So Torii Hunter, among other things, believes in instant karma.
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The race for the final AL wild-card spot is down to the Astros, Angels and Twins after the Rangers and Yankees clinched playoff berths with wins Thursday. He used those talents to subdue the heavy-hitting Rangers to give the Astros hope for a division title. Houston leads by a half game over the Los Angeles Angels, with Minnesota another game behind. That bunch-up will cause plenty of scoreboard-watching and tense times over this final week of the season.
“Our general policy is that if the games are meaningful, ” Major League Baseball vice president Pat Courtney said, “all 162 games have to be played”. “We’re hanging in there”. 3 teams in the AL West are grinding it out and playing a few of the best baseball I have seen in awhile. All games count for the same number of wins and losses, but that series, depending on what happens over the next two days, could do more to determine who participates in the postseason than any other one for any team this year.
Of course, that includes series where the teams were virtually identical in their September records, so as not to have any meaningful difference between which one might be considered “hot”. Winning on the road has been a problem for the Astros all season and if you’re going to be in the playoffs you will need to be able to win on the road.
The Twins have been a little overlooked because of this western ordeal, but they are maybe the most surprising playoff contender of the bunch. The wild-card game would then be either Yankees at Astros or Rangers at Yankees, based upon tiebreakers for home-field advantage. Seattle’s Shawn O’Malley had a two-run single in the bottom of the eighth off ex-Twin Pat Neshek to win it. Neshek is 0-3 with an 8.53 ERA and two blown saves this month. We got a good group of guys. “We’ve been battling all season”.
“We’ll try to formulate the roster to prepare ourselves as well as we can”, he said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun”. I’m pretty sure Jon Daniels thought so too, and ownership was anxious about Shin-Soo Choo, Prince Fielder, Jurickson Profar, Derek Holland, Matt Harrison, Elvis Andrus, Leonys Martin, Neftali Feliz, Martin Perez, catcher, left field, the bullpen and…what am I missing?
Luke Gregerson struck out Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano in the ninth for his 30th save.
Keuchel and McHugh flipped spots in the rotation, possibly an opening round/Wild Card game start for Keuchel. “We didn’t get the hits the timely hits with runners on”. That is the definition of a “stopper”.
This weekend may have been an opportunity lost for the Rangers and despite their division cushion, their manager knows nothing has been decided. Houston has won four of its last five against Arizona and the two have hit the over in three of their last four meetings. The Rangers went into Monday’s play leading the AL West by 2 1/2 games over the Astros, who played later Monday at Seattle.
The Pirates and Cardinals are now 8-8 on the season, so if they end up tied for the division that certainly means the Pirates will host the tiebreaker game. By limiting the Giants to two runs on four hits over 7 2/3 innings, Anderson reached 180 innings on the season, but more importantly the Dodgers came away with the 3-2 win.
With all three teams seemingly set up well, none of the leads are secure or safe.
“Safe? There’s nothing safe in baseball”, Texas manager Jeff Banister said. I’d love to tell you that Stephen Vogt is safe, but Josh Freaking Donaldson got traded last winter. It’s about competing. These guys, they’ve never taken that approach.
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So we would get Jake Arrieta vs. Gerrit Cole before many fans are home from work?
