Today we’re looking at the San Francisco Giants (25-18), who have quickly risen to be one of the hottest teams in baseball. Thanks in no small part to back-to-back series sweeps against Arizona and San Diego, the Giants are winners of eight straight and sit comfortably atop the NL West.

Leading the charge has been San Francisco’s pitching triple threat of Madison Bumgarner, Jeff Samardzija, and Johnny Cueto, with respective ERAs of 2.45, 2.66, and 2.70. The three hurlers are a combined 17-5 on the season, with marks that are going to make it tough for teams to compete in a best-of-seven series. Matt Cain and Jake Peavy  are both struggling mightily to start the season though, and will need to get back on track fairly soon for this rotation to be a season-long force.

A nice surprise for the Giants has been just how effective Hunter Pence is in the lineup. The 33-year-old leads the team in batting average (.297), RBIs (32), and even home runs (7) at the quarter-season mark, all of which would be on-pace to beat career averages. Few teams are going to want the face the Giants if the rest of their offense – currently 7th in the league in runs scored – produces just a bit more.

​The Giants face a big test this weekend as they host the first-place Chicago Cubs for a 3-game set. It’s still very early, but this series could be a good gauge as to whether or not the 2016 Giants are pretenders, or are indeed still on pace to win every even-year World Series for the rest of time.

Season's Over looks at the possibility of the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Dodger meeting in the 2014 NLDS and how the matchup would pan out.

By Mike Corasaniti
Editor-in-Chief

Some consider it the greatest baseball rivalry of all time, even better than that small time Boston-New York thing on the east coast. The two franchises have met an astonishing 2,394 times in their 125-year history, with countless pennant races, division titles, and bragging rights on the line. Even more astonishingly so though, the two franchises have only met in what we now consider to be baseball’s postseason only once: The 1889 World Series, when the then Brooklyn Bridgegrooms defeated the then New York Giants.

Since then, both teams have had long and successful franchise runs while running into the other on every so often. The Dodgers have won six World Series titles (The first of which in Brooklyn) while the Giants have won seven of their own (With only the last two coming in San Francisco). But with both teams once again battling it out for an NL West title, are both teams once again standing in each other’s way of further lining their trophy cases?

A Word on the Dodgers

Los Angeles has one of the best, and highly publicized, problems in the entire league: When Carl Crawford returns from injury, they will have too many outfielders.

Yasiel Puig has only continued to cement himself as one of the best players in the game in right field, Andre Ethier has stayed consistent at the plate and wherever head coach Don Mattingly puts him, and Matt Kemp’s .350 June batting average is making it very hard to think about taking him out of the lineup. But whatever the Dodgers end up doing to shift things around, these three have been a lynchpin behind the Dodgers finally rediscovering what made them so successful in their 92-win campaign last season.

And if these are the things that the Dodgers have to “worry” about in their lineup then they are going to be in pretty good shape, especially considering their starting rotation. Zach Greinke is striking out batters left and right, L.A.’s bullpen is closing out as many games as the best of them, and can you name another team that has thrown two no-hitters this season?

With Clayton Kershaw leading the way and veteran Josh Beckett rounding things out, their rotation is one of the best and hottest right now.

A Word on the Giants

Their current losing streak and 2013 downturn aside, the Giants have been one of the more consistent teams under head coach Bruce Bochy. Their last two NL West and World Series titles came under Bochy, and his team’s four-game division lead – the second highest in the majors – certainly isn’t a bad sign of things to come.

Their pitching staff has had a rough week and then some, but it’s still near the top of the league in team WHIP, opponent’s batting average, and ERA. Thank Madison Bumgarner and the 38-year-old Tim Hudson for keeping the Giants in as many games as they have so far this season, as well as the still-excellent Sergio Romo and his 20 saves through mid-June.

