This race has been thrilling to watch these last couple of weeks with the two best teams in baseball duking it out for the chance to avoid a one-game playoff. The Giants entered the day in the driver's seat, and leaned on their pitching to keep the wins coming. Alex Wood tossed six shutout innings while the bullpen followed up with three more, allowing San Francisco to beat Arizona by a slim 1-0 margin. They were trailing the Padres 9-6 heading into the bottom of the eighth, but they hit four homers in that inning to take the lead and ultimately win. The Giants still hold a two-game lead with a magic number of three to clinch. The MLB Standings has a section called the MLB Wild Card Standings.
When the playoffs begin, the three division winners from both the American League and National League are given automatic spots into the postseason. The MLB decided to award playoff opportunities to other teams, starting with one in 1994 and then two in 2012. Each season, two clubs from both the AL and NL will meet in a one-game playoff and the loser is eliminated while the winner advances to face the top seed in the Divisional Series.
When healthy, the Braves should perform better than their 88 wins from last season. They are the defending champs and they show no signs of slowing down. They have young players ready to perform on an everyday basis and a pitching staff looking to improve on their 2021 campaign. Expect the Braves to win this division and once again compete for a world series championship. St. Louis will almost certainly be the road team for the wild card game, after winning 16 straight games through Sunday.
The Cardinals lead the Phillies and Reds by six games for the second wild card spot, with only six games to play. Despite a change to the playoff structure in 2020, normality has resumed for 2021. The three division winners from the National League standings make the postseason. Of the remaining teams, the two with the best records matchup in a wildcard game. This one-off game provides the fourth playoff team in the National League.
Unlike in the NL East race, both of the top teams in the NL West will be in the postseason. GB. GB in baseball standings stands for "games back" or "games behind." The top team in a division will have a dash or a zero in this slot of the standings. For each other team, GB represents the average of the difference in both wins and losses between this team and the division leader. With many players last season getting their first games in the majors, the Diamondbacks can expect an improvement from last season's lackluster performance. Their pitching staff needs the most work as they were unable to stop opposing teams from scoring.
Management must be patient with the roster in Arizona as these newcomers are slowly finding their way in the Major League ranks. As for the Reds and Cubs, both teams have a worse roster than they had in 2020. The Reds had the lowest team batting average in baseball last season, and made the postseason only thanks to their pitching. Now they've lost ace Trevor Bauer and closer Raisel Iglesias. Chicago also lost some key players in Yu Darvish (2.01 ERA last season) and Kyle Schwarber. Even though they will still be competitive, I think them losing key players will not help the team morale.
If these teams are struggling at the deadline, we could see more veterans sent packing in an effort to re-tool further. The Detroit Tigers have the young pitching and the right manager to at least be competitive. But it's going to take a very aggressive offseason for this team to have a shot at the MLB playoffs. Detroit upgraded at catcher with Tucker Barnhart and that could be just the start. Add Carlos Correa and a front-line starter via free agency into the mix, along with top prospect Spencer Torkelson, October baseball might be possible.
The pitching is clearly there for the Brewers as they allowed the third lowest runs against last season. The deciding factor on if this team will win in the postseason is their consistent bats. The pitching staff will win the NL Central, but will the hitting perform playoff quality and help Milwaukee compete for a world series is the major question. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions.
Entering the final day of the regular season, the Yankees and Sox have at least guaranteed an opportunity for a tiebreaker game Monday. A win for each team, and the legendary rivals would battle in the Wild Card Game, with Boston hosting because of their one-game advantage in this year's series. Find out where things stand in both the AL and NL with this updated look at the playoff picture, bracket and standings ahead of the final day (or is it?) of the regular season.
The Brewers clinched the NL Central on Sunday, making the playoffs for the fourth straight year, a first in franchise history. Milwaukee is locked into the No. 2 seed in the NL, and will host the NL East winner in the first two games of the NLDS. If the Dodgers can manage the offseason roster shake up effectively, this team will once again contend for a World Series championship. They have a bunch of members of the 2021 roster that are set to be free agents and their work to either resign them or invest in new players will determine how far this roster will go.
