{"id":2627,"date":"2011-09-28T15:58:48","date_gmt":"2011-09-28T20:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=2627"},"modified":"2012-03-08T09:57:12","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T14:57:12","slug":"wild-end-to-the-season-wc-race-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=2627","title":{"rendered":"Wild End to the season; WC race predictions&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Who in the world would have thought the Wild Cards would come down to  the final day?\u00a0 Just a few weeks ago columnists were lamenting the lack  of any pennant races when all 8 playoff spots looked locked up.<\/p>\n<p>Now we have FOUR do-or-die baseball games tonight.\u00a0 All going on at  roughly the same time (three 7:10 and one 8:10 start).\u00a0 Get your MLB network channel listed (its 213 on  Directv) because it will probably do drop ins all night ala the Red Zone  channel.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone want to offer predictions on these four games?\u00a0 Here&#8217;s your  probables tonight per <a href=\"http:\/\/sportsillustrated.cnn.com\/baseball\/mlb\/probables\/today\/?eref=sinav\">si.com<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.mlb.com\/news\/probable_pitchers\/index.jsp?tcid=mm_mlb_news\">mlb.com<\/a> (since si.com doesn&#8217;t list all the games).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Boston at Baltimore<\/strong>: <strong>Lester <\/strong>vs <strong>Simon<\/strong>.\u00a0 Boston gets its ace,  and its one remaining halfway decent starter, with the season on the  line.\u00a0 But he&#8217;s *really* struggling down the stretch and has gotten more  or less hammered in his last three starts.\u00a0 And will be going on 3 days  rest.\u00a0 Simon is only marginally better in September and had a mediocre  season.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Prediction: Boston<\/span> in another 8-7 drama-filled slugfest.<\/li>\n<li><strong>New York Yankees at Tampa Bay<\/strong>: TBA vs <strong>Price<\/strong>.\u00a0 The Yankees  are probably starting a Sept 1 call up, prepping their rotation for the  playoffs, while Tampa gets its ace.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Prediction: easy win for Tampa.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>St Louis at Houston<\/strong>: <strong>Carpenter <\/strong>vs <strong>Myers<\/strong>.\u00a0 Another &#8220;ace  versus ace&#8221; in name only; Carpenter is clearly the superior pitcher  here.\u00a0 However Myers is finishing very strong.\u00a0 St Louis unloaded on  Houston pitching last night for 13 runs an 17 hits, but tonight&#8217;s game  will be low-scoring.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Prediction: Cardinals<\/span> get to the Houston bullpen  and win a low-scoring one on Carpenter&#8217;s complete game.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Philadelphia at Atlanta<\/strong>: <strong>Blanton <\/strong>vs <strong>Hudson<\/strong>.\u00a0 Philly starts  Blanton, who is not even in the rotation any longer, in what will be a  bullpen, get guys some work, setting things up for the playoffs.\u00a0  Meanwhile Atlanta sends out its Ace.\u00a0 Advantage Atlanta.\u00a0 If the Braves  get 3 runs early, Hudson gets the win (he&#8217;s something like 146-1 in his  career with a 3run lead or more).\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Prediction: Atlanta<\/span> in an easy  victory.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, i&#8217;m predicting two ties and all four teams in the WC chase to win.\u00a0  Probably won&#8217;t happen this way, but so be it.\u00a0 If all this happens,  here&#8217;s what would probably go down for 1-game playoffs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Boston would travel to Tampa Bay: Either <strong>Wakefield <\/strong>or <strong>Lackey <\/strong>would  go on 3 days rest versus (likely) <strong>Neimann <\/strong>for Tampa.\u00a0 I say likely since  Neimann only went a couple innings in his last start.\u00a0 Tampa could also  go with <strong>Matt Moore<\/strong>, who only had 15 kis in his first 9 1\/3 innings  pitched in the majors.\u00a0 Advantage clearly to Tampa Bay here; Boston can  barely put together a playoff rotation right now, let alone guarantee a  couple more wins this week.<\/li>\n<li>Atlanta would travel to St. Louis: It would probably be <strong>Brandon  Beachy <\/strong>vs <strong>Kyle Lohse<\/strong>.\u00a0 Young strikeout guy versus crafty veteran.\u00a0 I&#8217;d  say advantage goes to St. Louis.\u00a0 If St. Louis makes the playoffs watchout; they beat the Philles 6 out of 9 in the season series, have the pitching and have the managerial advantages to go far.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No matter who takes either wild card, they&#8217;re all at major disadvantages  heading into the playoffs.\u00a0 All four have burned their aces this week  just to get to the final game and thus are only guaranteed one start in a  playoff series from their best guy.\u00a0 Meanwhile the division winners  they&#8217;d likely face are all setting up their playoff rotations well.\u00a0  Something to take into consideration for those that want to predict a  wild-card divisional series winner.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m pretty excited for tonight actually.\u00a0 How about you guys?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who in the world would have thought the Wild Cards would come down to the final day?\u00a0 Just a few weeks ago columnists were lamenting the lack of any pennant races when all 8 playoff spots looked locked up. Now we have FOUR do-or-die baseball games tonight.\u00a0 All going on at roughly the same time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[222,230,225,224,223,237,213,770,221,231,229,219,226],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonnatsbaseball","tag-alfredo-simon","tag-brandon-beachy","tag-brett-myers","tag-chris-carpenter","tag-david-price","tag-jeff-niemann","tag-joe-blanton","tag-jon-lackey","tag-jon-lester","tag-kyle-lohse","tag-matt-moore","tag-tim-hudson","tag-tim-wakefield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2627"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4000,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions\/4000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}