San Francisco’s lineup has still been strong recently as well, which makes their recent skid all the more frustrating. With players like Angel Pagan hitting above .300 and Michael Morse driving in as many runs as he’s been doing, it’s only a matter of time before the Giants start to figure it out again.

Prediction

What makes a playoff prediction between these two teams so difficult is their current contrasting trends. San Francisco, who was baseball’s hottest team by far through the month of May, has showed its pedestrian potential since sweeping the Mets on June 8 while Los Angeles is taking advantage by chipping away at their division deficit as much as it can.

Granted, the Giants are allowed to have a bad stretch, especially considering the 42-21 record they boasted when it began. But how they eventually come out of it will prove whether or not they can handle a young and fully loaded team in the postseason like the 2014 Dodgers. Los Angeles has also proved that it’s current lineup and rotation can handle a postseason series, taking only four games to defeat the very strong Atlanta Braves in the 2013 NLDS. 

So is this make-believe postseason matchup a pure coin flip at the moment? Maybe. But if it is, you have to favor the team that’s hot, has the better pitching staff, and has shown more recently it can do a little damage in October, and right now that team is Los Angeles. Dodgers 3-2 

Season's Over looks at the possibility of the Oakland A’s and Baltimore Orioles meeting in the 2014 ALDS and how the matchup would pan out.

By Mike Corasaniti

If you didn’t hear or see the tensions that flared from Oakland and Baltimore’s three-game series this past weekend then you are most certainly missing out. Not necessarily from the ridiculous Manny Machado-fueled drama, but from the beginning of some commotion brewing between two ball clubs that may be on the verge of getting comfortable among the the American League elite for the next few seasons.

Oakland has the tools to win its third straight divisional title, so the chances these two teams meet in the playoffs currently hinge mostly upon Baltimore and it’s prospects for either usurping Toronto or fighting for a Wild Card spot. Certainly nothing about it is out of the realm of possibility, and certainly nothing about the two teams meeting for a rematch in October would be less than exciting.

A Word on Baltimore

Oakland has been on the cusp of a breakthrough for the past few years now since they once again began looking like divisional contenders. Their Wild Card berth in 2012 was a solid start for this new era of Baltimore baseball, but the O’s would certainly like to take the next step as soon as humanly possible. Whether that next step comes this year or in a few more years when young stars like Manny Machado are a little more developed – and more mature – remains to be seen, but some noise in the playoffs is still very much in the realm of possibility for this year’s club.

They have certainly had their setbacks with pitchers Miguel Gonzalez and Johan Santana (From the minors) sustaining injuries this week, but they’ve seen their share of promise as well. Adam Jones, Nelson Cruz, and Nick Markakis continue to be leading lights in their own ways for an offense that is third in the majors in batting average. Throw in even more depth with the power of Chris Davis and the rising potential of second baseman Jonathan Schoop, and Baltimore’s offense won’t go quiet too often.

The Orioles have crucial meetings with the Red Sox and Blue Jays this coming week, which could very well set the tone for the division in the coming summer months.

A Word on Oakland

How good has Oakland’s offense been? Not only are they the best at scoring runs and getting men on base, but their run differential that has been floating around plus-120 has made their winning style dominant: They are running away with games more than anyone else. 

First baseman Brandon Moss, who has now been integral to Oakland’s offense since arriving three years ago, is heating up at the right time. His three home runs in the past week are helping the A’s continue distance themselves from the second place Angels (Who they begin a three-game set with starting June 9), and his .279 batting average and 53 RBI’s lead the team.

But the source of Oakland’s AL-Best 39 wins have come from the mound much more so than from behind the plate. Scott Kazmir, a sort of paradox for teams over the last few seasons as he’s tried to hone in on his true potential, is coming into his own once again for the A’s. Kazmir’s 2.20 ERA and 7 wins top a pitching staff that leads the majors in ERA, WHIP, and opponents batting average. That’s scary stuff for the AL West.

