Aw, come on…Kershaw needs to dive in there head first and get that out at the plate!! Slacker…
My god, I’m happy. The Mariners are only 3 wins away from a winning season. And one game behind the collapsing Oakland A’s for 2nd place in the AL West 
It sure is a nice feeling to have baseball games that matter after the All-star break.
GO M’s.
I don’t expect to make the WS, but I would love to see the best pitching staff in baseball (the Mariners staff) make the playoffs.
Petit throws a complete game shutout throwing only 84 pitches vs. the Diamondbacks.
Talking of best and worst, the Padres have given up fewer runs than any other team in the NL, but they are also historically bad on offense.
They have currently scored 465 runs, and have 18 games to play, so they look like they should just make it to 500 runs on the season. The last team to score fewer than 500 runs in a full season? The Padres, in 1971.
The worst offense of the past 20 years is the 2010 Mariners, and the 2013 Mariners, each with 513. They might be about to lose that crown to San Diego if the Padres can’t muster more than 47 runs (about 2.6 runs per game) over the last few weeks.
Three of their runs last night were a gift, so maybe other teams will feel charitable to the Padres along the way.
Usually when managers are walking out in the field and deciding whether to ask the umps to review a play they look in the dugout and someone on the phone gives a thumbs up or thumbs down telling the manager what to do
but the Athletics instead have signs they show to the manager. Like just now the guy showed the manager a sign with “3” on it
then the manager asked them to review it and they did
what’s the point of having the signs? Everyone knows that the “3” means to review it because that’s what they did. it’s not like it’s a secret
The Jays don’t have time to catch up but if there’s anything that can make you feel better about your team, it’s a series against the Cubs.
Toronto won the series 8-2, 9-2, and 11-1. I don’t know if they have ever swept a series by margins that lopsided before. I am sure it can’t have happened very often.
Andrew McCutcheon did something tonight that I’ve never seen before…a stand-up inside-the-park home run.
The Royals needed that win pretty badly last night. Getting swept by the Tigers would have lost all bid on first place in the Central, and been a huge hit to their momentum (which has been slowing down since Labor Day weekend). Winning the division is so crucial now - especially to avoid at least one of the AL West teams in the playoffs.
“Big Game James” certainly earned his nickname last night, yes.
Just a WAG, but could the 3 represent the definitive camera angle they want them to review?
Despite their stellar form since the All-Star break, the Orioles managed to get swept by the Cubs a couple of weeks back.
I keep thinking and hoping that, if the tea leaves fall just right, the Jays could have a shot of grabbing a Wild Card spot, but i realize it’s unlikely.
Although, the way Oakland has been going lately, they could fall out of the playoffs altogether. It’s just been a disastrous month or so for them.
I would give Toronto a 50-to-1 shot of getting into the wild card game. ESPN calls it 18-to-1, which I think is way optimistic.
Assuming Toronto does not pass Oakland, they have to pass either KC/Detroit (whichever doesn’t win the Central) AND Seattle. (Substitute Oakland for Seattle if you think the collapse will continue.) The problem with beating two out of three teams isn’t how you play, it’s how they play; you cannot trust two of those teams to fall apart.
With only 17 games left, realistically Toronto cannot go worse than 13-4 to pass two teams ahead of them. Even then it would be no guarantee. They do play Seattle four times but have nothing against Oakland, Detroit, or Kansas City, and have to play Baltimore six times, who they cannot catch and are dangerously good. Their schedule is not easy; the worst team they play is Tampa Bay, who aren’t that bad and have always been hard on the Jays. They need to take advantage of the old and depleted Yankees.
For the other teams:
- Seattle has a very tough schedule. They play Houston three times but otherwise are playing good teams.
- Detroit has an easy schedule. They have to play KC, but are also playing Chicago and get to play seven against the Twins, who are terrible.
- Kansas City plays eleven games against bad teams (Boston and Chicago)
- Oakland has a light schedule too, playing the Rangers seven times.
It’s very difficult for me to see Toronto going 13-4 or 14-3 while more than one of those teams goes into a tailspin against quadruple-A clubs like Minnesota. It is quite conceivable that Toronto could go 17-0 (thereby setting the AL record for the longest winning streak at 21) and miss the playoffs. They blew it in August.
Fortunately for Baltimore, they’re not going to see the Cubs in the playoffs. 
Yeah, i recognized that i was being wildly optimistic. the Postseason Probabilities tracker on MLB.com (taken from Baseball prospectus numbers) puts the Blue Jays at 5% to make the playoffs. That does seem closer to ESPN’s numbers than your 50-to-1 estimate, but i haven’t looked into the actual calculations.
Anyway, it was mainly wishful thinking. Despite being an Orioles fan, i have a soft spot for the Jays, both because i was born in Canada (and remain a citizen), and because i lived in Vancouver and had my first real exposure to baseball during 1992 and 1993.
I was working as a bartender in late 1993, and one of my most vivid sporting memories is the way the bar, packed to the rafters, went crazy when Joe Carter hit his home run.
Oakland has a chance to fall out of the Wild Card race this weekend, when they’re playing Seattle, which has everything to gain.
The Athletics lost 1-0 to the White Sox today.
Oakland is 3-7 over their last ten games, and all seven losses were by a single run. They’ve actually outscored their opposition 38-30 over that 10-game span.
Two scary plays tonight.
Giancarlo Stanton took an 88-mph fastball to the left cheek, and Chase Headley got a fastball at 96 to the chin.