As we enter the final weekend of the Major League Baseball regular season, the playoff race is still in hot pursuit. For those Cardinals and Braves fans who aren't used to not having a team to cheer for at this time of the year, there are 11 teams still in it. Fans of other team eliminated from the playoffs? You know the drill.
Although the American League teams are already set, the match ups are yet to be determined, while seven National League teams remain in contention for the playoffs this year.
In the American League, the Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (the name still drives me crazy - just pick one city!) have already clinched their divisions and the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have both clinched playoff berth, although Boston remains three games ahead of New York.
In the National League, no one has even clinched the playoffs as the New York Mets lead the East division by a game over the Philadelphia Phillies, the Arizona Diamondbacks lead the West division by a game and a half over the San Diego Padres and two and a half over the Colorado Rockies while the Chicago Cubs lead the Milwaukee Brewers by two games in the Central division.
This weekend promises to be a very exciting one in baseball. Determining home field advantage, the Red Sox host the Twins as the Indians travel to Kansas City to face the Royals. For teams fighting to simply make the playoffs, the Diamondbacks face the Rockies in a major battle for the division and the Brewers and Padres will play to keep their hopes alive.
The Cubs need any combination of three Cubs wins or Brewers losses to clinch the division, four Mets wins or Phillies losses for New York, three Diamondbacks wins and Padres losses for Arizona, and two Red Sox wins and Yankee losses for Boston.
Cleveland and Boston are currently tied for the best record in the AL, but the Angels and Yankees are not completely out of the running, although it would take a near miracle for New York. Barring a near complete break down by Cleveland and Boston, regardless of which team has the better record, in the first round of the playoffs, Los Angeles will face Boston and New York will face Cleveland.
On the National League side, the scenarios are not nearly as pretty. In fact, it is a possibility for a five-way tie for the National League wild card. The Cubs and Brewers have both been eliminated from contention in the wild card, and so they each can only reach the playoffs by way of division championship. However, the Mets, Phillies, Diamondbacks, Padres and Rockies are all within two and half games of each other with the Diamondbacks at 89-70, Mets and Padres at 87-71, and Phillies and Rockies at 86-72.
So what if they are all tied at the end of the season? Well, first, division leaders must be determined, so the Mets and Phillies would face off in a one-game playoff on Monday to decide the East, and the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Padres would have a three-team, two-game playoff on Monday and Tuesday in a location to be determined. The Rockies have the best three-way head-to-head record and would have the option to either host the two-playoff, or receive a first game bye.
After that is determined, there will still be three teams tied for the wild card, so those three would face off in another three-team, two-game playoff on Wednesday and Thursday. If the Rockies are left, they would, once again, have the option to either host or receive the bye. If the Rockies win the West, however, there are way too many different three-way head-to-head record winners to print the scenarios here.
So should it come down to a five-way tie, the Rockies have a good shot to make the playoffs as if they choose the bye, only need to win one game out of two to make the postseason.
After all of these one-game and two-game playoffs on Monday through Thursday, we begin the actual playoffs on Friday.
Head spinning yet? Well there could also be a four-way tie for the wild card, which is possibly more absurd than the five-way tie, depending on who those five teams are. If the two NL East teams tie and two of the NL West teams tie with them as well, the Mets and Phillies would have the one-game playoff in Philadelphia to determine the division and the two NL West teams would also have a one-game playoff, unless of course the other NL West team was the division champion, in which they would face the loser of the NL East playoff in a three-team, two-game playoff. Should the other NL West team not win the division, after the two one-game playoffs, two teams remain tied for the NL wild card and will face a one-game playoff. If the Mets are involved in this one-game playoff, there will be a big coin flip to determine the site, as the Mets were so unlikely to not win their division when MLB did preliminary coin flipping to determine sites beforehand, that they never included the Mets.
And that's not even all of the possible scenarios, but I don't have room to publish them all. The craziness of the playoffs has only begun, and it should be an exciting postseason.
1 comment:
Keep up the good work.
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