Prediction

Where Baltimore contender hopes go to die is in it’s pitching staff: It’s not very good right now.

Lefty Wei-Yin Chen’s mediocre 4.13 ERA is an Oriole best, and Ubaldo Jimenez can’t seem to close out games despite tossing a team-leading 66 strikeouts. Numbers like the ones Baltimore pitchers are offering don’t win playoff matchups, but ones like Oakland’s do.

A likely playoff scenario sees the AL-West winning A’s see the Baltimore Orioles after a Wild Card win over the Angels or someone similar, but the Orioles are still a few years out from making a big splash in the playoffs. Whether they can go on the capture their first World Series since 1989 is a mystery, but the A’s, on the other hand, seem like they’re years past they’re due. A matchup against the Orioles in their current state of play may lead to another dramatic encounter, but it would be an easy series for Oakland nonetheless.

Oakland in 4

Season's Over looks at the possibility of the Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers meeting in the 2014 World Series and how the matchup would pan out.

By Mike Corasaniti

The Milwaukee Brewers and the Toronto Blue Jays have never been considered poster teams for postseason success. 

The Brewers are still one of eight teams in the entire league to have never won a World Series and Toronto hasn’t seen playoff baseball since their second World Series win in 1993.Two hot months of baseball for the respective clubs though have given hope to some weary fan bases.

A Word on Milwaukee

The Brewers have come down to earth a little after starting scorching hot out of the gate to start the season. Their divisional lead over St. Louis sis constantly in flux, but series wins over the Orioles and Cubs have seemingly put the Brewers back on track. Upcoming series against Minnesota and Pittsburgh should only add to the gap their working on in between them and the Cardinals.

But if Milwaukee wants to distance themselves from the role of dark horse and into the contender ranks for 2014, there are few issues they will need to address.

Ryan Braun’s productivity has been a concern for Milwaukee all season. But even battling injury, the Brewers have seen some of his power come back in a major way which is an important and promising sign going forward. Milwaukee’s team batting average hovering around .260 is a good thing, but they’ll need bats like Braun’s to keep it there.

From the mound, the Brewer pitching staff has been nothing but a pleasant surprise so far for Milwaukee. Francisco Rodriguez is looking like the closer he has the potential to be, and Kyle Lohse and his seven wins have become a solid leader for the rotation. If the supporting cast, like the ever-improving Wily Peralta and his 2.73 ERA, can continue to shut down offenses then they could be throwing well into the postseason.

A Word on Toronto

North of the border there is a very different division leading team that has given itself a comfortable division lead after a surprisingly fruitful start.

May was very good to the Blue Jays as Jose Bautista provided his typical productivity from the plate and Edwin Encarnacion exploded for 16 home runs. And with Melky Cabrera on pace to finish the season with more than 200 hits, Toronto’s bats are among the hottest in all of baseball.

If there is anything that could bring down the Blue Jays it’s a lack of depth in their rotation, which is strange to say for a staff that has one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Mark Buehrle, who at the age of 35 is showing some of the best stuff he’s ever shown, is on pace to start this season’s All-Star Game in Minnesota. If Toronto can find support from more than just Buehrle and a knuckleballer named Dickey it will coast comfortably an AL East title and be able to set it’s sights on a much larger prize.

Prediction

The Brewers are one of the most interesting teams in baseball right now, mostly because they may be the most difficult to figure out. At times they have shown elite stuff and at others they have slumped into a team looking like it could be irrelevant come August.

The Blue Jays on the other hand are looking more like a team who has finally figured out how to get over the hump it has been facing down for the past few promising – but ultimately disappointing – seasons. They are baseball’s hottest team right now, and they are showing that they just may have the depth to keep it going past the end of the season.

Blue Jays in 5

By Mike Corasaniti

Game: 2013 World Series
Location: Boston, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia
Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 – Thursday, October 31, 2013
Teams: Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves

With nearly identical records, the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta braves are in very different situations as they sit atop their divisions a week into August. The Braves have not had a challenge for months now as their lead over the second place Washington Nationals climbs into the double digits. Meanwhile, Boston continues to battle it out with Tampa Bay.

