The American Spectator

The San Francisco Giants came back from an 0-2 deficit to win the NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday afternoon with a 6-4 victory in Game 5. Giants catcher Buster Posey hit a grandslam homerun to put it away for the Giants. 

Amazingly, the road team won every game in this series. So much for home field advantage.

The Giants will face the winner of the other NLDS between the St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals. Their battle is headed for Game 5 after Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth hit a walk off homerun in Game 4.

Unfortunately for the Oakland A’s, they could not overcome a 0-2 deficit nor could they match up against Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander as the Tigers won Game 5 decisively by a 6-0 margin. The A’s were on the verge of defeat yesterday losing 2-0 in the 9th when Coco Crisp hit a two-run single to force Game 5.

Oakland has nothing to be ashamed of at all. Nobody (and I mean nobody) expected the A’s to be playing baseball in October. 

Meanwhile, the Tigers will be playing in the ALCS for the second straight year. In 2011, they fell short against the Texas Rangers. The Tigers will face the winner of the other ALDS between the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees which will also be determined by a Game 5 matchup. After the Yankees won a 12-inning victory in Game 3 on a homerun by Raul Ibanez, the O’s came back to win a 13-inning marathon in Game 4. 

This is the first time since the adoption of the wild card playoff format that all four division series have gone the maximum of five games. This indicates that these teams are very evenly matched. I would not be surprised if the ALCS, NLCS and World Series all go seven games apiece. I’d be very happy with that. It would mean more baseball to watch.