TEX 6, NYY 1

It's not a good day for Yankee fans -- or for a handful of now-pickless poolies -- but this is about what we might have expected. If more than a handful of Yankees had hit, they might have pulled it out, but they were having a downish year and couldn't lean on their starters very hard, and Texas is a very good team. It's a nice moment for that franchise, too; congrats to its fans.

Pool ALCS MVPs include Cano for the Silver Slugger, and BPP Cy Young the Notorious L.E.E., who racked up more points in one start than the next guy, Sabathia, did in two.

The pool's LVP technically is Tex, who put nothing up before getting hurt; if we don't count him, it's a tie between Rodriguez and Swisher, but they actually did okay and were showing signs of heating up in the last couple of games (of course, Rodriguez 1) will get blamed for everything, including AJ Burnett somehow, and 2) at least did Rangers fans the favor of making the last out to bring everything full circle).

Last but not least, the pool's Memorial Shane Victorino Lost Opportunity Award goes to, I believe, Granderson.

The points:

TEX - 15 (win 3 + blowout 2 + championship-series victory 10)

Cruz, N - 4
Hamilton, J - 1
Rodriguez, A - 2

Hughes, P - 7.67

The departed:

Cano, R
Jeter, D
Rodriguez, A
Swisher, N
Teixeira, M

Hughes, P
Sabathia, CC

Standings after the jump, but the leader isn't going to shock anyone...


A more detailed listing after tonight's game, but here's the broad strokes.

John - 221
Aaron - 181
Maria II - 178
Sheriff Joe, Tom, Broomfield Romine Ltd. - 170s
Tim - 160s
Angela, Dave, Warren, Lauren - 150s
Sam I, Jeremy, Maria I, Ben II - 130s
Hilary, Keith - 120s
Ben - 110s
Sam II, the Jills - 100s
Matt, the Sarahs - less than that

The time comes every year when I formally eliminate various poolians from the proceedings -- insert joke here about having in-formally eliminated myself in, like, August -- and though a handful of us already have no picks left and no serious shot, we'll have to wait until the NLCS concludes to see who's still in contention. As the pool-runner, I'm torn, because a San Francisco win kills off like 80% of the pool -- but at the same time, it's the only shot anyone else has first-place money.

Sanchez vs. Oswalt at 8 PM for most of the marbles.