Regardless of how the last two months of the season play out, both teams are contenders. The Red Sox are doing it with their bats as they continue to lead the league in runs scored (568 as of August 6) and hang around the top of almost every other major offensive category. Atlanta is doing it with pitching, as 25-year-old Mike Minor and 38-year-old Tim Hudson help lead one of the most well rounded pitching staffs in the league.

Both teams have their own reasons for wanting to get back to the playoffs. The Red Sox are looking to redeem themselves after a disappointing 2011 finish and an even more dismal 2012 season, while the Braves would like to prove that they are better than a one-and-done Wild Card team.

Does either team have what it takes to make it to the World Series and, if so, which team has the better shot of winning it all?

How Boston gets there

For a team with surprisingly mediocre pitching, the acquisition of Jake Peavy cannot be understated. A trio now of Jon Lester, John Lackey, and Peavy is one that can help any team destroy a divisional series and fight their way to the top.

And certainly any potential playoff opponent shakes a little when they realize that David Ortiz, the now 37-year-old DH, is leading the team in batting average, RBI’s, OBP, and, of course, home runs. It’s hard to imagine a team with a solid pitching staff like Boston’s backing up an offense led by Ortiz not winning their division.

How Atlanta gets there

Familiar faces like Justin Upton and Jason Heyward continue to provide consistent excellence as core players on a team that looks like it can win 100. Newcomers like Freddie Freeman and Chris Johnson though will decide if this year’s Atlanta team is the real deal.

Freeman, the eccentric 23-year-old first baseman, has burst onto the scene this season to lead the Braves in RBI’s with 75 as of early August while batting clean above .300. Johnson, on the other hand, is a much more interesting case. The replacement for Brave legend Chipper Jones at the hot corner, the third baseman is a doubles machine and batting over .340. The playoffs could be quite fun for Atlanta if that success continues into October for both their new stars.

The Matchup

The thought that comes most quickly to mind when thinking about the Atlanta Braves in recent years is about them coming up short. They always have a threatening offense and a rotation that can compete with pretty much anybody, but they seem to be lacking the ability to take the next step past the first round of any playoffs.

Boston on the other hand looks like a team that has been building up to this for years, even considering their abysmal 2012. They’re not a perfect team by a long shot, but Peavy does answer a lot of their prayers.

Atlanta has what it takes to establish the names of many new stars and surprise a lot of people this October. Certainly they have paid their dues and earned their spot among the most consistently successful teams in baseball. But the safe pick in early August is the Boston Red Sox, and it’s hard to see that changing any time soon.

Prediction

Red Sox in 5

By Mike Corasaniti

Game: 2013 World Series
Location: St. Louis, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan
Date: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 – Thursday, October 31, 2013
Teams: St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers

How Detroit gets there

Lineups are still not going to want to face Max Scherzer just because his loss column has been soiled. Scherzer has struck out nearly 150 batters with an ERA around 3.00 for a half-season that any elite starter would drool over. Add in Justin Verlander and Anibal Sanchez to the mix and it just gets ridiculous to even consider betting against this team in a 7-game series.

The offense is of course what gets all the attention, and for good reason. Even forgetting the fact that Miguel Cabrera may win another Triple Crown, the Tigers are tops in the league in almost every offensive category. First in batting average, second in runs and on-base percentage, and third in slugging percentage will help a lineup cruise to another division title and keep it going through the ups and downs of October.

What also helps Detroit is the fact that it seems very unlikely that any team will challenge them for the AL Central title. Cleveland is the most promising but it still has the Dog Days left to prove that it's not just a June darling. Granted, their lead over the Indians is not a substantial one at the time of the All-Star Break, but they have been down before. It will be easier to put faith into the Indians when they go back five or six games in the division and then make a comeback themselves.

