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The 2011 Major League Baseball season began on Thursday, March 31, and ended on Wednesday, September 28.[1] This marked the first time a season began on a Thursday since 1976, and the first time a regular season ended on a Wednesday since 1990. The 82nd edition of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 12 with the National League defeating the American League for the second straight year, by a score of 5–1. As has been the case since 2003, the league winning that game has home field advantage in the World Series. Accordingly, the 2011 World Series began on October 19, and ended on October 28, with the St. Louis Cardinals winning in seven games over the Texas Rangers.[1]
Only two teams were unable to complete the entire 162-game regular season schedule, as the make-up game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on September 8 was cancelled due to rain and was decided not to make up any further, owing to scheduling constraints and the game inconsequential to the playoffs.[2]
Green backgrounds indicate teams that made the postseason. Numbers in parentheses indicate seedings for the postseason, determined by won-lost records.
On the last day of the 2011 regular season, the post-season fate of four teams across both leagues was decided.[3] In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated their National League Central division rival Houston Astros to win the National League wild card berth after the Atlanta Braves lost to their National League East division rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies.[4] In the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays defeated their American League East division rivals the New York Yankees with dramatic home runs in the 9th inning by Dan Johnson and later in extra innings by Evan Longoria to win the American League wild card berth after the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Boston Red Sox, both also rivals in the American League East, on a walk-off single.[5][6] This has been cited as the "most thrilling 129 minutes in baseball history."
The Rays returned to the playoffs for the second consecutive year despite losing many players from the year before. The Red Sox and Braves suffered two of the most epic collapses their franchises had due to their losing the playoff spot the last day despite leading the next contending teams by multiple games the last month of the season.[8] The Cardinals eventually rode the momentum of their win to win the NLDS and NLCS on their way to defeating the Texas Rangers for their 11th World Series title in the 2011 World Series.[9][10][11]
The Red Sox were favored by pundits to win the American League pennant prior to the start of the season due to acquisitions of Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Bobby Jenks.[12][13][14] Despite a slow start, Boston darted to the top of the division during the summer months. Injuries plagued the team and they slowly lost first place to the Yankees, but were still in comfortable contention for the wild card. The month of September started an epic slump for the team where the team had allowed the Rays to get back into contention.[15] However, Boston still controlled its own destiny going into their final series with the last place Orioles, but wound up having the season come down to the last game.[16]
The Red Sox had taken a lead for a good part of the game, but the Orioles mounted a comeback. The game was interrupted by a rain delay in the middle of the 7th with Boston ahead 3–2. After play had resumed almost an hour and a half later, the Orioles still trailed by a run in the bottom of the 9th. When leading after eight innings, the Red Sox were 77–0 in 2011.[17] Facing closer Jonathan Papelbon, Chris Davis and Nolan Reimold hit back-to-back doubles with two outs, which tied the game. The next batter, Robert Andino, hit a line drive to left field which Carl Crawford was unable to catch, allowing Reimold to score and the Orioles walked off with the win.[18][19]
After the Orioles won, Andino, who had been a Red Sox killer of late, said, "End of season like this, to make Boston go home sad, crying, I'll take it all day."[20][21]
The Yankees had already won the American League East several days prior to this contest.[22] The Rays had been in third place behind both the Yankees and the Red Sox for much of the season.[23] However, Boston had slowly started to lose many games in September due to poor starting and relief pitching, disappointing hitting from newly acquired free agent Carl Crawford throughout the year, and injuries to key players like Kevin Youkilis. The Rays, who had won the division in 2010, had lost many of their players to free agency. Despite the losses, the Rays had crawled back into contention and faced the Yankees in the final series of the year.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi indicated that he would approach the final games so that the team's pitching staff would be set up for the 2011 ALDS against the Detroit Tigers.[24] Suspicions rose to whether or not the Yankees would compete intensely due to them wanting to rest their aging players for the playoffs and to keep the Red Sox out, their fierce rivals whom they had a lopsided losing record to that season.[25] Girardi indicated that many of his post-season pitchers would not be pitching that game. The Yankees, however, started the game strong by taking a 5–0 lead by the 2nd inning. Their lead grew to 7–0, which they held as the game entered the bottom of the 8th inning. In the 8th inning, the Rays scored six runs, capped off by a three-run home run by Evan Longoria. In the bottom of the 9th inning, down to his final strike, struggling Rays first baseman Dan Johnson hit a solo home run to tie the game. Already depleted from wanting to get pitchers who were not going to be on the post-season roster in, the Yankees went into extra innings with struggling pitchers. During Tampa Bay's half of the 12th inning, Evan Longoria hit his second home run of the game, a walk-off home run that cleared a short wall near the left field foul pole to win the game for the Rays just minutes after the Orioles' victory over the Red Sox.[26] The win clinched the American League Wild Card for the Rays.[27]
Seat No. 10 in the first row behind the right-field foul pole has been painted white in honor of Dan Johnson's, game-tying, ninth-inning, pinch-hit blast during Game 162. They have also renamed the section beyond the left field foul pole "162 Landing" in honor of Longoria's game winning, 12th-inning home run.[28]
The National League wildcard race came down to the fate of two games on the last day of the regular season.
