Quote of the day
"He had a look in his eye today. A complete-game look in his eye." -- Detroit manager Jim Leyland, after Justin Verlander threw a 4-hit, 11-strikeout complete game shutout over OaklandDaily blurb
All five games in the MLB Division Series are going the full five games. That’s unusual. At least, it hasn’t happened in the 18 years of Division Series play.
Since I’m a geek, I worked up the statistical probabilities of such an occurrence. Assuming each team has a 50/50 chance of winning each game, a single series would be expected to go five games 37.5% of the time. On that basis, the odds of all four series going a full five games is about 2%, or only once in 50 years. Feel free to check my math, but I think I did it correctly.
A few random thoughts…
A-Rod still has five years to go on his contract. Doesn’t look like this one’s going to end gracefully.
If the Orioles win tonight, Buck Showalter will have beaten the Rangers and Yankees this postseason, the two American League teams that previously fired him. Too bad he can’t have a shot at Arizona to complete the revenge-trifecta.
I was surprised to discover last night that the Yankees-Orioles game #5 is the late-afternoon game today. Then I realized that the winner has to play tomorrow, and if it’s Baltimore, they have to hightail it to Detroit. Meanwhile, the NL Championship Series doesn’t start until Sunday, so a late night finish in Washington lacks a similar issue.
Looking ahead, Justin Verlander’s normal 5-day starts would be for game 3 and game 7. While I’m sure Detroit would rather have won in four (saving Verlander for the ALCS opener), this setup shouldn’t bother the Tigers too much.