NFL: four preseason games, 16 regular season games; NBA: eight preseason games, 82 regular season games; NHL: about six or seven preseason games, 82 regular season games. While these major sports have somewhere from 20 to 85 total games before the playoffs start, there is just one game that stretches for half the year: Major League Baseball, which includes about 40 spring training games and a regular season spanning from late March to late September with 162 baseball games for each team crammed in those seven months.
Although some teams (like the Cubs and the White Sox) saw their season slip away in July or August, many teams still stuck around playing meaningful September baseball games. On September 1 of this year, between their division and the wild card, nine out of the 15 American League teams, and seven out of the 15 National League teams were within 6.5 games of a playoff spot. So even
into their seventh month of giving their all day in and day out, more than half of baseball still had realistic aspirations of making the playoffs.
Slowly those teams were eliminated one by one, and when the dust was settled, there were finally five representatives of each league. The Atlanta Braves (National League East), St. Louis Cardinals (National League Central), Los Angeles Dodgers (National League West), Boston Red Sox (American League East), Detroit Tigers (American League Central), and Oakland A’s (American League West) won their divisions. Those division winners gained their bid to the American or National League Divisional Round of the Playoffs.
In the Divisional Round, those teams’ matchups will look like this for the best-of-five Divisional Round. The National League’s number one seed St. Louis Cardinals will be at home for games one, two and five, and they will be facing the winner of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds. In the other National League game, the number two seed Atlanta Braves will have home field advantage against the number three seed LA Dodgers.
On the other side of the bracket, the number one seed Boston Red Sox will be playing the winner of the AL Wild Card game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Indians. Then the number two seed Oakland A’s will be at home against the number three Detroit Tigers.
The other teams that popped the champagne bottles were the teams that won Wild Card spots. Those teams were the Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, and Cleveland Indians. They celebrated because they achieved their season-long goal, and in the case of the Pirates, a 21-year goal, to make the playoffs. The only problem in their case is that because they did not win their division, and instead won a wild card spot, they have found themselves in baseball playoff purgatory.
The wild card teams will play in a one-game playoff for who gets to face the number one seed in their respective league. The fact that it is one game poses a problem in baseball unlike in other sports. The number one seed in the NFL rarely loses in the playoffs to a lesser team, but in baseball give the Cubs 9 innings to play the Cardinals, and even the 27th ranked team in the MLB has a chance to beat the second-best record of the Cardinals (The Cubs won seven games against them this year in 19 games). So even a bad team (Cubs) can beat a great team (Cardinals) nearly 50 percent of the time.
Those wild card teams have won the privilege to play in this one night baseball extravaganza… The seven-plus months of work will be on display this one night when it’ll all be on the line.
National League Wild Card Round
Tuesday, October 1
Cincinnati Reds @ Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen dives but is unable to catch an RBI double off the bat of the St. Louis Cardinals from Matt Holliday in the fifth inning at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, on Thursday, August 15, 2013. The Cards won, 6-5, in 12 innings.
Reds Starting Pitcher: Johnny Cueto 5-2 record with a 2.82 ERA (1-0, 0.73 ERA v PIT this season in two starts)
Pirates Starting Pitcher: Francisco Liriano 16-8 record with 3.02 ERA (0-3, 3.70 ERA v CIN this season in four starts)
Reds Superstar: Joey Votto .304 Avg, .434 OBP, 24 HR, 73 RBI (.315 AVG, 3 HR, 8 RBI v Pit this season)
Pirates Superstar: Andrew McCutchen .318 AVG, .404 OBO, 20 HR, 83 RBI (.230 AVG, 3 HR, 7 RBI v Cin this season)
Facts: The 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates have done something that the last 21 Pirates teams haven’t done: make the playoffs. Now that is fine that they have done that, but the real question is, will they go one and done, or roll on to the divisional round against the Atlanta Braves?
The Reds, on the other hand, have a big advantage on experience because of last season. Last year, the Reds won the NL Central, then went on to play the San Francisco Giants. The Reds won the first two games of their five-game series but then lost the next three games to the eventual World Series Champion Giants.