The National League Central had been a two way race late into the season with the Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers vying for contention. After the Reds had fallen off, the Brewers had clinched the division.[29][30] The Cardinals battled back despite perennial all-star Albert Pujols serving on the disabled list and not having pitcher Adam Wainwright.[11] Upon Pujols' return, the Cardinals came within one game by defeating the Astros under nine innings of dominant pitching by ace pitcher Chris Carpenter.[31]
The Philadelphia Phillies had clinched a playoff berth, the division title, and the best league record for weeks. For most of the season, the Atlanta Braves had been in 2nd place in the National League East by a good margin and well ahead in the wildcard standings.[32] The Phillies had something to play for, a franchise record in wins. They battled back to force the game into extra innings where they won and in effect, not only eliminated the Braves from post-season contention,[33] but also set that record with 102, surpassing the previous record of 101 set back-to-back in 1976 and 1977 during their run of three straight division championships from 1976–1978.[34][35] Charlie Manuel also became the winningest manager in the history of the Phillies with 646 wins, surpassing Gene Mauch, the manager of the Phillies when they collapsed in a similar way the Braves did in 1964.[34]
Note: Two teams in the same division cannot meet in the Division Series
†: Suspended in bottom of the 2nd inning; resumed October 1
*: 11 innings †: postponed to October 10 due to rain
The St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers squared off in a season long division race and by the beginning of August, they were only a few games apart in the division. The Brewers would pull away for the crown, and the Cardinals continued poorly until they were 10 1⁄2 games back of the wild card on August 25. They made a historical comeback in September to win the wild card from the Atlanta Braves on the last day of the season. Both teams would advance through the NLDS in five games setting up a 1982 World Series rematch.[36] The Cardinals won the pennant in six games, clinching the series on the road.
†: postponed from October 26, due to rain *: 11 innings
Two more teams have joined the growing cable-exclusive telecast teams in 2011. Fox Sports Midwest will produce and televise all St. Louis Cardinals games on the cable station, along with selected areas of the Cardinals' DMA outside St. Louis including Fox Sports Tennessee in Tennessee, Fox Sports Indiana in parts of Indiana, and SportsSouth in Arkansas and parts of Oklahoma.[61] The 2010 season was their last season of splitting games with KSDK.[62]
The Minnesota Twins will also join the group, with Fox Sports North becoming their exclusive local home starting this year.[63] The 2010 season was their last season of splitting games with WFTC.
Also starting this season, Atlanta Braves games that air on WPCH-TV will be produced by (and simulcast on) Fox Sports South or SportSouth, marking the first season since 1972 which local Braves telecasts won't be produced by Turner Sports.[64]
The national telecast breakdown is as follows, along with the maximum number of appearances per team:
In Canada, Toronto Blue Jays games will be televised on Rogers Sportsnet. RSN also holds the Canadian rights to air the Fox and ESPN/ESPN2 games if they do not conflict with Blue Jays games, and additional regular season games on a regional basis on Rogers Sportsnet One as well as the All-Star Game and the entire postseason. TSN2 holds rights to the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball telecasts.
In Australia, it is free to air channel One HD and shows up to five games live per week, and European channel ESPN America broadcasts games as well.
For international viewers, MLB International will broadcast the All-Star Game, the NLCS and the World Series.
ESPN Radio will once again serve as MLB's national radio network, broadcasting Sunday Night Baseball as well as selected Saturday and holiday games during the regular season, the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game, and all postseason series. ESPN Deportes Radio holds the Spanish language rights to the Fall Classic.
The Los Angeles Angels celebrated their 50th Anniversary in 2011. Founded by Gene Autry in 1961, the team played at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field in their first season, then shared Dodger Stadium (called "Chavez Ravine" by Angels management) with the Dodgers before moving to Anaheim in 1966 and their own stadium, Anaheim Stadium (later to become Edison International Field of Anaheim and finally Angel Stadium of Anaheim). That year, the team name was altered to the California Angels. After being purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 1997, the team name was changed to the Anaheim Angels and after Arte Moreno purchased the team, the name was changed to its current moniker to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2005. For the season, in addition to the patch, the Angels changed the color of the halo from silver to gold on their uniforms, just as it looked from 1971 through 1996.[77] In addition, on selected Friday night games, the team donned replicas of five of the six styles of uniforms they have worn, the most notable omission being that of the "Periwinkle Blue" era from 1997 to 2001, when Disney owned the team.
This was the Florida Marlins' final season at Sun Life Stadium, after 19 years,[78] they will move to their new ballpark in downtown Miami, where they'll become the Miami Marlins.
Due to the U2 360° Tour concert scheduled June 29 at Sun Life Stadium and the needed time to set up the stage, the Marlins were forced to move their scheduled home games for June 24–26 against the Seattle Mariners to the Mariners' park at Safeco Field. As the Marlins were the home team, NL rules (no designated hitter) were applied. Mariners and Marlins would not meet again in Miami until 2014.
The Houston Astros were sold by Drayton McLane for US $680 million to a group led by Jim Crane, the founder of a transit logistics company.
The Detroit Tigers retired Sparky Anderson's #11 on June 26.[79]
Bert Blyleven, elected to the Class of 2011 of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was honored with the retirement of his uniform #28 by the Twins on July 16.[80]
Roberto Alomar, also a 2011 Hall of Fame class member, became the first member of the Toronto Blue Jays to have his number (#12) retired on July 31.[81]
The Atlanta Braves retired Bobby Cox's #6 prior to their game against the Chicago Cubs on August 12.[82]
Trevor Hoffman, who had been the all-time saves leader until Mariano Rivera surpassed him on September 19, had his #51 retired by the San Diego Padres on August 21.[83]
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