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    Mark Townsend

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    • Painful groin strain limits Josh Hamilton’s power, not his impact

      HamiltonStrainThose tuning into the postseason expecting to see a power display from Josh Hamilton have been disappointed so far.

      Through nine games and 39 plate appearances, the Texas Rangers slugger — who connected for 25 homers in 121 games during the regular season — has yet to go yard in the first two rounds against Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers pitching. If you look back even further, you'll find that Hamilton has hit only two home runs since Sept. 18.

      That's a fairly significant power outage for a hitter of Hamilton's caliber. One that probably comes with some sort of underlying circumstance.

      As we learned on Thursday, there indeed is a good explanation for his extended power slump. According to Hamilton, he's been playing through a painful left groin strain for about the last month, which is sapping his strength at the plate.

      As Hamilton explained it, he's able to play through the discomfort, but since the strain is to his back leg, it has limited the most important part of his game.

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    • Veterans Lohse, Wolf looking to bounce back in pivotal Game 4

      LohseWolfGame4

      Kyle Lohse versus Randy Wolf might be the furthest thing from an exciting postseason pitching matchup, but these are the two men the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers will turn to for Thursday night's Game 4 at Busch Stadium.

      St. Louis grabbed the lead in the series with their 4-3 victory in Game 3 on Wednesday. A huge win for them, which sets up an opportunity to take a commanding 3-1 advantage, while leaving open the possibility of not returning to Milwaukee. On the flip side, the Brewers desperately need to even this series so that regardless of Game 5's result, they will have a chance to win the NLCS at Miller Park. It's a pivotal contest.

      In order for each team to get their desired result, they will undoubtedly need big bounce-back starts from Lohse and Wolf. Both are two veteran starting pitchers that filled their roles as middle-of-rotation arms more than admirably during the regular season, but suffered ugly, confidence-shaking losses — at least among their fan bases —

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    • Brewers angered by family seating arrangement at Busch Stadium

      BuschSeatingThe rivalry between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers is reaching unprecedented levels at this point. In addition to the on-field incidents such as exchanging beanballs and  complaints about scoreboard lighting, we can now add family seating arrangements to that growing list.

      As Amy K. Nelson of ESPN reports, the Brewers let their dissatisfaction be heard when they arrived to Busch Stadium on Wednesday and learned about the strange allocation of some 350 tickets allotted to their family members for the next three games in the NLCS.

      Of those tickets allotted, Nelson reports 130 to 150 will be seated comfortably in a party suite down the right-field line, with indoor and outdoor seating, and food beverage services. However, the remaining 200 tickets are spread randomly throughout the ballpark, with family members being broken down into much smaller groups.

      Naturally that raises security concerns for players, with last season's incidents at Yankee Stadium involving family

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    • ALCS Game 2 postponed due to rain that has yet to arrive

      Game2Tarp

      Major League Baseball is having a difficult time figuring out this whole weather forecasting thing.

      As you know, MLB suffered through quite an embarrassing ordeal in Game 1 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium, misreading the forecast and ultimately having a marquee Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia pitching matchup washed away less than two innings in. That game ended up being suspended and continued the following day, which certainly had a negative effect on both team's pitching plans, as well as travel plans for both them and the fans.

      They had another rough night on Saturday, as two separate rainfalls in Game 1 of the ALCS caused two extended rain delays during the top of the fifth inning. Texas Rangers starter C.J. Wilson returned to the mound after the first one and clearly struggled to regain his rhythm. Verlander was again on the mound for Detroit, and he was unable to return after the second delay.

      With forecasts not looking good for Sunday night, commissioner Bud Selig went into

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    • Man down: Tigers lose Magglio Ordonez for remainder of playoffs

      Ordonezankle

      More bad news for the Detroit Tigers on Sunday as their lineup and outfield depth have taken another massive hit.

      Already down outfielder Delmon Young, who played the role of unlikely hero in their dramatic ALDS victory over the New York Yankees, Detroit will also have to carry on without right fielder Magglio Ordoñez for the remainder of the playoffs after his balky right ankle flared up in their ALCS Game 1 loss to the Texas Rangers.

      Ordoñez underwent surgery to repair a fracture to that same ankle in August, and has been playing through a lot of discomfort throughout the season. During the second rain delay Saturday, it reached the point where Ordoñez felt like he couldn't continue, and manager Jim Leyland removed him for pinch-runner Don Kelly after play resumed.

      Leyland was unable to give an explanation for what caused Ordoñez's painful setback, but the wet field conditions might have factored in.

