The Dogs Have Their Day On The Diamond
Before the 2013 Major League Baseball season got underway, there was way much written about the tremendous potential of three teams that have just not yet lived up to all the expectations. The Los Angeles Dodgers, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays were all destined to rule their divisions and be shoe-ins for the playoffs.
Halfway through the season we found all three of these teams in the cellar of their respective divisions and even their fans were starting to lose faith. But then
Toronto won 11 in a row before going down to Tampa Bay and losing 2 straight. However, the 11 game run did finally get the Blue Jays above .500 for the first time this year and, for a couple of days at least, they were not the bottom team in the American League East.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, despite the talent they were supposed to have remained in the cellar of the National League West throughout the month of June and were so far back that even their most die-hard fans had given up. Then the Diamondbacks lost 3 in a row and the Dodgers miraculously won 5 in a row and suddenly they are only 6 games out of first place in the division. Still in the basement….but only 6 games back. Hope springs eternal.
The Los Angeles Angels were like 13 games out of first place in the American League West when they went up to Detroit to take on the Tigers who led the American League Central division and who still are the team that Las Vegas handicappers have picked to win the World Series this year.
To say that the Angels were the dogs to win this series would be an understatement. No one even picked them to win even one of the three games in the series. In an exciting first game that saw 26 hits, the Angels ended up with 14 runs and outscored the Tigers by 6.
Day two still had the Angels listed as underdogs but, once again, Los Angeles prevailed over Detroit 7-4. Game three went to 10 innings and it was a battle right to the end. But the lowly Angels came through again with 2 runs in the top of the 10th to sweep the series and hand the Tigers their first three games in a row loss this season.