How St. Louis gets there

It's surprising to see the offensive numbers St. Louis has put up and think that Detroit has been the only ones making the front pages and cover stories for their power. Few teams are better than St. Louis right now in terms of productivity. Five key players (with first baseman Matt Adams being included on that list) are hitting above .300 as of the All-Star Break with very few inclinations that things are going to slow down. 

The Cardinals are winning games and fighting for division leads with their bats just as much as Detroit is. And their rotation led by 12-game winner Adam Wainwright and 11-game winner Lance Lynn is as feared as anyone's right now.

Is it possible that Pittsburgh will make the race for the division exciting into the later September weeks? Of course, but they are still on the earlier end of their comeback. Even with a division throne to sit on, the Pirates will still have to get through the likes of Cincinnati, Arizona, Atlanta, or even Washington come October, which they have not yet proven they are capable of doing.

But you know who has proven themselves time and time and again now? St. Louis. And even if they do end up having to play a one-game lottery Wild Card against Cincinnati or Los Angeles or whoever, St. Louis has proven this season and in the last few that they only need a foot in the door to make it all the way.

The Matchup

It was ten years ago now that Miguel Cabrera burst onto the scene to help ignite the Florida Marlins to their second World Series. The amazing thing about the then 20-year-old Cabrera's season was how natural it seemed. From his walk-off home run in the very first game in June to the crushing power against the likes of Roger Clemens and the Yankees in six games, Cabrera did it with ease. 

With an even better offensive cast supporting him in 2013, the third baseman from Venezuela is a few October at bats away from staking his claim as an all-time great. A year removed from the highs of a historical Triple Crown and MVP season and the lows of being the final out of a World Series sweep, it is hard to bet against Detroit, Cabrera, and the surrounding crew.

The Cardinals will make it an exciting series, unlike the last time the two saw each other in 2005. With their offense being no stranger to power or clutch so far this season, the pitching staff (which is proving to be one of the best top-to-bottom crews of '13) will do a number on the Tigers line-up that they won't be seeing among the likes of their division rivals for the rest of the season.

With backup from fellow starters and the lineup, Wainwright can easily pitch two gems and lead St. Louis to its third title in two years. But all Miguel Cabrera needs is an above average week and a half and the October demons he has been working to forget for a year will be more than long gone.

Prediction

Tigers in 6

By Mike Corasaniti

Game: 2013 World Series
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Oakland, California
Date: Wednesday, October 23 – Thursday, October 31
Teams: Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics

The first baseball what-if for this summer is an unfamiliar one.

The Oakland Athletics have not won a pennant for over 30 years now, their last coming in 1990, a year after their ninth World Series title in franchise history.

In that same time span, the Pittsburgh Pirates have not done too much of anything, their last winning season coming since the 1992 season.

Now, the A’s are competing for their second straight division title while the Pirates are on pace for 90 wins and their first division title since their tenure in the NL East.

The reality of both teams is that it wouldn’t be surprising to see both of them finish in third place a few months from now. But with a few factors continuing to go the right way, a lot of ghosts could be exorcised come October.

How Oakland gets there

Somehow the A's are once again winning with a roster with only a handful of recognizable names for a casual fan.

But with third baseman Josh Donaldson finally coming into his own as one of the most productive players in the league, it's no wonder why Oakland had already scored 400 runs coming into July. 

The rest of the offensive stats are a little less notable though as the pitching is what's kept Oakland battling off Texas for first place in the AL West.

Bartolo Colon (yes, 40-year-old Bartolo Colon) has 12 wins with one week remaining before the All-Star Break, and he's leading a staff in or near the Top 5 of every major league pitching category. 

How Pittsburgh gets there

There is life in PNC Park again, thanks to little to no life at the bats of Pittsburgh opponents. Francisco Liriano, the newly-returned A.J. Burnett, and closer Jason Grilli are leading the force to league bests 3.12 team ERA and .226 opponent batting average.