A NL West championship is right in their grasp, the issue is how deep can this team be to win another World Series. This team has all of the makings to be a world series contender. A consistent MVP candidate in Bryce Harper and a potential Cy Young candidate with Zack Wheeler but their depth is what kills them. The price for some of their players is high and that ultimately has made it difficult for the Phillies to add much-needed assistance. Look for them to bolster their fielding and lineup in free agency.
A wild card position is a good outcome for Philadelphia in 2022. Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY SportsMajor League Baseball releases the 2022 MLB schedule at the beginning of the offseason. The 2022 regular season concludes on Friday, September 30. Due to the collective bargaining agreement expiring this offseason, the 2022 season and postseason format could look very different. Major League Baseball expanded its playoff field in the COVID shortened 2020 season but the playoffs returned to the standard 10-team format in 2021. However, it will be part of CBA negotiations this winter with expansion very likely.
Said date with the Cardinals may make it a moot point if their recent 17-game winning streak is any indicator. They, despite their place as the lowest seed in the NL bracket, might be the scariest team in the majors as we head into the playoffs. In the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays, Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox have all guaranteed their spots in the postseason. Hoping to join them are four teams that enter the final day of the regular season very much alive for the league's two wild-card spots.
This is the part where fans of teams in playoff spots — or those just outside — really start to get out the calculators. The magic number is the combination of a team's wins and/or losses by its closest competitor needed to clinch a playoff spot. The Phillies have stayed alive by winning seven of their past 10 games. They have beat up on some of the worst teams in baseball during that stretch, and that could continue this weekend as they will host a four-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Update, Saturday AM — The Phillies picked up a half game on the Braves since Friday and have two games against the Pirates this weekend. The next series against the Braves will likely decide the division and we could see the two teams tied or Phillies ahead by the end of the weekend.
The Brewers have already clinched the NL Central and locked themselves into the No. 2 seed in the National League, so how much will they throw at the Dodgers that final series? Right now, Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta are scheduled to start the final two games, but they might be on short leashes as Milwaukee lines up its playoff rotation. The loser would then face the third team the next day, with the winner of that matchup earning the second wild-card spot. The National League field is almost complete, with the NL East race standing as the only unfinished battle. The Dodgers, Brewers, Giants and Cardinals have snagged four playoff spots, while Atlanta's magic number to clinch the NL East is now at one.
As for the American League, the Rays and White Sox have clinched their respective divisions in the American League, and the Astros enter Thursday night with a magic number of one. The Milwaukee Brewers will win the NL Central for the 3rd time in franchise history in 2021. Behind Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes, the rest of the starting rotation will continuously do enough to keep the Crew in the game before passing the baton to the bullpen. This Brewers bullpen will once again have the lowest ERA in the league and will blow less than five leads entering the 7th inning or later.
Woodruff and Burnes will both finish Top 10 in Cy Young Award voting. We here at Reviewing The Brew hope to have kept you excited about Brewers baseball throughout the offseason, but now the real fun starts back up. And with fans back in the stands, there's even more reason to be excited. Falling short of the playoff by one game, those who competed in October were thankful the Toronto Blue Jays didn't get the invite.
The Blue Jays will return a majority of their lineup and rotation next season, with at least one of Robbie Ray or Marcus Semien likely re-signing. This is the little division that could, one that seems as though it could be clinched early in the week but was still alive heading into Wednesday. Houston just needed a win or a Seattle loss to finish this one up. The Rays had absolutely no trouble taking down the Astros, winning a 7-0 blowout with four pitchers combining to give up just three hits all night.
Meanwhile, Seattle refuses to quit and is just beating up on the Athletics. They finished their second straight sweep over Oakland on Wednesday, winning 4-2 with all of the runs being scored in the final four innings. At stake is the NL West, which the San Francisco Giants lead. But a loss for them Sunday and a Dodgers win forces a 163rd game to determine the division champ. The Wild Card Standings only show 12 teams from each league as the division winners are omitted, since they receive the automatic spots.
Similar to the MLB standings, the columns shown are Win, Loss, Percent and GB . The Home and Away records, and Streak feature is not included in the MLB WC Standings. The Padres' sudden fall from grace is one of the more compelling stories of this season and will undoubtedly lead to major changes during the winter. They could be formally eliminated from playoff contention this weekend versus the Braves. For this weekend, the schedule is certainly in the Dodgers' favor.
