MLB

The Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers will wrap up the ALCS this weekend, with the winner advancing to the 2013 World Series.

Boston has an opportunity to put the Tigers away at Fenway Park in Saturday's Game 6, but earning a date with the St. Louis Cardinals hinges on several, team-specific keys.

Everything from pitch selection and bat control to lineup construction and player psychology is going to influence the outcome. Even with all those variables, expect a nail-biting finish. Four of the first five installments of this series were decided by a single run.

With a systematic thumping of likely NL Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw, the St. Louis Cardinals dispatched the Los Angeles Dodgers and cemented half of our 2013 World Series field.

First you get the pitching. Then you get the power, and then you get the World Series.

As the cliche goes, good pitching always beats good hitting. Fans have heard it drilled into their heads year after year after year.

That wouldn't be the case if it wasn't true. Time and again you see great offenses felled by a couple of great hurlers.

A series defined by great pitching met up Friday night in St. Louis for yet another duel—only half of the duel never showed.

The St. Louis Cardinals continued their ownership of one of the game's greatest left-handed pitchers, Clayton Kershaw.

On Friday night, Michael Wacha became part of baseball history.

We know the when and half of the who, but we don't yet know the where.

Of all the ways the Los Angeles Dodgers could have pictured their 2013 season coming to an end, Clayton Kershaw getting rocked in a must-win game probably never crossed their minds.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig couldn't avoid negative attention in the 2013 NCLS, and this time the group irked by his behavior are the umpires calling the series.

As the Los Angeles Dodgers bowed out of the 2013 NLCS, the player that helped spark their remarkable run through June, July and August, Yasiel Puig, suffered through a difficult series at the plate, in the field and through the voices of critics.

Deviating from the trend of nail-biting NLCS battles, the St. Louis Cardinals routed the Los Angeles Dodgers, 9-0, in Friday night's Game 6 to clinch the 2013 National League pennant.

Closer Trevor Rosenthal brought the series to an end with this strikeout of A.J. Ellis: 

Pandemonium followed.