The Wild Card weekend has arrived and it's time to begin the march to the World Championship Game. 12 teams remain in contention, with four games on the docket this week. I always like to make predictions on who will win, at least in my head. This wasn't a good week, as I only predicted one of the four games correctly.
I also realized that I need to slightly modify the schedule to prevent certain problems, like this week one of the starters for the playoff games decided to retire. I manually unretired him, and he'll officially retire after the season. Now, on to the Wild Card results -
American Baseball Conference
Byes:
1) Jacksonville Jaguars (12-4)
2) San Diego Chargers (10-6)
6) Kansas City Chiefs (10-6) @ 3) Pittsburgh Steelers (10-6)
Kevin Phelan really stepped it up this week for the Steelers with a dominant complete game three hit shutout that ended the Chiefs season. Phelan struck out 7 batters and walked 2. The Steelers managed just 3 hits tonight, but did score 3 runs.
Chad Arndt drove in 2 of those runs for the Steelers with a single. I mentioned in the previews that the Steelers would need their pitching to carry them in the playoffs, and at least for tonight Phelan did.
5) Houston Texans (10-6) @ 4) New York Jets (9-7)
With the game tied 2-2 in the eighth inning
Pat Pinkerton doubled home the go ahead run for the Jets as they edged the Texans 3-2 to advance to the Divisional Round.
Pat Rehberg picked up the complete game win after allowing 2 runs on 4 hits for the Jets, while picking up 2 hits with the bat.
National Baseball Conference
Byes:
1) Minnesota Vikings (14-2)
2) New Orleans Saints (12-4)
6) Philadelphia Eagles (10-6) @ 3) New York Giants (10-6)
The Eagles and Giants were facing off for the third time this season, with a battle between a pair of young hurlers,
Hardie Henderson and
Al Atkinson. While both pitchers pitched well, it was the veteran
Cap Anson of the Giants who was the star of the day, hitting a walk off single in the bottom of the ninth to send the Giants to the next round. It was Anson's second hit and second RBI of the day. The 14 year veteran is hitting .353 for his career, but raised his postseason batting average to .281 with a pair of hits.
5) Chicago Bears (10-6) @ 4) Arizona Cardinals (9-7)
This game featured a matchup of 22 year old
Bill Sweeney for the Bears opposing 40 year old
Scott Young for the Cardinals. Young had already announced that this postseason would be his last, but was hoping tonight would not be his last start. After giving up 11 hits and 7 runs in 8 innings I'm sure he'd rather be remembered as an 89 game winner, but the Cardinals bailed him out in the bottom of the ninth when
Lew Brown singled, moved to third on an error, and came home to score the tieing run on a sacrifice fly, sending the game into extra innings.
It wasn't meant to be for the Cardinals though, as
Bill Krieg reached on an error for the Bears to start the tenth, moved to third on a single by
Pop Snyder, and scored the winning run on a throwing error. The youngster
Bill Sweeney got the win despite a shaky start, going 9 innings while allowing 11 hits. Sweeney did strike out 8 batters, and picked up 2 hits, scored twice, and drove in a run with the bat.