Binge Sports: MLB Division Series Round-Up & Fan Vote
Are you guys sick of me yet this week? Welcome back once again to Binge Sports. After a crazy couple days of wild card action, we’re now down to eight in the race for the right to be called World Series champions. Today, we’ll take a quick look back at the wild card games and how you voted and we’ll look ahead at the matchups for the division series that get underway in just a little while. Let’s get to it.
Wild Card Results
The young Houston Astros rolled into Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night with no fear whatsoever. Dallas Keuchel looked fantastic and the bullpen was sturdy as the Astros defeated the Yankees 3-0, getting homeruns from Colby Rasmus and Carlos Gomez. The Astros won with you as well, picking up 2/3 of the fan vote.
In a big game in Pittsburgh last night, the Pirates were shut out for the second year in a row in this game, this time losing 4-0 to the Chicago Cubs. Jake Arrieta threw yet another complete game shutout and Kyle Schwarber drove in the first three runs, including a massive 450-foot homerun that left the ballpark entirely. With Arrieta on the mound last night, not many people gave Pittsburgh a chance in this game, and that certainly rang true here as well. The Cubs picked up 100% of the fan vote. Nice work.
American League Division Series
Texas Rangers vs Toronto Blue Jays
These were two of the hottest teams in the second half of the year. Both were able to continue climbing the ladder and win their respective divisions. Both made big pitching moves at the deadline, with Texas acquiring Cole Hamels and the Blue Jays bringing in David Price, who will start Game 1 this afternoon at 3:30 Eastern/2:30 Central. The Rangers will counter with Yovani Gallardo.
My prediction: Blue Jays in 4
[yop_poll id=”293″ tr_id=””” show_results=”-1″]
Houston Astros vs Kansas City Royals
Are the Astros this year’s version of last year’s Royals? They’ve got a bunch of guys that most of you have probably never heard of. They’re young. They play an exciting brand of baseball. They’re just fun to watch. Yep, that sounds pretty close to what we witnessed in the Kansas City run to the World Series last year. For most of the season, the Royals were the best team in the American League, but a slight stumble at the end of the year made things interesting, but they were able to hang on and clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. This should be a fun series to watch. Game 1 gets going tonight at 7:30 Eastern/6:30 Central.
My prediction: Royals in 5
[yop_poll id=”294″ tr_id=””” show_results=”-1″]
National League Division Series
Chicago Cubs vs St. Louis Cardinals
You’ve seen me write about how great Cubs/Cardinals is before, and before I write 10,000 words on this, I’m going to stop myself and just say how excited I am for this. Forgive my bias towards this series, but growing up in central Illinois, the fandom is basically split 50/50 between these two teams, and it’s going to get crazy around here. As far as the actual matchup, these are two really good baseball teams. The Cardinals finished with the best record in baseball, and the Cubs finished with the third-best and played their way into this series with a wild card win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had the second-best record in the majors. Yeah, that’s how good the NL Central was this year. This epic series gets underway on Friday evening at 6:30 Eastern/5:30 Central.
My prediction: Cubs in 5
[yop_poll id=”296″ tr_id=””” show_results=”-1″]
New York Mets vs Los Angeles Dodgers
I almost feel bad for the Mets. Okay, not really, but their reward for a great year and winning the National League East is a trip to Los Angeles and a date with Clayton Kershaw and Zach Greinke. I’m not saying they can’t win these games, as the Mets have a great pitching staff of their own, but it will certainly be a challenge. However, the Mets did take four of the seven games from LA this season. We’ll see how things play out starting tomorrow night at 9:30 Eastern/8:30 Central.
My prediction: Dodgers in 4
[yop_poll id=”295″ tr_id=””” show_results=”-1″]
There you have it. You know I’ll be following the MLB Playoffs as they happen, so keep checking back for updates, and you know you can always get the latest on Twitter @BingeSports and @THElukenorris. I’ll leave you be for a few days.