MLB WILD CARD STANDINGS SERIES
Buckle up with your hard-pressed takes on this being the series that shifts the course of the season, even before a month with divisional games that’ll really tell the tale.
Here are the collective results, the TA30. They have struggled to rally around Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts, which could equate to an early expiration date for their season.Every week, we ask all of our baseball writers - both the local scribes and the national team, more than 30 writers in all - to rank the teams from first to worst. They have the toughest chance of close teams because the AL East has been one of the tougher divisions in all of baseball. The Red Sox have been brutally bad at times this season but are still within six games of a playoff spot. Baltimore will have plenty of chances to make up ground in the division, but the O’s likely need to just focus on securing a Wild Card spot. They had a strong second half of the season and are getting standout performances from the young talent. While the Orioles are often mocked in the league, they are only 2.5 games back of a Wild Card spot. The Central is still up for grabs as these three teams also compete for Wild Card spots. Cleveland has been battling with Minnesota for the divisional lead most of the season, and neither team has been able to run away with it. This is the most narrow divisional lead in all of baseball. The Cleveland Guardians sit 1.5 games up on the Twins and 2.5 on the White Sox. The Twins and White Sox have the best chance of not earning a Wild Card spot because they ended up winning their division instead. They rely on a balanced mixture of youth and veteran contributions as Julio Rodriguez is doing his best to earn AL Rookie of the Year honors.
Barring a monumental meltdown by Houston, their sights are set on claiming one of the Wild Card spots. Seattle has the largest deficit as a second-place team in their division, sitting 11.5 games back of the Houston Astros. After some important trade deadline deals, it is finally starting to come together for the Blue Jays at the right time, which should allow them to at least secure a Wild Card spot this year if they can keep it up. There was genuine optimism in the offseason that they would challenge New York this year, but it didn’t happen in the first half of the season. The Blue Jays have been underperforming the entire season. The question for Tampa Bay is how long they can sustain this momentum and if they can ride it to a playoff berth. The Rays don’t have the roster caliber that other teams do, but they are getting everything they can from their players, and it is paying dividends to this point in the season. For now, the Rays and Blue Jays hold the first two AL Wild Card spots. This could allow for divisional rivals Tampa Bay or Toronto to make a push for the AL East crown, but I expect that to be easier said than done. The New York Yankees are showing they are indeed mortal as they have only won 10 of 30 games post-All-Star break. AL Wild Card standings, August 26ġst WC spot: Tampa Bay Rays, 69-55 - +1.5Ģnd WC spot: Toronto Blue Jays, 68-55 - +1.0 The new playoff format allows three Wild Card teams to qualify for the 2022 postseason. They call these the dog days of summer as the season begins wearing on the players as teams start making their playoff push to get to the postseason.
There is about a month and a half left in the 2022 MLB season.