The Houston Astros eliminated all tension from the last day of the season with their sizable victory over the Oakland Athletics Saturday night, locking in home-field advantage against the White Sox for the ALDS starting on Thursday.
There are some things that would be nice to see during today's White Sox season finale against Detroit, like Dylan Cease following in the footsteps of Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito with a straightforward five innings. Adam Engel playing on consecutive days. Craig Kimbrel getting a legitimate high-leverage outing at some point. Ryan Tepera getting an excuse to throw more sliders. Tony La Russa can guarantee at least two of those things if he wants, but above all else, what's important is closing out the 162nd game no worse for the wear.
So if you want to jump around MLB Network and MLB.tv to watch all the games with legit consequences, nobody would blame you. I know that's what I'll be doing.
Only one of the six divisions is coming down to the final day, but it's the division featuring baseball's two best records. The Giants missed out on an opportunity to clinch the NL West with a 3-2 loss to the Padres, while the Dodgers are winners of six straight after beating the Brewers. The standings look like this:
- Giants, 106-55
- Dodgers, 105-56 (1 GB)
The Dodgers are doing what they can by sending out Walker Buehler against Brett Anderson and a Brewers team that's known it's hosting the NL East winner for weeks. The Giants are countering with Logan Webb against San Diego's Reiss Knehr, whatever that is.
If the Giants win, the Dodgers have to play the Cardinals in the one-and-done wild card. If the Giants lose and the Dodgers win, San Francisco would host the tiebreaker to settle the winner of the West, and the loser would play the Cardinals in the wild card game. Whoever wins that game plays the winner of the West.
But that's clean, simple and direct compared to all of the possibilities in the American League wild card race.
- Red Sox, 91-70
- Yankees, 91-70---------------------
- Blue Jays, 90-71Mariners, 90-71
The Red Sox and Yankees can eliminate all drama. If both teams win, both teams are in, with Boston hosting the wild card game because it won the season series 10-9.
But if either or both teams lose, it'll create the possibility of 11 other permutations, handily illustrated here:
As for the pitching matchups:
- Red Sox at Nationals: Chris Sale vs. Joan Adon
- Yankees vs. Rays: Jameson Taillon vs. Michael Wacha
- Blue Jays vs. Orioles: Hyun-Jin Ryu vs. Bruce Zimmermann
- Mariners vs. Angels: Tyler Anderson vs. Reid Detmers
MLB.com has a helpful article laying out all the various tiebreaker combinations for three- and four-team outcomes, although I don't want to get my hopes up. One only combination -- Red Sox and Yankees losses, Blue Jays and Mariners victories -- results in a four-team tie, whereas five combinations result in no tiebreakers at all, so try to adjust your expectations accordingly.
I say "try" because then you see footage of Seattle's broadcasters calling Mitch Haniger's go-ahead single in the eighth inning on Saturday, and good luck not pulling for the underdogs.
