Championship Series Roundup

Yankees 7 Rangers 2: Sabathia pitched well enough in 6 innings giving up only the 2 runs but on 11 hits. If there is ever a time to say a pitcher "scattered" his hits, this was it:
1st inning: 2 hits
2nd  inning: 1 hit
3rd inning: 1 hit
4th inning: 1 hit
5th inning: 3 hits
6th inning: 3 hits

Sabathia had your typical/cliche "bend not break" performance and the Yankees bats finally came out early, getting 5 quick runs through the first 3 innings.  CJ Wilson, who led the league in walks, wasn't really in control all game and that generally doesn't work out to well against a patient lineup like the Yankees will get to you.

Colby Lewis takes the bump tomorrow against Phil Hughes.  Hughes was great against Minnesota and awful against Texas, if he finds a place somewhere in the middle I think the Yankees would take it.  Colby Lewis has only given up 2 runs in this postseason but he's also walked 8 guys which has limited him to only 10 innings.  If Lewis continues to walk guys against the Yankees he'll either have a tough time keeping them from scoring, get his pitch count up and have to hand the ball over to a shaky (aka bad) bullpen, or both.  I've been pretty bad (aka terrible) at predicting this series thus far but I'm expecting the Yankees to make it to a game 7.

Sandoval and Uribe, likely the heaviest SS/3b duo
of all time, celebrate Uribe's walkoff sac last night.
(Getty Images)

Giants 6 Phillies 5: The Giants took a surprising 3-1 series lead as Buster Posey brought out his whooping stick collecting 4 hits. Starters Bumgarner and Blanton both gave up 3 runs in 4.2 innings but the Giants relief was just slightly better to win in the 9th.  Or maybe their starting pitching was better because it was Roy Oswalt who lost the game in the 9th for the Phillies.  Anyways, now the Phillies find themselves in the same situation as the Yankees were in last night, down 3 games to 1 in the series with their ace taking the hill.  Tim Lincecum is an outstanding pitcher but he's a human and it would be hard for any mortal to beat Roy Halladay twice.

The worry for the Phillies has to be their offense.  I hinted in September that their lineup isn't as good as their reputation, and that  has definitely borne some fruits in this postseason as the Phillies continue to struggle to score runs.  It won't get any easier tonight against Tim Lincecum, but at least they have their ace going.