MLB Playoffs 2011: Rainout Gives Rangers Series Edge over Tigers

With Game 2 of the American League Championship Series being postponed until Monday afternoon, the Texas Rangers have to be feeling confident about their chances to make it back to the World Series for the second straight season.

Instead of having to rest Alexi Ogando, who pitched two brilliant innings out of the bullpen in Game 1, manager Ron Washington can bring him back in Game 2 if the situation arises.

In addition to setting up their bullpen the way they want, the Rangers will not have to worry about Magglio Ordonez and Delmon Young in this series.

Young, as everyone knows, was left off the Tigers’ ALCS roster after straining his oblique in Game 5 of the Division Series against the Yankees. Ordonez, who fractured his ankle in Game 1 of the ALCS, is done for the rest of the postseason.

The Tigers' lineup was already thin after Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, and now they have to replace their third and sixth-place hitters.

Alex Avila, who was so good for the Tigers in the regular season, has struggled in the postseason, which puts more pressure on Cabrera and Martinez to produce.

As Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press writes, the Tigers' offense is not producing now that they are no longer playing the cupcakes in the American League Central.

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"Three times they loaded the bases against the Rangers and the only run came on a wild pitch. That’s unacceptable. For the second time in their last three games, the Tigers loaded the bases in the first inning with the opportunity for rattling an opposing starter early and both times, they failed.

If the bats don’t awaken—and quickly—the Tigers’ pennant hopes will die like so many of their premium scoring opportunities."

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If things were not bad enough for the Tigers, Mother Nature is preventing Justin Verlander from pitching the way that he is capable of.

The Rangers have everything set up exactly the way they want, and the rainout has given them an even bigger advantage because of what they can do with their pitching staff.

The postseason features teams that are so closely matched up that there are not often blowouts or true upsets, but if the Rangers lose this series, it will be a surprise.

They have already taken out the Tigers’ ace in Game 1. If they can hold down the fort in Game 2, this series will be over before it gets to Detroit.