MLB Division Series Roundup 10/10/12

Bay Area Baseball Stays Alive
A pair of defensive plays allowed both the A’s and the Giants to hold off the opposition and avoid sweeps in their respective division series. In an incredibly well pitched game where Homer Bailey struck out 10 and Ryan Vogelsong held his own, it came down to a 10th inning error by Scott Rolen that helped give San Francisco a 2-1 win.

Buster Posey scored the eventual winning run and the Giants won despite only getting three hits. San Francisco has the pitching and timely hitting to continue to win close games in this series. ”These are the type of games we’ve played all season long,” winning pitcher Sergio Romo said. “We are a gritty-and-grinding team.” The Giants will need two more of these gritty road wins, including today’s matinee with Barry Zito on the hill.

In Oakland, the A’s got stellar pitching from Brett Anderson, who’s given the team an enormous boost since his return, in a 2-0 win over Detroit helped by a home-run robbing catch by Coco Crisp, denying Prince Fielder. The bullpen pitched three scoreless innings, walking no one, and the A’s moved on to play another day at home.

It should be a familiar feeling now, after the A’s swept three from Texas to win the AL West at home. They’re now two wins away from moving on to the ALCS, with one loss to Detroit sending them home. Seth Smith hit a home run in the game and said “that’s how you win postseason baseball games, with pitching and defense and timely hitting. We had that. We got two runs and that’s all we needed. Anderson was great and our defense was, too.”

Carp Returns To Pitch Another Big Game
Chris Carpenter has been there for all the big games for St. Louis over his sensational tenure with the team, but he wasn’t there for most of the season. He was recovering from shoulder soreness and did not expect to return this season after July surgery. But the Cardinals are here back in the playoffs and Carpenter is here to pitch a huge game for the Redbirds. It’s also an enormous game for the Nationals, who will throw former Cardinal Edwin Jackson in a game that will likely swing the series. It’ll be a wonderfully historic day in Washington, with the first home playoff baseball game in 79 years.

It’s All About A-Rod (Again)
In a shocking and surprising turn, it’s all about Alex Rodriguez in yet another postseason series for the Yankees. It’s overshadowing Baltimore’s performance in close games, which has won and lost the first two games of the series at Camden Yards. Rodriguez has started the series 1-9 and could be moved down in the lineup in anticipation of Wednesday night’s game three. Every pitch Rodriguez faces will be heavily scrutinized by the fans and the media, as the pressure on New York mounts to oust the miracle Orioles. I’ll be in the Bronx for game three tonight, tweeting live @SprungOnSports. Hiroki Kuroda and surprising rookie Miguel Gonzalez will be this evening’s starters.