The Yankees’ powerful offense, led by Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixiera (currently on 15-day DL), and Brian McCann will be able to overcome the Royals’ pitching staff. The Yankees will then defeat the reigning American League pennant winners, Kansas City Royals, in a fiercely fought series. Plus, the Yankees will likely have home-field advantage-the momentum will point to a Yankees victory. While the Astros will have been able to hold the second wild-card position secure, they will not be the same team that took the baseball world by surprise earlier this year. In the American League Wild Card game, I expect to see the New York Yankees prevail over the Astros. However, with two of the best pitchers in the American League, Dallas Keuchel and Collin McHugh, the Astros will fend off the advances of the Angels. The Angels, powered by yet another MVP-caliber season from Mike Trout, are also hot as of late, and are knocking on Houston’s door. For many months the best team in the American League, the Astros had lost seven of their last ten games at the time of writing, and their division lead was overtaken by the suddenly-hot Texas Rangers, who now appear to be a different team than they were in the first half of the season. The only club that does not comfortably have a place in the postseason is Houston. My prediction is that the teams that would make the playoffs if the season ended today are the same teams that will indeed make the playoffs in a few weeks. On the other hand, the National League, due to the presence of a Central division consisting of three of the best teams in the league-the Major League-best Cardinals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago Cubs, has no teams within 10 games of overtaking the Cubs’ second wild card slot. At the time of writing, the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians were within four games as well. In the American League, the Los Angeles Angels are threatening to overtake the Houston Astros for the second wild card spot. The wild-card race is not quite over, however. Louis Cardinals in the Central, and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the West. In the National League, the division champs would be the New York Mets in the East, St. The American League division winners would be the Toronto Blue Jays in the East, reigning American League champion Kansas City Royals in the Central division, and the Texas Rangers in the West. If the season ended on September 19th, the Houston Astros and New York Yankees, both of whom have fallen from the tops of their respective divisions in the last week, would square off in the American League Wild-Card elimination game, and the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates, division rivals, would square off in the National League game. Louis Cardinals have officially clinched the first playoff birth, so it is now time to make predictions regarding October baseball. Who would have thought that the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Astros would be contenders throughout the season? Or that the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays would turn their seasons around and catapult themselves to the tops of their divisions? It has been a very dynamic season-teams seem to fall out of contention, only to rally again.Īlthough there will likely be a few more shake-ups in standings before the end of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Dodgers, for example-this has been a season of mediocrity and surprise for many. With the exception of a few teams- the St. It has been a long, winding road for Major League baseball fans this year, as many teams have bounced in and out of playoff contention over the last few months–even the Boston Red Sox, who have had a notably disappointing season, were only 4.5 games out of the second Wild-Card spot in mid-July.
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