The 2018 Major League Baseball season is on the home stretch. There are still seven days to go in which a lot is still possible, especially in the National League. Who will get the last playoff places and what else is the American League about?
The American League doesn’t have a lot to offer in terms of excitement this season. Playing with one week is almost all decided. As many as five of the six playoff participants have already been determined and the sixth is only a formality. However, a decision is still pending.
It is already clear that the Boston Red Sox have won the American League East by a large margin and also have the best record in the league. In other words: You will have a home advantage through the AL playoffs, which would also be the case for a possible World Series!
And it is already clear that the Red Sox will receive the winner of the wildcard game at the start of the American League Division Series on November 5.
The other ALDS will be won by the Cleveland Indians as the AL Central. Game 1 is always played by the winner of AL West. Who will be, is still open, but there is a lot to be said for the Houston Astros, whose magic number after the victory over the Angels on Sunday and the bankruptcy of the Oakland A’s is 3.
These A’s have a magic number of 1 when it comes to wildcards. If they still manage at least one more victory – a defeat for the Tampa Bay Rays would do the same – Oakland will be back in the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
The big question then is: Where does the wildcard game take place? In the Bronx – the Yankees fixed their play-off spot on Saturday – or in Oakland? Currently, the Yankees have 1.5 games advantage over the A’s and their magic number to secure home rights is 6.
However, New York’s final programme is tough: they are still playing four games in the rays, who have won seven of their last ten games. And then we’ll go to our arch-rival in Boston for three games.
The A’s in turn still enter Seattle three times and Anaheim three times, which looks easier on paper at least.
Constellations that will certainly only make them smile in the National League, they seem like a harmless children’s birthday party. In the NL, however, High Noon is the order of the day. Everything is heading for epic showdowns.
Only the NL East is not going along with this, because the Atlanta Braves have already closed the door for good on Saturday. The Braves are in the playoffs for the first time since 2013!
While the Braves can start the final week relaxed, the competition still has to sweat hard.
In the Central NL, for example, three teams are still within striking distance of each other. The Cubs have a 2.5 game lead on the home stretch – Magic Number: 5, followed by the Milwaukee Brewers, who are two games away from St. Louis. So the Cubs can’t sit back at all.
On the contrary, you still play seven more games at home, but after four games against the Pirates, three more games against the Cardinals are up for a direct duel! Meanwhile, the Brewers and Cardinals meet at the beginning of the week for three games in the Busch Stadium, which becomes doubly exciting: Both lead the wildcard classification, so there is already a preliminary decision on the question of home rights.
The Brewers then welcome the Detroit Tigers for three games in Miller Park.
In the West NL, on the other hand, the Arizona Diamondbacks fell back as expected and no longer play a role. The Dodgers, on the other hand, are 1.5 games ahead of the Colorado Rockies at the start of the final spurt (Magic Number: 6).
The Dodgers still have three games to play in the desert and three at their arch-rivals in San Francisco. So they tend to get nothing as a gift. The Rockies, in turn, will receive four more Phillies and three more Nationals, teams that are already acting beyond good and evil. Advantage Rockies?
Then there is the NL Wildcard. As mentioned, the Brewers and Cardinals are currently ahead. Two games behind the cardinals are still Colorado, who, as you know, only have to play teams who won’t play for anything while the Brewers and Cardinals are still taking victories from each other. So the Rockies could become a laughing third – if it doesn’t still work out with the division.
In view of the tight races in the West and Central as well as in the wildcard, it should also be mentioned that with the same result between two or more teams, a 163rd game or “one-game playoff” hovers above the situation like a sword of Damocles. If there are more than two teams, there could even be more!
The last time this was necessary was 2013 in the fight for the then only AL wildcard. That was when the Rays won against the Rangers. Such a game would take place this year directly on October 1.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.