By Saturday morning, San Diego was clinging to the third and final National League wild card spot and additional again from the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers than some other second-place staff in baseball — keeping off the struggling Milwaukee Brewers with out the younger famous person they thought they might be including for the stretch run, in no way assured an October berth. Such is the delicate state of the baseball playoff picture on this mid-August weekend, as blurry on the high in some instances as on the backside, nonetheless able to being modified totally with a number of strokes.
That picture is greater than ever earlier than: MLB will use a brand new, bigger playoff format this 12 months in which the 2 division winners with the most effective file in every league will obtain a bye, leaving the opposite division winner to play one in every of three wild-card groups in a best-of-three collection to advance. Instead of 5 groups qualifying in the playoffs for every league, this 12 months will embody six.
And as of mid-August, there are few positive issues.
The Dodgers are, as has turn into their annual custom, the closest factor to a playoff lock as there’s. They are 35 video games over .500. They have outscored opponents by almost 250 runs. Their lineup is loaded. Their rotation has weathered main accidents to stay surprisingly regular. They personal the largest division lead in baseball — 16 video games up on the Padres. The second-biggest lead in baseball belongs to a different October common, the American League-leading Houston Astros, whose stingy right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. was scheduled to make his first begin of the season Saturday. Astros starters already owned the lowest ERA in the American League with out him.
The finest file in the AL as soon as belonged to the New York Yankees, who at occasions this season seemed prone to unseat the Dodgers as the game’s juggernaut, however have since slid again into one thing resembling mortality. They are 30 video games over .500, however 7-14 in the second half, thanks in half to a sudden onslaught of accidents that has led to the type of slide that may snowball rapidly below the searing New York highlight. But they’re additionally driving one of many biggest particular person seasons in latest baseball historical past as Aaron Judge chases down Roger Maris’s regular season home run record* (*non-steroid period) with 46 residence runs by way of 113 staff video games — on tempo for 66.
They are 10 video games up on the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East, a stable if not insurmountable distinction in a division that has three different groups inside two video games of one another and wild card positions. The Jays have but to search out the type of magic their gifted younger roster appeared prone to stir.
The Tampa Bay Rays, so far much less of an element than regular in this division, are prone to get younger star Wander Franco and a peck of different injured contributors again in the approaching weeks. The Rays at present path the unlikeliest member of the playoff picture, the Baltimore Orioles, by a half a recreation for the ultimate AL wild card spot. Because regardless of buying and selling away stalwart Trey Mancini and nearer Jorge Lopez, the upstart Orioles are part of the AL playoff picture.
The Orioles will play the following month and a half with no stress, having entered this season with expectations of mediocrity then dealing with their commerce deadline with out a lot urgency. They will attempt to maintain off the much more beleaguered Blue Jays — who entered this season with World Series goals, fired their supervisor this summer season and made sensible however not transformative strikes on the deadline — as that staff hopes to salvage its season.
All of them can be elbowing for place with the Seattle Mariners, a staff that rattled off 14 straight wins to drag themselves again into rivalry then pounced on the best-available starter on the deadline in Luis Castillo. The Mariners haven’t made the playoffs since 2001, the longest energetic drought in the 4 main males’s North American professional sports activities. At occasions over the previous two years, they’ve seemed like a staff able to staging the type of storybook October run they’ve been ready for. It has but to materialize.
The most formidable wild card staff in both league could also be whichever staff doesn’t win the National League East — as at present positioned, these playoff-tested Atlanta Braves. After a quick post-all-star break wobble, the New York Mets look as regular as ever, untethered by demons of disappointment previous and unintimidated by Atlanta. But Atlanta has confirmed its means to coalesce on the precise proper second, so with a six-game lead, the Mets are usually not essentially out of attain simply but.
In each leagues, probably the most chaos could find yourself rising in the Centrals, the weakest divisions in the game which can be nonetheless decidedly up for grabs. The St. Louis Cardinals added steadying presences to their rotation and are simply 1½ video games forward of the Milwaukee Brewers in that division. The Brewers, after making the eyebrow-raising commerce of Josh Hader, have struggled and spiraled considerably because the deadline. But their formidable rotation at all times appears able to holding them collectively sufficient to remain aggressive late.
And in the American League Central, the Chicago White Sox are in the midst of a disappointing season, however will attempt to beat out the Minnesota Twins and younger Cleveland Guardians for the highest spot. It is feasible, because of the relative energy of the Mariners and American League East, that just one staff in the Central will qualify for the postseason. The race to win that division, then, could show some of the thrilling down the stretch, even when it’s not talked about as a lot.
Any act of baseball nature, just like the Tatis suspension or a serious damage, appears able to recasting many of the picture totally, a lot remains unsure. And because the yearly dominant Dodgers can clarify — even the positive issues in September are not any positive factor in October.
