Wild Card Weekend

Ah October baseball. The regular season has come to an end. We have come from 32 teams at the start of the season, now we have sixteen standing. Four have bye's to the division round, while the other eight do battle in three game weekend series to see who moves on to the next round. All teams have the same goal in mind, winning a World Series. Wild Card Weekend is here. So lets dive right into it and look at the series coming up to kickstart the playoffs this weekend.

Bye: Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves

AL Wild Card:
Cleveland Guardians vs Tampa Bay Rays

Cleveland surprised a few people by wrapping up the AL Central this season. The Guardians have had Jose Ramirez power the offense this year, but it hasn't been all him. Ahmed Rosario has also been a huge impact player this year too. They've been playing good ball as of late. Same can't be said for the Rays, who have been slipping as of late. Tampa's a good team with Arozarena leading the charge, but the offense has been cold down the stretch. Tampa lost five straight to close out the season and won only two of their final ten games.

Pick: Guardians in 2

Toronto Blue Jays vs Seattle Mariners

This is a huge weekend for the Mariners, making their first appearance in the playoffs since 2001. Seattle has been decent on offense this season, but its the pitching staff and that fantastic pen that are going to keep it close in this series. However they are going up against a very high powered offense in Toronto. The only team that scored more tuns in the American League this year than Toronto was the Yankees. Pitching in Seattle is going to keep it close, but the Jays are going to be just too much.

Pick: Jays in 3

NL Wild Card:
St Louis Cardinals vs Philadelphia Phillies

This is the last ride for Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols in a playoff run, so they are going to try like hell to make it count. Schwarber and Hoskins have done a good an outstanding job. At the same time, they going up against a Cardinals offense that has been powered by Goldschmidt and Aarnado. Both teams are balanced and playing slightly above average ball. But at the end of the day, the Cardinals depth wins out.

Pick: Cardinals in 3

New York Mets vs San Diego Padres

San Diego has been a nice surprise coming out of the West behind the Dodgers this year. Machado and Crownenworth have both had good years at the plate for the Padres. But they going up against a much better Mets team led by Lindor and Alonso This series is being played in New York and the Mets are going to come out as an angry team the way things ended with the division race this season.

Pick: Mets in 2