Cards, O's Advance to LDS

The MLB postseason began yesterday with a pair of exciting, do-or-die Wild Card playoff games

In Atlanta, the Braves took the early lead on a two-run jack by catcher David Ross, filling in for a banged up/slumping Brian McCann. It didn't last for long, though. The defending World Series champs broke through against Kris Medlen in the top of the fourth, scoring three runs following Chipper Jones' throwing error.  The Braves threatened in the bottom of the frame when they had runners on the corners with one out, but allowed Lohse to escape the jam unscathed.  Matt Holliday belted a solo shot to double the Redbirds' lead, which the Cards re-doubled the following inning after Fredi Gonzalez pulled Medlen from the game. The Braves got a run back in the bottom of the frame on Michael Bourn's RBI groundout, and looked poised for a big inning after putting runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the eighth.  Mitchell Boggs coaxed Andrelton Simmons into blooping a pop fly into shallow left field...

Shortstop Pete Kozma backpedaled. Matt Holliday charged.  Kozma waved his arms, calling off Holliday, who hit the breaks.  Then, at the last second, right before the ball landed safely in between them, left field umpire Sam Holbrook called the infield fly rule.

You know what happened next.  Fredi Gonzalez went ballistic. Braves fans rained bottles and trash down onto the field, and there was a lengthy delay.  Not only did Holbrook make the wrong call, but he made it much too late. And because of his mistake, he may have snuffed out Atlanta's rally. Jason Motte replaced Boggs and walked McCann on five pitches to load the bases/turn the lineup over. Bourn worked the count full, but strikeout to end the inning. Craig Kimbrel took care of the Cards in the top of the ninth, and Atlanta's bats made some noise in the bottom of the ninth.  With two out, Chipper Jones reached on an infield single in the last at-bat of his major league career when Daniel Descalo's throw pulled Allen Craig off the bag. Freddie Freeman, who made the last out of Atlanta's 2011 season to punctuate their epic collapse, socked a ground-rule double into the left-center gap. Dan Uggla stepped in as the potential tying run with a chance to redeem himself after enduring the worst season of his career.  Instead, he grounded out. Game over.

Once again, St. Louis advanced into the playoffs, and Atlanta went home empty-handed

Nearly 1,000 miles to the southwest, a similar scenario played out in the AL Wild Card playoff game as the Baltimore Orioles took on the Texas Rangers.

Both teams scored in the first inning, Baltimore on a J.J. Hardy RBI single and Texas on a Josh Hamilton double-play. But that was the only run the Rangers were going to get. After rocky starts, Joe Saunders and Yu Darvish settled down and traded zeros over the next four innings. Adam Jones plated the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly. Darvish departed with two outs (and Robert Andino on second) in the seventh, only to watch as his teammates in the bullpen turned a one-run deficit into a four run disadvantage.

Derek Holland entered the game and promptly uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Andino to advance to third, then yielded a single to Nate McLouth. Koji Uehara struck out the side (Chris Davis, Jones and Matt Wieters) in the top of the eighth to keep the score at 3-1. Joe Nathan suffered a meltdown in the ninth when he walked Jim Thome to begin the frame, and things snowballed from there. He fanned Mark Reynolds, but then Andino doubled, Manny Machado singled in a run and McLouth lifted a sacrifice fly.  Hardy lined out to end the inning, but when the dust cleared Baltimore had tacked on a pair of insurance runs. Rangers fans scurried to the exits, heads bowed in defeat.

But those who stayed received one final tease when the Rangers rallied. Jim Johnson, the major league saves leader with 51, loaded the bases to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of David Murphy, who had entered the game as a pinch hitter for Craig Gentry the previous inning. With Rangers fans everywhere praying for a grand slam, Murphy lofted an easy fly ball to left field. McLouth drifted to his left, settled under it and squeezed his glove with two hands.

The Rangers had their chances, but went just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus and Hamilton all bounced into double plays (the Orioles didn't have any).  I thought they were going all the way this year, and can't believe their season is already over. They shouldn't have been playing this game at all. A week before they held a four game lead with six games to play, but went 1-5 and allowed the Oakland A's to leapfrog them in the standings on the season's final day after being in first place everyday since April 9th. They got cold at the wrong time, and paid the price for it.