Great to see the Marlins and Cubs get through! It was unusual to see both the Braves and Giants struggle. In the end, the Braves' pitching was not as good as the Cubs (Wood and Prior pitched excellently), and the Cubs did just enough with the bats to get through. The Braves' offense practically vanished - Sheffield was batting below .100 before being hit on the hand, Andruw Jones didn't look hot, and there was no production at first base.
The Giants' starters behind Schmidt didn't do their job, and the bullpen (including Joe Nathan) was not particularly effective either. The most surprising thing for me, however, was the poor San Francisco defense. J.T. Snow, usualy as good as they get at first base, made two errors in the series, plus there were miscues from Aurilia and two costly mistakes by Jose Cruz Jr in right field that cost them key runs in games two and three.
Credit to the Marlins (and Pudge!) for capitalising on these mistakes, but it could have been different if the San Francisco defense had performed like we know they can.
The Giants will be at a crossroads this winter - a lot of players will be free agents, and it is unlikely that they will either want to or be able to afford to bring back J.T. Snow, Rich Aurilia, Sidney Ponson, Felix Rodriguez, Jose Cruz. Jr, Benito Santiago to name a few. GM Brian Sabean will have a job on his hands to create another play-off bound team for '04 with so many guys leaving! But then, he managed it last year!
As for the NLCS, the Marlins know how to pitch, but I can't look past the Cubs with the dynamic duo of Wood and Prior. If they can keep Pierre, Castillo and Pudge quiet at the top of the order, they'll be in business!
The Yankees got past the Twins with little trouble in the end - I think the poor performance in game one gave New York the kickstart they needed! I feel bad for the Twins, but they had a tough time matching up to the Yankee rotation, and they are still in need of a big power bat in the middle of the line-up. If they can afford to keep Shannon Stewart and sign a Rafael Palmeiro or Juan Gonzalez type slugger, they'll be back next year!
As for the A's/Red Sox series - what a match-up! The A's will be kicking themselves that they blew this lead, but a mixture of bad luck and bad fundamentals got them in the end. The bad luck was not getting an interference call of their own in game three that cost them a run, and Hudson getting injured early in game four. The bad fundamentals included Eric Byrnes running past the plate to the backstop after a collission with Varitek and not touching home! I would also question the use of Keith Foulke in a non-save situaton in game two, a day after throwing 50 pitches in 3 innings in game one! Foulke coughed up the lead in the 8th inning in game four - the result of over use?
Grady Little looked good by having Pedro pitch game 5 on full rest, but he would've looked dumb if John Burkett (hardly the most reliable starter around!) had lost game 4! The Boston bullpen is still a bit of a mess, with Derek Lowe having to pitch twice in relief, but Mike Timlin certainly did his job. Williamson was a little inconsistent, and I don't think they have much confidence in Sauerbeck or Kim (who might miss the rest of the play-offs with injury).
Boston got through without much production from Ramirez and Ortiz, and are still an offensive threat. Hopefully Damon will be fit to play vs. the Yankees.
I still believe the Yankees can be beaten, and if there's one team that can do it, it's Boston!