And then their were two! Well the NLCS is set folks. Not really a surprise at all. Starting on Saturday the San Francisco Giants will be heading to Philadelphia and taking on the 2 time defending NL champion Philadelphia Phillies for a 7 game series showdown.
First lets take a minute and talk about last night. Their for a minute I thought we would have a game 5 back in San Francisco. Derek Lowe took a no-hitter into the 6th inning. He was dominate on three days rest. Then came the top of the sixth. With one out in the inning, Cody Ross comes up and hits a game tying homerun to put the score 1-1. Then Atlanta's Brian McCann gives the Braves a 1 run lead in the bottom half ot the inning. Then the Giants are able to score 2 runs in the top of the seventh to take the lead and stay there for good. The Giants Bumgarner, a rookie, pitched a pretty good game himself. I really didn't think he was going to do as well as he did being as this was his first playoff game and potentially a clinching game at that. Apperantly the pressure wasn't there for him. He was composed and although he gave up a early run in the third he settled down nicely and didn't give up another run till the sixth.
If San Francisco pitches like this in the NLCS against Philadelphia then we are in for quite a battle. Alot of the season stats between these two teams are nearly identical. And they split the season series 3-3. So we are in for a low scoring, pitcher dominating performance. As have been the case for most of the playoffs in both leagues.
Just one more game needs to played. Texas and Tampa. The winner moves on to the ALCS to face the Yankees. I'm rooting for Texas just because they haven't been there in like forever. But my gut tells me its going to be Tampa. Although Texas has Cliff Lee going for them. Well either way its going to be a good game. I just hope the umpires don't play a role in this final game.