| 2010 American League Division Series | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Teams | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 6 – 12 | ||||||||||||
| Television | TBS | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Don Orsillo Buck Martinez and (Marc Fien) | ||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Dan Shulman and Bobby Valentine | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Tim Welke, Jim Wolf, Jerry Meals, Bill Miller, Jeff Kellogg and Mike DiMuro.[1] | ||||||||||||
| Teams | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 6 – 9 | ||||||||||||
| Television | TBS | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Ernie Johnson, Ron Darling and John Smoltz | ||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Jon Miller and Orel Hershiser | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Jerry Crawford, Hunter Wendelstedt, Greg Gibson, Brian O'Nora, Gary Darling and Chris Guccione.[1] | ||||||||||||
The 2010 American League Division Series (ALDS) were two best-of-five-game series to determine the participating teams in the 2010 American League Championship Series. The three divisional winners and a fourth "Wild Card" team (the team with the best record among teams not winning their division) played in two series from October 6 to 12. TBS televised all games in the United States.[2]
Under MLB's playoff format, no two teams from the same division were matched up in the Division Series, regardless of whether their records would normally indicate such a matchup. Home field advantage went to the team with the better regular-season record with the exception of the wild card team, which defers home field advantage regardless of record. The matchups for the 2010 ALDS were:
- (1) Tampa Bay Rays (Eastern Division champions, 96–66) vs. (3) Texas Rangers (West Division champions, 90–72): Rangers win series, 3–2.
- (2) Minnesota Twins (Central Division champions, 94–68) vs. (4) New York Yankees (Wild Card qualifier, 95–67): Yankees win series, 3–0.
This was the second consecutive season and fourth season overall in which the Twins and Yankees met in the ALDS; the Yankees won all their previous series, 3–1 in 2003 and 2004, and 3–0 in 2009. The Rays and Rangers had never met previously in the postseason, with Tampa Bay making only their second postseason appearance in franchise history (after 2008) and Texas making their fourth appearance (and first since 1999).
The Rangers' win was the first postseason series victory in franchise history; the series also became the first MLB postseason series in which the visiting team won every game.[3] On the other side, the Yankees extended their postseason dominance over the Twins to four consecutive series wins.
The Rangers went on to defeat the Yankees in the ALCS, then lose the 2010 World Series to the National League champion San Francisco Giants.
- ^ a b Mayo, Jonathan (October 5, 2010). "Veteran umpires assigned to Division Series". MLB.com. Archived from the original on October 8, 2010. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
- ^ 2010 MLB Postseason Schedule
- ^ Sullivan, T.R. (October 13, 2010). "CompleteLee! Road to LCS for Texas: 5th gear". MLB.com. Archived from the original on October 14, 2010. Retrieved October 13, 2010.