Rookie of the Year contenders face off in The Bronx as Paul Skenes leads the Pirates against Luis Gil and the Yankees. Skenes comes in with a 1.99 ERA and an impressive 131 IP, given his late start. He struck out 167 batters. Gil brings a 3.27 ERA to the table, wtih 166 K in 148 innings. I hope the Yankees put all their big guns in the lineup.

The White Sox face the Tigers, and a loss by Chicago guarantees a worse winning percentage than the 1962 Mets, and the worst winning percentage in the 162 game era.

The Mets send Jose Quintana against the Brewers and Jared Koenig. The Mets need to keep winning to prevent a trip to Atlanta on Monday.

The Royals play the Braves with Seth Lugo going against Reynaldo Lopez. Nice to see the Royals using Lugo today with the game meaningful for Atlanta. I suspect, this might work more as a side session, so he can start one of the first two games in the AL Wild Card round. Like the Mets, the Braves need to keep winning to avoid a Monday doubleheader.

Finally, the Padres face the Diamondbacks in a must win game for Arizona. They are tied in games back with the Mets and the Braves, but lose the tiebreaker to both. If they fall a game back in the standings to either team, they cannot win a wild card slot from games played on Monday.

Enjoy!