It’s hard to believe. The 60 game baseball schedule is coming to a close. Most teams have 3 games left, a number that will have meaning as to which teams make the playoffs and where they will be situated come Tuesday. The Cardinals could play 58 games with a five game series against Milwaukee. But it is also possible that St. Louis may have to go to Detroit on Monday and play game 59 against the Tigers, and if that does not settle the playoff picture, a second game will be played. The Tigers are not in the playoff hunt. They could be the ultimate spoilers in this wacky baseball season, one which is about to get more convoluted.
The Reds and aforementioned Marlins clinched spots in the tournament on Friday. Still alive, with a 2% chance, are the Mets. More realistically, The Phillies, Giants and and Cardinals have shots at making the playoffs. The Brewers also retain a slim chance.
The Yankees have all but secured the number 5 slot in the AL playoffs. They host the Marlins and Yankees great Don Mattingly for three tilts. These games are important for Donnie Baseball’s crew, as they can win and grab a playoff spot, or hope that those teams battling for the playoffs lose. Plus they can potentially, although unlikely, cause the Yankees to drop to the number 7 or 8 seed. After having the 10 game win streak abruptly halted in Boston, the trip to Buffalo was almost a mirror of the other trip the Bombers made Upstate. Three losses in four games, salvaged only by shellacking the Blue Jays when Garret Cole pitched.
While 11 out of 15 is quite good, the Yankees are not clicking on all cylinders as they did in the Bronx during the winning streak. The hitting isn’t timely. The power isn’t there. Aaron Judge is close, his manager, Aaron Boone claims. Judge hitting singles or a double isn’t going to do it. Gary Sanchez has gotten a bit better as have Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner, who wants to play again next season (gasp!). The lineup simply does not scare people, and whether they play the White Sox with no hitter pitcher Lucas Giolitto and Dallas Keuchel, the Indians with the probable Cy Young Award winner, the virtually unhittable Shane Bieber, or the Twins with their boppers, winning 2 out of 3 on the road, outside of Baltimore and Boston, isn’t something New York has accomplished.
Moreover, besides Cole relocating his mastery with friend Kyle Higashioka behind the plate, Masahiro Tanaka, J.A. Happ, Deivi Garcia and Jordan Montgomery are not necessarily pitchers to fear. Plus the bullpen is littered with inconsistency and no names before getting to Zach Britton and Aroldis Chapman. Again, this will not cause worry among the opposing hitters.
I just can’t see the Yankees making it to California for the next round of the playoffs. To me, it has been a lost season, and going out early would be a reflection of what has happened with the team in 2020. I hope the team proves me wrong.
How do you pick a winner given the teams have not met anyone outside of their division? Perhaps the AL will be easier if there are matchups between the three teams from the Central, the Yankees and Rays, and in the West, Oakland and Houston. But those appear destined for later rounds. With the NL, the Braves and Marlins could meet in the opening round, just like the Dodgers and Giants. With the latter matchup, if comes to pass, throw the records out the window. No handicapping that battle.
Furthermore, home field may have some effect. Without real crowd noise, that evens out the contests a bit. Nonetheless, the Yankees and Twins had great home records and lousy road records. With neutral site games, no team has an advantage other than the teams from the AL West and NL West, as Houston and Oakland have played in Los Angeles and San Diego this season, while the Dodgers and Padres made it into Arlington and Houston in 2020. And for the World Series in Arlington, both the Astros and A’s have been there this year.
Finally, it is the bubble effect. Which teams thrive in quarantine and which chafe. Who will be stupid enough to jeopardize their teams’ chances by venturing outside of the bubble? All of this has some impact.
So who am I picking? I see an Oakland-Tampa AL Championship Series, although Cleveland has caught my eye. For the NL, I have the Dodgers and Braves. In my mind, the World Series would be between the A’s and Dodgers. Sentimentally, I want to pick LA. They have the players and the pitching. I want Clayton Kershaw to shine and win the World Series, with help from Mookie Betts. LA had the best record in MLB. Let’s see if they are really that good.
Two more notes on baseball. From those who participate to those who cover it, they are happy the games are being played, but no one says it is fun. Managers Kevin Cash of the Rays and the gregarious Tito Franco of the Indians agree that it is no fun this year, without the normalcy of the schedule, and the worries over the virus, the substandard play and loads of injuries. The absence of crowd noise or energy makes it harder to play, no matter how much the players are paid to perform.
The writers and TV personnel concur. Games are listless and it is up to the announcers to interject excitement into the event. This goes for every sport.
MLB.com offered 20 bonkers stats for 2020. Among the ridiculous are:
The Twins could break the all-time home winning percentage, owned by the 1932 Yankees, with an .805 mark;
The Dodgers rate of homers per at bat—17.9, would break the 2019 Yankees record;
San Diego has a slugging percentage off .920 with the bases loaded, much higher than that of the 2006 Indians;
The number of qualified hitters hitting with an average below .200 is 8, obliterating the old record;
The White Sox are currently 13-0 against left-handed starters—no team has gone undefeated in a season versus lefty starters and their .896 OPS against lefties also is ahead of the record;
0 sacrifice bunts for the Reds, Brewers, Yankees and Rays, which has never been done in a season.
