Congratulations to the Diamondbacks and Rockies for completing their series sweeps on Saturday. The NL West is now 6-0 in the postseason, if you’re scoring at home.
Meanwhile, we’ve got two AL teams looking for the sweep on Sunday:

Red Sox at Angels, noon PT — The situation is looking bleak for the team that slaps “Anaheim” at the end of its awkward name. Jered Weaver and Curt Schilling hook up in this one. The Angels desperately need to find a way to contain David Ortiz. Yeah, good luck with that. Also, they need to start hitting. Did I mention it’s looking …read more

Hello, playoffs! Should be some good games on Wednesday:

Rockies at Phillies, 12 noon PT — I’ve rambled at length about this series over at Hardball Times. Cole Hamels starts the opener against Jeff Francis. It’s hard to call Game 1 of any series a must-win, but the Phillies need to win behind Hamels to have any shot; the rest of their pitching staff is very suspect, and even their high-octane offense might not be able to overcome a loss today.
Angels at Red Sox, 3:30 p.m. PT — John Lackey goes up against Josh Beckett in this one. Two legitimate Cy …read more

{democracy:20}

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the National League MVP race, while perhaps neglecting the AL side. It feels, at times, like a one-man race, but is it?
ESPN’s Jayson Stark assembled a list of key contenders a few weeks ago, and most of ‘em make sense (not sure about David Ortiz this year, and he’s a little too excited about J.J. Putz for my taste), although my personal opinion is that the real battle here is for second place. Then again, the writers are full of surprises, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Who do you …read more