After the Yankees and Brewers punched their tickets to the postseason yesterday, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. Ohtani approaches 50-50:
$700MM man and two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani entered the 2024 season unable to pitch after undergoing elbow surgery last September, leaving him to act as a pure DH this season (for now, at least). That reality seemingly suggested that the rest of the National League would be able to avoid being overshadowed by the Dodgers’ new star in the first year of his contract, but Ohtani appears poised to make history in a new way: by becoming the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season.
It’s a feat that could propel Ohtani to another kind of history—the first MVP award win for a full-time DH—and with ten games to go in the regular season Ohtani is tantalizingly close to the milestone with 48 home runs and 49 steals. He’ll look to take another step toward history this afternoon in Miami, with first pitch scheduled for 4:40pm local time.
2. Key matchups for NL Wild Card contenders:
The NL Wild Card race has tightened up, with the Mets (84-68) and Diamondbacks (84-68) now tied in the standings while occupying the second and third spots. The Braves (82-70) are also still in the thick of the race, currently sitting two games behind Arizona and New York. Today could provide Atlanta the opportunity to make up ground in the race, as both the Mets and Diamondbacks are scheduled to begin series against tough opponents.
The Snakes are headed to Milwaukee for a set against a Brewers club that just clinched the NL Central, while a Phillies club that hopes to punch its own ticket to the postseason is headed for an evening game in Queens. Meanwhile, the Braves will have ace Chris Sale on the mound for a game against the Reds and rookie Julian Aguiar (4.88 ERA in six starts). The 35-year-old Sale will be looking to put the finishing touches on his resume for the NL Cy Young Award and inch closer to a possible pitching triple crown: Sale leads the majors with a 2.35 ERA and is tied for the major league lead with 17 wins this year. He’s just two strikeouts short of the MLB lead with 219 to Tarik Skubal’s 221, and just one behind Dylan Cease’s 220 strikeouts for the National League lead.
3. Twins barely holding on:
The Twins (80-72) have struggled badly down the stretch this year with a 5-10 record in their last 15 games. Those struggles have opened the door for a surging Tigers club (80-73) to force its way into contention for the AL Wild Card spot with an exactly inverted 10-5 record in their own last 15 games. With Detroit off today, the Twins will either either extend their lead to a full game or fall into a tie. Although Minnesota does hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series between the two clubs, the Twins surely don’t want the race getting any tighter.
To prevent that, they’ll have to best an 88-65 Guardians team that has started to run away with the AL Central and appears likely to enter the postseason with a bye through the Wild Card round. Cleveland won yesterday’s game between the two clubs in a one-run heartbreaker that extended to extra innings. The Twins will send rookie Simeon Woods Richardson (4.08 ERA in 26 starts) to the mound against struggling Guardians rookie Joey Cantillo (4.99 ERA in six starts). The game is scheduled for 1:10pm local time.
Joey Cantillo is struggling? I don’t think so.
His one outing against the Yankees 8/21 mostly tanked his numbers.
First thing I thought. One earned run in last 3 outings. Quite the struggle
Why aren’t the Guards getting anybody out to the games! Sad! They’re getting smaller crowds than even KC and the lol Mets.
And the Padres are just 2.5 games ahead of the Mets and Dbacks, with Mets holding the tie breaker ( so really just 1.5 GMs ahead)
But on the flip side the Pads are just 3.5 GMs behind LA but own the tie breaker ( so really 2.5 GMs)
Also the padres are 4.5 games over the braves and have the tie breaker over them so the padres would have to go 4-5 and the braves go 10-0 for the padres to miss the playoffs. Like said above, they are currently closer to the division title than missing the playoffs.
The Twins collapsing after winning their first playoff series since before the iPhone and then pretending to be poor and cutting payroll is a welcome sight to see
@Troy Percival’s iPad
Twins are cooked. Imagine being in one of the weakest divisions in baseball and still being so terrible. Time for the Twins to be relegated to triple-A.
ALC is about to have both wc with the rebalanced schedule. Absolutely the weakest though, yeah.
OY and 376:
I think with the rebalanced schedule, it’s the AL West that’s the worst. If you don’t win the Division out West, you’re going to miss the playoffs
Troy – ALE isn’t that great either, only two teams with winning records.
It’s all about health.
37, you might want to examine some numbers before mindlessly repeating the historical narrative. The rest of the AL Central is 289-273 against teams not named the White Sox. That means the rest of MLB is collectively under .500 measured the same way. This year, someone else isn’t earning their keep, but it isn’t the AL Central for once.
KC/Minn/Det are all pretty much the same. Mediocre teams that annihilated WSox-no tears though for Bos/Sea that have been hovering around .500.
