Wild card Series MLB!
A.J. Reilly: Playoff MLB is here. It starts tomorrow night with the wild card series. Remember, there are three wild card teams now this season.
Two of them, the bottom two wild cards or the top two wild cards, will play each other. And the final wild card spot will travel to the third seed in the respective division. So let’s look at what this playoff picture looks like in the AL wild card. Third Seed Cleveland will host the final wild card Tampa Bay in a three-game series, with the winner taking on the Yankees.
Toronto, the top wild card seed, is gonna take on Seattle. In Toronto, the winner of that will take on the Houston Astros in the wild card St. Louis host Philadelphia. St. Louis won their Division three seed host, the final wild card Team Philadelphia, and then the top wild card spot. The New York Mets will host the Padres for three games.
The winner of the Cardinals and fillings will take on the Braves, the winner of the Mets, and the Padres will take on the Dodgers, and it is going to be some. MLB is getting kicked off Friday night Now, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are your wild card days there? The series will be over by Sunday.
I wanted to give you a TV schedule. They’re on ESPN and ESPN2. Friday, you have four games starting at noon. Noon, 2:00, 4:00, and 7:00. A few minutes after, right? 12:07. 2:04. 4:07. I don’t know why they do the weird times like that, but. Let’s just say 12, 2, 4, and 8 are when the games will be kicked off.
Cleveland, Tampa Bay is gonna get everything kicked off at noon. Philadelphia. St. Louis is gonna follow Seattle, Toronto, and then San Diego and New York Saturday. Same slate. Cleveland, Tampa Bay, first, Philly, St. Louis, Seattle, Toronto, San Diego, and New York. But the times are a little bit different. 12, 4, 7, and 8 on Saturday. Sunday, the same exact slot and same exact time for the teams, and we will know what our divisional matchups are after that.
Those divisional rounds start on Tuesday, the 11th of October. Now the season and the World Series are gonna get pushed into November. We know this because of the dog on lockout, but. We at least have October MLB the way that October is supposed to have MLB.
Wild Card Predictions
So I wanna get into some predictions here. And I’m not gonna predict the entire preseason. I’m going round by round because I started to do it, and I was like, Nah, I can’t, I can’t do it. May call me a wimp, call me a was, call me whatever you want. I’m going round by round. It’s my show if you wanna complain about it.
Take it up with management because I don’t care. I’m going round by round. All right. So, like it, don’t like it. This is my prediction for the wild card round. It’s pretty simple. Cleveland is a really good MLB team, and they’re really young too, but I think that they’re good enough to beat Tampa Bay, and I think that they’re going to go into New York and create some havoc too.
Do you know why? Because. Put the bat on the ball. They create havoc on the base paths, and they field the ball when it’s in play. I’m not making a prediction for Cleveland, New York, but Cleveland is gonna beat Tampa Bay Seattle, seeing what we saw them do to the Tigers over the last four games. And listen, they want three outta four.
We’re gonna talk about it in the recap, will get there. But I think they’re a really good MLB team, maybe forgot about it a little bit cuz they’re on the west coast, but they’re a really good MLB team. They’re pitching; they lined up and saved. You saw them save ’em against the Detroit Tigers cuz they just let Justus Sheffield and a position player just wear it for as long as they could to save arms and their pitching in a really good spot.
Seattle’s beating Toronto in Toronto. Do you want an upset? There’s your upset. Okay. Seattle will then travel to Houston, which that’s a whole nother thing. We’re not predicting it. Seattle. We’ll beat Toronto. So you’re gonna have on Tuesday New York playing Cleveland, hosting Cleveland, and Houston hosting Seattle.
In the national league, St. Louis will beat Philadelphia. I just think that there’s a little bit of magic. There’s not; I don’t wanna say a team of destiny kind of stuff cuz St. Louis ain’t built for the Team of destiny type of thing, but I don’t see Albert Pujols. Yadier Molina leaving in a wild card division. They’re going to at least make the divisional round to play Atlanta.
They’re beating Philadelphia. The Mets are also going to beat the San Diego Padres. I don’t believe in the Padres. I didn’t even predict they to make the playoffs. I don’t think that they’re going to get past the New York Mets. I don’t think their pitching will hold up. Long enough for them to get past the Mets.
So in the divisional rounds, you’ll have New York hosting Cleveland, you’ll have Houston hosting Seattle, you’ll have Atlanta hosting St. Louis, and you’ll have the Dodgers hosting the Mets. When we come back next week, we will predict those rounds as well. We’ll discuss those rounds cuz they’ll already be started, and we’ll make our full post-season prediction next Thursday on the show.
It’s playoff MLB, man. It is time for that great, fun, energetic time that this game can afford in October, and I am here for it. I’ll have my TV on all day watching games, ready for the playoff atmosphere that’s going to exist in those ballparks and that guy on the screen, you know this guy right here? I wouldn’t mind seeing him win another one.
I’m not rooting for him, too, for sure. I did in 2017, but I ain’t, I’m not doing that now. But I wouldn’t be mad. I wouldn’t be mad if JV got another one, especially when he adds it to his Cy Young, that he’s guaranteed to win. Or at least he better be guaranteed to win. This season.
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About The Show:
The Corner with A.J Reilly – The official Detroit Tigers Podcast for DSN! Hosted by AJ Reilly. New episodes are LIVE Monday and Thursday every week at 6 pm.