NFL football is in Week 3. I look forward to the Chiefs and Ravens on Monday night. Even if, thus far, Pat Mahomes II has owned Jim Harbaugh’s team. KC had it plenty rough in LA versus the Chargers, winning on a 4th quarter comeback along with two 58 yard FG’s, the last one to win the game in OT versus the Chargers and their rookie QB Justin Herbert.
Another thrilling comeback was orchestrated by Dallas. Dak Prescott and company roared back against Atlanta, recovered the best onside kick I have ever seen, and won the game on a FG, too.
Those games epitomized fun and excitement. Unlike the Giants, who had a last second comeback thwarted in Chicago, even after Saquan Barkley had left the game with a torn ACL. Or the Jets, who stunk up the Meadowlands in losing to an injured and undermanned 49’ers team. For an “offensive genius,” Jets’ head man Adam Gase is a mediocre game planner.
Also fun to watch was the Thursday night game in Jacksonville between 0-2 Miami and the 1-1 Jaguars. Gardner Minshew III and the Jags were favored at home. Ryan Fitzpatrick was electric at QB for the Dolphins, rarely missing a receiver, catching one of his own passes and running like a 22 year old. The Harvard-educated Fitzpatrick has now played for one-quarter of the NFL and is the first QB to win 6 games against a team for 6 different franchises. After Thursday night, Tua will continue to sit on the Miami bench for a while longer while the old guy is having a blast.
As the NBA creeps towards the Finals, the Conference Finals have been quite competitive. While Miami has the lead, the Celtics have led the Heat more in their games. Miami seems to know how to win, entering Game 4. The Celtics are too inconsistent, which is to their detriment. By the way, I miss the Celtics wearing their white uniforms. For that matter, does anyone wear white anymore?
The Lakers, who did break out the white for Game 3 versus Denver, are surviving, not outplaying the youthful Nuggets team with no quit in them. A 3-1 deficit has been no problem thus far for Denver. Which is what they face for Game 5. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are a dynamic duo. Jokic has incredible court sense and Murray, well, he has played outstandingly, hitting shots which defy description and which have been compared to, gulp, Michael Jordan.
On the other hand, Lebron James covered Murray in crunch time to save a Lakers victory in Game 4. LAL won Game 3 on the sheer magnitude of center Anthony Davis’ sideline three point shot with no time left on the clock. I still feel the Lakers will win the series, but my confidence has waned a bit.
Hockey is nearly at an end. Tampa Bay has dominated Dallas, racing to a 3-1 lead. Lightning captain Steve Stamkos, injured much of the year, suited up in Game 3, and on his first shift eluded a check and scored a spectacular goal. Stamkos may never play again in this series, but his impact on his team is large. With back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday, the Stanley Cup might be in the hands of the men from Tampa this weekend.
With the SEC open for business starting this weekend, the Pac-12, MAC and Mountain West suddenly have reversed course and are opting to play this year. Despite talk of a spike occurring now as fall proceeds and Notre Dame—yes, Notre Dame—forced to postpone its game with Wake Forest due to a COVID-19 outbreak and Houston unable to even get an opener due to the coronavirus attacking its opponents, the monied interests are winning out at the moment.
No greater bow to money came when the NCAA ruled that all football teams will be bowl-eligible this year, even if they have a bad record. Don’t you think that a 3-5 Rutgers team might lose out to a 1-8 Tennessee squad for a certain bowl, largely because the Vols have a greater TV audience than the Scarlet Knights? Savor your rankings right now Army, Cincinnati and Louisiana. An 0-1 Michigan will be ahead of you at the end of October. That’s just how it is in big-time college football, more so in a pandemic.
It makes absolutely no sense that the NCAA endorsed a 16 team FCS playoffs for the spring. Why is it better for the FBS schools to play now but the FCS schools to act more prudently and play when there is a chance the coronavirus might be getting under control?
There will be more schools with positive tests for their football players and coaches. Heck, the Governor and First Lady of Virginia just announced they tested positive. High schools are continuing to shut down their in-school learning, and correspondingly, the sports teams. To quote the old sage, Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over until the Fat Lady sings.” Last time I looked, the Metropolitan Opera has canceled its 2020-21 season. Smarter heads prevailing?
And you haven’t seen anything like what will occur with college basketball, given the green light to start November 25. Non-conference schedules, bubbles, regional games and a whole host of problems are attached to this venture. College basketball involves a ton more college and universities across the U.S., there are contracts in place, and the money available in the pot is a lot less than with football. Plus there may be wide disparities in testing making teams reluctant to play each other, let alone get on an airplane multiple times in a season for long flights. What a headache this will be, if not wrecked by the insidious nature of the disease itself and how it attacks the schools and the players, coaches and other personnel.
So as the winter sports close and baseball is in its playoffs, football is starting up with vigor, and college basketball is trying hard to play, albeit with a lot of foolishness. In sports, for every ending, there is a new beginning.
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