Previewing, Predicting American League Wild Card Series

Photo: MLB

by Julian Spivey
Major League Baseball has completely overhauled its postseason for the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season – but many believe the format for 2020 is one that will likely be here to stay heading into the future. Baseball has added three more playoff teams per league, upping the total to eight per league. The top two teams in each division automatically qualify for the postseason and then you have two wild card teams. All eight teams play in the first round of the postseason in a best of three series to determine which four teams move on to your standard division series.

The American League side of the postseason bracket begins today with four games. The A.L. Central Division winning Minnesota Twins will take on the American League West Division second place finishing Houston Astros (the first team to ever make the A.L. Playoffs with a losing record) at 1 p.m. (all times in this article will be central time) on ABC.

The A.L. West Division champion Oakland Athletics will take on the seventh seeded (or first wild card) Chicago White Sox on ESPN at 2 p.m.

The A.L. East Division champion Tampa Bay Rays will take on their inner-division rival Toronto Blue Jays, the eight seed, at 4 p.m. on TBS.

And the first day of the MLB playoffs will cap off with the Central Division second place finishing Cleveland Indians taking on the East Division second place finishing New York Yankees. The Indians are the four seed and will be the home team for this series. That game can be seen on ESPN at 6 p.m.

One of the controversial aspects of opening the postseason with every team in a best of three game series is the fact that any team could get hot for two games and upset a potentially much better team from the regular season. This aspect of the first round could also lead to more excitement, depending on your opinion of it.

Pitching has always been incredibly important in postseason baseball and I think it’ll play an even more crucial role in a best of three series.

The Rays/Blue Jays series could be a fascinating one. The Rays were eight games better than the Blue Jays in the 60-game regular season but will that matter come the playoffs. I think the Rays have the advantage in game one with their ace Blake Snell on the bump, but the Blue Jays have their best pitcher Hyun Jin Ryu going for them in game two. I think this series will go the distance, but the Rays will ultimately take it with Charlie Morton pitching in a do-or-die game three. Morton is the only pitcher in baseball history with three wins in winner-take-all playoff games and I’m predicting he’ll make it four come Thursday.

The Oakland A’s won the A.L. West rather easily this year by seven games over the Houston Astros, who finished the second two games under .500. But I think they’re going to have some trouble with the Chicago White Sox, who slumped their way to the end of the season after clinching a playoff spot. Maybe the White Sox will keep struggling and give the A’s a break, but I think their one-two pitching punch of Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel will be too tough for the A’s, who’s best overall player Matt Chapman was hurt recently and is out for the remainder of the season. The White Sox might be the away team for the series, but I’m predicting a two-game sweep of the A’s.

I’ll be the first to tell you I don’t like this new playoff format and hope it doesn’t continue into the future as many (including myself) believe it will. It simply lets too many teams into the postseason and that’s evident by the losing Houston Astros making it. In all of baseball history no losing team had ever qualified for the postseason, but this year one team from each league (the Milwaukee Brewers made the National League postseason with a losing record) made it. Some might say it would be harder for that to happen in a full season, but I’m not so sure as more than half of the teams in the sport now make the postseason. The Astros offense is capable of being scary, but I like the one-two punch the Minnesota Twins pitching staff will be throwing at them with a rejuvenated Kenta Maeda in game one and Jose Berrios in game two. Plus, the Twins have a better offense. I’m predicting the Twins win two in a row and go on to the Division Series.

I believe the best American League opening round series will be the four/five matchup of the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees and no baseball fan is going to want to miss the epic pitching matchup in game one of the series tonight between Gerrit Cole for the Yanks and Shane Bieber, who won the pitching Triple Crown in this shortened season, for the Indians. Whoever wins game one is likely going to go on to win this series. I like Masahiro Tanaka in game two for the Yankees and probably Zach Plesac in game three for Cleveland (the Yankees don’t yet have a probable starter for that game). I’m predicting the Indians win this one in three.

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