AL and NL Wild Card Races Start to Heat Up Into September

SportsGrid

Watch AL and NL Wild Card Races Start to Heat Up Into September - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Yeah, it's because if you take a look at the American League standings today, if the season

00:05was over, the Yanks would be the top overall seed in the AF, followed by the Guardians

00:09and the Astros close by, or the Orioles.

00:12If we're looking at that wildcard race too, is it over, Craig, in your mind, in the AL?

00:16Does it look like the Twins, Royals, and Orioles, let's just say, will be those teams, or could

00:20you see something out of the Red Sox trying to climb back in there?

00:23Yeah, I mean, it could happen, but I think, Donnie, those top six are super realistic

00:29at this point.

00:30Yeah.

00:31You know, credit to Detroit, by the way, Ben, we're going to have to take a look at that

00:34over for the Tigers, I think, next season.

00:37I think Detroit is on their way.

00:38I can see them being very active in the offseason, getting their way back to where they need

00:42to be.

00:43So, yeah, Donnie, I think you're right.

00:44It is just basically Boston at this point, but I don't know.

00:50One of those teams, Boston, Kansas City, Minnesota, one of them has to get super hot to sort of

00:57impose their will in these last 30 days or so.

01:00If Boston was able to roll off, let's say, 11 out of 12, 12 out of 13, 14 out of 16,

01:05something like that, that would put them in contention for that final wildcard spot, but,

01:08Donnie, I don't see that.

01:09I see Boston kind of playing like how they have been, a little bit over 500.

01:13I just don't know that that's going to be enough to get in.

01:17Despite the six-game skid for the Royals, they still maintain a four-and-a-half game

01:20lead for that third and final American League wildcard spot.

01:25In the National League, the Dodgers in front in the NL West by five games.

01:29The Phillies have a seven-game lead in the National League East.

01:32The Brew crew up by double digits in the National League Central.

01:35And the Padres and the Diamondbacks still in front of Atlanta for those top two wildcard

01:40spots.

01:41So, Craig, the most compelling race is that third and final, now just a half-game lead

01:46for Atlanta in front of New York.

01:49The Mets have won five straight.

01:50The Braves dropped three of four this weekend in Philadelphia.

01:54And all is said and done, who takes that final wildcard spot in the National League?

01:59Yeah, I mean, I'll still lean on the Braves here, although I could see the Mets doing

02:03it.

02:04It was one year ago, by the way, Ben, that the Cubs had this spot and completely fell

02:07apart in the final month of the season and fell out of it.

02:10So hard for me to endorse them.

02:12I'll say Atlanta gets it, but, you know, you can't discount the Mets.

02:17They're going to look back at the end of the season, I'm going to guess, and say if Edwin

02:20Diaz was just a little bit better in that ninth inning, maybe we would have gotten in.

02:24And you can't predict that sort of stuff.

02:26I mean, the ninth inning in baseball is the hardest thing to predict in all of sports.

02:31Predicting a closer going into the season being great is almost impossible if his name

02:36is not class A these days.

02:37So I'll say the Braves.

Category

Transcript

Recommended