In Major League Baseball, the postseason expanded to 16 teams last year, since the regular season was shortened to just 60 games because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the regular season returned to its conventional 162-game length, and the postseason has returned to ten teams: the six division winners (three from each league) and four wild card teams, two from each league. The wild card teams are the teams in each league with the two best records beside the division winners. It is possible for one (or both) wild card team(s) to have a better record than one of the division winners, as a result. The wild card teams meet in a one-game playoff to determine which will advance to the Division Series, where the wild card winner would face the division winner with the best record in a best-of-seven format.
Let’s look at some potential wild card showdowns in each league as we come out of the All-Star break and you consider your online MLB betting choices down the stretch.
MLB News: National League and American League Possible Wild Card Matchups
American League
Oakland A’s at Tampa Bay Rays
If the season ended today, this would be your wild card matchup in the junior circuit. Tampa Bay had a terrific 2020, rolling all the way to the World Series, where they fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then the Rays went out and dumped the few big-name players they had, such as former Cy Young winner Blake Snell, and they’re still on pace to win 95 games, although they currently trail Boston in the AL East by 1 ½ games. The Rays’ bullpen is still stocked, which means that they will be able to respond to those quick-hook situations in those tense September games — and in the postseason.
Oakland is another team made up of worker bees who are underrated, just keep plugging away, and keep winning. The A’s are 3 ½ games behind Houston in the AL West (and two games back of Tampa Bay in the wild card standings), and a prototypical player for the A’s is Yusmeiro Petit, a relief pitcher who has already appeared in 45 games, which has him tied for the lead in MLB. He has seven wins and two saves, even though he has induced only 23 strikeouts. He has never thrown a pitch faster than 92.9 mph in the big leagues, and he has not gone over 91 since 2017, but he keeps showing up and executing. That’s the formula that has Oakland in postseason conversations every season despite a tiny payroll.
New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays
Right now, the Yanks are 4 ½ games behind Oakland for the second wild card. But given all the money in this payroll and given all the talent, how could this team fail to make a run and get into the postseason? Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge are all healthy, and they’re all hitting. The problem for New York is in the bullpen. Aaron Boone can’t rely on closer Aroldis Chapman, who has blown four saves (although the Yankees came back to save the win twice). His home runs permitted-to-batters faced ratio is over 30 percent. How did the Astros finish their six-run comeback against New York on Sunday? With a walkoff home run by Jose Altuve. If the Yanks can’t finish, they’re finished.
National League
San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers (or San Francisco Giants)
That’s right, two of the teams with the highest odds of winning the World Series would face off for the NL wild card if the season ended up today…because the San Francisco Giants are playing better than both of them and leading the NL West. The Dodgers lead MLB with a +142 run differential, and since Clayton Kershaw is on the injured list, the rotation is unusually taxed. Corey Seager is also on the IL, but there are still seven Dodger batters posting 110 or better for their OPS+. In extra-inning games, they have been dreadful (1-8), and in one-run games, they are five games below .500. Their bullpen is fairly solid, with closer Kenley Jansen posting a 1.24 ERA, so those numbers should turn in the second half — which means the Giants would fall down into this spot, if not further.
And what about those Giants? Mike Yastrzemski has emerged as a real star the last two seasons, and that hasn’t stopped. Steven Duggar is raking. Even Anthony DeSclafani has come out of nowhere to throw a pair of complete-game shutouts and threaten the 20-win plateau. Joey Bart has come up to fill in for the injured Buster Posey and done well. They have the second best run differential in the senior circuit, and their rotation and bullpen are stout.
The Padres have the amazing Fernando Tatis Jr swatting the ball a mile and playing terrific defense at shortstop. Their bullpen is tops in MLB by a mile. Their rotation, though, has lost three starters to injury: Yu Darvish, Dinelson Lamet and Blake Snell. Ryan Weathers has come along as a spot starter, with a 2.91 ERA over 58 ⅔ innings, but it doesn’t feel like the Padres can pass both the Giants and the Dodgers to win the West.
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