MLB playoffs, wild-card standings and rules: Live updates and latest news – The Athletic

The marathon is down to the shortest of sprints.

With seven games left in the regular season, the Mets are tied with Atlanta atop the National League East. New York fell back into that position Tuesday night with a lethargic 6-4 loss to the Marlins at Citi Field. Atlanta won 8-2 in Washington.

Late September home losses to the Marlins sting in these parts. In its tightest division race in 14 seasons, New York hopes this one doesn’t haunt like others.

Tim Britton·

Staff Writer, Mets

GO FURTHER

Mets are back in a first-place tie after a dud from Carlos Carrasco

With seven games remaining in the regular season, the Cardinals officially clinched the National League Central title and the No. 3 seed in the NL playoff bracket with a 6-2 win over the Brewers at American Family Field on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals entered play Tuesday with a magic number of 3 to secure the division but were still in a position to clinch with a win because of the new tiebreaker rules established for the 2022 season. Their victory over Milwaukee netted St. Louis the season tiebreaker, as they now own a collective 10-8 record over the Brewers in the regular season with one game remaining between the two teams.

This is the Cardinals’ fourth consecutive postseason berth, but the first time they’ve won the division since 2019. With the victory, St. Louis also secured a 90-win season for the 12th time since 2000.

Katie Woo·

Staff Writer, Cardinals

GO FURTHER

Cardinals clinch NL Central, fourth straight postseason berth

Aaron Judge got five more shots at hitting home run No. 61 Tuesday night but recorded four more walks instead. The Yankees slugger has now drawn 12 walks since hitting home run No. 60 on Sept. 20.

His current seven-game home run drought matches his second-longest of the season behind a nine-game stretch in mid-August.

Though Judge’s milestone will have to wait another day, New York downed Toronto 5-2 to clinch the AL East in the contest. This season marks the Yankees’ first division title since 2019 and their second since 2012.

The Athletic Staff

GO FURTHER

Judge draws 4 walks vs. Blue Jays as hunt for 61st HR continues; Yankees clinch AL East

Let me tell you a little secret, just between us: Aaron Judge is going to win the American League MVP award.

This was true before Tuesday evening, when Judge became the sixth man in the history of baseball to hit 60 home runs in a season. This will be true no matter what Shohei Ohtani, the singular two-way star of the Angels, does during the season’s final two weeks. As Joan Didion wrote, we tell ourselves stories in order to live, and Judge has been baseball’s central figure in 2022. This is not to slight Ohtani. He is peerless in the most literal sense: He can chase only himself. Judge is chasing something more tangible, less enigmatic, more memorable. Judge is chasing history, and his ascendance in the record books will hold sway when the ballots are cast.

The pull of history is hard to deny. It drew more than 40,000 people into Yankee Stadium on Tuesday for an otherwise dull matchup with the last-place Pirates. It kept the majority of the lower bowl full in the ninth inning, despite the Yankees trailing by four runs: Folks needed to stick around, because Judge was leading off. And the appeal of history, of round numbers and the extraordinary players chasing them, sent the crowd into a frenzy when Judge unloaded on a thigh-high fastball from Pirates reliever Wil Crowe and deposited the pitch into the left-field bleachers. The scoreboard required only two digits, the province of Ruth, to explain the achievement.

“I kept seeing 60 on the board as he’s running around the bases,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s hard for me to grip.”

(Photo: Vincent Carchietta / USA Today)

Andy McCullough·

Senior Writer, MLB

GO FURTHER

Aaron Judge’s chase of history eclipses Shohei Ohtani’s singular brilliance in MVP race

The Mariners got a bit of good news for a change Tuesday, as third baseman Eugenio Suárez was reinstated from the 10-day injured list and is in the lineup as the designated hitter against the Rangers.

Suárez suffered a fractured right index finger in a game against the Angels on Sept. 16. He probably won’t play in the field for a few days, in order to let the finger get additional rest.

But the Mariners, just 11-11 in September and clinging to a 3 1/2 game lead over the Orioles for the third wild-card spot in the American League, could use Suárez. They were 3-6 while he was on the IL.

Suárez, who has hit 31 home runs this season, has the second-highest fWAR (4.3) on the team, second only to Julio Rodríguez, who is on the injured list with a lower back strain.

