There won’t be any major drama as the final day of the season gets underway this afternoon, as all of the races have been decided and the field for the 2017 postseason has been set. The Red Sox took care of business and clinched the AL East, but the Yankees have the solace of knowing that they’ll at least have a Wild Card game awaiting them. Meanwhile in the National League, the Rockies sealed the deal and punched their ticket to Arizona for the Wild Card game, but this came at the cost of the Brewers losing in painful fashion.
The final day of the 2017 MLB season is mostly meaningless
Sunday’s Say Hey, Baseball is already looking forward to the playoffs since today has no postseason implications. Plus, Andrew Romine takes a tour of all nine positions.
Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images
For most of the afternoon at Busch Stadium, it sure seemed like Milwaukee was going to push the Wild Card race to the final day of the season. When Domingo Santana hit a two-run home run in the third inning to put the Brewers up 6-0, FanGraphs’ Win Expectancy gave them a 94-percent chance of victory. However, the third inning was also when St. Louis began its comeback. It scored four in the third inning, but the game remained 6-4 until the eighth inning.
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While the Brewers had plenty of chances to bury the Cardinals, they didn’t take them. On the other hand, the Cardinals took advantage of their chance in the eighth inning and with a little help from an error from Ryan Braun, St. Louis was able to push past Milwaukee and complete its comeback. In the process, the Brewers suffered yet another heartbreaking loss in a fortnight that had plenty of those and their unlikely run at a Wild Card spot came to a close.
It’s unfortunate Milwaukee came up just short of making the last day interesting, but for now we’ll all just have to patiently wait for the playoffs to finally start.
- Zack Greinke will be starting for the Diamondbacks in the NL Wild Card game. Beyond the Box Score tries to figure out whether they should ride their ace for as long as possible, or use their “secret weapon.”
- Remember the amazing Game 163 from 2007 that officially made “Rocktober” a thing? Remember when Matt Holliday didn’t actually touch home plate at the end? Marc Normandin remembers.
- The Tigers said that Andrew Romine was going to play all nine positions during a game at some point this weekend, and he did it on Saturday. He started in left field and ended at first base. Hats off to Romine!
- Matt Cain made the final start of his career and got a hero’s welcome from the adoring Giants fans at AT&T Park.
- Giancarlo Stanton has made it known that if the Marlins decide to rebuild (again), he wants no part of it.
- The Dodgers won their 103rd game of the season on Saturday, which is a record for their tenure in Los Angeles and also the best mark in baseball this year.
- Sonny Gray has had a tough time adjusting to Yankee Stadium. That might be a problem this month!
- Speaking of Sonny Gray, the Athletics are hoping that the return from trading Gray (and others) at the trade deadline will start paying dividends in the future.
- The Cardinals have missed the playoffs for the second-straight year. Where do they go now?
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