MLB playoff odds Sept. 11: Royals, Yankees inch closer to wild card spot

Taking a look at the latest MLB post-season odds from Cool Standings and Baseball Prospectus.

Sep 11, 2013, 2:53 PM UTC

Jason Miller

Tuesday night featured a whole slate of games with playoff implications. As several American League clubs continued to fight for their wild card dreams, two division leaders in the senior circuit moved one game closer to clinching a spot in the NLDS.

Let’s take a look at how the odds shape up in the American League after Tuesday’s match-ups:

			CoolStandings.com			Baseball Prospectus
Team	Wins	Losses	Div	WC	POFF	Div	WC	POFF
Red Sox	88	58	99.7	0.3	99.9	99.8	0.2	100
Tigers	83	62	98.0	1.5	99.5	99.2	0.5	99.7
Athletics	83	61	77.1	21.6	98.8	67.6	31.3	98.9
Rangers	81	63	22.9	63.5	86.4	32.4	58.8	91.1
Rays	78	65	0.2	45.4	45.6	0.1	63.4	63.5
Indians	77	67	1.6	31.1	32.7	0.7	23.2	23.9
Orioles	77	67	0.1	14.7	14.8	0.1	11.5	11.5
Yankees	77	68	<0.1	12.5	12.5	0.0	8.2	8.2
Royals	76	69	0.4	9.3	9.7	0.1	3.1	3.1

Clay Buchholz and the Red Sox moved a few tenths of a point closer to clinching the AL East by holding David Price and the Rays at bay yet again, keeping Tampa Bay in a precipitous slide that is sure to be incredibly disconcerting to fans. According to Baseball Prospectus, the club's chances of making the postseason have dropped over 11 percent in the last week, and that's the site that is bullish on the team's odds. Cool Standings has their odds at nearly 20 points less.

The Rays weren’t the only team to hurt their playoff odds Tuesday. In fact, the Rangers, Athletics, Indians and Orioles all lost their match-ups, creating a nice clear path for the Yankees and Royals -- who beat Baltimore and Cleveland, respectively -- to inch closer to October baseball. The Yanks enjoyed the biggest boost in odds, jumping up over three percent. If they can take the series from the O’s Wednesday, they have a shot at moving to within a game of the second wild card spot.

The Tigers, who pretty much have their ticket to October punched, walloped on the White Sox to move their division-clinching magic number to 13.

Now on to the National League:

Team	Wins	Losses	Div	WC	POFF	Div	WC	POFF
Braves	87	57	99.9	<0.1	99.9	100	0	100
Dodgers	85	59	99.9	0.0	99.9	100	0	100
Cardinals	84	60	67.3	32.5	99.8	64.0	36.0	99.9
Pirates	83	61	22.4	76.8	99.2	25.0	74.8	99.8
Reds	82	64	10.3	87.9	98.2	11.0	87.6	98.6
Nationals	75	69	<0.1	2.8	2.8	0.0	1.6	1.6

The big ticket in the NL, other than the three-headed monster in the Central, is the race to clinch division titles. The Dodgers and the Braves both won on Tuesday, improving their magic numbers to six and seven, respectively. Los Angeles took out the D’backs for the second straight night, almost single-handedly eliminating them from playoff contention. Their odds now sit at roughly one-tenth of a percent, pushing them out of the bottom of our odds table. Sorry, AZ fans.

The Cardinals and Bucs continued their winning ways Tuesday, inching just a little farther away from the Reds. Cincy lost its second consecutive game, but the only harm that does is that it puts them in line for a wild card spot rather than the division crown. The Central’s trio are still separated by just three games overall with several left to play against each other, so expect the seesaw to continue through the final weeks of the season.