sundays divisional series

sports:  There are two divisional series starting in the MLB playoffs today.  Both of them include the winners of Thursday's wild card play in games.  The afternoon game is the top seeded Washington Nationals against the St. Louis Cardinals.  This match-up, like it seems most of the match-ups in this opening round, including the other series that starts later today, is about a young team on the rise facing a team of vast experience.  The Nationals are one of the leagues youngest teams, having risen very quickly up the ranks of baseballs best thanks to draft picks acquired through years of futility.  While the story of the Nationals pitching staff has been the benching of ace Stephen Strasburg in order to preserve his arm, even without him they have a formidable staff featuring Cy Young hopeful Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmerman, who along with the aforementioned Strasburg, are among the best young pitchers in all of baseball.  The third spot in the rotation is held by Edwin Jackson, a consistent veteran with plenty of big game experience who will not only be relied on to deliver big pitches but also to keep this very young staff's emotions under control.  The Nationals lineup may be considered their weak spot, but Adam Laroche, Jayson Werth, and Ryan Zimmerman provide a solid group of players that will trouble any pitching staff.  And if Bryce Harper can come out his second half woes, his offensive spark will only help the Nationals make a push deep into the playoffs.  The Cardinals will be the first team to allow us to see what the effects of the play in game will be.  I talked about the St. Louis pitchers and batters before their wild card team, so lets talk match-ups.  The Cards will be forced to use their playoff experience and clutch hitting to get to the young aces from Washington, which will make for some very compelling games.  The biggest question for St. Louis though will absolutely be with their pitching.  They ran their ace Kyle Lohse out in the wild card game, which now means that they will be relying on pitchers one spot behind in the rotation.  While I can't help but keep coming back to experience, it is hard to deny the fact that all of the Cardinal's pitchers will be outmatched by their counterparts.  This is a series where I believe talent will overcome.  Nats in four.
The later game one is the one between the Yankees and Orioles.  This series will in all likelihood come down to one very specific thing for the Yankees and one very specific thing for Baltimore.  For the Yankees it will be all about compensation.   C.C. Sabathia has not been the ace he typically has been in the past, and the rest of their pitching staff is filled with inconsistant starters like Phil Hughes and the ageless Andy Petite.  Combine this with not having Mariano Rivera in the closing playoff games for the first time in seventeen years there is a lack of certainty that may come back to haunt the Yankees.  The compensation will have to come from their offense.  For quite sometime now the Yankees have had the most potent lineup in all of baseball.  The power numbers are Mark Texiera and Curtis Granderson, along with the captain, Derek Jeter's seemingly unending ability to spray hits all over the field will have to be what the Yankees rely on to win in the playoffs this year without their sure thing pitchers.  For the Orioles the series will come down to the same things that their entire season has come down to.  They need to continue to close out close games.  They need continue to get production out of lineup that is, in its lack of star power, the total antithesis of the Yankees.  And most importantly, the Orioles need to continue to play with the same level of confidence they have all year that has created this sense that they are the team who has "the mojo" this year.  And with a pitching staff built not around an ace but total consistancy, Baltimore might not run into the same problems as the Cardinals.  Not to mention they are face a staff that is not nearly as great as the Nationals.  While things always point to a Yankees win in the playoffs, it won't happen this time.  The Birds continue to ride their momentum into the ALCS, making believers out of everybody in the process.