KC: 12-1 vs WSox, 70-70 all others
Minn: 12-1 vs WSox, 68-71 all others
Det: 9-1 vs WSox, 71-72 all others
*Good for Tigers having 3 more gimmes. They can easily jump to 2nd WCard spot if they sweep to be on par with others that took advantage.
The AL Central isn’t the worst anymore. The Royals and Tigers move towards competitiveness has let it surpass others. And you can’t even really say these teams are “White Sox merchants” since the schedule is more balanced nowadays.
@jdgoat
Well, the other non ALC teams only played the Sox 6 or 7 times instead of 13 times. That’s an additional 6 or 7 games that the central gets to have a chance to win. The Sox were 8-41 against central teams this year. Oddly enough, the Sox did well against ALE teams, having the best W% out of the three divisions. Royals are 12-1 against the Sox this year. If the Sox were more competitive, that number might be more like 8-5 or 7-6. With that record, they’d be on the bubble for the playoffs, fighting with the RSox and M’s for that final spot.
Same can be said for the Tigers, who are 9-1 with one more series to play against the Sox.
The AL Central is battling the AL West for weakest division.
The Twins and Royals are 12-1 against the White Sox. The Tigers are 9-1. No other teams outside the division get to rack up those amount of wins against one of the worst teams in baseball history. (The Sox matched the 1916 A’s record of 36-117 yesterday.)
Neither the Royals, Twins, or Tigers will win 90 games. They’re just the extra teams needed for the expanded postseason. Maybe one of them will get hot and make it to the World Series like the Diamondbacks did last year. It could be the Tigers who are rolling right now.
drasco – Yes and no.
Overall yes of course the ALC teams that got to play the ChiSox 13 times this year have an advantage.
But did EVERY ALC team benefit from it?
Well, Cleveland lost 5 of 13 against the ChiSox sooooo …..
Do the Rays wish they could play more games against the ChiSox? The Rays lost 4 of 6 against them.
Oakland split 6 games with the ChiSox.
Even my team lost 3 of 7 to the ChiSox.
So YES the AL Central has an advantage with the ChiSox being in the division ….. and YES the AL Central has been better than expected for reasons beyond the ChiSox being in the division.
drasco: The team is now known as the Guardians. Get over it.
@Bucket But I would argue that the 2023 Diamondbacks team that squeezed into the playoffs was an objectively better team than any of the 2024 ALC pretenders who may sneak in (not counting Guards).
Last series. Baltimore at Minnesota. Twins are cooked but Orioles are well done. You will get in.
I feel for the players, but won’t shed one tear for the owners when they aren’t rewarded monetarily for flipping the bird to their fans and on-field staff.
Why? Unless you are a bitter jealous Indians/tigers/royals/sox fan. The game is broken if a team with that success one year has to shed payroll the following year. It’s not good for all of baseball.
Saying the AL Central is “the worst division in baseball” is tired and lazy.
On another note, watching Detroit come back has been impressive. A true nod to their manager and team for not giving up. They easily snatch a WC in their last 6 games.
Damn that ESPN+ article about a tigers surge was right
I hope the Tigers find a way to sneak in. They might not go far, but it’s good to see them heading in the right direction. And if they do manage to get past the wild card series, the best pitcher in the AL in Skubal could give any of the top teams quite the scare if he pitches 2 or 3 games in a series.
If they can pass the Royals for WC2 they have a great chance of getting into the ALDS I think. Can’t see them beating Houston, but Orioles looking quite vulnerable right now.
They just had a good series against the O’s with another on tap.
I would rather see the Tigers make it than the Twins. Yet I want to see KC in there too. But I’m a Seattle guy so in order for my team to make it there can only be one WC from the ALC. In that case I would hope that team would be the Royals, as I see them as the strongest team out of the three ALC pretenders.
Nobody cared about stolen bases until they changed the rules making it much easier to steal lolz
I cared and Sir I am a somebody.
I think the struggles of the White Sox are sort of masking the depth of the American League Central division. The tigers are 15 and 11 versus American League east teams, and I know that notice that Boston Toronto and Tampa Bay are all below 500 when playing the central division. Not saying there’s any great teams, but I think you’ve got three decent teams going right now, with Minnesota struggling.
I don’t hold out a lot of hope for the Phillies clinching tonight. They have Taijuan (Batting Practice) Walker on the mound….sighs.
The Fightin’s have a 4-game series in Queens, Thursday night on Fox, Sunday night on ESPN. Phillies need 1 more win for the postseason and 2 wins over NYM to clinch the NL East. They’ll be alright.
I know they will. Been Phillis fan since “Richie” Allen was RoY. I just doubt the will clinch tonight with a BP pitcher starting
And yep…he threw batting practice. Made my stomach turn.
He was such a highly touted player and nice kid. Too bad but shows volatility of the younger players.
