Decision time in the MLB
The 3rd of October is closing fast – the final day of the regular season in Major League baseball – and there are so many teams involved in the postseason race that decisions have to be made about whether some ballclubs are worth packing it up for the season and planning for 2013.
The Phillies are one, who after last night’s win against the New York Mets are just three games back of the second wild-card spot in the NL. Chase Utley has reportedly been fielding groundballs at third base pre-game for a few days in the eve of moving across the diamond next year. But that seems to be the only future on-field planning the 2008 World Champions are doing as they continue to chase that second spot. It is not an ideal place to be in, and in some ways it will feel like limbo, but they have been on a tear in the last four weeks and surely the Phils prefer to be in a playoff race.
Focusing in on the NL, there is only this particular race alive with the Cardinals, Dodgers, Brewers, Pirates and Phillies still in contention. It is all but impossible that the division leading Nationals, Reds and Giants will be caught.
It is a different story in the American League with the topsy-turvy AL East as up and down as ever; after Monday’s action, in which the Yankees had an off-day, the Orioles had a rare blowout victory over the Mariners to cut their deficit to 0.5 game behind the Bronx Bombers.
In the AL Central we may be seeing one of the bigger upsets this year. Detroit lost their final encounter with the division leading White Sox yesterday to fall three games back of Chicago. The Tigers won the season series 12-6 but have simply not done it against lesser teams. Twice this year Jim Leyland’s team swept the White Sox at Comerica Park to draw level with the Sox before failing to produce in their next series.
A team that have sluggers Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder should be doing better, but their slow start to the season looks to have cost them. Ironically, before the trade deadline the Tigers acquired Marlins second baseman Omar Infante – a significant defensive upgrade – only to see him make a crucial throwing error in yesterday’s loss which plated two Sox runs as opposed to turning an inning-ending double play.
Infante is Detroit’s best defender according to the Fielding Bible’s Plus/Minus system, but his error last night was his eighth in 46 games.
In the AL West, the A’s are still in contention to win the division and although they are top of the wild-card they would, like every other team, prefer to avoid the highly dangerous one-game showdown to make the Division Series.
Oakland are currently three games behind the Rangers but crucially finish their season with a three-game set at home to Texas. If they can stay in touching distance there is every chance with the way they have performed this season that they could decide the division at the latest possible stage.
Just two and a half weeks – that is all that is left for these teams to give themselves a chance to win deep into October. The gun has been fired, the teams have left their blocks, but who will cross the line first?