During the regular season, these teams played each other 19 times. Pittsburgh won the season series, going 11-8.
Projection: Home-field advantage is a huge boost to the Pirates in this matchup. The Pirates were 19 games over .500 this year at home, while only six over on the road. On the other hand, the Reds are a pedestrian .500 on the road this year. Home/road splits are also a big deal to Pirates starter Francisco Liriano, who is 8-1 with a 1.47 ERA at home and 8-7 with a 4.33 ERA on the road this year.
The Reds will probably be hoping for a lower scoring game in this one-game playoff, because arguably their three best hitters Joey Votto, Shin-Soo Choo, and Jay Bruce are all lefties. Why is that a big deal? Opposing lefties have a .131 batting average this year against Liriano as opposed to a .249 average for righties.
Pitching will tell the tale in this this matchup. With Liriano starting, the Pirates will end up winners and move on to the NLDS, even though they are probably not the better team.
WINNER: Pittsburgh Pirates
American League Wild Card Round
Wednesday, October 2
Tampa Bay Rays @ Cleveland Indians
Tampa Bay Rays Starting Pitcher: Alex Cobb 11-3 with a 2.76 ERA (1-0, 0.00 ERA v Cle this season in one start)
Cleveland Indians Starting Pitcher: Danny Salazar 2-3 with a 3.12 ERA (no starts v TB this season)
Tampa Bay Rays X-Factor: Evan Longoria .266 AVG, .341 OBP, 31 HR, 85 RBI (.217 AVG, .308 OBP, 1 HR, 5 RBI v Cle this season)
Cleveland Indians X-Factor: Nick Swisher .246 AVG, .341 OBP, 22 HR, 63 RBI (.095 AVG, .240 OBP, 0 HR, 0 RBI in 21 ABs this year against TB)
Facts: The AL East (Tampa Bay’s division) as a whole blew the AL Central and AL West out of the water. The AL East had a division record of 432-378 (.533 winning percentage), AL Central had 400-410 (.494), AL West had 387-423 (.478). So, Tampa Bay has faced the best competition this year.
Cleveland has not made the playoffs since 2007, when they won 96 games. That year, Cleveland beat the Yankees in four games in the ALDS, then lost in game 7 of the ALCS. The only Indians that were on the ‘07 team were Asdrubal Cabrera and Kelly Shoppach (who’s played for Tampa Bay, Boston, New York Mets, and Seattle since).
Projection: Cleveland has the home-field advantage, which is important for a team that went 19 games over .500 at home compared to a lowly one game over on the road. The fact that the Indians do not have players who have been in this situation before could hurt them on the experience platform, though.
Cleveland’s middle of the lineup “superstar” is Nick Swisher, who is a huge reason that the Indians are here in the Wild Card game. The only problem with Swisher, who has a .328 OBP and 13 HRs in the second half, is that he has struggled mightily against the Rays.
Tampa Bay’s “superstar” is Evan Longoria, who (like Swisher) is the reason the Rays are in this game. In Monday’s win-or-go-home single game playoff, Longoria hit a home run, which was the difference in a 5-2 Rays win over the Rangers.
The Rays starting pitcher, Alex Cobb, has actually been better on the road than at home this season, something very rare among starting pitchers. Looking at a 25-year-old Cobb, the thinking is that the Indians have the advantage; wrong. The Cleveland Indians are making the controversial call of starting rookie 23-year-old Danny Salazar. THE Danny Salazar, the one who has only 10 career games pitched to his name.
In the playoffs, where pitching is key, the Indians are starting Salazar, which is way too much pressure to put on a young kid with limited experience. The Indians will be looking for their offense in this one, which is the wrong thing to look for in a one-game playoff against a pitching-heavy Rays team. Adding Justin Masterson to their bullpen and also having Chris Perez out in the pen will be a lights out ending to this one if they have the lead late in this one… Problem is there will be no lead to be leaning on, as the Rays will look to be ahead in another low-scoring affair.
WINNER: Tampa Bay Rays
