familiar with each other.
Cleveland was just 7-6 against Detroit. Same with Philadelphia, they were just 7-6 against New York. San Diego was 8-5 against Los Angeles. The Yankees dominated Kansas City, 5-2.
What makes this whole thing frustrating is the West is a two-team division. Houston and Texas. Seattle can often be good but never good enough to make the playoff, always collapsing at the end. Los Angeles and Oakland have horrible ownership that do not know how to or do not care about winning, so they will perpetually be battling it out for last place.
In that muck and mire, the Rangers could only finish third. Third in a two-team division.
*****
TODAY’S GAMES:
12:08, Detroit @ Cleveland, TBS
3:08, New York @ Philadelphia, FOX
5:38, Kansas City @ New York, TBS
7:38, San Diego @ Los Angeles, FS1