Cliff Lee

Most people know this story. We covered it blow by blow that day (you can read our account here). But there are always people late to the party, so here is a pretty good rundown by Joel Sherman of the NY Post:

One has 27 World Series titles under its belt. The other has one postseason series victory in its 50 years of existence, which coincidentally came on Tuesday night.

What an incredible LDS highlighted by Roy Halladay’s no-hitter. We saw the Rangers over the Rays in five, the Yankees sweep the Twins, the Phills sweep the Reds and the Giants top the Braves in four.

I went 3-1 in the LDS, with my blemish coming when I picked the Rays. I wish I had do-overs. This year’s LCS looks amazing. We have a classic David vs. Goliath story in the AL, and a mouth-watering pitching dual in the NL. Let’s run it down:

If the Wild Card system in Major League Baseball had any remaining detractors entering this season's Division Series round of postseason play—and it did—the pair of excellent series (San Francisco-Atlanta and Texas-Tampa Bay) may have wooed them all.

The Texas Rangers and Philadelphia Phillies are in their respective league championship series thanks in large part to their pitching aces Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay.

Lee mowed down the Tampa Bay Rays by going 2-0 in 16 innings and allowing only two runs. 

Halladay is throwing in his first postseason ever. He only has one start, but it was a dandy has he no-hit the Cincinnati Reds, only the second no-hitter in postseason history.

The moment the Texas Rangers' Cliff Lee hurled his last strike Tuesday night; he not only killed the Tampa Bay Rays' postseason dreams, but also gave the New York Yankees an official ALCS opponent for Game One on Friday night.

The Yankees will fly down to Texas to face the Rangers in the seven-game ALCS series, which for one team will lead to the World Series.

In all honesty, predictions were betting the Rays would beat the Rangers in the ALDS, but in a five-game series, there is no room to stumble.

The Texas Rangers will face the New York Yankees in the ALCS.

Yes, you read that correctly, the Texas Rangers! One of just two teams coming into the season to never win a postseason series are now four tough wins away from a World Series birth.

Those wins will definitely be tough to come by, as they face off against the reigning World Series champs in the Yankees.

That is not to say the Yankees don't have question marks because they certainly do. They still have to decide whether or not to pitch the often erratic, sometimes brilliant A.J. Burnett.

Nearly 50 years of baseball. The last 39 of those years in Arlington. One of only three teams to have never been to the World Series. The Texas Rangers were not exactly a team with a rich tradition. However, when B.J. Upton popped out to left center to end the ninth inning, Texas fans finally had reason to celebrate.

If anyone was surprised at Cliff Lee’s performance in today’s ALDS conclusion, they haven't watched enough baseball to call themselves fans.

If this postseason has made one thing perfectly evident, it is that a true ace in the postseason is worth many times his weight in gold. What’s more astonishing is how accurately one may predict the outcome of a series, especially a short series like the divisional round, simply by assessing the caliber of a team’s ace.

The ALDS series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers started when the Rangers Cliff Lee outdueled the Rays David Price.  Twenty-four hours later, the Rays fell again behind James Shields to the Rangers and C.J. Wilson.  In fact, the Rays only had one run in the first two games at Tropicana Field, via Ben Zobrist's solo homer in Game 1.