Twins ownership is to blame for pocketing money instead of investing in a team that was one of the top teams. Why would anyone want to sign with a team that has an ownership with tons of money, but won’t invest in them.
You’re not aware Minnesota is one of the ballclubs entangled in the Diamond Sports (Bally) bankruptcy case? Cleveland, Detroit, and Kansas City are in the same boat. They all have to watch what they spend cos of their local TV situation.
Yeah but it’s easier to complain about owners.
Once again, this take is why the Twins trot out the same mediocre roster year after year and wonder why they’ve won one postseason series in 20yrs. Overvaluing of roster talent is a perennial problem in Minnesota.
You have to figure Shohei’s offensive production will drop once he resumes pitching which begs the question is he more valuable to LA as a two way or strictly DH. Either way, cool to see history (more than likely) about to take place.
Here’s a new idea: start every sentence about ballplayers with a dollar sign.
I’m not sure I’m following
It’s editorially kind of bizarre to start a sentence with a dollar sign, but I guess an exception was made in this case because apparently dollar signs are a legit lede in any story about Ohtani. Sorry if I was being a bit obscure.
I wonder how much Ohtani bet on the MVP race? He might be looking at a nice payout from his bookie.
Nah he likely had the lowest odds at the start of season and they would have gotten worse as the season went on. When you’re the favorite, there’s not much money to be made. Plus Ohtani doesn’t bet on baseball, I think he loves playing the game too much to risk getting a permanent suspension.
The greatest ball player any of are likely to ever see play this game, and some people hate him so much they have to make up lies about him to justify themselves. This is how we live today.
Ohtani should be able to hit 50 as he’s averaged this season a homerun every 3.16 games with six games left against poor Colorado pitching.
And half of them played in the thin air of Denver. Though I am selfishly hoping he holds off until next Tuesday when I will be in the house.
Too late! And congrats to him and you, as a fan. He’s been something …most importantly the glue holding the team together.
Got to see it on TV at least. Just when you think you’ve seen it all.
6 for 6, 10 RBI did I read that right?? Holy Jeebus.
Yeah you read that right. He’s another species.
Oddly, what impresses me most about the 50 50 is that he’s only been thrown out 4 times on SB
That too. It’s kind of a shock when he’s caught. The other impressive fact is in terms of running speed, Ohtani is not overly fast. As with any really successful base runner his stealing skills are grounded more in getting good reads on the pitcher. He studies constantly. As a DH he spends a lot of time in the dugout and wastes none of it. He’s often seen studying video on an iPad.
Alright then… Rooting for Ohtani to get 74 HRs
either either
I’m glad we’re beyond gaslighting that the ohtani contract “really wasn’t 700 million because of how it’s structured.”
The truth is never “gaslighting.” How his contract is “structured” has nothing whatsoever to do how much the Dodgers are obligated to financially, which is around $480M. What’s really happened is this site has given up explaining the concept of present value to thick headed readers.
Wait, so your position is that it’s NOT actually a 700 million dollar contract?
No need to prove my point.
Good call. This wouldn’t end well for your galaxy-brained illogical dodger spin.
How very sad. 🙁
If you think it’s sad, go ahead and spell out how a team guaranteeing to pay a player $700 million for his services isn’t actually paying him a $700 million contract. Go for it, sport.
This explanation has been provided here at least a hundred times, so you were either not paying attention then, or will never comprehend it. I suspect both. So no, I am not going to attempt to explain this basic financial concept to you again. Which, you could easily look up on your own if you really cared to understand it. And I suspect you don’t.
Sad it is. 🙁
Hahahah. Coward. Everyone else just realized the spin wasn’t working outside of galaxy-brained homers like yourself.
Even steven with nine games to go Tigers and the Twins. For Detroit to ho,d its own destiny is pretty exciting in Detroit, full waku waku. With Bally back on Xfinity, even better for its fans.
Trey Sweeney was the steal of the year for Detroit. For the majors even. This has turned into a exciting season in Detroit. 2013 was such a shocking loss in the second game in Boston. If a team gets in its all up for grabs. GO TIGERS.
I’m happy for the Detroit fans, you guys have had a rough go. (Saying that even though my Mariners are competing for the same spot; who knows baseball is crazy, maybe they both make it in lol.) Cheers
I agree, that extra playoff spot and playing every team made a huge difference. It really changed things up. Good luck.
The AL had the DH for what 40 years before it was used in the NL. I think the AL should have to do without it for 40 years.
I think the home team should choose whether or not a DH is used each game. Would be rare not too but would also be a fun way to keep the tradition of playing baseball
I don’t think enough credit is given for the Sale deal. I wasn’t sure what Sale could do at 35 and after a big injury. But gotta give kudos to the Braves they needed every bit of it