On day one of the 2006 Major League Baseball playoffs, the ‘stars’ came out to play. For the A’s, it was left-handed pitcher Barry Zito and veteran Frank Thomas. St. Louis saw Albert Pujols and Chris Carpenter also rise to the occasion on the road. And in the nightcap, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was perfect at the plate to help New York take a 1-0 series lead over the Detroit Tigers. Here’s my daily diary if you will on the start of baseball’s postseason……

Tuesday, October 3^rd - Oakland @ Minnesota Gm. 1: In the Top of the 1^st, Johan Santana, the Twins’ lefty starter who’s up for another AL Cy Young award, struck out two of the first three batters he faced. Might be a big game for him. Bottom of the 1^st, A’s catcher Jason Kendall made a big play by throwing out Luis Castillo trying to steal second. In the Top of the 2^nd, Frank Thomas put Oakland on the board with a solo home run just inside the left field pole on an 81MPH, 3-1 changeup pitch that was mid-high in on the hands. It marked the longest gap between home runs in the postseason as Thomas had not hit one in 13 years. Later on, Marco Scutaro hit a two-out double to left field, scoring Jay Payton (who got his first ever hit off Santana) – A’s 2-0.

It’s the Bottom of the 6^th now, two are on and two are out. Zito gets Michael Cuddyer out of Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, VA to ground into a force play at second. Big break for the visiting A’s in the Metrodome. In the Top of the 7^th, Twins SS Jason Bartlett committed an error on a grounder, putting two men on with no outs. The Athletics would get the bases full with one out, but didn’t get that insurance run. May come back to bite them. Bottom of the 7^th and Rondell White, a seasoned veteran, crushes, and I mean crushes, the ball to left with two outs to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Top of the 9^th and Thomas (a.k.a. the ‘Big Hurt’) just went yard again, drilling an inside pitch from reliever Jesse Crain to make the score 3-1 in favor of his team. Thomas’ second homer of the game made him the first A’s player since Terrence Long back in 2001 to hit two blasts in a postseason game. Long did it against the Yankees. Also, Thomas could’ve hit three as he had one earlier go foul. Bottom of the 9^th – Milton Bradley can’t track a pop to the right and Cuddyer gets on third, eventually scoring. That dome coming into effect. However, Bradley does catch a liner and Huston Street records his first ever postseason save. Minnesota had their chances, but squandered those opportunities. Story here though is that Zito went eight innings, allowing only one run and getting the work done despite one strikeout. His pay day will be coming soon. The even bigger story is Thomas, who at the age of 38, became the older player with a multi-homer game in the postseason. He must feel redeemed right now as his team is doing well and has a shot at the World Series, while his old team – the Chicago White Sox – are sitting at home, watching him.

St. Louis @ San Diego Gm. 1: When Albert Pujols is at the dish, you better not make that mistake. Because he’s the guy that makes you pay, pretty much every time. In the Top of the 4^th, Pujols hit a two-run homer off Padres starter Jake Peavy for his 11^th career playoff dinger. He did it in the pitcher friendly confines (love saying that) of Petco Park. Earlier in the at-bat, Padres catcher Mike Piazza misplayed a pop-up behind the plate. That really stings right about now. Cards lead it 2-0. San Diego gets a shot in the Bottom part of the 4^th with two men aboard and none out vs. Chris Carpenter, who proceeds to send them down 1-2-3. Adrian Gonzalez got a K on a full count, so did Russell Branyan and Piazza grounded into a fielder’s choice also with the count full.

Top of the 5^th sees Jim Edmonds deliver a key RBI single with two outs. Padres second baseman Josh Barfield should’ve got that ground ball, too. But everything wasn’t all rosy for Edmonds and the Red Birds. When the Bottom of the 7^th came, Branyan got a 1-out triple when Edmonds dove for the ball and was unable to get it… that forces Carpenter to come out. With the bases full and one out, reliever Tyler Johnson shines, striking out Mark Bellhorn. No surprise there; Bellhorn used to be either a strikeout or homer about 50% of the time. Why am I saying used to be? Obviously, he still is. Todd Walker steps in, and that’s not good news. Walker is batting only .167 off lefties. Grounds out and kudos to Ronnie Belliard for the nice glove-work. Cards take Gm. 1 by a count of 5-1, but I’m not completely sold yet they’ll win the series. If they take Gm. 2, then I am.

Detroit @ NY Yankees Gm. 1: Am not expecting this series to be all that close. No surprise with the Yankees out in front early as they touched Nate Robertson up for five runs in the third. In the sixth inning, Tigers outfielder Craig Monroe, who had a leadoff homer in the fifth, threw to third base to try and get Johnny Damon, allowing Derek Jeter to go from first to second. If he holds Jeter at first, the Bobby Abreu hit there drives in one run rather than two, thus the score would be 6-3 instead of 7-3. That was the play of the game in my opinion.

Top of the 7^th and the Yanks middle relief is struggling-ggg. Mike Myers gives up a home run to Curtis Granderson and it’s a 7-4 ball game. Perhaps we have a ball game again? No. With runners on the corners, two outs, Scott Proctor faces Magglio Ordoñez. Ordoñez does have reasonable success vs. this team as he has belted 18 career homers against New York coming into the game. Doesn’t here as he flies out to center. In the top of the 8^th, reliever Kyle Farnsworth got off to a shaky start, throwing six consecutive balls to begin the inning. The guy can throw heat, but the issues with him have always been control, location and pitching past one innings (because, quite honestly, he can’t do that very well). In the end, Farnsworth and the Yankees get through it to win 8-4. Credit the five-run inning, 14 team hits from a ‘murderous row’ batting order (I got a feeling we’ll be saying that a LOT this October) and the always clutch Derek Jeter going 5-for-5. It was Jeter’s sixth five-hit game of his postseason career.

