BSI Postseason Recap: Yankees To ALCS, Cardinals Come Back To Win NLDS

A couple of great games wrapped up the 2012 division series, between the Orioles and Yankees and the Cardinals and Nationals. While C.C. Sabathia led the Yankees to a strong win in New York, the Cardinals came back from a 6-1 deficit to knock the Nationals out. One game full of fantastic pitching and one game filled with plenty of offense between the Cards and Nats.

With a rematch of the Game One matchup of Jason Hammel (0-1, 3.18 in playoffs) and C.C. Sabathia (2-0, 1.53), the Orioles and Yankees played a decisive Game 5. Early in the game we saw the best of both starters, as neither team had scored through the top of the fifth. An RBI single by Raul Ibanez netted the Yankees their first run in the bottom of the fifth. An Ichiro Suzuki RBI double in the sixth and a Curtis Granderson homer in the seventh would put the Yankees up 3-0 on the Orioles. A Lew Ford RBI in the eighth would be the only run the Orioles would score as their season was over in a 3-1 loss. Yankees and Tigers play tonight at 8:00 for the first game of the ALCS.

While the Yankees had a pretty easy win over Baltimore, the Cardinals-Nationals game was one for the ages. An RBI triple by Bryce Harper and a two-run homer by Ryan Zimmerman gave the Nats a 3-0 lead in just the first. They’d get themselves three more in the third on a solo shot by Bryce Harper and a two-run shot by Michael Morse. From that point on, however, it was all Cardinals as Matt Holliday’s double got them a run in the fourth. They scored two more in the fifth on a wild pitch and a bases loaded walk to cut it to 6-3. In the seventh and eighth, respectively, they got an RBI groundout and a Daniel Descalso home run to cut it to just 6-5. Kurt Suzuki’s eighth inning single gave the Nationals an insurance run, but the Cards came back and scored four in the ninth on two-run singles by Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma. They held the Nationals in the ninth and the Cardinals are going to the NLCS to face the Giants!