Best 1-out-of-2

One of the things I love most about following baseball is the scheduling.  Each week and weekend makes up its own mini-tournament between your team and their opponent, usually involving a three game set.  Baseball has an extremely long season, and I imagine it's difficult for coaches and players to focus on each individual game; the series-style structure allows for the year to be broken down into compartmentalized three game bits.  If you come away with wins in two out of the three games, you won the series and did your job for the week or weekend.  A sweep is even better, obviously, but setting a reasonable goal of winning two out of every three games played allows a team to lose games without giving up on the larger weekly goal.

Sometimes, though, the MLB schedulers set up series of only two games, which as a fan I find extremely unsatisfying.  Take this week, for example, where all of the teams I follow religiously (the Braves) and peripherally (the Yankees and Mets) were involved in two game series; the Braves played the Mets at Turner Field in Atlanta while the Yankees played host to the Red Sox in the Bronx.  Both series perfectly illustrated why the two game series setup is so frustrating.

In Atlanta, the Braves dropped the first game 3-2, but took the second by the same score after Kris Medlen out-dueled Johan Santana and the final run came on an error in the bottom of the ninth.  I would have loved to watch a rubber match tonight between the Mets and Braves, with Kenshin Kawakami and Atlanta taking their momentum into the final contest while battling R.A. Dickey, a knuckleballer making his first start of the season for New York.  Instead, the Braves start a two game set versus Cincinnati and the Mets will play the first of two at Washington.

The Yankees example was even more extreme; the Bombers won the first game versus Boston on a Marcus Thames walkoff homerun off Jonathan Papelbon, but lost the second when Thames misplayed a fly ball in the ninth, (indirectly) leading to two runs.  Yankees vs. Red Sox is already the best rivalry in baseball (if not all of sports); it would have been great to have a third game scheduled between the two tonight, to see how each responded to its respective dramatic win.  Instead, the Yankees start another two game set against Tampa Bay while the Red Sox host Minnesota for two.  Both of these examples also illustrate the other frustrating thing about these two game sets; they're almost always followed by yet another two game series.

What can, or should, Braves fans take away from their two game series with the Mets?  Should they be happy that Atlanta salvaged the set with a Game Two win against Santana, or disappointed that they wasted a solid start by Derek Lowe in Game One?  Should the Yankees be devastated over Rivera's blown save from last night, or ecstatic about Monday's huge ninth inning comeback off of Papelbon?  Without the benefit of a third game in the series, it's very difficult to call the last two nights either a success or a failure.  Let's hope the Braves can sweep the next two against the red-hot Reds - otherwise, I'll have to go through the same mixed emotions on Thursday night.