The 2020 postseason in Major League Baseball has been different from every other in the history of the sport. For the first time, a whopping 16 teams made it into the postseason: the top two teams in each of the six divisions, and then two wild-card teams from each league. An interesting feature is that six teams from the AL Central and NL Central made the playoffs combined…and none of them made it out of the best-of-three wild card rounds. The four Division Series begin this week, in best-of-five format. The ALDS both began on Monday, with the NLDS set to start on Tuesday. All of the Division Series, the two League Championship Series and the World Series will all take place at neutral sites, for the first time in MLB history.
As you plot out your MLB betting for the week, let’s look where each of the four Division Series currently sit.
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Current Playoff Rundown
ALDS: Tampa Bay Rays vs New York Yankees
New York leads, 1-0
The Rays won the American League East, finishing seven games ahead of the Yankees, who almost had to settle for a wild card. However, the Yankees seem to be hitting their peak at just the right time. For much of the 60-game regular season, New York had multiple hitters on IR, but they got healthy just in time for the postseason. They scored 22 home runs in their two wild-card round games against Cleveland, hitting seven home runs. On Monday, in Game 1, Clint Frazier, Kyle Higashioka and Aaron Judge all hit home runs off Tampa Bay starter Blake Snell, and then Giancarlo Stanton hit a grand slam to break the game open in a 9-3 Yankee win. Gerrit Cole pitched six innings for the Yakees, striking out eight while permitting three earned runs. In a series with no off-days, Cole might get to pitch one more time if there is a Game 5, but the Yankees’ offense looks ready to dominate this series.
ALDS: Oakland A’s vs Houston Astros
Houston leads, 1-0
Like Tampa Bay, Oakland also finished ahead of the favorite to win their division by seven games and now have to face them in the ALDS. The Houston Astros had injuries plaguing them for much of the season, and they played particularly poorly away from Minute Maid Park, going 9-23 on the road but 20-8 at home. The only other team not to win at least 10 road games in the American League was Texas, which finished at 22-38 with the worst record in the junior circuit. In Game 1, Houston routed Oakland, 10-5, stacking up 16 hits, including three home runs. When Houston got through to Oakland’s bullpen, the A’s did not have a response. The last time the A’s made an ALCS was 2006, while Houston looks to make it there for the fourth year in a row. Unless the A’s can calm down these Houston bats, the Astros and Yankees look locked in on an ALCS matchup for the third time in four seasons.
NLDS: Miami Marlins vs Atlanta Braves
The Marlins have never lost a postseason series in franchise history, winning the World Series in both seasons that they made the playoffs. Given the struggles they faced in the early going of this season, with numerous COVID-19 postponements that led to a highly compressed schedule down the stretch, they have shown a considerable amount of mental toughness just to get this far. Starting pitchers like Sandy Alcantara have given the Marlins life, and a team that had seemingly been built for cost certainty rather than for the postseason is still plugging away. They face a Braves team that can pound the ball and has ace Max Fried back and healthy. With better offense and pitching, the Braves seem poised to end the Marlins’ postseason streak — but they’re not the first team that’s looked better than the Marlins on paper, only to lose.
NLDS: San Diego vs L.A. Dodgers
The Dodgers led MLB in home runs, runs scored and team ERA, so it appears that they dominate both sides of the ball. The Padres have an explosive offense as well, and they get to face Walker Buehler in the NLCS opener. Buehler has pitched fairly well for the Dodgers but has not made it into the fifth inning yet for Los Angeles, which means the Dodgers will lean heavily on their bullpen in the opener — not the best recipe for success in a five-game series with no off days. The Padres’ rotation has been shredded by injuries to Dinelson Lamet and Mike Clevinger, but the fact that they should only have to face Clayton Kershaw once in this series should give Padres fans hope.
MLB Playoff Betting Odds
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