If the season ended today ... postseason preview
We are at the point of the baseball season when we are inundated with "If The Season Ended Today …" projections of the standings. Without question, if the season ended today, we would all be very confused, and one suspects there would be considerable protests.
The fun part of If The Season Ended Today projections is imagining those matchups. When baseball teams play each other as many times as they do in a postseason series, you learn all sorts of new information about both teams. They can bring out the best and the worst in each other. So, today, we look at the If The Season Today projections and preview the series that would result ... even if they may turn out to be imaginary.
American League
Wild Card Game, Oct. 2: A's at Indians
Cleveland's big week got the Indians not just back in the AL Wild Card Game, but hosting it, an impressive bounce-back after some recent struggles and the loss of José Ramírez until (probably) the the postseason.
They'll face the A's -- who, it's worth noting, have the best run differential of any AL Wild Card contender and, for that matter, every team in the NL except for the Dodgers. Considering how much success both these teams have had, particularly over the last two decades, it's a bit of a surprise that they've never faced each other in the postseason.
The winner of this game will end up breaking an ugly postseason streak. The Indians have lost their last six postseason games, and the A's have lost their last four since taking a 2-1 ALDS lead on the Tigers in 2013.
ALDS: Wild Card winner vs. Yankees
If the A's win, they'd have a rematch of their Wild Card Game loss last season, and if the Indians do, they'd have their own rematch, of their 2017 AL Division Series loss to the Yankees, one Cleveland led 2-0 before dropping three in a row.
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Twins vs. Astros
The Twins, having held off the Indians, would be pleased to avoid the Yankees; they've famously lost five straight postseason series against them, and 10 postseason games. (The Twins have actually lost their last 13 postseason games. Their last postseason victory was Oct. 5, 2004, over the Yankees; Johan Santana threw seven shutout innings, and Jacque Jones homered off Mike Mussina.)
The Astros are one of baseball's most successful franchises over the last three seasons and are about to win 100 games for the third straight season -- something no team has done since the 2002-04 Yankees. You could expect many, many homers from this series, though the Astros' rotation would seem to vastly outpace the Twins'. The Astros are a tough out for anyone, but honestly, the Twins are just happy they're not looking at pinstripes again.
National League
Wild Card Game, Oct. 1: Cubs at Nationals
The Cubs are one of the four teams (Dodgers, Cardinals and Giants are the others) who have been responsible for all of the Nationals' postseason pain since 2012; the Cubs are actually the most recent one, taking the Nats out in the NLDS in 2017 in five games, culminating in a terrific 9-8 Game 5 win at Nationals Park.
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That's the Cubs' most recent postseason series victory; they lost to the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series that year and then to the Rockies in the Wild Card Game last year.
The ramifications of losing this game for either team are severe. If the Nationals lose, it would be their seventh straight postseason series loss -- they'd be 0-for-5 in Washington after going 0-for-2 in Montreal -- and if the Cubs lose, they, in the midst of what was supposed to be their big post-2016 dynasty, will have failed to reach the NLDS for the second consecutive year. You can see major changes coming. Is manager Joe Maddon still here if they lose? Is Kris Bryant?
NLDS: Wild Card winner vs. Dodgers
The Dodgers have taken out both of these teams in the last three years, the Nationals in 2016 and the Cubs in '17. (Los Angeles lost to the Cubs in '16.) The Dodgers will have the advantage over any team they play, but this Cubs team looks a lot lighter, particularly in the rotation and the bullpen, than the one the Dodgers lost to in '16. The Nationals' rotation is one of the few that can match up with the Dodgers.
If the Cubs were to win the Wild Card Game, this series would assure that either the Cubs, Dodgers or Cardinals will have been in the NLCS every season since 2010.
Cardinals vs. Braves
This is pretty much assured, if it happens, to be known as the Infield Fly series. Braves fans are still furious with how the infield fly was called in the 2012 Wild Card Game, snuffing out a potential Braves rally in what was Chipper Jones' last game. It is worth remembering, as MLB Network's Harold Reynolds pointed out at the time, that the umpires did make the correct call.
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Suffice it to say, that explanation has not assuaged the fury of Braves fans. You'll see that highlight over and over this whole series if it happens.
The Cardinals and Braves have met four times in the postseason: That Wild Card Game in 2012, in the 2000 NLDS (which the Cardinals swept; the first game of that series was the Rick Ankiel wild pitch game), the 1996 NLCS (in which the Braves came back from a 3-1 deficit to win, in Tony La Russa's first season as Cardinals manager) and in the 1982 NLCS (which the Cardinals swept, beating Braves manager Joe Torre and Braves pitching coach Bob Gibson).