Los Angeles Dodgers' Carl Crawford reaches the plate after hitting a solo home run against the Atlanta BravesThe Associated Press
Sometimes it takes a while before a team can start to appreciate all the benefits of a blockbuster trade.
When it comes to Carl Crawford, the Los Angeles Dodgers sure are appreciating.
The Dodgers $142-million outfielder, obtained last season in a huge franchise-altering trade with the Boston Red Sox, swatted two home runs to lift L.A. to a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
The win provided the Dodgers with a 3-1 best-of-five playoff victory and propelled them into the National League Championship Series against either St. Louis or Pittsburgh.
Crawford stoked three home runs in the series.
The free-spending Dodgers stunned the baseball world a year ago when they agreed to take on a record $220-million salary purge by the Red Sox when they obtained Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto in a late-season deal.
That trade helped vault the Dodgers into the team that American baseball fans love to hate in this year's playoffs according to this story in the Wall Street Journal.
The trade didn't work out immediately as planned by the Dodgers and especially Crawford, who has struggled with both his health and his productivity.
Now Crawford is healthy, writes Bill Shaikin in the L.A. Times, and the big trade is looking better all the time.
The Braves loss, combined with a 30-28 N FL football win by the New York Jets over the Atlanta Falcons on the strength of a final-play field goal, made for a trying night for Atlanta sports fans.
Mark Bradley writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the Braves loss "was a punch in a civic stomach that has been punched too many times in too many Octobers."
In Tampa's dramatic – and shall we say unexpected – 5-4 win over the Red Sox that staved off elimination for the Rays – Jose Lobaton proved once again it really is men playing a kid's game.
Lobaton stroked a solo home run with two out in the bottom of the ninth to win the game for the Rays, who now trail the American League Divisional Series 2-1.
And Lobaton's reward for his heroics, writes Eric Adelson on Yahoo.com was a bowl of ice cream that he always receives when he strokes a walk-off home run.
Michael Wacha, not so far removed from little league himself, continues to be an enlightening late-season story for the St. Louis Cardinals.
For the second consecutive game, the 22-year-old left hander flirted with a no-hitter as the Cardinals went on to post a 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates to force a winner-take-all Game 5 on Wednesday.
Wacha held the Pirates hitless for the first 7 1/3-innings. In his final regular-season start he lost his no-hit bid against the Washington Nationals with two out in the ninth inning.
The performance of Wacha, writes Bernie Miklasz in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , rivals anything accomplished by a rookie pitcher on the post-season stage.
Toronto Blue Jays fans can appreciate this.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Wacha is the first pitcher to throw at least seven no-hit innings in consecutive starts since Dave Stieb of the 1988 Blue Jays.
In baseball's other playoff battle, the Oakland A's have taken a 2-1 series lead over the Detroit Tigers following a 6-3 victory.
Bruce Jenkins writes in the San Francisco Chronicle that the Tigers are broken, vulnerable, and now on the edge of elimination.
Laviolette's firing making waves in Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Flyers decided after three games that Peter Laviolette was not the man best suited to coach the team this year, hiring assistant Craig Berube in his place.
The story has created an uproar in the City of Brotherly Love.
Mike Sielski writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer that the firing of Laviolette is just one more sign that the organization is simply spinning its wheels.
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