The 2004 Red Sox Weren't Even Close

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Posted By: warshawlaw

but nothing pulled off by one of the top 3 payrolls in baseball on a team that was jiggered last off-season expressly to beat the Yankees is miraculous. Even the pinkie ring crowd in Vegas had the Sox as favorites, so don't talk about miracles...

Baseball is played one game at a time. There have been a ton of teams that have won games in the 9th inning. The fact that the Yankees could not win another game after blowing the 4th game is not miraculous, either. They were simply outplayed. Had Jason Giambi been healthy and playing instead of John Olerud, the outcome would likely have been quite different. Take away Ortiz or Ramirez and put in Olerud and do the Sox still win?

As far as the Cardinals go, let's be honest: division by division, the AL has better teams and tougher intradivisional fights. The NL Central is the second weakest division in baseball (behind the AL Central), while the AL East is the toughest one. The Cards fattened up on mediocre teams in their division and generated their best in baseball record, while the Yankees and Sox beat the crap out of each other. Whoever makes it through the AL East buzzsaw is the favorite to take the AL pennant (as has been the case for nine of the last ten years), and the AL pennant winner is the favorite to mow down the NL champion (as has been the case seven of the last ten years).

What would have been miraculous would have been for the Twins or Astros to win the series...