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I don't think we'll be having another 162 game excitement like we had last year, but this year we still have the possibility of games 160, 161 or 162 excitement. So far we have 7 of the 10 teams that will be in the playoffs, with 3 of them coming about after the Rangers beat the Angels in the second game of a double header Sunday night. Those 8 are: New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles (first time since '97), Texas Rangers (all 3 clinched with the Rangers win), Washington Nationals, Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants. However, only 2 of the 7 are locked into their potential spots; Cincinnati is the NL Central champ and San Fran is the NL West champ. St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels are still alive, however Tigers & White sox can only get in via the AL Central division. And after action on Wednesday we could have a bunch of ties as well:
Orioles & Yankees could tie for the AL East, Tigers & White Sox can tie for the AL Central, Nats & Braves can tie for the NL East, Dodgers & Cards can tie for the NL Wildcard and there's still a possiblity of a 2 or even 3 way tie between some combination of the Rays/A's/and Angels.
If there is a tie (I doubt it), I'm going in the NL Wildcard between the Cardinals & Dodgers. The Giants are locked in as the #3 seed in the NL playoffs as they lose tiebreakers to both the Reds & Nationals should they finish tied, so really the only thing they have to play for in the Dodgers series is to knock their rivals out of the playoffs. Cincinnati is playing the Cardinals, and even though they've had a playoff spot locked up for more than a week, their still fighting Nationals for home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and since the Nats won the season series 5-2, the Nats get the tiebreaker, meaning the Reds have to finish with a better record then the Nats, so they have more going for them then the Giants do. Cardinals are up 2 games however, so 1 win in that series against the Reds at home pretty much ends it.
AL Wildcard would be next possibly: Angels & Rays can both end up 91-71 if they sweep their respective series, while the A's can join them at 91-71 if they get swept by Texas. I'm rooting for the 3 game tie for 2nd wildcard.
Yankees and Orioles are tied, but can't see a tie here after Wednesday: Yankees play the Red Sox, Orioles play the Rays in Tampa where I predict them to get swept.
Tigers vs. White Sox & Nats vs. Braves are almost impossible: Both of those teams are 3 up in the division with 3 to play.
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