By Alex Salerno
The grueling 162 game Major League Baseball season will come to a close next week. With wild card races stressing out fans from San Diego to Boston, this is the perfect time to take a quick peek at playoff contenders from each division. Throughout the week I will cover each division and its playoff hopefuls. Multiple teams have secured playoff berths, while others are hanging on for dear life. As always, this will make for an exciting week and a half of baseball.
Starting with the American League East, the Tampa Bay Rays (92-58) host their divisional rival Toronto Blue Jays (84-65) in a three game series to start the week. This is a crucial series for the Blue Jays who find themselves clinging onto a 1.5 game lead over the Yankees for the second AL wild card spot. Due to an extremely competitive American League this year, not one team has yet to even clinch a playoff berth. Thanks to Tampa Bay’s American league leading record, their playoff clinch is near, with a magic number of only 4 and 12 games left to play. Despite this, Tampa Bay’s series vs Toronto is extremely important. Tampa has lost 6 of their last 10 games, allowing the Houston Astros to gain ground in the battle for home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Houston is now only 3.5 games back of Tampa Bay. In order for the 2020 World Series Runner Up’s to make another deep playoff run, they must continue to rely on their powerful offense lead by veteran Nelson Cruiz. As well as maintaining bullpen dominance despite an injury plagued starting rotation.
The Blue Jays (84-65) look to play spoiler in the Ray’s hope at best AL record while maintaining, at the very least, their wild card spot. That being said, the division is most definitely still up for grabs. The Blue Jays clinching a playoff spot looks more than possible given the fact that since Aug 28th the Jay’s have lost only a staggering 4 games. This September, Toronto seems to be a raging fire, continually being doused with gasoline. At one point this month the club brutally beat the lowly Baltimore Orioles 22-7. With a relatively favorable schedule for their remaining 13 games, this is a team to watch carefully as we close in on playoff baseball.
Boston (86-65) has been a bit of a surprise playoff contender in the MLB this year. Due to a wonderful first half of the season, The Red Sox’s at one point were dominating AL teams and sitting atop the AL East. However, in the past two months, they have struggled and are now in a heated battle to maintain a wild card spot. Rafael Devers has led the offense with an .884 OPS and 105 RBI’s. Most notably for the Red Sox is the crucial return of the lethal lefty pitcher, Chris Sale. He returns to action after an extensive recovery from Tommy John surgery. Sale is bringing with him greatly needed relief to Boston’s starting rotation. If Boston can make the playoffs, Sale’s performance will arguably be the most crucial variable in their World Series endeavours.
With Baltimore owning the worst record in baseball, that leaves only the Yankees left to discuss in the AL East. For the first half of the year, Yankee Stadium was filled with boo’s as the team was consistently awful. This was a shock to many as The Yankees are stacked with talented sluggers such as Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, as well as many others. The Yanks had no doubt been one of this year's disappointments headed into the All-Star break. However, the sleeping giant awoke in the second half of the season. Clobbering opponent pitching and boasting a 35-17 record during July and August. However, The Yankees have lost their last 11 of 18 with a worrisome .210 team batting average this month. Luckily for their sluggish hitting in September, pitching has kept the pinstripes only 1.5 games back of the second wild card spot entering play Monday. It’s an understatement to say the reemergence of pitching dominance from Garret Cole has been significant for the Yankees. Much like Chris Sale for the Red Sox, strong performances from Cole is a must for the remainder of the year. The Yankee’s last nine games of the season are all against the three teams ahead of them in the AL East. A daunting task that will make or break their season.
My two Sal’s Series To Watch in the American League this week both feature divisional action from the East. Toronto visiting Tampa Bay for a three game series to start the week has massive implications to every aspect of the AL playoff race. They’ve proven to be a relatively even match for one another as Tampa Bay has bested Toronto 9 times out of 16 meetings between the two teams this season. Boston host’s the Yankees starting Friday making those 3 games my second AL series to watch this week. This classic rivalry has had it’s fair share of heated encounters and memorable moments over the decades. A theme destined to continue this weekend in a series with huge wild card implications for both teams. Headed into Monday, Boston holds a 2.5 game lead over New York for the first wild card spot. The Yankees hold the all-time series lead over Boston (1243-1043) but have lost 10 of 16 matchups this year. 6 of those 10 losses occurring at Fenway Park.
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