MLB Playoff Wrap: Tigers Pounce on Orioles Woes
By Jason Burke
With just three series left for each Major League team, the MLB playoff hunt is officially on. With Baltimore getting swept over four games by the Boston Red Sox to begin the week, one team was bound to take advantage. That team has been the Detroit Tigers.
It’s funny how the schedule down the final stretch of the season can have such an impact. If you were to pick an opponent for your favorite team to play with a playoff spot on the line, the Minnesota Twins would likely be pretty high on that list. If your favorite team has had issues with starting pitching all season long, you’d likely want to stay away from the most potent offense in baseball. Well, that would be the Boston Red Sox.
The Tigers opened up the week with a three game set in Minnesota while the Orioles played four at home against the Red Sox. Both teams were involved in sweeps, and for the O’s, the broom did not go in their favor. With the doubleheader win against the Twins on Thursday, paired with the Oriole loss, the Tigers took a half-game lead over Baltimore as the second wild card.
Detroit rode a six run top of the ninth to a 9-2 win in game one, and a six inning, eleven strikeout performance from Justin Verlander in game two to take both games.
Detroit returns home for three this weekend with the Royals, whom they took two out of three against on the road earlier in the month. From there, they have a four game series with Cleveland, who have dominated the Tigers this year with a 13-2 record, before finishing out the season on the road against the Braves, who have become spoilers this month and winners of six straight.
Baltimore gets three at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks, which sounds easy enough, but in the two franchise’s brief history, the Orioles are just 3-12 and Arizona has won each of the last five games (2007-13). With Yovani Gallardo and Wade Miley slated to start the first two games, these match-ups should involve plenty of offense. It could also be the O’s best chance to pick up steam in the wild card race before series against Toronto and New York next week.
Both Toronto and Seattle enjoyed days off on Thursday after their head-to-head series this week. The Blue Jays will be at home for a big four game set with the Yankees that extends through Monday. The Yanks missed an excellent opportunity to gain ground last night with their 2-0 loss to the Rays. New York is three games behind the Tigers for the second wild card spot, but if they can manage to win three of four up in Toronto, they could set themselves up very nicely heading into the final week.
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The Houston Astros dropped the first game of their home series with the Angels last night and find themselves 1.5 games behind Detroit. They have three more left in this series before Seattle comes to town for three more and then the team travels to Anaheim to end their regular season. The Astros have a favorable schedule if they can string together some wins and get some help.
The Mariners will be headed up to Minnesota for three to try and get back on the right track, before facing Houston on the road and Oakland for four at home. Seattle finds themselves two back in the wild card.
Over in the National League, we started the day with the Cardinals, Mets and Giants all tied for the two wild card spots. With St. Louis off on Thursday and wins from San Francisco and New York, the Cards are now a half-game behind both clubs for a MLB playoff spot.
The Mets enjoyed a roller coaster ride of a game at home against the Phillies, scoring two in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings, and then down two in the 11th, scored three on an Asdrubal Cabrera walk-off homer to seal the win. He even included a two-handed bat flip for good measure.
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The Giants rode the arm of Jeff Samardzija to a 2-1 victory over the Padres in San Diego, snapping the team’s six-game losing streak against the Pads. The Shark went seven shutout innings, allowing just four hits while striking out nine. Sergio Romo worked a scoreless ninth and could be looking at making that his official inning over the last week and a half of the season.
The Texas Rangers will be looking to lock up the AL West on Friday night in Oakland, and can do so with either a win, or losses by the Astros and Mariners. They’ll be sending Cole Hamels to the mound to try and get the job done.