2011 Major League Baseball Post-Season Previews

After the exciting finish to the 2011 Major League Baseball season last night, what more can be expected now that the post-season has finally arrived?
 The Tampa Bay Rays staged perhaps the greatest comeback ever when they toppled the New York Yankees, 8-7 in 12 innings when Evan Longoria drilled his second home run of the game just inside the left field foul pole.
The Yankees had a commanding 7-0 lead in the eighth inning, but Manager Joe Girardi elected to go with bullpen by committee in the late innings rather than using closer Mariano Rivera.
While all that was happening in Florida, the Boston Red Sox completed their September swoon as they choked away a nine-game lead in the Wild Card chase in the final month of the season.
The Baltimore Orioles scored twice in the bottom of the ninth inning against Bosox closer Jonathan Papelbon to win the game.
Over in the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals completed their incredible September comeback as well as they beat the Houston Astros, 8-0 while the Atlanta Braves squandered a 3-0 lead in the late innings and eventually lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 in 13 innings to knock the Braves out of the post-season.
The Braves enjoyed a eight and a half game lead in early September in the Wild Card chase, but like Boston in the AL, they also choked away the lead and now find themselves on the outside looking in as the post-season gets started this weekend.

Here is a look at the teams involved in the 2011 Major League Baseball Post-Season with capsule previews and predictions for the World Series to follow ...

 In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies, who had baseball's best record (102-60) in the 2011 season, will face the wild card team, the St. Louis Cardinals while the Milwaukee Brewers, winners of the NL Central division, take on the Arizona Diamondbacks, who were a huge surprise this season in winning the NL West.

The American League will feature the wild card Tampa Bay Rays taking on the AL West division champions, the Texas Rangers in the Division Series while the New York Yankees face the AL Central champs, the Detroit Tigers, who have been one of the hottest teams in baseball down the stretch, going 30-9 to run away with their division.

PHILLIES vs. CARDINALS - Look for the Phillies to win the series in four games, even though the Cardinals took the season series from Philly, 6-3.
In the post-season, it is all about pitching and there is none better than the "Fantastic Four" the Phillies trot out to the mound with Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt.
St. Louis counters with Chris Carpenter, Jake Westbrook, Jaime Garcia and Kyle Lohse for their rotation. Fernando Salas is the closer for the Redbirds while the Phillies will rely on Ryan Madson to close things out in the post-season.

BREWERS vs. DIAMONDBACKS - The Brewers will have the edge as the "home team" in this series against the upstart D-Backs, led by feisty manager Kirk Gibson.
The Brewers are slugging team with good pitching and a solid bullpen to boot.
Prince Fielder leads the way for the "Brew Crew" along with slugging outfielder Ryan Braun, who both topped the 30-home run mark in the 2011 season. Yovani Gallardo and Zach Greinke provide a one-two punch for the Brewers' staff and have Francisco Rodriguez and John Axford in the bullpen.
Arizona has a combination of speed and timely hitting to provide for their offense, including Justin Upton, who slammed over 30 home runs and topped the 20-stolen base mark as well. Ian Kennedy is the staff ace and J.J. Putz had a great season in the closer role for the D-Backs.
Take the Brewers in four games to advance to the National League Championship Series.

YANKEES vs. TIGERS - With another AL East division title under their belts, the Yankees face the red hot Tigers, who ran away down the stretch in the AL Central and have the best pitcher in baseball this year in Justin Verlander.
The Yankees have C.C. Sabathia, Ivan Nova, A.J. Burnett and probably Freddy Garcia to round out their playoff pitching rotation. After Verlander, the Tigers feature Brad Penny, Rick Porcello, Doug Fister and Max Scherzer on the mound.
The bullpens are decent and the closers are simply awesome with Mariano Rivera (the all-time saves leader) in the Yankees' pen and Jose Valverde, who was perfect in 49 save situations this season.
Score this series for the Detroit Tigers in five games as they continue on their roll toward the World Series.

RAYS vs. RANGERS - These two teams went five games last year in the ALDS with Texas eventually winning and moving onto the World Series, where they lost to the San Francisco Giants.
C. J. Wilson and Derek Holland lead the way for the Rangers pitching staff while big boppers Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz pace the offense.
The Rays are on a huge roll having overcome the Red Sox in September and will ride the "Wild Card Wave" as far as they can in October.
Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, Ben Zobrist, Casey Kotchman  and veteran Johnny Damon lead the way in the lineup while the pitching staff of David Price, James Shields, Jeremy Hellickson and Jeff Niemann and closer Kyle Farnsworth will be counted on heavily against the Rangers.
The Rays and Rangers both have been hot and this series should go the distance once again with the Rays prevailing this time around.

From there, Heftyinfo is picking the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series with the Phillies winning it all.

Play Ball!