Tagged: baseball

The San Francisco Giants, today, won a dramatic, do-or-die playoff game against the Cincinnati Reds. MVP candidate Buster Posey hit a grand slam in the 6 to 4 victory. The Giants won three straight elimination games on the road, and now move on to the penultimate playoff series, beginning Sunday night, October 14th. In Oakland, meanwhile, in just about an hour-and-a-half, the A's have their own must-win game against the Detroit Tigers. All the excitement has San Francisco Chronicle reporter Scott Ostler thinking this is not just one of the best days in Bay Area baseball history.

Oakland A's pitcher Travis Blackley was watching video of the Texas Rangers this summer, preparing to make a start against the league's premier offense, the very one standing in the way of the A's and the American League playoffs. Blackley was deep in study, identifying tendencies, looking for weaknesses in the reigning pennant winner's armor. He looked at a season's worth of at-bats, contemplated dozens of pitchers' approaches.