The Road to October
By: Maya N. Fredrich,
Staff Writer
The 2014 post-season of major league baseball will be one that we will never forget. The amount of good and bad history that was made in this short period of time was incredible and only makes us anticipate the World Series even more.
Starting the post season off was the American League Wild Card game, the Oakland Athletics vs. the Kansas City Royals. The prediction for this game was that the Athletics would win the game by at least one run having their star pitcher Jon Lester, on the mound, but soon after the game started, we knew it would be a thriller. The Royals had not made the post-season in over 28 years, yet no one could tell as they got hit after hit, run after run, and out after out. Finally, in the 12th inning, catcher, Salvador Perez, came up with the game-winning walk-off hit, to give Kansas City a 9-8 win over Oakland.
The National League Wild Card game featured the San Francisco Giants vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates. This game, unlike the American League wild card, was predicted to be a close contest but as the game proceeded, it was sure that the Giants would take the win, with the Giants winning by an 8-0 score.
So now Major League Baseball had a full-team chart for the post-season. In the American League, we have the Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, and of course, the Kansas City Royals. In the National League, the teams include the Washington Nationals, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the San Francisco Giants. Predictions for the AL championship game seemed to be simple and did not need to take much thought. The Angels, with the best record in baseball and a baseball prodigy in Mike Trout, would surely have to win their series against the Kansas City Royals; however this was not the case. The Angels lost their first game at home by a 3-2 score. And if that wasn’t a shocker, the Royals went on to sweep the Angels 3 games to none. The Kansas City Royals had yet again proven themselves as a team of fate. The series that was long awaited was the Baltimore Orioles vs. the Detroit Tigers, but when the Orioles beat the Tigers 12-3 in the first game, it was all downhill for Detroit. The Orioles ended the series with yet another sweep of 3 games to none.
Moving on to the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the St. Louis Cardinals seemed to be a close race, but the Dodgers had its star pitcher, three time Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw, on the mound in the first game. However, the Cardinals beat the Dodgers 10-9 and went on to win the series 3 games to 1. The San Francisco Giants vs. the Washington Nationals game seemed to end similarly, with the Giants winning their first game 3-2 and, like the Cardinals, going on to win the series 3 games to 1.
This is only half of the post-season and already history has been made. But what is to come from these teams? It seemed like only yesterday that predictions for the World Series were easy to make, but after this post season, we now know that in the sport of baseball, any team, anywhere, in any place, and even any player, can rise to the top, on the road to October.
Photo credit to: Google Images