Baseball entered its final weekend -- and final six games for playoff contenders -- with just three of eight races decided, the NL East (where the Phillies proceeded to lose six straight after clinching), the AL East, and the AL Central.
MLB’s Pennant Races: Suddenly Less Interesting
While the other division races were fairly close to being decided, there was still an outside chance that the Giants, Cardinals and Angels might catch the Diamondbacks, Brewers and Rangers, respectively. Further, even if they couldn't make up divisional ground, all three teams -- as well as a couple of others -- still had wild card hopes.
After Friday night's action, we have less hope that interesting and meaningful games will be played for the rest of the year. The Red Sox and Yankees were rained out early on Friday night, meaning that Boston might have to sit around and have not one, but two teams (the Rays and Angels) both gain ground on them in the AL wild card race while they could do nothing to help themselves.
Instead, the Rays and Angels helped out the Red Sox by losing their games; Tampa Bay dropped a 5-1 decision to the Toronto Blue Jays, primarily because starting pitcher David Price couldn't field his position. Price's two throwing errors helped lead to three unearned Toronto runs.
Meanwhile, the Angels, coming home from a long East Coast trip to a big crowd and their ace Jered Weaver on the mound, got their offense shut down by the Athletics' Gio Gonzalez. The 3-1 loss dropped them to 3½ games behind Boston; Tampa Bay is 2½ back. The Angels' loss, coupled with the Texas Rangers' 5-3 win over the Mariners, clinched the AL West for Texas, making the three upcoming Rangers/Angels games meaningless, at least for the Rangers.
Similar things happened in the National League; the Giants were defeated by the Diamondbacks, which not only clinched the NL West for Arizona, but reduced San Francisco's elimination number for the wild card to one as the Braves also won. Atlanta would have to lose five straight and San Francisco win five in a row simply to force a tie.
And the Cubs, who have had a mostly woeful season, defeated their arch-rivals, the Cardinals, 5-1, making Atlanta's magic number to eliminate St. Louis just three, meaning that the Braves could clinch the wild card by Sunday.
I suppose we should be thankful that there were this many meaningful games going down to this final weekend. Three weeks ago, it appeared the Red Sox and Braves would be running away with the wild cards; some great runs by trailing teams and losses by those two clubs made the races close -- but apparently, not close enough.
If anyone but Boston or Atlanta wins the wild cards now, the collapses would be among the worst in the history of the game. For anyone other than fans of those two teams, we can hope for such drama to happen over the season’s final five games. If not, postseason matchups could be set by Monday morning.
Which would likely please Bud Selig. You know how much he worries about hotel rooms.
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