Will see the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks, a team they have beaten 14 out of 16 games this season. Meanwhile, the Giants will head to Coors Field for three games versus the Rockies. The Giants are 12-4 against Colorado this year, but the Rockies' record at home is the third-best mark in the NL. Already at the bottom of these standings, the Athletics have no home games remaining and play two winning teams. There's only one week left in Major League Baseball's regular season, and the playoff races are dwindling. This is actually a fairly simple scenario, in which a four-team bracket is created to find the final two playoff teams.
Home field would be determined by the combined winning percentage against the other three teams. NewFor currently scheduled games check out the bracket and schedule below. As you can tell from those numbers, the Mets' power figures are down. Their lineup, viewed as one of baseball's most dangerous at the start of the season, has only produced 72 homers. The only teams with fewer are the Diamondbacks and the Pirates, two teams who will not come close to contending this season. The biggest surprise here is the fact the Indians are picked to finish ahead of the White Sox.
That shows a clear lack of faith in a White Sox team and should realistically be fighting with the Twins atop the division. This projection has it as a three-team race and Sox fans may be wondering if all the hype is for nothing. As always, you can also find all of our 2021 prospects coverage here. They have no other choice with a roster that has as much firepower as they do. Led by Fernando Tatis Jr and Manny Machado, this team must find a way to compete for a playoff spot.
With a new manager in town, maybe the new found leadership will help bring some confidence to a potential top lineup in baseball. The Cubs are far from the form that won them a world series in years past. They find themselves once again competing to stay out of the cellar in the NL Central. They don't have the steady supply of bats in the lineup and their lack of quality pitching isn't doing them any favors when it comes to the final standings.
Look for the Cubs to go through another rebuild to get back to playoff contention. Cincinnati has a roster and farm system that is built to contend for a division crown in two years or more. Even with a steady helping of run production from their lineup, they just need the combination of pitching to go with it. Give the Reds a few more years to compete for a division championship, but they will hover around .500 for the majority of the season. The success of the Nationals ultimately comes down to their ability to bring in free agents.
They have the starting pitching to get them to the post season, but they don't have the depth in the lineup. Unfortunately this isn't the Washington team that won the world series and it is showing. If the ownership and management is able to obtain some key free agents they may be able to work themselves out of the cellar, but if not expect a rebuild in the future. The team with the best record in the final 81 games of the season, ignoring inter-league play. The Brewers have an exceptional bullpen, and Craig Counsell is one of the best in the business at pitching staff management. Combine this with their improved defense, headlined by new acquisitions Jackie Bradley Jr., and Kolten Wong, and Milwaukee seems to have a recipe for winning close games.
The Phillies' situation was not looking good even before Wednesday's game, as they were facing the Braves and needed a sweep to still have a realistic shot at this division. Instead, they lost on Tuesday, and then they followed it up with another loss Wednesday. Max Fried was fantastic, and the Braves won by a comfortable five-run margin. The division is still technically not over, but the two teams play another game on Thursday with the Braves' magic number at one. They can clinch on Thursday, and if not they clinch with either a win or a Phillies loss. With time running out in the regular season, the races around the league are coming down to the wire.
That does include the American League wildcard, in which the Red Sox are stuck in a tight race, but also the rest of the league as well. For those interested in that league-wide picture, we'll be providing a daily update the rest of the season on the state of races around baseball. The Dodgers have gotten the best of the Milwaukee Brewers ahead of Sunday, taking Friday's and Saturday's games. The Dodgers and Giants are separated by two games in the NL West, with six games to play.
The earliest San Francisco can clinch the division is Thursday. If Los Angeles wins the division, it won't happen until Saturday at the soonest. This format was also created in 1969 and the we've seen 14 of the current 15 teams in the National League earn a trip to the World Series. The lone outlier is the Milwaukee Brewers, but the franchise did play in the 1982 World Series when it was part of the American League.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals have both won the NL pennant seven times a piece. This format was created in 1969 and the New York Yankees have captured 11 titles since the league made the switch. The Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox have both won the pennant six times. Of the current 15 teams in the American League Standings, the Seattle Mariners are the only team not to win the pennant and earn a trip to the World Series. The Reds looked like the favorite for that second spot about a month ago, but they have lost 16 of 23 games since Aug. 28.