And as far as Andrew McCutchen goes, he's only biding his time in hitting .300 again before he tastes October baseball for the first time. Will he choke under the unfamiliar pressure? Or will he become a star in a win-starved city?

The Matchup

What both teams are showing at the midpoint of the 2013 seasons is that they are both ready to establish themselves as among the league's best. They are facing different challenges though.

Oakland is once again facing an identity problem. Their no-name rosters have proven they can win in the regular season, they just need to break through past the early days of the playoffs.

The Pirates, although it seems like their time has come, still has a lot left to prove before anybody starts to bet serious money on a Pittsburgh championship trip.

Long story short, the Athletics have what it takes to win 90+ games in 2013 and take on the best in late October. The Pirates still have to prove they can make the playoffs, and that makes it very hard to pick them in this What If World Series matchup.

Prediction

Oakland 4-1

All too often, events drawing on two completely different aspects of the sports hemisphere–scandal and championships, Lance Armstrong's seven stripped titles and Game 7 of the NLCS–combine to create the great binary of sports.

By Mike Corasaniti

Two inevitable situations crossed Monday in the sports world. One event was exciting and full of potential for something classic, while the other was truly unfortunate and at times, downright embarrassing.

The National League pennant was decided after the NLCS’s Game 7 between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants. As MLB’s own Twitter account quaintly put it yesterday afternoon, “There will be a group of grown men pouring champagne on each other tonight.”

No matter what happened, no matter who won or lost the decisive game in California last night, there was celebration, champagne and the excitement for what was to come next.

Earlier yesterday morning, the Lance Armstrong Steroid Saga, and its years of accusations and dragging on, finally met its bitter, awkward end. As if they really needed to wait this long to execute the mounting evidence against him, the International Cycling Union, thanks to assistance from the USADA, officially stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles.

No matter what happened, no matter who officially came out on top in these court cases and investigations, there was not going to be any celebration, champagne or excitement for what was to come next.

At the very least, now we all have a little bit of closure. But what hurts the most about the Armstrong situation is the American standpoint of the scandal.

“This is a landmark day for cycling,” said Pat McQuaid, president of the cycling union in a statement. What stood as the downfall of one of the greatest American conquests in sports history is, to the rest of the world, “a landmark day.”

But that just goes to show the binary that can be so present in sports. Two unrelated stories in two unrelated sports could have such similarly resounding effects on its fans and critics. With one of the few similarities coming from the Game 7 and the seven stripped titles being that they broke on the same day, it can be amazing what we take from such stories in sports.

From the Giants and Cardinals, all we were looking for was a winner. Who would be crowned king of the National League and deemed worthy of facing Detroit for a world championship?

But with Armstrong, it seemed that all people were interested in was the loser. Would the union fall to the power of Lance and his incredible power? Or, probably more popularly towards the end, would Armstrong be stripped of everything that gave his fans reason to cheer for his incredible run?

Again though, that’s just the binary. Sometimes sports can literally lift you out of your seats while a few hours later it can break your heart. The most amazing part of it is how rarely those two feelings are separated. Baseball is about to enter its newest chapter of championship history while cycling is in the midst of its darkest days.

But it’s in that binary that fans should focus their allegiances. To some people, the steroid scandal of Lance Armstrong will go down as the top story of Oct. 22, 2012, while ignoring the dramatic meeting between two teams who simply refused to quit this postseason. But in looking at the binary, the contrasts and the yin and yang of sports, the scandal should always take a back seat when the champagne is flowing. 


This column can be seen in The Daily Campus

By Mike Corasaniti

As a Mets fan, I will be the first to admit that the idea of a second Wild Card team initially sounded appealing to me. I mean hey, the idea of fewer teams not making the playoffs definitely helped New York’s chances.

