If the matter is between winning a division or getting a wild card, there’s no playoff. It’s determined by head-to-head.
The A’s won on a walk-off home run yesterday; it was the fourteenth time they won a game this year on a walk-off. That has to be an insanely high number; you only play 81 games at home, after all. It was Brandon Moss’s 21st home run, in only 254 at bats. Who the hell is Brandon Moss? Where did this team come up with 90 wins?
Tampa Bay is still in it but the A’s and O’s winning puts them in trouble; really, they now need to catch the A’s, because as you point out they need a miracle to catch the Yankees or Orioles. So they need a lot of help, and need to pretty much win out. They have been incredibly red hot, but nobody above them has slumped. Just goes to show you, you gotta win 'em in May just as much as in September.
If the Dodgers pass St. Louis to win the 2nd wild card, then none of the teams that were in the NL playoffs last year will repeat; we’ll have complete 100% turnover.
Can’t say off the top of my head, but I very much doubt this has happened in the wild card era.
If it does, maybe we can go for a three-(no)-peat next year. Put your money on the Rockies, Padres, Pirates, Marlins, Mets, and Cubs for playoff berths in 2013, boys!
To my admitted surprise, it has. In 2006 the playoff teams were the Mets, Cardinals, Padres, and Dodgers. In 2007 none of them made the playoffs, being replaced by the Phillies, Cubs, Diamondbacks, and Rockies.
That is the only time in the wild card era it has happened in either league.
Thanks for looking it up. If it had ever happened, that’s the time and league I would have guessed, what with the Yankees making the playoffs just about every year in the AL since the strike and the Braves with their consecutive division title streak till…well, 2006, right?
Asimovian: "I took you seriously right up until you said “Cubs.” "
That used to be true. Now, with the two wild card format, there is a tie breaker-game (not technically a playoff) to determine the winner of a division. From here:
I suppose the reasoning for this change is that there is a distinct disadvantage to winning a wild card vs. winning the division (i.e., a wild card team still has to win the 1 game wild card playoff game to continue in the playoffs).
Wonder what the record is, if one’s kept. That really is pretty astounding.
The impressive thing about the A’s is that, unlike the O’s, they’re not significantly above their Pythagorean. Somehow they’re just finding people like this who can play ball. (And yeah, who the hell IS Brandon Moss?)
Damned straight. The Angels are another team that surely wishes they’d turned on the afterburners just a few weeks earlier. And while the Nats are stumbling now, they will probably win the division anyway, because they were winning all season up until the last couple of weeks. (Just one more win, guys, c’mon!)
I’m sitting on my living room couch with the Angels/Rangers on my TV (go, Rangers), the Yankees/Blue Jays on my tablet (go, Blue Jays!) and the Orioles/Red Sox on my laptop (go, Orioles!). It’s still not enough. I’d stopped watching the Cardinals/Nationals because it looked like it was going to be a rout, but now the Nats are giving me hope.
I don’t know that this year can top last year’s finish on the final day, but there sure is a lot of relevant baseball to watch right now.
The Yankees and Orioles both won, so the Angels and Rays can only catch Oakland. The Angels won their first game today, coming back in the ninth, and Oakland is up 2-1.
Meanwhile, Detroit won and the White Sox are losing. The White Sox have to win out, really, if they lose today, and pray for help… and so do the Rays… and the Rays finish against the White Sox.
No the Rays finish against the O’s. The White Sox finish against the Indians. I’m sure the Indians would like to beat the Sox and pay them back with a choke message like Ozzie gave the Indians in 2005. And the Sox have really choked much worse in the stretch this year.
Astros get their 18th road win, eliminating the Brewers from contention; they’ve successfully avoided setting any “worst-ever” records by clearing the 17 road win barrier.
If they can win out, they can merely tie rather than set the record for worst season in franchise history.
Also, new manager yay, I’m pretty much in favor of hiring an understudy from a successful organization as long as Davey Johnson isn’t available.
The clinching drought in the AL ends at last, as the Rangers - the team with the best record in the AL - hold on to win, and are guaranteed at least a wildcard spot. The Angels’ loss, if I’ve done my arithmetic correctly, also guarantees that the Yanks and O’s will both get at least a wildcard.
This is it, the matchup we’ve been waiting for. All the sporting world will hold its breath as the 60-99 Cubs take on the 53-106 Astros at Wrigley Field. If the Cubs lose one of the first two games, we will have a game in which both teams take the field with 100 losses. I wonder how often this happens, and when was the last time.
The White Sox are effectively eliminated from playoff contention, but we still have drama over the last three days. Adam Dunn needs five strikeouts to tie, and six to break, the Mark Reynolds record of 223 in a season. He would have obliterated it, but he missed nine games earlier this month with a pulled muscle.
It does. The Angels and Rays could still make it if either passed Oakland, but that would require them to win three in a row, Oakland to lose three in a row, and then the Rays/Angels to beat Oakland in a play-in game to get into the play-in game.
Of course it is possible that Oakland could lose three in a row and both the Rays AND Angels could win three in a row in which case we could have a three-way tie for the second wild card, thus necessitating a draw to see who gets the bye, and then a play-in game to get into the play-in game that decides who goes to the play-in game. That would be so awesome.
