OTTAWA-All 30 Major League Baseball teams finished their 162 games schedules on Sunday and last night the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Texas Rangers in the Tiebreaker game to leave eight teams contending for a World Series title
Scattered among the remaining teams are five Canadian players each looking for their first World Series ring.
A record seven Canadian players took part in the postseason in 2004.
Russell Martin (Chelsea, QC) and Justin Morneau (New Westminster, BC) of the Pittsburgh Pirates are the only teammates on the list. Martin was a rock for the Pirates behind the plate in 2013 catching 1,051 innings good for sixth in all of Major League Baseball. This will be Martin’s sixth appearance in the postseason after stints with the Dodgers (2006, 2008, and 2009) and Yankees (2011, 2012).
Justin Morneau joined Martin on the Pirates roster in late August after an 11-year career with the Minnesota Twins. Morneau was drafted by the Twins in 1999 and made his big-league debut in 2003 before winning the American League MVP in 2006. The 32 year-old hit 17 home runs during the regular season and added 77 RBI’s. He’ll be competing in the postseason for the third time in his career and first since 2006.
If the Pirates have aspirations of moving on to the National League Division Series they must go through Joey Votto (Etobicoke, ON) and the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Wild Card game which takes place tonight in Pittsburgh. Votto and the Reds have qualified for the postseason three out of the past four years but have failed to advance beyond the NLDS.
Votto led the National League in On-Base Percentage in 2013 by virtue of his .305 batting average and league leading 135 walks, while playing in all 162 games for the Reds.
The NL Central winning St. Louis Cardinals received a boost to their bullpen when John Axford (Port Dover, ON) came over in a deal from the Milwaukee Brewers on August 30th. Since the trade, Axford recorded a tidy 1.74 ERA in 10 1/3 innings and has averaged a strikeout per inning pitched this season. Axford will be experiencing the postseason for the second time in his career.
He and the Cardinals will await a division rival in either the Reds or the Pirates in the NLDS.
Over in the American League, the lone Canadian on a playoff roster is Ryan Dempster (Gibsons, BC) of the American League East Division winning Boston Red Sox.
Dempster spent the majority of the season in the Sox starting rotation before being moved to the bullpen on September 21st. In 29 starts with the Red Sox, he managed an 8-9 record.
The 16 year big-league veteran will be in the postseason for the first the third time in his career and first since 2008 where he played in back-to-back playoffs (2007, 2008) with the Chicago Cubs.
Toronto-born reliever Jesse Crain hasn’t pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays since they acquired him from the Chicago White Sox on July 29th due to a shoulder injury.