And when July hit, I will admit that I was still a fan. The Mets were not dominating anyone, but they were sticking around the top of their division, and with an additional playoff spot, it seemed that sticking around the top was all the team would need.

So I will admit that maybe I am a little hypocritical when I say that as soon as the Mets let their season go to waste, I realized just how ridiculous baseball’s new Wild Card format really is.

How in the world can a league with six months of play, where games are played at least six out of seven days a week, let the playoffs for some teams end after three hours? It’s heartbreaking.

“It breaks your heart. [Baseball] is designed to break your heart,” said Bart Giamatti, the seventh commissioner of Major League Baseball and a man that is much smarter than I. Giamatti was of course discussing how baseball lines up with seasons (with its blossoming coinciding with spring’s and its ending coming around the time of the first snow) and the new Wild Card game; but he may as well have been.

The most heartbreaking situation this year had to indeed come from the Atlanta Brave’s Wild Card match-up with the St. Louis Cardinals. Take away the fact the Cardinals deserved to win the game, take away the ridiculous infield fly call, take away my hatred for the Atlanta Braves, and you have an 88-74 team moving on to the next round of the playoffs past a 94-68 team. That’s heartbreaking.

Let’s look at playoff situations for some of the other sports leagues. In the NFL, teams face single elimination throughout the playoffs after a regular season of only 16 games, making the playoffs last as long as – for a team eliminated after one game – about six percent of the regular season. Compare this to the NBA and NHL, which both have 82-game seasons (in a world where lockouts don’t exist). Playoffs could end for a team after four games, or about five percent of the regular season.

The Major League Baseball season lasts for 162 three-hour games. That means for two teams under the new Wild Card rule, the playoffs last 0.6 percent as long as the regular season. So the question of how to fix the current system then goes to the question of whether or not expanding the one-game Wild Card series to three or five games would be a solution. But then things get complicated with over-resting the other teams and the whole idea goes out the window. Which, if it did, would also be heartbreaking.

Because in theory, allowing more teams into the playoffs is a terrific idea. It keeps more teams and their fans excited about August and September baseball, given the fact that there are simply more teams eligible for a playoff spot. But to get more fan bases excited for months before the playoffs, just to rip everything away after possibly less than a three-hour fluke of a game? Well, I guess that would be baseball. And if that happened to my Mets, that would break my heart. 



This article can be seen in The Daily Campus

By Mike Corasaniti

Two of the three teams tied atop the AL Wild Card are looking good enough for a playoff run. Their current three game series is making this matchup even more curious. How would one team's three-hour playoff run go down between these two? Let's take a look:

Baltimore Orioles

How weird does it feel to not say, "It was good while it lasted," about this team? The O's are nine games over .500 and don't seem like they'll be looking back any time soon. Last night was definitely a tough loss with Buck Showalter and Mark Reynolds getting ejected, but a strong nine out of 13 under their belts since an August 3 loss to the Rays proves that their sturdy enough the keep proving critics wrong. And with a kid named Manny Machado still looking pretty hot, Baltimore might just have enough to break their streak of dry Octobers.

Detroit Tigers

The offensive combo of Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera is proving to be the biggest offensive pair in the majors. As evidenced by last night's performance in Detroit, the Tigers rarely have an instance where offense is the issue. With Justin Verlander quieting opposing bats and Jose Valverde keeping them quiet, Detroit probably won't have too much trouble keeping all those bats quiet down the stretch too.

Matchup

In the four major pitching categories, the Orioles only crack the top 20 in one, and only two in the four major batting ones. While watching the O's succeed is pretty spectacular, it's just nobody's place to say how long it will last. Because when it comes down to it, if the Tigers make the playoffs it will be after a hard fought battle with the White Sox. They'll be all hopped up on adrenaline and hungry. If the O's make it, although it'll be a sight to  behold, they'll just be happy to be there. Tigers 1-0