Nearly Swept Away

After the other 3 Divisional Series had already ended in the minimum number of games - with the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Red Sox victorious and moving on to their respective League Championship Series - and with the Indians up 3-0 midway through tonight's Game 3, it was beginning to look like all four first round best-of-five series would end in sweeps. I'd already mentioned to Vicki my belief that that had never happened before - in the relatively short period of time that Major League Baseball has had Divisional Series - shortly before the commentators confirmed it. And that must've put the jinx in on Cleveland, as it wasn't long until a 3-0 lead turned into a 8-3 deficit, to the delight of the Bronx faithful. The game just finished, with a final score of 8-4 for the Yankees, earning us the only Game 4 of this year's round of Divisional Series.

I have to say that the Colorado / Arizona NLCS has the potential to be a barn burner, with how well both teams have been playing of late. The Rockies have only lost once in their last 18 games, which should mean that the Diamondbacks will have their hands full. Interestingly, this series will feature the two teams who finished with the best records in the National League this year, despite both coming from the West. Of course, both franchises are very young, even though Arizona's already got a World Series win under its belt (2001, when both Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling pitched lights out for them).

Regardless of the eventual outcome of the lone surviving Divisional Series, the ALCS will showcase a pair of legacy teams. Boston, New York and Cleveland have all been around for more than a century, and all have World Series titles in their history, although Cleveland's most recent was almost 60 years ago.

That makes the Rockies the only team with a chance to earn their very first championship in 2007... and as hot as they are right now, I wouldn't bet against them!