Hitting was a major storyline heading into this year’s World Series baseball odds action
The 2010 baseball odds season is officially over.
It all ended last night at around 10:30 pm Eastern Standard time and San Francisco Giants reliever Brian Wilson and his beard struck out the last Texas Rangers batter of the evening and delivered the first World Series title in 56 years to the team by the Bay.
It was a fantastic end to a fantastic season that’s been full of highs and lows and breathtaking moments. But the 2010 baseball lines action was defined by, and will be remembered for, the MLB playoffs this year.
The regular season was fine. But the postseason this year was electric. Both the pitching and the hitting were outstanding. And with many of these series going down to the wire no one could have predicted that the San Francisco Giants would be the new World Series champions.
In fact, very few baseball odds makers did.
Heading into the postseason the San Francisco Giants looked like an afterthought. They only clinched the division on the very last day of the season and almost didn’t make the playoffs at all. And then in the opening NLDS in which they dispatched the Braves there were many fans and pundits that thought Atlanta would have won that series if their closer Billy Wagner hadn’t come up lame.
But 2010 was the year of the underdog, at last in the postseason action and the Giants simply outpitched and out hit every opponent they faced. And they faced some pretty good opponents.
In the AL, it was the same story. The Texas Rangers, while having a fantastic hitting lineup that led the Majors in batting average and runs scored during the regular season seemed to lack the pitching staff to get to the World Series. Especially out of the AL in which the team had to knock off the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays (on the road no less) and the defending World Series champion New York Yankees.
But the team did it and landed in the first World Series in Franchise history.
And now after the champagne corks have fallen silent in the Giants’ locker room and the Texas tears have dried these two improbable World Series contenders can savor what they accomplished this year in the baseball odds action even if only one of them goes home a winner.