Wednesday, September 16, 2020

	W-L	GB
Philadelphia	24-23		Gained a game on Miami
GIANTS	23-24		Smoked out in Seattle
Cincinnati	24-26	1/2	Half-game out of second
Colorado	22-25	1	Will A's also lose to Giants?
Milwaukee	22-25	1	Helped Reds with win
New York	21-27	2 1/2	Phils are knockin' 'em out

Yesterday

Giants did not play; air quality conditions in Seattle, due to wildfires, forced postponement of the game and the two-game series, which resumes at Oracle Park tonight.

Philadelphia defeated New York. Cincinnati beat Pittsburgh again, their fourth straight win. Colorado defeated the A's, and Milwaukee defeated St Louis.  The race has tightened up considerably, as you can see. (We reverted to the "legacy" Blogger format and will stick with it 'til it expires.)

Today

Giants against Seattle at the O; 6:45 PDT. Drew Smyly, not Tyler Anderson, will start against Ljay Newsome. 

Colorado hosts Oakland, Philadelphia the Mets. Milwaukee is at home for a doubleheader against the reeling Cardinals, who are this close to dropping out of second place and into our leaderboard. Cincinnati finishes up the Pittsburgh series with a chance for a four-game sweep. 

The Division Races

Remember those? Well, the Padres are making a major push for first place. They've won 8 of 10 and trail LA by two and a half. They've split the first two of their home series with the Dodgers and a win tonight would leave them only 1 1/2 behind with nine to play.  

The NL West is now the closest race in the game; the other leaders-- Atlanta, the Cubs, Tampa Bay, the surprising White Sox, and Oakland-- all are up by three or more. Of the runners-up, only San Diego has a firm grip on second place; the other divisions have several contenders jockeying for that position.  The AL at-large wild-card situation is much more settled than in the NL; Toronto and Cleveland will be the seventh and eighth teams unless one of them collapses. Toronto also has a chance to overtake the Yankees for second in the AL East; New York would then be a "wild" wild-card.

Be Careful What You Ask For, You May Get It-- Sort Of

Regular readers of this space-- yes, both of you!-- may remember some years back when, disgusted with the seemingly-endless 43-game postseason marathon, we proposed a tournament-style playoff for each league to determine the World Series teams, with games being played in one stadium. Well, Major League Baseball just unveiled the 2020 postseason schedule. While the eight-team wild-card round for each league will be played in the top seed's home ballparks, the Division Series and LCS will be played at neutral sites-- Houston and Arlington (Texas) for the NLDS, Arlington for the NLCS, and LA and San Diego for the ALDS, San Diego for the ALCS. Neutral indeed! The World Series will also be played at Arlington, in the brand-spankin'-new (and seriously awesome) Globe Life Field. 

The irony of the poor, benighted San Diego Padres, who haven't made the postseason in 14 years, playing in the NLDS and possibly the NLCS and the World Series, in Texas, while all the while playoff games are being played in their own home stadium without them-- well, keep in mind, the covid-19 restrictions remain in place and presumably, the cardboard cutouts in Petco Park won't object too loudly.  Expect LG and Visio sales in Southern California will spike appreciably in early October, if the stores haven't all been looted.