This is the last day of the Major League Baseball regular season. This is day 162. If you pray or wish hard enough, there might be a day 163. This is a day full of drama and a day where a lot of mysteries are solved, or will be tomorrow.
The American League is set. Cleveland and Houston will play each other while Boston waits for whomever wins the wild card game between New York and Oakland on Wednesday. Most of the games today won’t matter. Sean’s beloved Baltimore is hosting the AL West leaders, the Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox will play in Target Field for no reason at all, Rangers and Seattle decide who is more mediocre, the Blue Jays visit Tropicana Field for what is ALCS in an alternative dimension, and the Block Cs will play the Royals in Kansas City. Oakland can’t win for home field advantage in LA and New York can’t lose home field advantage at Fenway, but can win bragging rights if they hit some more dingers.
The National League is in turmoil. Teams are playing today for home field advantage and not to play a tie breaker game on Monday. Chicago is hosting the Saint Louis Cardinals today while the Milwaukee Brewers are hoping to sweep the Detroit Tigers at Miller Park, and if both teams win, they will play a tie breaker on Monday. The loser of the tie breaker would host the NL wildcard game and the winner is the divisional leader. In the west, the Los Angeles Dodgers will have to win at AT&T Park against their rivals, Chef Andrew’s Giants, and the Rockies host the Washington Nationals at Coors Field, and if they both win then they meet on Monday for a tie breaker!
Cubs would host the Brewers and the Dodgers would host the Rockies if both tie breakers happen.
That is a lot of fucking drama, my cheeseburger-heads!
I know a lot of you are not into the one game wild card format, but I will tell you that since then, the end of the year drama in both leagues have been anxiety ridden masterpieces that even a Game of Throne TV writer couldn’t come up with.
We also have Yellich swinging for a triple crown, Khris Davis could hit some dingers and possibly tie his last three seasons’ batting average of .247 (which is spooky, right?), and there is pitcher wins, HR leaders, who stole the most bases, and of course more resume information for MVP, Cy Young, and ROY*.
I am more excited for the LA at San Francisco game because I am pretty sure that the Giants are not going to easily hand the keys to the kingdom over to Hill and the boys in blue, even if Bochy is starting a rookie, Tyler Anderson. I will say this for Chef Andrew’s amusement, the game will be decided on a Dave Roberts coaching error involving a pitching change - or a lack of a pitching change as the case might be.
I’m pretty excited for the Brewers and Saint Louis teams playing because of Yellich and Carpenter are trying to out home run each other. These two sluggers have been great to watch, especially Carpenter coming out of nowhere in the middle of the year when his team was in total chaos to be the hero they need - Chef Andrew won’t appreciate that hot take.
This is the beginning of the best week in baseball, and this year is no exception. What are you excited for?
*David Everett Fisher has already clinched the Rookie of the Year for both leagues.