NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 13: Luis Severino #40 of the New York Yankees tries to pick off Kevin Kiermaier #39 of the Tampa Bay Rays at first base on April 13, 2017 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
After two tiebreaker games on Monday, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers won their divisions.
In the American League, the Oakland Athletics will play the New York Yankees on Wednesday night in a do-or-die game. The A’s were unexpectedly good this season and take on the Yankees and Aaron Judge in the Bronx. New York won 100 games this season, eight games behind the Boston Red Sox.
The winner of Oakland vs. New York plays Boston in a five-game series. Boston won 108 games this season, the most since 2001, and are led by MVP candidates Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez.
The other divisional series features the Houston Astros and the Cleveland Indians. Both teams represented the AL in the world series the last two years, with Houston winning the world series last year. The two teams feature prominent starting pitchers with Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer on the Indians and Justin Verlander on the Astros.
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In the National League, the Chicago Cubs will host the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday in a one-game series. The Cubs won the world series in 2016 to end a 108-year drought. With MVP candidate Javier Baez along with Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant, the Cubs look ready for October despite a slightly down year.
The Rockies secured a playoff spot after an end-of-season push, with Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon leading the team. Ace Kyle Freeland also maintained a 2.85 ERA despite pitching in Coors Field for half his starts.
The winner of Chicago vs. Colorado goes on to face the Brewers. They come as a bit of a shock, projected to linger in the bottom ten teams at the beginning of the season, but finished with the best record in the NL after getting Christian Yelich in the Miami Marlins‘ third fire sale of the century. Yelich would wind up two home runs and one RBI short of the second triple crown since 1967.
The Atlanta Braves, the only NL team who didn’t play Monday, are headed to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers. The Braves last appeared in the postseason in 2013, also against L.A. Despite Braves GM John Coppolella having resigned exactly a year ago and being permanently banned, the Braves are just slight underdogs against the Dodgers.
The Dodgers won their sixth consecutive NL West title on Monday. Despite barely making the playoffs and their pitching rotation falling apart this season, they hold home-field advantage in the series. Rookie Walker Buehler, an April call-up, started game 163 over three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw. Postseason success has eluded the Dodgers, who won the World Series most recently in 1988.
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