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.
Indianfan
Joey Cantillo is struggling? I don’t think so.
paddyo furnichuh
His one outing against the Yankees 8/21 mostly tanked his numbers.
waittilnextyear
First thing I thought. One earned run in last 3 outings. Quite the struggle
kahnkobra
if a full time DH wasn’t allowed to win the MVP award before,degenerate Ohtani should not be allowed to win either
paddyo furnichuh
kobrakai’s troll game is lacking
Brew88
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)
Brew88
But on the flip side the Pads are just 3.5 GMs behind LA but own the tie breaker ( so really 2.5 GMs)
petersdylan36
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.
Troy Percival's iPad
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
Old York
@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.
3768902
ALC is about to have both wc with the rebalanced schedule. Absolutely the weakest though, yeah.
Troy Percival's iPad
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
Fever Pitch Guy
Troy – ALE isn’t that great either, only two teams with winning records.
It’s all about health.
For Love of the Game
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.
cwsOverhaul
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.
jdgoat
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.
Old York
@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.
drasco036
“More balanced” the Tigers still play 13 games against the White Sox. Any team in the league looks significantly better if they were awarded 10+ free wins.
For the record, I picked the Tigers to win the central, I really liked their offseason and talent on the roster but the fact is that every team in the AL Central, except for the Indians who for some reason struggled against the White Sox, were given 5+ free wins (assuming they would have all played slightly above .500 baseball against the rest of the league.
Put that into perspective, the AL Central was not better than expected, they had an epically terrible team in their division that skewed all their records.
Bucket Number Six
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.
Fever Pitch Guy
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.
C Yards Jeff
Last series. Baltimore at Minnesota. Twins are cooked but Orioles are well done. You will get in.
Slage8
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.
Uhh ok
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.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Damn that ESPN+ article about a tigers surge was right
jdgoat
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.
straightuphonestguy
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.
BaseballClassic1985
Nobody cared about stolen bases until they changed the rules making it much easier to steal lolz
Landini
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.
Cat Mando
I don’t hold out a lot of hope for the Phillies clinching tonight. They have Taijuan (Batting Practice) Walker on the mound….sighs.
ChuckyNJ
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.
Cat Mando
I know they will. Been Phillis fan since “Richie” Allen was RoY. I just doubt the will clinch tonight with a BP pitcher starting
twinky
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.
ChuckyNJ
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.
Manfred Rob's Earth Band
Yeah but it’s easier to complain about owners.
Slider_withcheese
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.
BlueSkies_LA
Here’s a new idea: start every sentence about ballplayers with a dollar sign.
jerseyjohn
I wonder how much Ohtani bet on the MVP race? He might be looking at a nice payout from his bookie.
YankeesBleacherCreature
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.
BlueSkies_LA
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.
rememberthecoop
either either
El Niño
I’m glad we’re beyond gaslighting that the ohtani contract “really wasn’t 700 million because of how it’s structured.”