The race for the National League Wild Card second slot heated up Tuesday night as the three top teams, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh all lost, while the Cinderella teams of Milwaukee and Philadelphia both won. The Phillies and Brewers are now at .500, four games behind the Cardinals. The most wins for a five-way tie between these clubs dropped to 90 wins, and the Brewers and Phillies can no longer run the board to produce such a tie. The teams need the following records to produce a 90-win tie:
- Brewers 19-1
- Phillies 19-1
- Pirates 18-3
- Dodgers 16-4
- Cardinals 15-5
Los Angeles and Pittsburgh both lost tight games Monday night, failing to move up in the standings. With the Giants winning, the Dodgers fall to six games back in the NL West, and the wild card is now by far their best chance of making the playoffs. The Phillies won despite a poor performance by Roy Halladay. Veterans Jimmy Rollins, Juan Pierre, and Chase Utley combined for eight hits as they beat Miami 9-7. Marco Estrada pitched a short shutout against the Braves, lasting 6 2/3 innings with one walk and six K.
In the American League, the five way tie is still possible at 96 wins, although it would help if the Rays and Angels won a game against the teams ahead of them. 🙂
- Angels 19-1
- Rays 19-2
- Orioles 17-4
- Yankees 17-4
- Atheltics 15-6
Oakland now owns a two-game advantage in the race for home field in the wild card game. Yoenis Cespedes homered and scored twice as the Angels fell 6-5. Oakland remains three games behind Texas, who might work their way into this scenario soon. The Yankees fell to Boston 4-3 as Pedro Ciriaco had another good game against New York. He’s 17 for 35 against the Yankees this season. The Orioles blew out the Rays 9-2 as J.J. Hardy hit two home runs.
For today, here are the best results to keep the massive tie alive:
- Philadelphia beats Miami
- St. Louis loses to San Diego
- Tampa Bay defeats Baltimore
- New York can win or lose against Boston
- Pittsburgh tops Cincinnati
- Milwaukee wins against Atlanta
- Los Angeles triumphs over Arizona
- LAnaheim beats Oakland
It’s interesting that the Phillies basically gave up at the trade deadline and the Dodgers went all in, and the two teams are moving in opposite directions.
I don’t follow the National League much, but my understanding is that the Phillies were regarded at the beginning of the season as some sort of powerhouse team, the favorites to win the division, and then they got hit by a large number of injuries and went into a midseason slump.
If that is correct, the teams’s record would have then improved as their players returned, and that seems to be happening. Of course the games played during the slump still count, so there is no guarantee of them making the playoffs.
Maybe the front office shouldn’t have bailed on the team. Though maybe they made the mistake on bailing on the team, and then screwed up again and inadvertently improved it for this season.
Ed » I thought that with Chase Utley and Ryan Howard out, the pitching staff would be good enough to keep them in the race until they were back to full strength. Injuries to the pitching staff did hurt that cause. The initial return of the big guns didn’t help, and a number of other players had age catch up to them. This surge comes as a bit of a surprise.