Congrats, Royals

Has Ned Yost turned into Whitey Herzog?

I am not a Royals fan. I followed along on this game.  Most of the names I do not recognize outside of Billy Butler and Hosmer.  It's all the AL, so, really, who cares?  Nevertheless, it's nice to see the A's get knocked out.  A betting person would be wise to put money on the Angels -- arguably the best team in baseball, in a five-game series with three at home.

The Royals have been extremely streaky this year.  There have been stretches where they could not be beaten.  That wasn't how their regular season ended, so I count this game as a fluke.  It was a good one, though.  They didn't quit despite being down five runs going into the eighth, down one in the bottom of the ninth, and down again by one in the bottom of the twelfth.  Fans were leaving Kaufman after the seventh, and our local on-scene sports reporters were downcast.

I'd call the odds of another I-70 Series less that 5%.  That, of course, would be my preferred match-up with the Cards in a four-game sweep --  revenge for '85 and Game 6.  No, you blue devils, twenty-nine years, nay, a hundred years won't erase the stigma you bear.

We'll see how Pittsburgh does tonight.  The Giants and Pirates are evenly matched on games won in the regular season as well as run differentials, though the Pirates both scored and allowed more runs.  Pittsburgh was 20-12 against the West while the Giants were 16-16 against Central teams.  I'd give Pittsburgh a slight advantage.

UPDATE:  The Pirates were shutdown cold by SF pitching.  I only caught a minute halfway through.  Pretty impressive. 

My off-the-wall, certainly wrong prediction for the Series at this point is an all-East, I-95 corridor contest:  Baltimore versus Washington, with the Orioles taking the trophy in five games.