I’ve seen both the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers play in person this year, from the field level.
Both teams are awe-inspiringly good for different reasons.
The St. Louis Cardinals, despite being stuck in third place in late June when they visited my hometown Orioles, were a well tuned machine of slick fielding and savvy base running. Extra bases were taken on offense, and extra bases were denied on defense. It was a very subtle dominance, but each player (even the woefully slow Lance Berkman) was efficient at his position. A freak arm injury robbed me the pleasure of seeing Albert Pujols (I’m still bitter about it), but no player was truly a superstar at his position, but was above average. A very key distinction that separates the play-off teams from my Orioles (in addition to playing in the more forgiving NL Central).
The Texas Rangers, despite being in a dogfight with the perennially underwhelming Angels at the season’s onset in late May when they came to Charm City , were a collection of hammers. Outside of the New York Yankees, no other team had such a collection of guys who could straight mash (not to be confused with hit, that would be the hated Red Sox… though, those guys were more like slow pitch softball all-stars. Kings of placing the ball in the gaps between fielders than sheer force). Literally, everyone on their roster was capable of ripping a shot down the foul line or launching a majestic rainbow into the cheap seats (though, that’s a relative term at Camden Yards).
With the exception of Chris Carpenter (criminally underrated… he might be the least respected, still dominant Cy Young award winner of the past decade… sorry, Brandon Webb) and oft brilliant Derek Holland (he of the even more brilliant nickname, the Dutch Oven), no pitcher on either staff really can dominate a game (apologies to Scott Feldman of the Rangers and Jason Motte of the Cardinals… each has had their share of stumbles).
So there should really be no surprise this series has gone to Game 7.
Who will win tonight?
The brawn of the Rangers or the team-bigger-than-the-individual-parts Cardinals? Ron Washington managing on instinct and in-game intuition or Tony La Russa micromanaging through a complicated formula of matrices and advanced algebra?
St. Louis, who has been scratching and grinding just to get into the play-offs, has been riding an incredible fortunate streak (including last night’s Game 6 that was filled with more than one fortunate bounce… well, that and Nelson Cruz’ inability to field fly balls) just as Texas has been self-assured and dominant since early Summer.
Well, its one game. Anything can happen and, for this series, everything has happened. It’s time for the more talented, mashers from the Lone Star State to win 6-2. Unless, of course, the game comes down to Nelson Cruz fielding a fly ball again.