      Now, Leyland will be forced to turn to Kelly or Andy Dirks to take over in right

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    • Five things the Milwaukee Brewers must do to win the NLCS

      Brewers5ThingsThe Milwaukee Brewers won their first playoff series in 29 years, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks in five exciting games, and will now move on to their first ever National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.

      Ironically, they also met the Cardinals the last time they advanced in the playoffs, but that matchup took place in the World Series. Now the division rivals are battling for the right to play in the World Series.

      With that in mind, we're going to take a look at the five things the Brewers must do in order to advance past St. Louis and get the city of Milwaukee closer to its first World Series championship since 1957.

      1. Protect their home field: Milwaukee's home field dominance will be a big storyline for as long they're alive. They finished the regular season a league best 57-24 at Miller Park, and tacked on three more wins in the NLDS.

      But if there's one team that won't be overwhelmed coming into Miller Park, it's St. Louis. Though the Cardinals like

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    • Five things the Texas Rangers must do to win the ALCS

      Rangers ALCSThe Texas Rangers advanced to their second straight American League Championship Series by ousting the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS three games to one. As we learned in Thursday night's decisive Game 5 from Yankee Stadium, they will now hook up with Detroit Tigers at the Ballpark in Arlington beginning tonight at 8:05 ET.

      Here are the five things we believe Texas needs to accomplish in this ALCS to get past Detroit, repeat as American League champions, and to take their next shot at their ultimate goal: a World Series title.

      1. Avoid a slow start: Four days between games isn't the longest stretch we've seen in recent playoff history, but it's still four days. Four days to the creatures of habit known as baseball players probably feels like four weeks, especially when they're playing well and anxious to continue their trek towards that world championship.

      Despite the rallies of the different teams in the LDS round, getting behind 1-0 in a seven-game series is never advantageous. That

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    • Gibson gets his mojo back, pushes right buttons in Game 4 win

      GibbyGame4Widely believed to be his league's manager of the year after leading the Arizona Diamondbacks from worst to first in the NL West, Kirk Gibson left us second-guessing that belief with several questionable decisions in Game 1 of the NLDS, which they lost to the Milwaukee Brewers.

      Another rough afternoon in Game 2 brought Arizona home down 2-0 in the series and on the brink of elimination.

      They avoided going three-and-out behind a historic performance from rookie Paul Goldschmidt in Game 3, and in the process they afforded their manager another chance to redeem himself from earlier mistakes. Much like his D-backs have done all season on the field, Gibson seized the opportunity, rallying to manage a nearly perfect Game 4.

      The biggest decision Gibson made came with two outs in the third inning, getting results that essentially decided the outcome right on the spot. (Generally those decisions come in the seventh inning and later.) He elected to lift starting pitcher Joe Saunders for

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    • Former teammates in minors cheer Goldschmidt after slam

      GoldGranny

      Wherever Paul Goldschmidt goes, whatever Paul Goldschmidt does, he seems to make a positive impression.

      Not only has he made a good impression on his Arizona Diamondbacks teammates and fans since being called up Aug 1., but he must have made an impact on folks in the minor leagues as well. Goldschmidt's minor-league teammates, guys who he has fought for jobs in Arizona's organization — those he has met on their way down and his way up — are among his most vocal supporters.

      Along with fellow rookie Josh Collmenter, Goldschmidt helped save Arizona's season in an 8-1 victory against the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of the NLDS on Tuesday night. Goldschmidt was the one who put the game out of reach with an opposite-field grand slam off Shawn Marcum. The home run prompted a huge reaction, one that reached well beyond the crowd of 48,312 at Chase Field.

      As Arizona Republic reporter Nick Piecoro pointed out, it drew a huge reaction on the Internet from Goldschmidt's apparently wide circle of

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    • ALDS Game 4: Yankees force Game 5 with 10-1 pounding of Tigers

      YankeesSurviveScore and situation: With their backs against the wall, the New York Yankees extended their season with a 10-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night. The series is now all squared at 2-2 with the decisive Game 5 slated for Thursday night at Yankee Stadium.

      Leading lads: Russell Martin and Brett Gardner provided a nice spark at the bottom of the Yankees order, each collecting two hits and scoring twice. Together they helped open the door to an offensive onslaught that included contributions from all nine spots in New York's order.

      Head hangers: Detroit's bullpen was unable to keep them in the game late. Trailing only 4-1, former Yankee Phil Coke would allow three runs in his one plus inning. Al Alburquerque then continued his struggles from Game 1, balking a run home and failing to record an out.{YSP:MORE}

      Key play: Curtis Granderson's first inning leaping grab of Don Kelly's line drive helped A.J. Burnett escape a bases loaded jam. Granderson appeared to misread the ball

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