.

Three of these four teams get a ticket to the Bright Lights, Big Cit-eh:

In Ball Four, Jim Bouton relayed the Seattle Pilots' locker room in July.  Guys were sitting around after another loss, talking about the exciting games going on between the Tigers (yes), Orcs (yes), and Twins.  (Check me if I'm wrong; it was Reggie Jackson's rookie year, or pretty close, and he hit 40+ homers as a kid.  The Tigers and Twins would fade, IIRC, but the A's were on a groundswell that would lead into one of history's great dynasties.)

Anyway, one of the Pilots started to muse good-naturedly.  Golly gee whiz, he said.  I wonder how this clubhouse would handle a pennant race?  You think we'd play well if somebody put us at the top now, or how would we be?

Don Blasingame, or Fred Gladding, or somebody, was coming out of the shower.  "How would we be?," he said.  He sucked in his cheeks like a trout, pressed his keister cheeks together, clamped his knees, and started taking Charlie Chaplin steps around the locker room.  "VERY TIGHT," he said.

.......

I don't think the M's are "choking."  I think they're fighting admirably.  But it says here that you can see the pressure in --- > their defensive swings, in their attempts to "control" the action, to "force" a victory.  "This is not about victory," grasshopper.  "It's about perfection."  Teams can lose focus on process, when they are distracted by results...

When an athlete cares too much, he can go into "control" mode and this effort, ironically, can produce an "information logjam" in the brain.  He becomes stiff and mechanical, as it certainly seems to Dr. D that the Mariners hitters are.

Hey, how about you?  Could you walk across a 4" wide beam if it were a foot off the ground?  Easy.  How about 100 feet off the ground?  Do you walk any differently?  (Hey, just tell yourself it doesn't matter!)

Here's an interesting discussion of the subject.

........

Usually, Robinson Cano would be the guy to keep everybody loose -- that is certainly what Junior did, when the M's started winning -- but, amazingly, Cano himself seems to be pressing.  Swinging at pitches outside the zone, dragging the bat through the zone with a put-it-in-play attitude.  Can't imagine why.  Even if he hadn't been to the postseason seven (7) times, still, the New York scene itself is all the pressure cooker you need.

Felix wants too badly to do well; he's spiking his fastball in an effort to finish pitches perfectly.

Dr. D's nominees for the guys who are pressing the most:

• Felix
• Austin Jackson (yowch it's painful to watch) (he played in October the last 3 years -- terribly)
• Zunino (he's both tired AND overanxious)
• Cano seems just one notch off his game -- presumably it has zero to do with pressure
• Yoervis Medina (but it could be that he's being used too much)

It isn't that these guys -- the above, and a few others -- are being greedy.  Not at all.  To my eye they're trying not to mess up.  Like we sez, sports psychology is all about visualizing the positive, being confident on a subconscious level.  

Prior success under playoff conditions is a big part of that.  Hey, even Michael Jordan had playoff barriers he had to play his way through, before the glory began.  It's not an absolute rule, naturally.  But athletes who know how to make the playoffs have a discernible advantage in a stretch run.

....

And the SSI nominees who are, interestingly enough, enjoying the journey:

• Brad Miller!
• Chris Denorfia looks like a fish in water, absolutely in his element (go figure)
• Michael Saunders
• The bullpen continues its John Buck groove as if nothing had changed
• James Paxton

Ah, well.  The Mariners' frame of mind is questionable.  The Orcs' frame of mind is not.  

....

The cure?  Earl's Seventh Law:  Momentum Is Only As Good As the Next Night's Starting Pitcher.  Big Game James just cured the nerves that had ailed the Royals.  Rick Porcello was throwing BB's, and you were feeling sorry for the Royals, but ... James Shields transcended it.  Both his stuff, and his demeanor, hog-tied the Tiger arrogance and he single-handedly put the Royals back in the saddle, pardner.

We confidently presume that K-Pax will go out there, butcher the A's lineup, and send a piece to every AL city.  Following this, the weekend series will cure what ails the M's.

Pretty sweet to have K-Pax going Friday, ain't it?

Or not,

Jeff