An MLB Recap for Sleepy Children

As a public service for young readers, the Journal will occasionally be running summaries of Major League Baseball playoff games that end after 12 a.m. ET. This is a synopsis for Wednesday night’s Game 1 between New York and Minnesota:

Hey kids, so you probably were there when the Twins took a quick 3-0 lead against the Yankees and CC Sabathia. You may have even been awake when the Yankees rallied for four runs in the sixth inning (Curtis Granderson hit a triple � way cool!).

Then the Twins tied it at 4-4, but then you REALLY had to go to bed because it was so late.

That’s too bad, because the very next inning, Yankee first baseman Mark Teixeira hit a two-run home run to right field, but when the ball landed, it struck a magic crystal in the stands, which triggered a button that opened a giant hole in the ground revealing a 10,000 year old lost City of Gold.

Halladay 2, Hitters 0

No Duds or Studs This October

This year’s baseball playoffs could be more exciting and closely contested than they’ve been in years. Over the prior five falls, just three of 15 league championship series and World Series went the full seven games, and just one of 20 divisional series had a decisive Game Five. Part of the reason is the vast gulf in talent that has afflicted many matchups. The winningest team in baseball had, on average, 15 more wins than the playoff team with the fewest wins between 2005 and 2009. This year, that spread is just seven games, between the 97-win Phillies and 90-win Rangers. Win totals can be deceptive, because teams have different schedules and win different proportions of close games. But adjusting for run differential or schedule doesn’t diminish the larger point, that this year’s postseason octet doesn’t contain a dominant team or a dud in the bunch.

Behind Lee, Rangers Take Opener

• • 12:40 pm
  • Pregame

  The Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers lead off this year's Major League Baseball playoffs this afternoon, as both teams look to make history. The Rays are making just their second postseason appearance, following their improbable worst-to-first season in 2008. Meanwhile, the Rangers have never won a playoff series in their history.

  Game 1 features the best of the four series' pitching match-ups. Rangers starter Cliff Lee led the majors in pitching Wins Above Replacement, while Price dazzled by traditional metrics, going 19-6 with a 2.72 ERA. As a result, both teams are starting some deeply flawed hitters who nonetheless have had some success against lefties. Rocco Baldelli, the one-time superstar prospect who washed out of baseball due to health problems, is batting sixth and DHing for the Rays. Jeff Francoeur, the man who was supposed to be the next great Braves homegrown star but instead turned into an OBP sieve and the subject of copious Internet snark, bats seventh for the Rangers.

  In what's likely to be a low-scoring game, individual matchups and situational play could make the difference. The Rays will look to get their vaunted running game in gear, assuming they can cobble together a few baserunners. Meanwhile, the Rangers benefit from being a mostly right-handed team, their only lefty hitter of note being MVP frontrunner Josh Hamilton. Don't look for a clear edge if the game comes down to a battle of bullpens, either. Both the Rays and Rangers ranked among the top five in MLB by advanced metrics.

Bonus Fix: Can Henry Save Liverpool?

Liverpool’s tortured soccer team took another odd turn today, when it was announced that the club’s board had decided to approve the sale of the team � owned since 2007 by Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett � to New England Sports Ventures, led by John Henry, owner of the Red Sox.

Forget for a second the irony of a sports tycoon most associated with New England now owning one of Olde England’s most cherished soccer teams. What’s important here is that Hicks and Gillett fought to the bitter end to not allow this to go through. According to the BBC, the pair made one final attempt to oust Christian Purslow and commercial director Ian Ayre from the five-member board and replace them with Hicks’s son, Mack Hicks, and Lori Kay McCutcheon, a vice president of Hicks’s company. This would have given them a voting majority. But Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton appears to have stopped the owners.

The World Series Anyone Could Win

Here’s where we find out if Year of the Pitcher translates to the Postseason of the Pitcher. Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia, David Price, newly-crowned American League comeback player of the year Francisco Liriano and Edinson Volquez are all slated to start for their respective teams when the Major League Baseball playoffs begin at 1:37 p.m. ET this afternoon in St. Petersburg. Lovers of pitching duels, quick games, and daytime baseball � also known as baseball fans � should be fired up for this year’s postseason to begin with. A sense of parity among the teams gives the feeling that anyone can win this year’s World Series.

The NFL’s Best Rivalry

When you see Ravens-Steelers on an NFL schedule these days, you can pencil in a last-minute finish.

The AFC North rivals have met five times in the last three regular seasons, and all five times the games have been decided by four points or fewer. In 2008, the Steelers swept their pair of games, winning the first on an overtime field goal and the second on a touchdown catch with 43 seconds left. The next season, the Ravens won the first meeting on an overtime field goal of their own, but the Steelers avenged that loss on a field goal with 5:25 remaining the next month. And last Sunday, the Ravens dealt Pittsburgh its first loss of the season with a touchdown pass with 32 seconds left.

How to Read the Yanks’ Ryder Loss?

It’s not quite fair to say that the Ryder Cup came down to one shot this year, or at least not any more fair � or true � than that ever is in a multi-day golf tournament. But as the U.S. tried for a furious comeback on Monday, the final day of play, something rather like the Ryder Cup Trophy was hanging in the balance when Hunter Mahan lined up a comparatively simple chip shot on the 17th hole at Celtic Manor.

You’ve probably seen what happened next a dozen times since � Mahan’s chunked chip and ensuing missed 20-footer, a conceded hole, a 3-and-1 loss by Mahan to Graeme McDowell and, in the end, another Ryder Cup win for the Europeans on European soil. But the Mahan as goat narrative has gotten some pushback from people who would presumably know the score better than the average golf pundit � namely, Mahan’s U.S. teammates, who have rallied around Mahan.

Mets Batters Hurry Through Finale

On a cold, windy day at Citi Field, Mets batters did their best to speed things along.

I got the impression, as I shivered while watching the home team’s season finale on Sunday, that batters were swinging early and often. It felt like at least some Mets were ready to put their second straight losing season, and fourth straight without a playoff berth, behind them quickly so they could pack their things and head home. And the numbers bore that out. Nationals pitchers needed just 183 pitches to get through 53 Mets batters, for an average of 3.45 pitches per plate appearance. That’s far fewer than the 3.77 the Mets averaged all season, or the 3.82 major-league average

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Europe Defeats U.S. in Extraordinary Day

The first Monday finish in Ryder Cup history produced arguably the most exciting conclusion in 83 years of this biennial intercontinental dust-up as Europe won the trophy by a single point, 14� to 13� despite an extraordinary fightback by Team USA.

Leading the U.S. by three points heading into today�s singles matches, Europe needed just five points from the 12 matches to secure this trophy for a fourth time in five attempts. However, on a day in which the momentum constantly shifted between the two sides, the outcome came down to the final match on the course, between Northern Ireland�s Graeme McDowell and Team USA�s Hunter Mahan.

Mahan, who was 3-down through eight holes this morning, reduced the deficit to a single hole with a birdie at the 15th in a match the U.S. needed only to halve to retain the trophy. McDowell responded with a sensational birdie of his own at the next hole, draining a delicate downhill putt that snaked back and forth before finally creeping in.

Only when Mahan missed a par putt at the 17th hole did Team USA�s attempted comeback fall short, handing Europe the trophy and sparking wild celebrations among a crowd of 35,000 who had come to Celtic Manor for the conclusion of an event that was due to finish 24 hours earlier.

Heavy rain throughout the three days in Wales had forced officials to delay the final day�s play until Monday.