Your wish has been granted, baseball fans. Meaningful games will be played in the final three days of the baseball season, and in both leagues no less.
First and foremost, the Boston Red Sox entered today facing a potentially season-defining doubleheader and managed to just barely survive with a split, but only thanks to an extra innings home run by Jacoby Ellsbury (which might have won him the AL MVP in the process, by the way). Those late-inning heroics saved the Red Sox from falling into a tie for the AL Wild Card with the Rays, who continue to apply pressure to the Sox with a nice 5-2 victory over the Blue Jays.
With the Red Sox heading to Baltimore for three games and the Rays hosting the Yankees for three themselves, Boston should have an advantage. But do they really? The O’s have been playing spoiler all month long and won a series against Boston last week. Meanwhile, Tampa will be at home, though that advantage will be minimized due to the fact that more Yankee fans than Rays fans will probably show up, against the Yankees. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but would anyone be surprised if the Yankees went with the starting lineup for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in order to increase the odds of Tampa overtaking New York’s most hated rival?
As for the National League race, suffered their second shutout in their last four games, losing to the Nationals. At the same time, the Cardinals relied on another late-game bullpen collapse from the Cubs to claw their way within one game of Atlanta. Now the Cards get to go beat up on the lowly Astros to close out the season while the Braves host the Phillies. For Atlanta’s sake, they better hope Philadelphia continues their bizarre late-season slump, otherwise they are in big trouble.
Yup, it is going to be an interesting final three days.
Also last night: Did you notice how I didn’t mention that the Angels in the above story? Yeah, that’s because they imploded in the ninth inning agains the A’s and are now all but out of the AL Wild Card race… Jim Thome finished up his season (and possibly career) at home in Cleveland by making a return to third base… and finally, Clayton Kershaw won his 21st game and is poised to win the NL pitching Triple Crown, but Matt Kemp looks to be out of the race to win the NL batting title and thus the hitting Triple Crown.
What to watch tonight: Let’s see what’s on the docket, eh? Ooh! Look at that Felipe Paulino versus Kevin Slowey!! Winner!!! Set your DVR for that epic Royals-Twins showdown. But seriously, folks. If you aren’t watching the Red Sox in Baltimore, Rays hosting the Yanks, Braves trying to stop save their season against Philly and/or the Cards in Houston, then you don’t deserve to watch baseball ever again. Full schedule with probable pitchers here.