Wednesday, October 4^th - Oakland @ Minnesota Gm. 2: May be a little early for this to be a ‘must-win’ game for the Twins, but they certainly do need it as they do not want to face elimination on the road without Santana – or the injured Francisco Liriano – available. The A’s have been up 2-0 before and failed to finish it off, just go see their series with the Yankees back in 2001 for evidence. Different year, different team though. Twins rookie pitcher Boof Bonser (what kind of name is that?) shuts down the A’s the first two innings. Not the third, however. After a long AB, Mark Ellis singles to left. Shortly thereafter, Marco Scutaro, a "journeyman" as one announcer put it, drives in a run. Here’s what I’ve noticed about Scutaro, a player I had a chance to watch up close a good deal when he was a member of the AAA Norfolk Tides (at the time, the farm organization for the New York Mets). He’s very scrappy and does all the little things. One of those guys you like to have on your ball club, for no other reason than you know you’re going to get 100% out of him everyday. Scutaro had a propensity for coming up with some game-winning pinch hits last season. In fact, he had six in total during 2005. Manager Ken Macha has had no problem playing him for the injured Bobby Crosby.

Anyhow, enough of Scutaro for the time being. Esteban Loaiza, the starter Oakland sent out, was doing well for awhile as he pitched five strong innings before giving up two runs in the sixth. That’s just it – they were costly runs; one a homer to Michael Cuddyer and the other a homer to Justin Morenau. Little something about Cuddyer – he’s been a threat ever since they moved him to the cleanup spot in the lineup. We’re knotted up at 2-all. That changes in the Top of the 7^th as the momentum shifts back to the visiting team.

With two outs and a runner on first, Minnesota center fielder Torii Hunter makes a monumental mistake. This for a guy who is a defensive star and Gold Glove winner in the past, too. Hunter went for the ball on a dive and it cost them two runs. Had he played the ball in front of him on a hop, it would’ve been only one run. Oakland jumps out to a 4-2 advantage in the Top of the 7^th. That inside park home run by Mark Kotsay was definitely the game-changing play of the day. In the Top of the 9^th, Minnesota closer Joe Nathan, who had three wild pitchers all year, throws a wild pitch on an 0-2 counter. Nick Swisher scores to put Oakland ahead 5-2. Bottom of the 9^th and Huston Street comes on to close it again for a second straight day. With two on and two out and the AL Batting Champ, Joe Mauer, on deck, the Twins needed Nick Punto to rise to the occasion. After all, the Twins have shown resiliency all year right? He gets a full count and pops out, ending the game with Oakland winning 5-2. A’s take a commanding 2-0 series lead back to the bay. So the Twins will have to win the three straight comes to win the series. But so far, they’ve been out-executed and out-played on defense. Game 1 – they were unable to cash in on the opportunities. Game 2 – they made two crucial mistakes (Nathan wild pitch and Hunter’s defensive mishap).

LA Dodgers @ NY Mets Gm. 1: Marlon Anderson’s double scored Russell Martin in the second inning to put the Dodgers up by a count of 1-0. How John Maine responds to giving up an early inning is going to be interesting to watch. New York responded in the fourth inning, when Carlos Delgado, who was the only player with a hit in the Mets lineup the first time through, sent a homer over the left-center field wall. Cliff Floyd also hit one out of the park, so now the Mets are up 2-1. Got a feeling, call it a hunch, that we’ll see some more scoring here in the next few innings. Was right, too, because of David Wright.

Wright delivered a key 2-RBI double in the Bottom of the 6^th to extend the Mets’ lead, 4-1. This is the kind of start the young third baseman needs to get off to for them to reach and possibly win a World Series this October. LA answers in the Top of the 7^th. The Dodgers put two on with no outs and Guillermo Mota K’s his former team, Julio Lugo is the victim. But Rafael Furcal gets and RBI single, and with two on, two outs, it’s Nomar Garciaparra vs. Mota. Nomar wins the battle, roping a 1-2 pitch down the third base line for a two-run double. It ties the game at 4-all. No need to fear, Jose Reyes is here. In the Bottom of the 7^th though, Paul Lo Duca makes the critical mistake of swinging on the first pitch with Reyes on first (for some reason, Reyes was walked… why would you ever walk that guy? It’s practically an automatic double). Reyes does eventually steal second, making that walk come back to bite the Dodgers. Carlos Beltran, whose home run total rose from 16 to 41, also gets walked. Carlos Delgado goes to 4-for-4 on the game as his RBI single puts the Mets back on top, 5-4. Wright hits an RBI double to make it 6-4 Mets and Brad Penny, who relieved Derek Lowe, is struggling-ggg.

Bottom of the 8^th and the Mets are ready to tack on some more runs. Doesn’t happen, though. They had two outs and the bases full, and for the first time of the day, Delgado comes up empty. Top of the 9^th and Billy Wagner, the high-dollar free-agent pickup by New York to be the team’s closer, gives up a hit to Wilson Betemit, who later scores on a Ramon Martinez pinch-hit RBI double. That makes the score 6-5 Mets. Stepping to the plate is Nomar again, with a runner on second and two out. Mets fans all across the country are getting really, really nervous. I mean, REALLY nervous. Breath a sigh of relief. Garciaparra gets caught swinging in the dirt for a strikeouts and Wagner and co. take the opening game 6-5.