Freischaltung » Thats too easy. Lets start with Jake Arrieta,

The Detroit Tigers remain the top team in the TSN.ca MLB Power Rankings, holding off the surging Los Angeles Dodgers. Detroit has been led, not surprisingly, by third baseman Miguel Cabrera, who has a 1.265 OPS in August and now has a career-best 1.141 OPS for the season, leading the major leagues. Cincinnati, with a 9-3 record in the last dozen games, has moved up from eight to five, while the Yankees are 7-3 in their last 10, moving up from 16 to 12. Further down the rankings, both the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim moved up, to 19 and 23, respectively. Going the wrong way, the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies -- all ranked in the lower third -- dropped in this weeks rankings. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Adidas Superstar Canada Womens . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. Adidas Originals Superstar Canada . The 31-year-old Spain midfielder hasnt played since Madrid lost in the Copa del Rey final to Atletico Madrid in May due to back and foot injuries. http://www.cheapsuperstarcanada.com/ . NBA officials ruled the court unplayable in the Bucks final exhibition game on Oct. 25 because players were slipping, and the game was cancelled midway through the first period. Cheap Adidas Superstar Canada . -- The Sacramento Kings are set to become the first major professional sports franchise to accept Bitcoin virtual currency for ticket and merchandise purchases. Adidas Superstar Shoes Canada . -- There were so many positives from the Orlando Magics first victory of the season that it was hard for coach Jacque Vaughn to stop praising his players. The Chicago Cubs head to San Francisco with a commanding 2-0 lead over the Giants. But waiting for them in the city by the bay is one of the best postseason pitchers in baseball history -- Madison Bumgarner. Can Bumgarner pitch the Giants back into the series or will the Cubs continue their march through the postseason?Go inside the numbers and matchups that will decide tonights game, and then vote for which team will win at the bottom of the page.Inside the pitching matchupWhen Jake Arrieta is on the mound: There arent too many pitchers who go 18-8 with a 3.10 ERA and feel like it was a bit of letdown. Arrieta had a 1.74 ERA through June 22, dominating like he did in 2015, but he had control issues after that and posted a 4.44 ERA over his final 16 starts with 41 walks in 99.1 innings. In his final start, he allowed 10 hits and 7 runs in five innings to the Pirates. Even as he struggled in the second half, producing hard contact against him wasnt easy. Batters hit just .213 vs. Arrieta over those 16 starts. He did seem to lose the feel of that slider, which was so unhittable last year and early this season, as batters hit .271/.377/.441 against it with a strikeout rate of 15.9 percent compared to 26.4 percent in 2015. Last year, batters hit .119 with a 43 percent strikeout rate against his curveball; over these 16 starts the numbers are .279 and 31.2 percent.Arrietas fastball is still a tough pitch, averaging 93.8 mph with some late sink to it. Against left-handers, he tends to work the outer third of the strike zone, and he also works up and down the zone. With three lefties in the pen, Joe Maddon will have the luxury of a quick hook and mixing and matching out of the bullpen. -- David SchoenfieldWhen Madison Bumgarner is on the mound: The Bumgarner legend continued to grow with another shutout in the wild-card game. His career postseason record is now 8-3 with a 1.94 ERA and 6-1, 0.79 over his past eight starts and one relief appearance covering 68.1 innings. So everyone wants to put this game in the win column for the Giants before its even been played.One thing to point out: His past four postseason outings -- one against the Mets, three against the Royals -- came against two lineups weak against left-handed pitching. The Mets had three lefties who cant hit lefties and the 2014 Royals featured a lineup where its best hitters (Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon, Mike Moustakas) were left-handed and the team hit just 31 home runs all season against lefties. Those clubs were ripe for a lefty to eat them up. This Cubs lineup is a much tougher proposition, ranking second in the majors in OPS against lefties.Bumgarner throws a four-seamer up in the zone and tries to get it inside to righties. He throws his cutter/slider about a third of the time and a curveball about 15 percent of the time. In the wild-card game, he threw his fastball 58 percent of the time -- his fourth-highest percentage of the season -- and threw his curveball at the second-highest rate. Right-handed batters hit just .150 against the curveball, so lets see if Bumgarner sticks with that pitch as his primary breaking ball, considering how effective it was against the Mets. -- SchoenfieldPlayer in the sppotlightHunter Pence: We love the hair and the beard and the scooter and the energy, but the dirty little secret is that Pence has been a lousy postseason hitter, even as the Giants won titles in 2012 and 2014.dddddddddddd Hes 2-for-12 this postseason, and in 36 playoff games with the Giants, hes hitting .264 with 2 home runs and 12 RBIs. -- ESPN.comWhat will decide tonights gameMadison Bumgarner threw his slider just 12 percent of the time in Wednesdays wild-card game, his lowest rate in a start since September of 2010, and Mets hitters didnt miss one of their swings against it. In two starts against the Cubs this season, he threw 36 percent sliders and hitters went 3-for-22 with 7 Ks in ABs ending in a Bumgarner slider (all singles and no hard-hit balls). -- ESPN Stats & InfoChoosing sides: Who will win?It seemed like the moment Bumgarner shut down the New York Mets in the wild-card game, and his teams matchup with the Cubs was set, everyone was penciling in a win in Game 3 for the Giants. It mattered little Bumgarner would be going up against Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta as baseball observers rightly saw the Cubs as a big underdog. They are, and theyll lose Game 3, not because Arrieta will blow up, but simply because the Giants have too much pride to get swept with their ace on the mound. -- Jesse RogersIf you want to be a pessimist, you could say that the Cubs are fortunate to be up 2-0, mostly because their big bats have yet to get going. Of course, that could also be looked at as reason for optimism. Still, the road to Valhalla is rocky and winding. (Or so Ive heard.) We dont know what were going to get out of Jake Arrieta these days, but with Madison Bumgarner, all you have to do is look at a calendar. Im going with San Francisco in this one. -- Bradford DoolittleLets not even rely entirely on Madison Bumgarner and his 23-inning scoreless streak in the postseason. Thats too easy. Lets start with Jake Arrieta, who hasnt been the same guy since mid-August, delivering a 4.74 ERA in his past eight starts. His last two in the playoffs last year werent so great either. He allowed 8 combined runs and didnt make it out of the sixth inning either time. Bumgarner is on regular rest coming off his shutout in the Wild Card Game in New York, and this time the noise will be for when the Giants do something good, not the Cubs. Arrieta will be better, but not good enough. Anthony Rizzo has done nothing in this series and he wont enjoy facing Bumgarner slinging it from the left side. The Giants will manage just enough offense to stay alive and extend the series to Tuesday. -- Mark SaxonWhere the series standsThe Giants need a gem from their ace, and then anything can happen. Game 4 would feature John Lackey versus Matt Moore, and then the Giants would go back to Johnny Cueto in Game 5. But can they scratch across enough runs to win three in a row? They have 17 hits in three playoff games so far (granted, theyve faced some tough pitchers). But win these two at home and the Cubs will have all the pressure in a Game 5 at Wrigley. -- Schoenfield ' ' '