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Wild stories emerge in postseason picture
- Updated: September 22, 2016
This is as good as it gets. Isn’t that the bottom line about what’s happening right now? Every pitch matters for the nine teams — yes, nine — bunched together fighting for four Wild Card postseason berths. One bad inning could push a season to the brink. Mistakes are magnified.
Wednesday was an amazing day around the Majors. One moment it was Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte ending a game by — are you ready for this? — leaping above the wall to take a three-run homer away from Yoenis Cespedes and preserving Atlanta’s 4-3 victory over the Mets.
Another was Yankees rookie Gary Sanchez crushing two more home runs, the latest in a career off to a dazzling start. Oh, by the way, he helped keep the Bronx Bombers in contention another day with an 11-5 victory over the Rays.
Astros catcher Jason Castro made an eye-popping play, too, in throwing out Athletics speedster Arismendy Alcantara at second base to end a critical 6-5 win for Houston.
And there was another rookie — Red Sox Andrew Benintendi — drilling a three-run homer to break open a game and hand the Orioles a stinging 5-1 loss in Baltimore.
Sure, it’s insane. In the final two weeks of a regular season, insane is a good thing. This is precisely what Major League owners had in mind four years ago when they added a second Wild Card berth in each league. They were hoping for something just like this, that is, the intensity and stakes of the postseason as the regular season winds down.
In the American League, six teams are within 3 1/2 games of one another in the race for the two Wild Card berths. In the National League, it’s simpler: the Cardinals, Giants and Mets are all 80-72 in the fight for two NL Wild Card spots.
Let’s go to our big board in the AL:
1. Blue Jays (83-69)
They lead the AL Wild Card field by one game, but that means little since they’ll begin a seven-game homestand against the Orioles and Yankees on Friday. If the Blue Jays come out of those seven games still …
