October is always a time when we see some shocking stuff in the baseball world. But this year's edition of the MLB postseason has been one of the wackiest in recent memory.
The Detroit Tigers ran out three consecutive AL Cy Young Award winners to the mound against the Baltimore Orioles along with a two-time defending AL MVP and Triple Crown winner, and the Tigers got swept away by the upstart Baltimore Orioles and former Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz.
The Los Angeles Angels had the best regular-season record in all of baseball, but looked hopeless against a red-hot Kansas City Royals team making its first postseason appearance since 1985. The Royals swept the Angels using its standout bullpen and got two of those wins in extra-inning thrillers.
So who had an Orioles-Royals ALCS? Go ahead and raise your hand. OK, quit lying.
Over in the National League, the wild-card San Francisco Giants duplicated the Royals' feat and knocked off the team with the best record in the league, the Washington Nationals to continue the Giants streak of winning seven straight postseason series. In the other division series, the St. Louis Cardinals matched up pretty evenly with the best team money can buy, the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the Cardinals beat NL Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw twice to win the series in four games.
Could we be on our way to another I-70 World Series between the Royals and Cardinals? It'd be appropriate since it would be a rematch of that 1985 World Series which the Royals won in their last postseason appearance prior to this year. Given the way things have gone so far, why not?
