Baseball playoff update 9-27

These get shorter each night. All of the playoff teams are decided in the American League and now it’s a matter of seeding. The National League has three separate races underway now, battles for the NL West, NL Central, and wild card involve 6 teams.

(Late edit: I have tonight’s scores but there’s a few afternoon contests tomorrow so I’ll have a partial update when I do this tomorrow evening.)

American League:

1. New York (95-62, A.L. East champion). The Yankees attempt to maintain the lead they hold in the home field race, their magic number for that is 2 for the first round and 5 for the overall since they won the season series against Detroit. Tonight Baltimore is in Yankee Stadium and sends out Kris Benson (11-11, 4.49) against Chien-Ming Wang (18-6, 3.57).

2. DETROIT (95-62, leads A.L. Central by 1 game over Minnesota). The Tigers’ magic number is actually 4 to clinch the Central because they won the season series against the Twins. Since both teams are assured a postseason berth, there will be no playoff in the event of a tie. Toronto continues their trip with Ted Lilly (14-13, 4.41) facing Nate Robertson (13-12, 3.66).

3. Oakland (91-66, A.L. West champion). Unless the Athletics get hot, they’re going to be the lowest seeded division champ and will be forced to play 3 games on the East Coast. But they finally made it after several tries and send out Barry Zito (16-9, 3.89) to take on Seattle’s Gil Meche (11-8, 4.48) up in Washington state.

4. Minnesota (94-63, clinched at least wild card). The Twins continue their series against Kansas City and hope for a Detroit stumble. Kansas City’s Mark Redman (10-10, 5.83) is pitted against Carlos Silva (10-14, 5.95) for the Twins in the Homerdome.

National League:

1. New York (93-64, N.L. East champion). No worries.

2. San Diego (85-72, leads N.L. West by 2 over Los Angeles). Little noticed in their NL West race is that the Padres are drawing closer to punching a playoff ticket regardless of position – their magic number to secure a spot in the postseason is down to 3, and 4 to win the NL West. The Pads finish up their series in St. Louis tonight – Chris Young (11-5, 3.55) goes for the sweep of the tumbling Cardinals, he draws Anthony Reyes (5-7, 4.92) as the Cards’ starter.

3. St. Louis (80-76, leads N.L. Central by 1 1/2 over Houston). Their slide has made a race of the N.L. Central and kept two teams who probably should be making tee times for next week in the hunt. See San Diego above. However, St. Louis still has a magic number of 5 and sooner or later they’ll knock it down. At least they hope so!

4. Los Angeles (83-74, leads wild card by 1 game over Philadelphia). The Dodgers have flipped back on top as Philadelphia’s stumbled the last couple nights. Derek Lowe (15-8, 3.57) gets the ball for LA against Colorado’s Aaron Cook (9-14, 4.11) on what looks to be a chilly evening in Denver.

5. Philadelphia (82-75). Usually it’s the Marlins who screw up the Phillies’ playoff hopes. While they’ll get their chance this coming weekend, right now it’s the Nats who are throwing the wrench in Philly’s postseason drive. But the Phillies will start Cole Hamels (9-8, 4.06) against Washington’s Pedro Astacio (5-5, 6.12).

6. Houston (79-78). The surging Astros have stayed alive moreso because of the St. Louis swoon than they’ve held serve in the wild card chase. Houston goes with another rookie starter, Jason Hirsh (3-4, 5.83) against Pittsburgh’s Shawn Chacon (7-6, 6.25 between the Yankees and Pirates).

7. Cincinnati (78-79). A Los Angeles win tonight eliminates the Reds from the wild card race, but should both the Cards continue in the tank and the Astros fall in, Cincinnati still could be the most shocked participant in the playoffs as N.L. Central champs. They’re down in Miami tonight, Chris Michalak (2-3, 4.50) sets up shop against Mister No-hitter, Anibal Sanchez (9-3, 2.80).

For the first time in a few days no team can be eliminated tonight, but some can help themselves quite a bit by winning.

And if I get back in time from a couple things, I might make a political post! Maybe people miss those?

Hang in there, the regular season ends Sunday. But then I’ll be sitting up at night watching the playoffs – oh well.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.