The collapse of the Tigers could be the stuff of legend. They went into September with a 9 game lead and it’s down to 1, with a 3 game series in Cleveland coming up. If they get swept, they have a serious chance of missing the playoffs.
The Padres clinched at least a wildcard berth last night with an 11th inning walkoff win over the Brewers. Five of the NL postseason teams have been determined; the last wildcard is a battle between the Mets, Reds, and Diamondbacks.
Isn’t any extra innings win by the home team a walk off?
Yes. My post was redundant.
If I’m reading it right the Mets and Reds are currently tied by record but the Reds have the tie breaker.
The Dodgers have the tie breaker over the Padres for the division. The Phillies have the tie breaker over the Dodgers for the #2 spot and a first round bye.
You are correct. Reds beat the Mets 4 out of 6 games this season.
And sadly the Yanks lose the Tie Breakers with both Blue Jays and Red Sox.
Apologies to the Yankee fans here, but if the Astros and the Yankees both miss the postseason, it will warm my heart. (I assume we don’t have any Astro fans here, so no apology necessary there).
Yanks have a small chance to catch the Jays for the Division and best AL record, they have a 4 game cushion for the Wild Card spots.
Houston is on the outside, but could easily slide into the final Wild Card slot. I also hope they don’t.
If the season ended today Red Sox come to the Bronx for the Wild Card.
The bright side for all the Yankee haters, The Yanks have lost the season series to Blue Jays, Guardians, Red Sox & Tigers, tied the Astros and only beat the Mariners. We’ve looked bad against good team and beat up bad teams. The once great Yankee bullpen does not exist this season.
Most playoff teams have better Managers. Ours is a pretty poor field and prep manager, but hey the players and press like him.
The only way the Yanks do damage in the post season is if it Judge decides to get hot; which he has rarely done in October and Stanton does his “Oh, its October? Time to be the Old Stanton again.”
I love Aaron Judge, but he has a .205 BA, .450 slugging overall. Not 1 good post season since 2019 and only 2018 was great.
I think Judge’s biggest problem in the postseason is his anxiety to produce. He has 36 walks, but should have more like 50 or 60. He chases more outside the zone as pitchers clearly try to pitch around him. This year they have a lot of guys who can do damage: Bellinger, Grisham, Stanton, Rice and Chisholm. He needs to hunt mistakes over the plate and take his walks. Easy to say, harder to do, especially when your the star making the big bucks.
Excellent analysis, I agree.
I just read that FanGraphs gives the Mariners (as of now) the best odds to win the World Series.
That will probably change soon, maybe even today, as records change in the final games of the season, people get hurt, come back, etc. But still, we aren’t even used to making the postseason and I’m having trouble believing it’s real.
I so want to believe, but the ghost of 2001 keeps lingering.
Still,
A walk-off tells us that the Padres were at home.
Hate to break it to you but the Yankees magic number is one. Where they wind up in the post season is up for grabs but they will be there.
Guardians beat the Tigers tonight, and they are now tied for the AL Central lead.
Just heard on MLB TV that the Tigers led the Guardians by 11 games on September 5.
And the Yanks just got a come from behind win to do it.
Yankees down 2-1 going into the bottom of the 9th. Yadda yadda 2 outs man on 3rd and tied on a wild pitch. Yankees win 3-2 on a walk off single by Caballero.
Red Sox are also now up 2 games on both. Reds lost, Mets tied with the Cubs in the 7th.
I just wanted to post that the ABS strike zone challenge system is now a go for next year, on a vote of 9-2 by the relevant committee. They get 2 “freebies” per 9 innings, can keep them if the challenge(s) end up overturning the original call.
I’ll be on record as getting stabby whenever “framing” is raised in these discussions, as I dislike a competitor devising ways to manipulate a game official into calling something in his favor. I also have come to dislike “eveners”, when the ump calls the pitch in favor of the side with most to lose (3-1 pitches tend to go to the pitcher, 0-2 favor the hitter).
I do wish the device in question used the full 3D zone and not a 2D rectangle.