The Mariners are hopeful Rodríguez will return when he’s eligible (Sept. 4) for the final four games of the regular season.

Corey Brock·

Senior Writer, Mariners

GO FURTHER

Mariners’ Eugenio Suárez heads to 10-day IL. How will Seattle replace him?

Cleveland holds a firm lead in the AL Central with just a week and a half to go.

These four scenes, each centered on a player shouting, tell the story of the 2022 Guardians, a roster full of rookies and sophomores who are implausibly charging toward a division title.

Zack Meisel·

Staff Writer, Guardians

GO FURTHER

The Cleveland Guardians’ surge toward the postseason, as told by 4 shouting scenes

The Phillies activated outfielder Nick Castellanos from the 10-day injured list and put him in the lineup against the Cubs on Tuesday, weeks after he was sidelined because of what was called a mild oblique strain at the beginning of September.

In a corresponding move, catcher Donny Sands was optioned back to Triple-A Reading.

Matt Gelb

GO FURTHER

Phillies activate Nick Castellanos from IL with 10 games left in regular season

Now nine days to play before the bell rings on baseball’s postseason and the watchlist is growing. There are nine teams still playing with an urgent need to win, but not all of the critical remaining games are about playoff berths.

Take, for instance, tonight’s White Sox-Twins game in Minnesota. Twins hitter Luis Arraez will face Chicago hoss Lance Lynn with a batting title on the line. Arraez is hitting .313, just a point behind American League leader Aaron Judge of the Yankees. Boston’s Xander Bogaerts is also hitting .313, although he trails Arraez by a few more decimal points.

Arraez, and Bogaerts if he can get hot, are the only hitters standing in the way of Judge winning an AL Triple Crown for the first time since Miguel Cabrera did it for the Tigers in 2012. Cabrera, in fact, still stands as baseball’s only Triple Crown winner in the so-called divisional era, since 1969. Judge already holds sizable AL leads in the other two legs of the crown, in home runs (60) and RBIs (128).

The Braves, meanwhile, cut the Mets’ NL East lead to just one game on Monday after an 8-0 rout of the Nationals in D.C. And the Blue Jays, behind a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. walk-off win over the Yankees in the 10th inning, moved one game closer to a wild-card berth.

The key games to Tuesday, with wild-card and division title implications:

NL:

Marlins (Pablo Lopez) at Mets (Carlos Carrasco)

Braves (Kyle Muller) at Nationals (Paolo Espino)

Dodgers (Tyler Anderson) at Padres (Blake Snell)

Phillies (Zack Wheeler) at Cubs (Marcus Stroman)

Cardinals (Miles Mikolas) at Brewers (Adrian Houser)

AL:

Yankees (Jameson Taillon) at Blue Jays (Jose Berrios)

Rays (Corey Kluber) at Guardians (Shane Bieber)

Rangers (Jesus Tinoco) at Mariners (Robbie Ray)

Orioles (Kyle Bradish) at Red Sox (Michael Wacha)

Nick Groke·

Staff Writer, Rockies

Astros manager Dusty Baker has won more games than all but nine managers in the long history of baseball.

Also: Dusty Baker has produced as many good stories as any manager in the long history of baseball. At least that’s how it seems after talking and laughing with his former players from the Reds, Nationals, Giants and Cubs, including Joey Votto, Shawn Kelley, Ryan Dempster and more.

Said Bronson Arroyo: “I was standing out in front of the hotel with a girl and he walked up to her and he said, ‘You know who I am?’ She said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘You seen that commercial with the guy with the beard in the beer commercial, the most interesting man in the world?’ And he said, ‘Well, I’m the second-most-interesting man in the world.’ That was pretty much the damn truth.”

(Image: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photos: George Gojkovich / Getty Images; Billie Weiss / Boston Red Sox via Getty Images; Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)

The Athletic MLB Staff

GO FURTHER

True stories of Dusty Baker: ‘I’m the second-most-interesting man in the world’

As the party peaked, with Austin Hedges spraying champagne while spinning like a tornado, with manager Terry Francona buzzing the hair of unsuspecting replay coordinator Mike Barnett and with cigar smoke filling the room, team president Chris Antonetti approached José Ramírez off to the side of the visitors clubhouse at Globe Life Field.

