Monday News & Notes: Orioles and Royals advance to ALCS

If you would have told me both ALDS' (wait, how do you actually pluralize that?) would end in a sweep, I'd have assumed it would be the Tigers and the Angels moving on. For better or worse, that ain't the way it went down...

Yesterday's games

Freaking Mike Moustakas continues to somehow be a thing, but at least the Tigers completely collapsed and we can laugh at them for the rest of the offseason.

Angels' title quest ends in ALDS heartbreak | MLB.com - Mike Trout staked the Angels to a 1-0 lead, but Moussaka and Eric Hosmer both homered and Lorenzo Cain made a pair of excellent catches to contribute to ensure the sweep. Billy Butler even stole a base. Man, is this team hate-able or what?

Cruz, Norris punch O's ticket to ALCS | MLB.com - Nelson Cruz, the man who had trouble securing even a one-year contract this season, provided the only offense for the O's in the clinching game.

Other MLB news

Orioles have the look of a champion | Sports On Earth - Anthony Castrovince credits Buck Showalter with Baltimore's bold play, and thinks they've got what it takes to win it all.

Illitch will need to dig deep this offseason | Hardball Talk - Faced with losing Victor Martinez and Max Scherzer, Dave Illitch is going to have to pony up a sizable portion of that pizza money to remain AL Central favorites in 2015.

Why take him out? | Fox Sports Baseball - Down one game already, the Nationals removedtheir ace, Jordan Zimmermann, with a lead in the 9th of Saturday's game. The Giants tied it up and managed to win after a grueling 18 innings. So why did they pull Zimmermann in the first place?

Hunter to consider retirement | MLB.com - Torii Hunter is a free agent at the end of the season, but the 39 year-old outfielder is considering retirement instead. Is there and LGTer alive that would miss him?

Indians news & notes

Eight reasons 2014 wasn't a lost season | Indians Baseball Insider - Just because we didn't make the playoffs doesn't mean it wasn't worth watching. From Corey Kluber and Michael Brantley to Jose Ramirez and Cody Allen, 2014 had more positives than negatives... right?

Bro-verrated | Did The Tribe Win Last Night? - DTTWLN takes the opposite approach, continuing their ongoing series about what went wrong in 2014. In this edition, Nick Swisher carries on the curse of Tribe players who get stadium sections named in their honor.

Updating the Indians All-Time top 10's | Burning River Baseball - At the end of every season, BRB updates their running list of All-Time Tribe greats by position. Did anyone's 2014 play affect the state of the lists?

WAR Room: Akron pitchers | Indians Baseball Insider - IBI looks at the best and the worst of RubberDucks pitching in 2014. How did star prospect Cody Allen Anderson end up?

Just for fun

I'm always hesitant to get into stuff like this, but I thought it was semi-relevant to this community. This year, I'm participating in a charity drive called Extra Life. Essentially, all the participants pledge to get together on October 25 and play video games for 24 straight hours, raising money for the children's hospital of their choice. I'm playing for Rainbow Babies & Children's hospital - any and all support is greatly appreciated!