The marathon that is the MLB season came down to an exciting finish for some on Sunday. After just a day off, we get to start it all over again. We’ve whittled down from 30 teams to just 10 teams left with a chance at winning the World Series. The National League teams have been set for a few days already – San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Atlanta won their division and Los Angeles and St Louis get to battle in the Wild Card game to make the real dance. The American League teams are Tampa Bay, Chicago, and Houston as the division winners while New York and Boston survived the Sunday scaries to make it to the Wild Card game.
Let’s get this out of the way, the single game Wild Card matchup is dumb. The only time there’s a single series game in the regular season is when it’s a make-up game. Every time teams take the field it’s about the series – to take 2 out of 3 or in 4 game sets 3 of 4 at home and 2 of 4 on the road. Only the best teams are able to follow that exact formula. But that’s the general strategy. No one game is more important than the next, if you’re in a blowout you play for tomorrow. If you lose a close game, you get up and do it all over the next day. The Wild Card game needs to be a best of 3 series and there needs to be less days off in the Wild Card round and the Divisional Round.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s take a look at the Wild Card matchups. In the American League we’ve got a divisional matchup – essentially a classic game 163. Which if you look at it this year – they finished with identical records – I’m going to think about it in these terms. Boston and New York play on ESPN Tuesday night at Fenway Park at 8pm EDT. All of this is familiar territory for both teams. Both teams are putting their ace on the mound – Gerret Cole for the Yankees and Nathan Eovaldi for the Red Sox. But the real battle will come down to the bullpen. Neither closer, Aroldis Chapman or Matt Barnes have been lights out this season. Both have had their struggles. But I’ve got to give the edge to the home team. Once the starters are out of the game runs will be coming in bunches. Because of that, I’m going to give the team built for the stadium to have the edge.
In the National League we’ve got the defending World Series Champions, LA Dodgers, going agains the hottest team in September, the St Louis Cardinals. The game won’t get the four letter network treatment, instead airing on TBS. Sure the Dodgers had a “down year” only because they didn’t win their division. But they still won 106 games and get the chance to start the Postseason at home. The Cardinals are going with their ace, Adam Wainwright to start while the Dodgers are sticking with their pitching rotation and giving the ball to Max Scherzer – who has played like an ace since showing up in Los Angeles. Here’s the thing though, if it were the regular season Scherzer would have gone on Monday or Tuesday, depending on the schedule. Will that extra time off throw him out of his groove? I have a feeling it will. Because this is a single game, a sudden death playoff, I’ve got the edge to the team that acts more like this is any other game. That’s St Louis. Plus their 17 game winning streak up to the last week of September shows they’re firing on all cylinders – so the one game advantage goes to them. If it were a series I’d take the Dodgers in this one, but it’s not, and maybe that will give enough of a push to change the format of the wild card.
There’s a lot more to preview for the playoffs, but for now the Wild Card games have more than enough excitement to look forward to. Once we know how the Divisional Series lines out I’ll preview the rest of the games. In the meantime, let’s just enjoy playoff baseball in October.