As the Guardians, equipped with green-strapped New Era goggles, flip-flops and enough beer to fuel fraternity row, celebrated their improbable march to the American League Central title, the architect of the league’s youngest roster placed his arm around the team’s perennial All-Star. Ramírez jump-started the charge toward October by insisting on a long-term contract extension nearly six months ago.

“This all started with his decision to want to be here,” Antonetti told The Athletic. “That set the tone for our season.”

On this chaotic day, with the scent of stale beer spreading throughout the clubhouse, Antonetti reflected on the pandemonium of that final day of spring training, when the third baseman and club executives gathered in a cramped manager’s office in Arizona to hash out whether an extension was possible. Could Antonetti have envisioned a division title at that moment?

“In what fairy tale?’ he said. “The fact he committed and wanted to be here for the long term gave us a great foundation to build upon.”

(Photo: Jerome Miron / USA Today)

Zack Meisel·

Staff Writer, Guardians

GO FURTHER

Inside the clubhouse as Cleveland Guardians celebrate ‘fairy-tale’ season, size up playoffs

During his days as a Dodger, Zack Greinke puzzled over the tendencies of his most venerated teammate. Clayton Kershaw, Greinke thought, was entirely too predictable.

The curveball had made Kershaw famous. In spring training, Kershaw tinkered endlessly with a changeup. In between starts, he toiled to land pitches in each quadrant of the strike zone. Yet during games, once the season began, Kershaw trusted a straightforward formula. Nearly nine times out of 10, he threw a fastball or a slider. More often that not, he aimed the baseball toward his glove side — inside to right-handed hitters and away from left-handed batters — and low in the zone. He did not mind if he telegraphed his intention. He still dominated — and Greinke didn’t get it.

“To me, like, how do guys not hit that?” Greinke said one day this past summer. “He’s telling you what he’s going to do. I would think that people would be able to hit it.”

It was only later, after Greinke left for Arizona and stepped into the batter’s box against his former teammate, that he understood the clinical potency of Kershaw’s approach. Greinke geared up for fastballs on the inner half and sliders aimed at his back foot. He learned that it did not matter that he knew what was coming. Nor did it matter if Kershaw’s fastball no longer lit up the radar gun. Kershaw still beat him to the spot, just as he continues to beat hitters to the spot, the same spot, time and again, in this, his 15th season in the majors.

“When I got to face him more consistently, you would see that a good pitch is a good pitch,” Greinke said. “If someone has a really good pitch, even if you’re looking for it, it’s not easy to hit.”

(Photo: Darren Yamashita / USA Today)

Andy McCullough·

Senior Writer, MLB

GO FURTHER

How is Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw still so good? His fellow MLB pitchers break it down

Ranking the decisions facing voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, from easiest to most difficult:

NL Cy Young – I want my Cy winners to produce not just elite performance, but also carry heavy workloads. Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcántara is up to 212 2/3 innings, 25 1/3 more than any NL pitcher and 54 more than Dodgers lefty Julio Urías, whom he barely trails for the league lead in ERA (2.27 to 2.37). At his current pace, with three starts remaining, Alcántara would finish with 234 innings, the highest total by any pitcher since David Price threw 248 1/3 in 2014.

AL Rookie – Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez is the first player to hit at least 25 homers and steal at least 25 bases in his debut season, all while playing a premium defensive position. Much as I hate to go against Adley Rutschman, the catalyst of the Orioles’ turnaround, the catcher did not reach the majors until May 21. In a less competitive field, a number of players – Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan, Twins reliever Jhoan Duran, Orioles closer Felix Bautista, Mariners righty George Kirby – would stand better chances.

Read the full story here.

(Photo: Sam Navarro / USA Today)

Ken Rosenthal·

Senior Writer, MLB

GO FURTHER

Rosenthal: Ranking every MLB award decision — Judge vs. Ohtani not the hardest call

The playoffs are almost here but the bracket isn’t complete yet. Here’s a look at magic numbers through Sept. 26.

