5 Biggest Takeaways from the Final Week of 2014 Pennant Race Action
Baseball season is long. Seriously, think about what you were doing in late March. Doesn't that seem like a long, long time ago, if you can conjure it at all?
Yet, here we are. The final week of the 2014 MLB campaign. Not everything is decided; entering play Saturday there are still division titles to be won and home-field advantage to secure.
But we've learned some lessons, at long last, that can help us make sense of the crazy crap-shoot that is the postseason, when a 162-game marathon is distilled down to a frothing, month-long sprint.
First, the usual caveat: Stuff can shift in a hurry. Surprises abound. That's what makes October so entertaining. Stars fizzle, role players rise. Expect the unexpected.
With that in mind, here are five takeaways from the final week, as the regular season concludes and we peer ahead to the playoffs.
Are you ready? Good.
The Pittsburgh Pirates Are Riding a Serious Tailwind
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Every season, a team rolls into the playoffs with the wind at its back. This year it's the Pittsburgh Pirates, who have won 17 or their last 21 games.
With a 3-1 win Friday night over the Cincinnati Reds, the Pirates secured home-field advantage in the wild-card playoff.
The Bucs, though, have their sights set much higher. With two games left to play, Pittsburgh is just one game back of the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central.
That means the Pirates could still win the division outright and avoid the wild-card game altogether.
Even if they don't, this looks like a club that's peaking at the right time.
Manager Clint Hurdle prefers to keep the hot streak in perspective, telling MLB.com's Tom Singer, "You just want to play. You just get ready. You work hard to get here. And part of it is acting like you've been there before."
The Pressure Is on the Los Angeles Dodgers to Win the NL Pennant
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The Dodgers clinched the NL West at home in front of the arch-rival San Francisco Giants on Sept. 25. That should have been cause for celebration, and it was. But L.A. has far loftier goals.
"We were built to win the World Series, not make the playoffs," said ace Clayton Kershaw after pitching the Dodgers to their 9-1 division-sealing victory, per MLB.com's Ken Gurnick.
With a final, masterful performance, Kershaw lowered his ERA to 1.77 and became the first hurler to lead MLB in that category for four consecutive seasons. Oh, and he added a triple and an RBI.
Now it's up to his teammates to pick up the slack. The Dodgers made it to the NLCS last year. This year, anything less than a World Series win—the franchise's first in a quarter-century—will feel like an unmitigated failure for baseball's biggest spenders.
"We also know what it feels like to fall short," Kershaw told Gurnick. "I don't want that feeling again."
The Oakland A's Are, Literally, Limping into the Playoffs
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When Josh Donaldson crumpled in a heap during the Oakland Athletics' 6-2 victory over the Texas Rangers Friday night, the entire Oakland fanbase crumpled with him.
Yes, with the win Oakland clinched at least a tie for the second AL wild-card slot.
But as Donaldson, who has clubbed 28 home runs this year but is also nursing a hamstring injury, grabbed his left knee in obvious pain, it was a stark reminder of how hobbled Oakland is.
Yes, in the literal sense for Donaldson. But also figuratively: A squad that looked like world-beaters out of the gate is now fighting for its postseason life.
"It wasn't fun," Donaldson told MLB.com's Jane Lee of his knee tweak, incurred while diving for a foul ground ball. He might also have been describing Oakland's dreadful second half, in which they've gone from the best record in baseball to a fringe contender.
Then again, perhaps Donaldson's bang-up, and attendant toughness, can shake the A's from their stupor.
"I want to be out there for my team," the All-Star third baseman told Lee. "This is the most important time of the year and if I can move I'm going to try to be out there."
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The San Francisco Giants Need More Than a Hunter Pence Speech
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Hunter Pence can preach. Just ask the 2012 Giants, who were facing elimination in the division series when Pence delivered an impromptu, now-legendary inspirational speech.
San Francisco listened, and soon hoisted its second Commissioner's Trophy in three seasons.
This year, after the Orange and Black punched another postseason ticket, Pence delivered another speech. This one was loaded with expletives and was partially broadcasted by CSN Bay Area, leading the station to issue an apology, per Carl Steward of the San Jose Mercury News.
The Giants, though, need more than speeches. This is a team that held a 10-game lead in early June, then crumbled and watched the Dodgers run away with the division. A team that just lost 4-1 at home to the lowly San Diego Padres, essentially forfeiting home-field advantage in the wild-card playoff.
Pence's rallying cry can't hurt. Certainly his enthusiasm is admirable and, the Giants hope, contagious.
But, as they say, actions speak louder than words.
The Kansas City Royals Are the Team of Destiny
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First off, Royals fans: Congratulations. You've waited 29 painful years, if you've been alive that long, to watch a playoff club.
Surely, though, you're not satisfied simply getting there.
Every year, one team saunters into the playoffs with an air of destiny. That doesn't always translate to success, but it's fun to follow.
This year, that team is the Royals. And all of K.C. is waiting to see how far they can go. Here's how Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star put it after the Royals defeated the White Sox 3-1 Friday night to secure at least a wild-card slot:
"Like all good sports teams, the Royals have come to mean a little more than baseball to Kansas City. They are the city’s easiest conversation starter, and finally for good reasons...For Royals fans, there is no sense in acting like they’ve been here before—because most of them haven’t.
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Nearly three full decades of futility have led to this. A chance, at last, for glory.
"We're not hungry," outfielder Lorenzo Cain told MLB.com's Dick Kaegel. "We're starving."
To the Royals, their fans and the rest of baseball's October hopefuls we say: Dig in.
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