The Last Weekend of the 2015 Regular Season

I know there are many Baseball fans that are against the Wild Card but year in and year out there are meaningful games being played heading into the last series of the MLB season and as a fan you can't ask for anything more than that.

The Los Angeles Angels are hanging on to their Wild Card hopes heading into a weekend series against the American League West leaders Texas Rangers. While the Rangers have clinched a postseason spot, they have yet to clinch the division. The Houston Astros are only three games back of the Rangers and a sweep by the Angels along with a sweep by the Astros of the Arizona Diamondbacks guarantees us a 163rd game of the season between the Rangers and Astros to decide who gets the AL West and the second Wild Card spot.

Not to be forgotten, the Minnesota Twins are also one game behind the Astros for second the AL Wild Card slot. Tied with the Angels, if the Twins sweep the Kansas City Royals and the Astros/Angels stumble the Twins could feasibly win the second Wild Card spot.

Over in the National League, both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Mets are playing meaningful games to decide who gets the home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Dodgers and Mets play division rivals in the San Diego Padres and Washington Nationals respectively and both teams need to win the next three games to ensure they don't have to be the first team to travel cross country in the best of five National League Divisional Series matchup. If both teams end up tied, The Mets would gain the home field advantage in the NLDS matchup with the Dodgers virtue of their head-to-head record during the season.

While the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates have clinched the two NL Wild Card spot, both teams play to decide who gets the home field advantage in the one-game playoff. The Pirates end the season at home against the Cincinnati Reds while the Cubs finish on the road against the Milwaukee Braves. The Pirates hold a two game lead over the Cubs. If the Pirates and Cubs finish the season tied with the same record, the Cubs would host the wild card game because they won the season series against the Pirates 11-8.

So here we go folks. Meaningful games are to be played in the first weekend of October. Enjoy the ride into the postseason.

Until Then Keep Playing Ball,
Baseball Sisco
#baseballsisco
#baseballsiscokidstyle

2011 Wild Card Races Super Hot

The Wild Card races are super heated with the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays being tied for the AL Wild Card while the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals are tied for the NL Wild Card. In an unprecedented manner, we may see TWO one game playoffs to decide who makes it into the Postseason and who goes home. I guess if we see a tie to end the season, it would be a prelude of what might end up happening with the proposed extra Wild Card team in each league possibly starting next season.

There have been three occasions where there has been a tie for the Wild Card at seasons end. All three have occurred in the National League.

- In 1998, the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants were tied with a 90-73 record. The Cubs would defeat the Giants by a score of 5-3 to face the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS.

- In the next season, the New York Mets and the Cincinnati Reds were tied with a 97-66 record. The Mets would defeat the Reds 5-0 on a two-hit complete game shutout by Al Leiter to face the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS.

- In 2007, the Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres tied with a 90-73 record. The Rockies defeated the Padres in a thrilling 13-inning game by a score of 9-8 with the Rockies scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the 13th to win the game after the Padres took a two run lead in the top of the 13th. The red-hot Rockies would defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS and the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS before losing to the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

MLB has announced the schedule for the potential tie-breaker match-ups if the Wild Card participants remain tied after tomorrow's games. The Tampa Bay Rays would host the Boston Red Sox at 4:07pm and the St. Louis Cardinals will host the Atlanta Braves at 8:07pm. The home team was determined by the head-to-head wins and losses, The Rays decisively led the season series against the Red Sox 12-6 while the Cardinals led the season series against the Braves 5-1.

The amazing part of this historic scenario is that both the Red Sox and Braves squandered decisive Wild Card leads heading into September. The Rays trailed Boston by nine games while the Braves has a 8.5-game lead on September 1st. The ending to the 2011 season is shaping up quite nicely. Here's to hoping for those two tie-breaker games on Thursday.

FH

PS: Thanks goes to Melvin Nivar for planting the seed for this post. Once he mentioned I should write it, I couldn't help myself.