Major League Baseball Playoffs Schedule for Sunday Features Intriguing Matchups

The Major League Baseball playoff schedule for Sunday will include three games as the Tampa Bay Rays will play the Texas Rangers at 1:07PM, the San Francisco Giants will visit the Atlanta Braves at 4:37PM and the Philadelphia Phillies will play the Cincinnati Reds in Cincinnati at 7:07PM. On Saturday night, the first of the four Division Playoff Series was completed as the New York Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins to finish a sweep of the American League Central champions behind a stellar performance from Yankee starter Phil Hughes.

In the first game of the afternoon, the Tampa Bay Rays will attempt to show just how quickly a five game series can turn. The Rays were swept in two games at home to start the series against the Texas Rangers, and were losing 2 to 1 going entering the 8^th inning of Game Three on Saturday before scoring twice in the 8^th inning and three times in the ninth. The Rays ended up winning 6 to 3, and suddenly the Rangers need to win on Sunday to avoid going to a deciding Game 5 back in Tampa.

In the second game, the San Francisco Giants, after splitting the opening two games at home, will face the Braves in Atlanta in what could be a pivotal Game Three. Jonathan Sanchez, who went 13 and 9 with a 3.07 earned run average during the regular season for the Giants will face Braves right handed starter Tim Hudson, who won 17 and lost 9 with a very stingy 2.83 earned run average during the regular season.

Legendary Braves manager Bobby Cox will retire at the end of the season and the Braves seem to be playing with a determination to delay his departure as long as possible, as they hung tough all year long in the face of the Philadelphia Phillies dominance, and then went into San Francisco and managed to accomplish their mission of taking at least one of the games. They now return to Turner Field, where they had the best home record in all of baseball this year.

Finally, the team that is widely considered to be the best in all of baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies, will travel to Cincinnati to try and put away the Reds in a three game sweep. The Phillies , who already had one of the best pitchers in baseball in Roy Halladay added starting pitcher Roy Oswalt down the stretch and now have what is clearly the best one-two combination in all of baseball and a great lineup as well.

Left hander Cole Hamels, who had a solid year with a 3.06 earned run average, will start for the Phillies and right hander Johnny Cueto (12 and 7, 3.64) will take the mound for the Reds.

All of the Major League Baseball playoff games on the schedule for Sunday will be shown on cable channel TBS.

Source:

ESPN Playoff Page