It was a crazy night last night with 4 games deciding who was going to the playoffs. Tampa Bay, Boston, Atlanta and St. Louis all were looking at do or die scenarios where if they took care of their business, worst case scenario they had a one game playoff. Here are some quick hits on last night's games and how it shakes out in the playoff picture.
St. Louis at Houston
The Cardinals jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the 1st with 7 hits to all but eliminate the drama from their part of the race. St. Louis got a complete game 2 hitter from Chris Carpenter, who struck out 11 and walked only 1. With the game already well in hand in the 9th inning, Allen Craig hit a solo shot to put an exclamation point on St Louis' win. They put the pressure on Atlanta who faced division rival Philadelphia.
Philadelphia at Atlanta
There was high drama at Turner Field as the Braves lead the Phillies going into the top of the ninth. They were three outs away from forcing a one game playoff with the hard charging Cardinals. Craig Kimbrel came in to make the save for the home team. Kimbrel got in trouble as he loaded the bases and Chase Utley hit a sacrifice fly to send the game into extra innings. Neither team threatened until Hunter Pence singled to right field to score what would be the winning run as in the bottom of the inning Freddie Freeman grounded into a season ending double play.
New York at Tampa Bay
The Yankees looked to be gift wrapping the AL wild card to their division rival Red Sox as they jumped out to a 7-0 lead featuring a grand slam from first baseman Mark Tiexiera. However, the Rays would not be denied. In the bottom of the 8th, the Rays erupted for 6 to make it a one run game and in the bottom of the 9th, with two outs Dan Johnson stepped into the batters box and hit a home run to right field to save their season to that point. The Yankees had a runner in scoring position but couldn't push him across setting the stage for Evan Longoria's walk off home run to left, to win the game.
Boston at Baltimore
A rain delay paused the final game of the Red Sox season for 1 hour and 26 minutes, giving them a chance to see Tampa complete their rally against New York. The Orioles had just completed a rally of their own. Jonathan Papelbon had struck out the first two batters he faced when he ran into trouble, surrendering back to back doubles to tie the game and then a game winning single to lead off man Robert Andino to give the Red Sox their first loss of the season when leading after 8 innings.
This is how the playoffs now shake out, the American League playing their game 1's tomorrow night and the National League on Saturday.
American League National League
New York vs Detroit Philadelphia vs St. Louis
Tampa Bay vs Texas Milwaukee vs Arizona
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