MLB: PLAYOFFS // NFL: WEEK 5

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner.  MLB: PLAYOFFS // NFL: WEEK 5 //. . . MLB---A World Series competing the NL’s Washington Nationals against the Baltimore Orioles could seem a good bet today. However, baseball, like all sports, is what can happen in spite of a playoff team’s plans, assets and stats, and so even a Pittsburgh Pirates versus Kansas City Royals WS is possible. But probability has its laws and a L.A. Dodgers and Nat’s LC series rests high on today’s lists of the likely to happen, the Dodgers a possible LC champion largely from starters Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greincke and a tenacious enough Dodgers bull pen and Dodgers hitters Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig. Meanwhile, the AL crown is more up for grabs among contenders the Orioles, the L.A. Angels, the Detroit Tigers and the Royals, each with a starter rotation that has, without an MVP candidate or double-digit winner equaling the likes of a Kershaw or Greinke, managed a low ERA and sufficient bull pen consistency for recoveries and saves. Then there’s the line-up capacity of the AL’s playoff clubs being close enough in on-base percentages (OBP), runs and RBI’s for the offense of either team taking the LC. .  .THE NL’s starting rotation achieved regulation’s best team ERA, 3.5, including that of top strikeout achiever, Gerrit Cole. Also, the Nat’s lineup has a considerable edge, in that it has offset low season RBI and low total team home run records with an exceptionally high number of runs and one of the NL’s better on base + slugging percentages (OPS+) per man in the  lineup, excluding pitchers. Still, “California Dreamin,’ Inc.,” has the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants slugging it out for the NL crown, while Washington and Baltimore fans are drooling at the bit for a Nat’s vs. Orioles “Beltway WS.” But for the Dreamin’ and a Beltway WS to be reality, the Giants have to lift above the St. Louis Cardinals or the Pirates in order to face the Dodgers and or the Nat’s, and the Orioles could be facing the L.A. Angels, the Oakland A’s, the Tigers or the Royals for the AL crown and then the NLC Nat’s. At regulation’s end, the Nat’s finished first in the NL regarding wins, it had 96, the Dodgers finishing with 94 wins, the Giants and the Pirates with 88 wins each, and the AL’s top teams re. wins were the Angels with 98 and the Baltimore Orioles with 96, followed  by the Royals with 89 and the A’s, 88. In sum, then, the starter rotations and line-up equations of the NL’s Cards, Giants and Pirates list near enough to those of the Nat’s, and many of those numbers that belong to the AL’s Angels, the A’s, the Detroit Tigers and the Royals sit near enough to that of the Orioles; yet, and to repeat, baseball is what can happen in spite of what a team’s plans, assets and stats speak to .  .  .  NFL, WEEK 5---IT begins with two division leading franchises at 3-0, the Cincinnati Bengals and the Arizona Cardinals, and four other division leading teams at 3-1, the NC East’s Philadelphia Eagles, NC North’s Detroit Lions, the AC West’s San Diego Chargers and the AC South’s Houston Texans. Remaining division leading clubs are the NC South’s 2-2 Atlanta Falcons, and the AC East’s 2-2 Buffalo Bills. Last night, the now 3-2 Green Bay Packers began Week 5 with a 42-10 defeat over the now 2-3 Minnesota Vikings. On Sunday, then, the 3-0 Bengals will face the 2-2 N.E. Patriots and could win if the Patriots offense and “restoration” haven’t meshed and can penetrate what may be the NFL’s best season starting defense, and if the Patriots defense finds that Bengals QB Andy Dalton is as effective as NE QB Tom Brady has been in recent years. Among key stat comparisons are that the Bengals have held opposing teams to a total of 4 TD’s during Weeks 1 through 4, while the Patriots have given away nine TD’s in the same period, and the Bengals have accrued 80 points across the four weeks, the Patriots, 66.  .  .  The 3-0 Cardinals will be facing the 2-1 Denver Broncos on Sunday, and defense is the vulnerability that can allow the Broncos far above-the-margin offense to take the Cardinals to 3-2. Though the Cardinals haven’t lost a game yet, its defense is ranked in the bottom 10 of the NFL’s 32 teams.  .  .  The 3-1 Eagles will probably be 4-1 by Monday from a win over the 1-2 St. Louis Rams, mostly from the Rams being the weaker across all offense and defense factors. There’s concern re. a low-scoring Eagles win, however, because of Week 4’s Eagles 26-21 loss to the 49ers.  .  . The Lions will probably take the Buffalo Bills down on Sunday, the latter of an offense that will be quite vulnerable to the pass rush and to a Lions defense that has been alert to a running game in ways keeping the opposing offense to enough failed first down attempts, keeping opposing scores under 20.  .  .  The Chargers will face the N.Y. Jets during Week 5 and they are predicted to win by 10 or more, unless the Jets can expand their high number of QB sacks vs. Chargers QB, Philip Rivers, who is often of a passing game win. Should the Chargers lose to the Jets and the Broncos win on Sunday, then Rivers and company will return to second position within the NL West, behind a 3-1 Broncos .  .   .   The Texans will be facing the NC East’s second place team, the 3-1 Dallas Cowboys, predicted to go either way, the winning team by no more than seven, maybe by a field goal. Equally strong defenses will probably force running game improvs and low scoring, neither side accruing more than three TD’s.  .  .  Games of special interest, our picks are the Washington Redskins and Seattle Seahawks game, mainly because of a QB RGIII vs. QB Russell Wilson match-up, the Atlanta Falcons and N.Y. Giants match in that a Falcons loss could put the Atlanta franchise back of the Carolina Panthers should the latter defeat the Chicago Bears on Sunday, the Texans/Cowboys event because it’s purely a Texas thing, and the Broncos vs. Cardinals match, a kind of which is best in the west competition, plus the Bengals and Patriots match, which seems to be a candidate for best in the NFL during and beyond the present season against a team that has been classified as a near-dynasty. END/ml