Fan Interference

Scouts: Prof was sick all weekend, so you have just me today. Usual sob story about how there’s a bunch of games and I’ll have to be brief today.

As we enter the final week of the 2020 Regular season, only 7 teams have clinched one of the 16 playoff spots.  This is exactly what MLB hoped would happen when they decided to expand the playoffs to approximately 99.8% of the league.  While it sounds great on paper, we currently have the Blue Jays and Phillies in at 1 game over .500 and the Reds in sitting at .500 even.  The next teams with a shot at the playoffs are the Brewers and the Giants at .500, the lolMets at .453, the Rockies at .442, and over in the AL the Mariners at .434 and the freaking Angels at .426.  So I’m sorry if I don’t get all giddy over the prospect of one of these teams clawing their way in there.  While the Al seems pretty set, there is absolutely zero that excites me about the Giants making the playoffs at this point. Please revert the expanded playoffs for 2021.  The Top 2 of each division plus the Wild Card is just a stupid system.

The biggest question mark at the moment is who will take the final NL Wild Card spot, with a three way tie between the Reds, Brewers, and Giants. The Reds and Brewers will face off before the Reds head to Minnesota and the Brewers head to St. Louis.  The Giants will face the Rockies and the Padres.

Rays 1, Orioles 2 – Scouts: John Means had him self a fantastic day striking out 12 Rays in just 5.2 innings as the O’s gave the Rays a little reason to sweat, as they now hold just a 1 game lead over the top seed.

Yankees 2, Red Sox 10 – Scouts: The Yankees finally snapped their score 50 runs a game streak picking up their first loss in the last 10.  Tanner Houck allowed just a solo homer to Luke Voit in the 6th for the Sox.  Meanwhile, Deivi Garcia got absolutely smacked around allowing 6 runs in just 3 innings.  At 3.5 games back from first, I don’t expect much movement for the Yanks for the rest of the season.

White Sox 3, Reds 7 – Scouts: The White Sox hold a narrow 2 game lead for the division lead and a one game lead for the second seed of the playoffs, so it wasn’t a great time to lose to the Reds who are fighting to maintain the final spot in the playoffs.  The Sox will finish the season at the Spiders, and then home vs the Cubs, meanwhile the Twins will finish off at home vs the Tigers and finally the Reds.

Spiders 7, Tigers 4 – Scouts: Jose Ramirez belted a pair of homers showing that despite their pitching being their clear strong suit, they can indeed hit the ball on occasion.

Braves 7, Mets 0 – Scouts: This game was actually pretty close until the Braves pulled away with 6 runs in the final two frames.  Kyle Wright held off Rick Porcello with 6.1 innings of 1 hit ball.  Once Porcello exited was when Ronald Acuna and friends did the bulk of the work.

D-backs 2, Astros 3 – Scouts: Pending Free Agent George Springer homered twice including the always popular inside-the-park variety as the Astros rallied late to pick up their 27th win and despite having an awful year look to have a playoff spot locked down.

Twins 4, Cubs 0 – Scouts: The Twins move to 2 games back of the division lead and had to plow through Yu Darvish to do so.  Jose Berrios who struggled with his command at the beginning of the year threw a gem when the Twins needed him the most.  Berrios allowed just 4 hits over 6 shut out innings.

Giants 14, Athletics 6 – Scouts: The Giants are currently on the outside looking in, holding no tie-breakers in a three way tie for the final playoff spot.  If they can keep playing games like they did yesterday, they have a pretty good shot at picking up that final spot.  They’ll have to face the Rockies and the Padres in the final 8 games.

Royals 3, Brewers 5 – Scouts: The Brewers don’t have any room to slip up if they want to make it into the playoffs this year, and Daniel Vogelbach is doing his best to pitch in, homering twice and getting the Brew Crew back up to .500.

Blue Jays 6, Phillies 3 – Scouts: The Blue Jays, the third AL East team to hold a playoff spot are pretty well set into the final spot with a significant lead over the Mariners.  Still they want to get on a hot steak here, having won just their 3rd game in the last 10.  Taijuan Walker threw his 100st pitch, the first Blue Jay in 2020 to do so, and despite getting into an early hole, was able to stick around long enough to turn the tides and pick up the much needed win.

Cardinals 2, Pirates 1 – Scouts: Jack Flaherty struck out 11 over 6 and Yadier Molina hit the game winning two-run homer in the 7th for the Cardinals, the current 6th seed in the playoffs.

Rangers 7, Angels 2 – Scouts: Texas got homers from Joey Gallo, Anderson Tejeda, Sam Huff, Rougned Odor, and Derek Dietrich.  The Angels are just playing out the clock at this point.

Nationals 1, Marlins 2 F/7 Game 1 – Scouts: Max Scherzer picked up his 4th loss on the year thanks in part to an errors by Luis Garcia in the 1st, and Eric Thames in the 6th.  In fact, Max got the loss without giving up an earned run.  Ain’t that a thing?

Nationals 15, Marlins 0 F/7 Game 2 – Scouts: After embarrassing themselves in the first game, the Nats were clearly looking for blood, absolutely demolishing the Marlins for a crazy amount of runs in just 7 innings. Trea Turner, Kurt Suzuki, Michale A. Taylor, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Victor Robles all homered to close out the double header.

Dodgers 3, Rockies 6 – Scouts: Turns out the Dodgers can lose on occasion and it was their failure to keep Josh Fuentes in check that did them in this time.  Fuentes went 3-4 with 3 RBI’s as the Rockies hold onto the slimmest of hopes for a playoff birth.

Padres 7, Mariners 4 F/11 – Scouts: The Padres have officially clinched what everyone knew was going to happen for over a month, their first playoff birth in 14 years.  At 4 games behind the Dodgers, it’s unlikely they will take the top spot in the NL, and thanks to the stupid seeding rules, they currently hold the 4th seed.  They took this one the distance and a few extra.  After blowing a lead in the 8th, and then again in the 10th, they went up for good with 3 runs in the 10th.