Major League Baseball - Week In Review

The Major League Baseball playoffs are set as far as the ten teams that will be playing as the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland A's punched their tickets for the American League wild card game on Friday night. The only question is where the game will be played as they both have the same record with two games remaining. The New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins and Houston Astros are the division winners with the Astros having clinched the home field advantage with the best record in the A.L. this season.
In the National League, it will be the Washington Nationals as a wild card team and they will play either the Milwaukee Brewers or St. Louis Cardinals with the game site to still be determined. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves have won their divisions and the Dodgers (N.L. best record) will play the winner of the wild card game next week in the division series.
As far as the week that was, it was rather forgettable for both the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies as both of those teams were eliminated from playoff contention with late season collapses. The Cubs finally snapped their nine-game losing streak on Friday night as they pounded the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-2. The Cards are one game ahead of the Brewers in the N.L. Central race. The Brewers had their seven-game win streak snapped in Colorado as the Rockies blasted them, 11-7.
The Cubs were swept in a four-game set at Wrigley Field last weekend by the Cardinals and at the same time the Brewers were continuing their winning ways and have gone 20-5 for the month of September to fuel their playoff charge.
Meanwhile, the Phillies were swept in a five-game series by the Washington Nationals this past week that clinched a wild card spot for the Nats. Other teams eliminated from playoff contention this week were the Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Mets (National League) and the Cleveland Indians in the American League.
Mets rookie Pete Alonso hit a homer on Friday night (4-2 Mets win over the Atlanta Braves), giving him 52 for the year, which tied the rookie record for a season, which was set by Aaron Judge (Yankees) in the 2017 season.
The Minnesota Twins won their 100th game of the season on Friday with a 6-2 decision in Kansas City. The Twins became the first team in MLB history to slug 300 or more home runs in a single season. The New York Yankees smashed six home runs in a 14-7 win at Texas on Friday night to overtake the Twins for the most team home runs in a season as they now have 305, which is three better than the Twins with two games remaining.



AL STANDINGS (through September 27)                      NL STANDINGS (through September 27)
East                                                                                     East
x-New York 103-57                                                            x-Atlanta 97-63            
y-Tampa Bay 96-64                                                            y-Washington 91-69
Boston 83-77                                                                      New York 84-76
Toronto 65-95                                                                     Philadelphia 80-80
Baltimore 53-107                                                                Miami 56-104

Central                                                                                Central
x-Minnesota 100-60                                                             y-St. Louis 90-70
Cleveland 93-67                                                                   y-Milwaukee 89-71
Chicago 70-88                                                                      Chicago 83-77
Kansas City 58-102                                                              Cincinnati 73-87
Detroit 46-112                                                                      Pittsburgh 69-91
                                                                                                                                 
West                                                                                     West
x-Houston 105-55                                                                 x-LA Dodgers 104-56
y-Oakland 96-64                                                                   Arizona 83-77
Texas 76-84                                                                          San Francisco 77-83
LA Angels 72-88                                                                  San Diego 70-90
Seattle 67-93                                                                         Colorado 69-91 

x - clinched division title
y - clinched playoff spot