AL East

New York Yankees (94-59)

Magic number to clinch AL East: 2

Magic number to clinch a playoff spot: Clinched Sept. 22

Toronto Blue Jays (87-67)

Magic number to clinch a playoff spot: 3

Tampa Bay Rays (84-68)

Magic number to clinch a playoff spot: 6

AL Central

Cleveland Guardians (86-67)

Magic number to clinch AL Central: Clinched Sept. 25

AL West

Houston Astros (101-53)

Magic number to clinch AL West: Clinched Sept. 19

Seattle Mariners (83-69)

Magic number to clinch a playoff spot: 7

NL East

New York Mets (97-57)

Magic number to clinch NL East: 8

Magic number to clinch a playoff spot: Clinched Sept. 19

Atlanta Braves (96-58)

Magic number to clinch a playoff spot: Clinched Sept. 20

Philadelphia Phillies (83-69)

Magic number to clinch a playoff spot: 8

NL Central

St. Louis Cardinals (89-65)

Magic number to clinch NL Central: 3

NL West

Los Angeles Dodgers (106-47)

Magic number to clinch NL West: Clinched Sept. 14

San Diego Padres (85-68)

Magic number to clinch a playoff spot: 6

Skyler Rivera

Brandon Drury was still wearing his eye black early Sunday evening when a group of reporters approached his locker. In the Padres’ final regular-season road game, Drury had doubled, homered and scored three runs. He did not play the field, instead serving as the designated hitter. That meant he watched most of a three-hour, 43-minute contest from the dugout, where he had a direct view of Coors Field’s massive out-of-town scoreboard.

Yet Drury did not notice when the Brewers’ loss to the Reds, a particularly relevant result, became final. He was fixated on the action unfolding in front of him, including a balletic defensive play made by star third baseman Manny Machado in the bottom of the fourth.

“He makes the game look easy,” Drury said. “And this is not an easy game.”

Drury would know. A 13th-round draft pick by Atlanta in 2010, he has played six positions across seven organizations. He has been traded four times and designated for assignment twice. For three consecutive seasons, he chased home runs and launch angle as his numbers plummeted. In March, he signed his second minor-league deal in two years.

He also carried the confidence of a veteran no longer pursuing some distant feeling. This spring and into this summer, Drury emerged as Cincinnati’s top bat by wielding his pre-2018 swing to unprecedented effect. On Aug. 2, just hours after landing Juan Soto and Josh Bell, San Diego acquired him as more of an exclamation point than an afterthought. Tuesday night at Petco Park, he likely will continue batting cleanup when the Padres open their most important homestand in years.

As much as anyone not named Machado or Soto, Drury could impact the offensive fortunes of a franchise seeking its first playoff appearance in a full season since 2006.

Dennis Lin·

Staff Writer, Padres

GO FURTHER

Brandon Drury, amid a career year, could swing the Padres’ offensive fortunes

To BB or not to BB, that was the question Monday night in Canada.

Whether it is nobler in the mind for the Blue Jays to pitch to Aaron Judge with the score tied in extra innings than to put him on base is a fair inquiry, but the outcome was inevitable: Toronto’s interim manager, John Schneider, put up the four fingers and put the big man on base. The hitter behind him, Anthony Rizzo, grounded out to end the inning, proving the walk to Judge ended the potential of a sea of troubles for the Blue Jays.

“Game on the line, that’s where you wanna hit,” Judge said after the 3-2 loss in Toronto. “That’s where you wanna hit. That’s why I’m doing all the work to put myself in a position to help the team out and help us get a win right there.”

The intentional walk stymied any chance Judge had at hitting his 61st home run of the season to give his team the lead and a potential AL East division-clinching win. A half-inning later, it was the Yankees’ decision to forgo an intentional walk that led to a victory for the Blue Jays.

(Photo: John E. Sokolowski / USA Today)

Lindsey Adler·

Staff Writer, Yankees

GO FURTHER

Yankees still waiting for AL East title and Aaron Judge milestone after loss to Blue Jays

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stepped into the batter’s box in the 10th inning with two out in a 2-2 game looking for a pitch to hit. With the automatic runner on second base, Guerrero wasn’t necessarily thinking about the walk-off win. With Alejandro Kirk waiting on deck, the Blue Jays first baseman was ready to pass the baton.

But it just so happened that on the first pitch Guerrero saw from New York Yankees reliever Clarke Schmidt, the right-hander hung a slider. As he does often to pitches in the middle of the zone, Guerrero hit a line drive to left field, sending the ball deep enough that Cavan Biggio could race home and score the winning run in the Blue Jays’ 3-2 extra-innings walk-off win over the Yankees on Monday that had a fierce playoff-like tone to it all evening before a crowd of 34,307 at the Rogers Centre.

