The AL Wild Card Race is a 4 Team War Right Now That Could Go Any Which Way
We've got four days to go in the MLB regular season and the AL Wild Card race is a true four team fight to the death. Here's your updated standings after Wednesday night's play.
The Red Sox took care of business against Baltimore last night, shutting them out. Gerrit Cole got rocked by the Jays, although the Yankees did fight back to tie it late only to lose on a Bo Bichette homer in the 8th. The unbelievable Mariners won a tight one against the A's, their 12th straight victory against Oakland. Seattle picked a pretty good time to rattle off 10 of 11.
It seems like right now it's more likely than not someone is playing a Game 163 to try and earn the right to play in the Wild Card Game. Pure chaos. Here are the remaining schedules
NYY: tonight @TOR, 3 vs. TB
BOS: tonight @BAL, 3 @WAS
SEA: off tonight, 3 vs. LAA
TOR: tonight vs. NYY, 3 vs. BAL
Tonight all eyes will be zeroed in on Toronto. The front runner for the AL CY Young Robbie Ray takes the ball for the Jays going up against Corey Kluber. Ray has faced the Yankees twice this year and lost both outings, lasting a combined 9.2 innings while allowing 6 earned runs. In reality those two starts mean nothing tonight. Robbie Ray enters this game not having allowed more than three runs in a start since July 21st. He's been lights out for Toronto and as a result he's -670 on the Barstool Sportsbook to take home the hardware for the best pitcher in the American League. Dude has been shoving.
Corey Kluber will oppose him and boy do I have as little confidence as humanly possible in this man right now. I'm guessing Kluber will be on a very short leash in this one. Guys like Domingo German and Luis Severino could give you 2 innings each to bridge the gap to the later inning weapons. Boone needs to manage this game like it's a Game 7 because in reality it has that importance. Everyone in the bullpen should be available. Will they be? I assume they won't want to go to Loaisiga on back to back nights fresh off the IL. Mike King threw 42 pitches in relief on Tuesday so they probably want to stay away from him, but maybe he can give you an inning?
Win this and the Yankees magic number to get into the WC game drops to one. Lose it and not only does Boston likely tie you at the top, but Toronto and Seattle creep within a game of the 2nd spot. Yeah, this is a massive fucking baseball game and I'm terrified.