Postseason Predictions

By Amy McCormick

The Wild Card races in both the National League and the American League are down to the wire.  In the NL, St. Louis and Atlanta are tied with an 89-72 record.  In the AL, we have another tie: Boston and Tampa Bay each hold a 90-71 record. 

Here’s where it gets tricky.  The team in each league with the best record is to play the winner of the Wild Card, as long as they are not in the same division.  This would be fine, if it weren’t for the NL East and the AL East.  Things are neck and neck in both Wild Card races, which each includes a team from the winning team’s division.  To make matters more confusing, Milwaukee (NL Central’s winner) and Arizona (NL West’s winner) are each down to tonight’s games, and so are Detroit (AL Central’s winner) and Texas (AL West’s winner).  Does your brain hurt yet? Essentially, we won’t know until the completion of tonight’s games who will be playing whom in Round 1 of the Division Series. 

This makes predictions (which I’m not accustomed to making) a little difficult, exciting, and potentially dead-wrong.  Here goes.

I say that the Phillies beat Atlanta tonight and St. Louis wins over Houston, making St. Louis the NL Wild Card winner.  This would mean that Philadelphia and St. Louis would play in the NLDS, and I’d be a jerk if I said anything other than I forecast a Phillies win.  As far as Milwaukee and Arizona go, I have to go with Milwaukee.  I love that the Diamondbacks knocked the Giants out of contention , but I don’t know that they can get past Ryan Braun.  In the NLCS, that would mean the Phillies would play Milwaukee, and again, not a jerk, so I choose Philadelphia.  I have confidence that our pitching can shut them down.

In the American League, the Yankees are the winners in the East, and they have the best record, so they will play the Wild Card winner.  The trouble is, the Wild Card is down to Tampa Bay and Boston, both in the East.  So, we move to the winner of either the Central or the West – whoever has the worse record of the two.  Well, Detroit and Texas will be battling in their games tonight to see who that will be.  My prediction is that Texas beats the Angels and Detroit beats Cleveland, leading to a tie-breaking game between Detroit and Texas.  In that hypothetical game, my prediction is a victory for Detroit.  This would make the two ALCS look like this: Yankees – Rangers, and Tigers – Wild Card.  I predict that Boston will win the Wild Card but fall apart in their series with the Tigers.  I also say that the Rangers, who do not necessarily have the pitching power to handle the Yankees’ hitting, will actually upset New York.  My NLCS would be Texas vs. Detroit.  Although I chose Detroit to beat Texas in a tie-breaker, I choose Texas to win the ALCS. 

That brings me to the World Series.  In my mind, anyway, I’m looking at Phillies and Rangers.  My vote is for Phillies in six games. Please keep in mind that this is literally the first time I’ve ever made predictions about an entire postseason, so hate mail is not necessary.  Enjoy the games!