Divisional Series Predictions

With “round one” in the books, I am ready to write another prediction article. I went 1-1 in the Wildcard games and hope to improve on that. Are you ready for the best of five National and American League Divisional Series?!?! I sure am, as we will start in Atlanta with the Braves taking on the Nationals:

Cardinals (3) vs Braves (2):

These teams arrived here by winning their divisions, the Braves taking the NL East and the Cardinals stealing their NL Central on the last game of the season, from the now eliminated Brewers. The Braves have homefield advantage in Atlanta, after finishing with the second-best record in the National League. Braves star, Ronald Acuna Jr was injured for Atlanta’s last 4 games of the season with a groin strain, contributing him to miss out on the remarkable 40 HR 40 Steal mark by 3 steals. He is expected to be back for the NLDS as with ailing teammate Freddie Freeman, but Ender Inciarte isn’t. For the Cardinals, young ace Jack Flaherty will not pitch game 1, as they had him pitch game 162 to clinch the division. He is available to pitch twice in the series if it goes all five. He has pitched amazing in the second half of the season, with a 4.1 war, which lead NL Pitchers. The Braves have won 4/6 of their games vs St. Louis this season. Braves late-season acquisition, Dallas Keuchel is pitching game 1, and although he has struggled as of recent, he has playoff experience. Keuchel has been 6-4 in 10 playoff appearances in his career. With a better offense than the Cardinals, 91 more scored runs, and a pretty even pitching matchup, with a difference in 4 starting pitcher wins, for the probable starters, I think the Braves will beat the Cardinals. Their offense will be explosive with Acuna, Donaldson, and Freeman leading the way. Atlanta will close it in 4 with Flaherty only able to start once, and struggling offensive production.

My Result: Braves over Cardinals 3-1

Nationals (4) vs Dodgers (1)

This is the other NLDS series with the Dodgers, who dominated the NL West, and the Nationals, who outlasted the Brewers in the Wildcard game. They were down until the 8th inning, where a 3 run error put them ahead to win. The Dodgers come in red-hot, having won their last 7 games. They have played unbelievably this season, with a plus 273 run differential, which is the third-best of the century. Both teams have amazing starting rotations with the two best “big 3’s” in the NL. The Dodgers do this with Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Walker Buehler, and the Nats with Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, and Patrick Corbin. The rotations finished 1st and 2nd in era in the regular season. Washington has Corbin starting game 1 after the other 2 aces were used in the WC game. He has played great in the first year of his contract pitching for a 3.25 ERA and 14-7 as the team’s 3rd option! With Strasburg pitching 3 innings in the Wildcard, he might not be available for game 2, with the possibility of an Anibal Sanchez start. The Dodgers have major depth as a team, starting with their best player and probable NL MVP Cody Bellinger. He hit for a .305 average, 47 homers, and finished with a 9 war. The team finished 4th in HRs with Joc Peterson and Max Muncy hitting 36 and 35. The Nationals and Anthony Rendón, Juan Soto, and Trea Turner don’t have trouble scoring runs either, finishing 6th in runs scored, just 13 behind the 5th ranked Dodgers. The issue for the Nats lies in the bullpen. Their relief pitching was the worst in the MLB this year, with a 5.66 ERA. If their starters struggle, like Scherzer did in the Wildcard game, they will be out of luck, needing Strasburg to start as well. This will be hard against the explosive Dodgers, and the bullpen of the Nationals and the Dodgers home field advantage is why I have the Dodgers winning the series.

 My Result: Dodgers over Nationals 3-2

Rays (5) vs Astros (1)

After the Rays upset the A’s in Oakland, they will have to travel to Houston to face the 1 seed in all of the MLB, the Houston Astros. The Astros finished with 107 wins to take this honor, and Home Field advantage for as far as they go in the playoffs. As with the Dodgers, they only lost 6 games in all of September. The Rays come off of a win, where they dominated the A’s in front of over 50,000 fans in Oakland. Third Baseman, Yandy Díaz, hit 2 homeruns including one to leadoff the game. The thing is that they won’t be playing the Athletics in this series. The Astros look poised to make a big Postseason run with Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Zack Greinkie in their rotation. All three of those guys could easily be first options on most major league clubs. Greinkie has been lights out since dealt to the Astros, at 8-1 with a 3.02 ERA. With that, Verlander and Cole will probably finish 1st and 2nd in Cy Young Voting for the AL. The Rays will be without ace Charlie Morton for probably the first 2 games after he won the Wildcard game. That will be crucial in the best of 5 series. Even so, in his last game against the Astros, he gave up 6 runs and recorded a loss. With the rotation of the Astros, and a lineup with the likes of Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, and the young Yordan Alvarez, I don’t see the Astros losing a game in this ALDS.

My Result: Astros over Rays 3-0

Twins (3) vs Yankees (2)

The last matchup to be played in the divisional series is the Yankees and Twins in the ALDS. The Yankees won 4/6 of their games against the Twins this year. The Twins surprised many by winning the AL Central with over 100 wins, while the Yankees took the AL East. The Twins have had a ton of power this year, leading the MLB with 307 HRs, 8 players with at least 20, and 5 with at least 30. Veteran Nelson Cruz leads the team with 41, and he has lots of playoff experience with 41 games played. The Yankees finished just 1 HR behind Minnesota second in the MLB, with 306 homeruns. Offseason addition for the Yankees, DJ LeMahieu has played amazing for the team this year. He was signed on to play a bench/platoon role, and evolved into an MVP candidate, with a .327 average which made him finish 4th in the MLB. With many of their injured players back from injury, the Yankees are ready for a long run. Even with the hurt players, they have made it work with what they had this season and won 103 games. Breakout player, Max Kepler of the Twins, has a strain that kept him out for the end of the year but is expected to be back for the series. The Twins could really use his bat vs the Yankees, which hit 36 HRs in the regular season. Minnesota also has Byron Buxton and Sam Dyson out for the season, and Marwin Gonzales questionable. The main advantage for the Yankees is their bullpen that can eat innings. Their combination of Zack Britton, Tommy Kahnle, Adam Ottavino, and to close it up Aroldis Chapman combined for a 1.98 ERA and 314 strikeouts. They have been able to stop just about everyone, this year. If the Twins win this series, they would surprise many, but with a recovered Yankee’s team and the banged-up Twins, I think New York will win this one.

My Result: Yankees over Twins 3-1

And there are my Divisional Series predictions. I still have the Astros winning the World Series, as the roster looks impeccable. I will be back for an AL/NL Championship Series prediction post next. Have fun and go enjoy some baseball.