2021 MLB Season Thread

[Drew]

Three cheers for being a Red Sox fan living in the Orioles market so I'm blacked out from Opening Weekend! And I can't even watch Phillies, Nationals, or Pirates games because I'm in their markets as well!

Reds-Cardinals might be a good one though.

I’m a Cubs fan living in Brewers territory, so I just switched TV providers to prevent being blacked out from all of the Cubs-Brewers games coming up.  Now I’m good to go.  Happy Opening Day everyone!

[Drew]

What a night for Shohei Ohtani.  Pitches 100 MPH and hits a HR, and leaves the game after 4.2 IP after a collision at the plate on a wild play.  Hope he’s OK.

[Drew]

Joe Musgrove of the Padres no-hits the Rangers.  This is the first no hitter in Padres history.  Every MLB team has had at least one now.

[Drew]

This weekend’s Dodgers/Padres series is living up to its hype.  Mookie Betts robs a game-tying hit in the 9th to preserve a 2-0 Dodgers win in last night’s game.

[Drew]

https://twitter.com/theathletic/status/1431992535631556610?s=21

[Drew]

There were 3 grand slams hit in the Cubs/Pirates game today, tying the MLB record which was done I believe 4 other times.  All three were go-ahead HRs.

[Drew]

So here we are on Game 162.  A number of tiebreaker scenarios still exist. 

The Dodgers are one game behind the Giants and can force a tiebreaker (played in SF) with a LAD win and a SF loss today.  SF wins the NLW with a win OR a LAD loss.

The Yankees and Red Sox are currently tied and both hold the two ALWC spots, with Toronto and Seattle a game behind.  We could see a four way tie, a three way tie, or a tie for the 2nd WC seed (potentially a three way).

[Drew]

Elaborating on the last post, we could have a 4 way tie for the two AL WC spots if SEA and TOR win, while NYY and BOS lose.  This would essentially create a 4-team tournament for the eventual WC winner.

We could see a 3 way tie for the two WC spots if NYY and BOS both lose, with either SEA or TOR winning.  In this scenario, teams can choose to be Team A, B, or C, or basically getting the choice between winning two home games or one road game.  The team with the best combined head to head record gets dibs on the choice.

We could see a 3 way tie strictly for the 2nd WC spot with wins by both SEA and TOR, with one of NYY and BOS winning.  The winner of the latter two teams clinches the first WC seed and awaits the winner of the other trio, which will get the ABC treatment.

Finally, there are scenarios which result in a 2-way tie for the 2nd WC.  This would occur if one of NYY/BOS wins, while one of TOR/SEA wins.  The #1 seed would await the result of the two tied teams.

Note that if there's a two way tie for the #1 spot (ie NYY and BOS both winning), it does not generate a tiebreaker game as there are two WC spots anyway. 

This is all assuming my calculations are correct, feel free to fact-check me.  Maybe we'll finally get one of these weird scenarios after all these years. 

[Drew]

And...there will be no tiebreakers after all, as the Yankees and Red Sox each win to clinch the two ALWC spots, while the Giants take care of business to clinch the NL West.

[Drew]

https://twitter.com/secondgentleman/status/1446568549720408069?s=21

[Drew]

https://twitter.com/chrismurphyct/status/1449558926538706947?s=21

As much as I love baseball, this can be a big time commitment to watch a game from beginning to end, with lots of delays that can be excessive (batter stepping out, pitcher stepping off, etc).  The real issue that I have is how these games can go so late at night, to the point where I have to turn it off and go to bed in the 6th or 7th inning.  I say this as someone who lives in the Central Time Zone, and I can’t imagine how rough this must be for ET viewers.

[Drew]

Fun fact: there hasn’t been a WS winner that has clinched on their home field since 2013.  Every champion since then has clinched either on the road or at a neutral site.  The streak continued last night.