MLB Playoff Predictions: Who Takes the Pennants

Since the beginning of October, the Major League Baseball playoffs have been underway. Currently, four teams remain to compete for the title World Series champions. In the National League Championship Series, the St. Louis Cardinals have been facing off against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with the Cardinals currently leading the best of seven series 3-1. In the American League, tight competition between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers has resulted in a 2-1 lead for the Sox.The ALCS has been a tight race between the two teams, relying almost entirely on pitching. The Tigers’ staff has performed outstandingly, racking up a total of 19 innings without allowing the Sox to get a hit. In game one alone, the Tigers’ staff missed achieving a combined no-hitter by two outs, a feat never accomplished in the history of baseball in the postseason.No matter how many hitless innings the Red Sox have, their offense has produced runs late in the game. Don’t forget how well Red Sox pitching has been. In game one of the series, Jon Lester allowed one run with four strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings of work, keeping the stagnant Sox offense in the game. The bullpen continually shut down Tigers offense, only allowing three extra hits, keeping the score 1-0 through the ninth inning. Even though the offense couldn’t pull through, they took the same approach in game three of the series. John Lackey kept the Tigers scoreless by continually sending prolific offensive producers like Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder back to the bench, and the bullpen staff continued his work, with a great save by closer Koji Uehara.Game 2, however, epitomized baseball’s unpredictablility. Max Scherzer was on top of his game from the beginning, working seven innings with 13 strikeouts, while giving up only one earned run. The Tigers, up 5-1 going into the 8th inning, could not hold that four run lead. Manager Jim Leyland put in Jose Veras, Drew Smyly and Al Albequerque, each of whom would give up a hit to load the bases. Leyland then moved to his closer, Joaquin Benoit, hoping he would shut down Red Sox designated hitter, David Ortiz. Quite the opposite happened. Ortiz hit a grand slam into the Red Sox bullpen to tie up the game, giving Jarrod Saltalamacchia the opportunity to drive in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 9th, sending the Red Sox to a victory.Because of Boston’s ability to score runs in tight moments, and because of their home field advantage, I think the Red Sox will take the AL championship and move on to the World Series. If the Tigers win any more games in Detroit, the series will move back to Boston this weekend, where the home field advantage comes into play for the Sox.In the NLCS, each game has been close, and overall determined by defense and clutch hitting. In game one at Busch Stadium, the Dodgers took a 2-0 lead in the 3rd inning, after Juan Uribe hit a two-RBI single. The Cardinals answered in the bottom half of the inning, when Carlos Beltran hit a two-run double off the wall in right-center field after Andre Ethier made a great attempt at catching the ball. The game remained scoreless and moved on into extra innings. The Dodgers had a chance to score in the top of the 10th after Mark Ellis hit a triple, but was thrown out at the plate after a fly-out by Michael Young to center field. But in the bottom of the 13th inning, Beltran lined a base hit down the right field line easily scoring Daniel Descalso who was on second at the time.Game two was a pitching duel, in which the Dodgers only garnered five hits for the entire game. The Cardinals won, even though they only had two hits the entire game. These two hits, along with good situational base running, allowed the Cardinals to come out on top after a sacrifice fly by John Jay to score David Freese, who had advanced to third on a passed ball.In game three, Dodger starter Hyun-Jin Ryu was a sight to see, shutting down the Cardinal offense with seven innings of work, allowing three hits and no earned runs. This gave the offense the chance to put up three runs on the board, with an RBI single by Hanley Ramirez, an RBI double by Adrian Gonzalez and an RBI triple by rookie phenom Yasiel Puig.Game four was an offensive show, with the Cardinals winning the game 4-2. Matt Carpenter had an RBI double into the left-center field gap, along with Matt Holliday hitting a two-run bomb into the stands in left field before the Dodgers could get any runs on the board. The Dodgers brought it close when Puig hit an RBI single into center field, and AJ Ellis’ RBI single into center field. The Cardinals pulled away again from the Dodgers after a solo home run by Shane Robinson.The Cardinals will most likely advance to the World Series thanks to their strong offense and great pitching. The Dodgers have had a tough time with Cardinals aces, producing only seven runs this entire series so far. Both the Red Sox and the Cardinals have great pitching and an offense that can be a big factor in the big moments. The two teams didn’t play each other this year, but by the way the two teams look now, it seems as though that matchup would be extremely close. But, there must be a winner, and I feel that the Red Sox would come out on top because of their performance in clutch moments. Their ability to be resilient and come back when they are down is unparalleled, and could give them their first championship since 2007.