So...About Last Night...

Dammit. I am never right with these predictions.

In what is considered, in my mind, to be two stunning upsets, the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles both advance to their respective league's Division Series, while the heavily favored, in my mind, Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers are going home, ending both a third baseman's Hall of Fame career and a team's chance at a third straight World Series appearance.

I should stop making predictions altogether. That won't stop me from predicting how the rest of the playoffs will pan out, though. But first, let's see where things went wrong for the two losers.

This wasn't how it was supposed to end...then again, it never is.

First, the Cardinals and Braves. Playing in the first Wild Card game in baseball history, the defending champions came into the game the same way they came into the playoffs last year: the last team in, viewed by many as an underdog, with the odds stacked against them, playing away from home and in a field that wasn't particularly kind to them. The Braves, however, had two things on their mind: revenge for last year, and a ring for Chipper. By now, even the most casual of baseball fans know how the Cards got into the postseason to make their World Series run in 2011: by leapfrogging over the Braves on the very last day of the season, which would have been the biggest collapse in the 130-odd years Major League Baseball has been in existence, if not for the slightly larger collapse of the 2011 Red Sox. Unlike the Sox, the Bravos didn't lay down and die (or hire Kermit the Frog soundalike Bobby Valentine to manage a team full of self-entitled brats), winning the first Wild Card spot handily. Unfortunately, they did it in a season when a second Wild Card spot was introduced. And how fitting to have the team that knocked them out last year be their first opponents in the playoffs this year. Things were going fine for the home team: backup catcher David Ross, getting a rare start, blasted a two-run homer in the 2nd inning to put the Braves up 2-0. Then, the 4th inning happened. Chipper Jones, in what proved to be his final game, threw over Dan Uggla to allow Allen Craig the opportunity to score Carlos Beltran and Matt Holliday. David Freese hit a sacrifice fly to score Craig, and the game was 3-2 in favor of St. Louis. A Holliday home run in the 6th, and timely errors by Andrelton Simmons and Uggla put the game out of reach for the Braves, who lost 6-3, and they had to watch as, for the second season in a row, the Cardinals celebrated advancing in the playoffs at their expense. A crushing loss, and an unsatisfying end to Jones' legendary career, that could have been avoided.

Another offseason comes for the Rangers, leaving them to wonder why the playoffs keep ending without a title.

Something that couldn't have been avoided, though, was the Orioles barreling through the Rangers 5-1 in the AL's play-in game. The Texas boys scored once in the entire game, and it was in the first inning when Ian Kinsler scored on a sacrifice GIDP by impending free agent Josh Hamilton. The Orioles, who had already scored in the first on a J.J. Hardy single that batted in Nate McLouth, added 4 more runs over the course of the game, all of which involved Hardy, McLouth, Adam Jones or Manny Machado. Yu Darvish, making his first postseason start on this side of the Pacific, looked fatigued and unable to shut the Orioles' offense down, whereas his contemporary on the bump, Joe Saunders, looked masterful. Kind of surprising, considering Saunders' career stats in Rangers Ballpark In Arlington: according to ESPN Stats and Info, he was 0-6 with a 9.38 ERA before tonight's start. His stat line for tonight? 5.2 innings, 6 hits, 1 earned run (good for a 1.59 ERA for the game), 4 strikeouts, and a win when this team needed it most. Before the game even started, there was a sense that this was, far and away, the Rangers' game to lose: after watching the A's pass them on the very last day of the season (hmm, sounds familiar) and being relegated to a Wild Card berth for the first time in franchise history, they didn't feel like the same team that made it to the World Series the past 2 years. The Orioles, however, were refreshed, relaxed, and ready to make Baltimore proud after a 15-year streak of futility that included no postseason appearances and a 14-year run of losing seasons. Now, thanks to their play tonight, they'll not only have a chance to advance even further into October, but to finally avenge their postseason loss to the Yankees a decade and a half ago, who they'll face in the Division Series. Sometimes, things work out perfectly.

So, I pegged both Wild Card game winners incorrectly. It happens. I've been wrong once or twice in my life. In the interest of bumping that total up a little bit, here are my predictions for how the rest of the playoffs will pan out. If you're a gambler, start putting money on every team I don't predict for the Fall Classic.

AL Division Series: Orioles over Yankees, Tigers over Athletics.
NL Division Series: Nationals over Cardinals, Reds over Giants.

AL Championship Series: Tigers over Orioles.
NL Championship Series: Reds over Nationals.

World Series: Reds over Tigers in 6 games.

Basically, go ahead and pencil in both teams I picked for the World Series to lose in the first round. We'll be back after each series to analyze the results, so stay tuned.