MLB Wildcard Predictions

As the grand month of October nears, playoff baseball is upon us. That means people making predictions posts that all fall apart by the fall classic. I, Mateo Arenas, am not here to do that, so as the playoffs progress I am going to do my predictions round by round. One-game Wild Card matchups are always exciting, and thats where we start this journey, on Tuesday, October 1st.

NL Wildcard Game: Brewers (5) @ Nationals (4):

The Brewers pulled off an amazing run, winning 13 of their last 18 games of the season. The remarkable thing is that those last 18 were played without their star outfielder, and NL MVP candidate, Christian Yelich. As the Brew Crew come in, after being swept by the Rockies who finished 4th in the NL West, the Nationals are coming in red hot. They have won 8 straight, sweeping the Phillies and Indians, who both finished 500 or better on the year. With the game being winner takes all, both are sending out their ace’s to the mound, Brandon Woodruff for the Brewers and Max Scherzer for the Nationals. While the Brewers bullpen is much better, the Nats have the ability to turn to starters, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin who have both had stellar seasons, should they need to. With the Brewers without Yelich and struggling as of recent, and the Nats at home with the 2nd year emerging star Juan Soto, and NL MVP candidate 3rd Baseman Anthony Rendón, I see the Nats going on to the NLDS.

Nationals over Brewers

AL Wildcard Game: Rays (5) @ A’s (4):

The race to get into this game was three-legged for most of the month of September, but the Rays and A’s emerged past the Indians to punch their ticket into playoff baseball. The A’s managed to snag homefield advantage and Ricky Henderson Field at O.Co (Oakland Coliseum for short) is expected to be loud and rowdy. The Rays will pitch All-Star Charlie Morton for the game. He has been one of the AL’s best pitchers this year, and Tampa Bay will hope he continues that here. The A’s are expected to start lefty, Sean Manaea, who has pitched amazing in his 5 starts this season, in which he missed most due to shoulder surgery in the off-season. He finished 4-0 with a 1.21 ERA in those starts. The A’s like the idea of the lefty matchup against the Rays, who have finished considerably better against righties. The Athletics have the ability to throw rookie lefty Jesús Luzardo out there as well, who has had a 1.50 ERA since his September call-up. The emerging factor in this game will be power, which the A’s have much more of, finishing 5th in HR’s in the regular season. That and the major home-field advantage will propel Oakland over the Rays.

A’s over Rays

After these sure to be exciting Wildcard matchups, I will do my NL/ALDS predictions. I will also say here, that my World Series Champion Prediction right now is Astros, and we will see if that holds up as the leaves turn brown.