“Of course, we go out there since the first inning to try to win the game,” Guerrero said through translator Hector Lebron. “Then when you see that it’s a great matchup between the pitchers, then you’ve got to find a way to get it done and to try to help your team win.”

Kaitlyn McGrath·

Staff Writer, Blue Jays

GO FURTHER

Blue Jays beat Yankees in walk-off as chance to clinch playoff berth gets closer

The Mariners’ most devastating loss of the regular season occurred in the final game of what will be remembered as their worst road trip of 2022.

If that sounds like a lot to digest, well, it is. But that’s exactly where the Mariners sit after Sunday’s 13-12 loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

Seattle actually held an 11-2 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning before the Royals scored 11 runs in the frame, taking advantage of the Mariners’ normally reliable bullpen.

A Mariners’ victory coupled with an Orioles’ loss — Baltimore fell to Houston in extra innings — would have given Seattle a five-game lead for the third and final American League Wild Card spot with 10 games remaining.

Instead, the Mariners will likely spend part of Monday’s off-day — their last of the regular season — thinking about the one that got away, and how a five-game lead over Baltimore would have been much more palatable than the four-game edge they now hold.

“Not a great road trip. That’s certainly an understatement,” Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters. “We need an off-day. This was a rough trip for us physically.”

Corey Brock·

Senior Writer, Mariners

GO FURTHER

Mariners fumble opportunity to create space in wild-card in season-worst trip

A three-page travel itinerary hung in the Phillies clubhouse over the weekend. The 12th road trip of the season is unlike any other in Phillies history. The last time they concluded a regular season with a 10-game trip was 1967. That team was in fifth place and playing for nothing.

This is different. At the bottom of the itinerary, only this was listed for the night of Oct. 5, following Game 162: “TBD ETA in TBD.” These Phillies packed Sunday for a trip that could last as long as 18 days and cover five different cities. It will be cold in Chicago, with a tropical storm in Washington, and warm still in Houston. After that? They departed Citizens Bank Park not knowing whether they would return in 19 days for Game 3 of the National League Division Series or on April 6, 2023 for next season’s home opener against Cincinnati.

“That’s what it’s about,” Kyle Schwarber said. “Trying to get back here.”

Schwarber, minted as the team’s leader in the first season of his four-year contract, took the microphone before Sunday’s excruciating 8-7 loss to the Braves in 11 innings and addressed the crowd. “I’m not good at this stuff,” he said. Then, for about a minute, he connected with the fans who came to recognize the best Phillies team in 11 years. So much is unwritten.

“It’s been a really crazy year so far, right?” Schwarber said to the fans. “We’re going to keep this thing going for you guys.”

(Photo: Brett Davis / USA Today)

Matt Gelb

GO FURTHER

The Phillies road trip to end all road trips is here and the stakes couldn’t be higher

We’re here, the beginning of the end, a 10-day sprint to the close of the season. Don’t blink.

In the National League, the Braves, Padres, Phillies and Brewers are fighting for three wild-card spots. But the Braves are just 1 1/2 back of the Mets in the East and that race might be a race to 100 wins.

In the American League, the Blue Jays, Rays, Mariners and Orioles are fighting it out for the three wild-card berths, but with three of those teams swirling around the East, the web of consequences extended all over the league.

Monday night gives us a small slate of games, but not without importance. In the NL, the Braves are in the District to take on the Nationals, with Atlanta right-hander Bryce Elder starting against Nats righty Cory Abbott. With the Mets idle, the Braves could gain a half-game on the Mets.

But top of the list tonight: The Yankees and Luis Severino are in Toronto take on the Blue Jays and Kevin Gausman in Monday’s marquee. And the Orioles, behind journeyman Jordan Lyles, go against the Red Sox and Connor Seabold.

No contending team will lose its position tonight, but the basis for a final-week free-for-all may get a jumpstart.

(Photo: Vincent Carchietta / USA Today)

Nick Groke·

Staff Writer, Rockies

GO FURTHER

MLB Power Rankings: The Guardians make some noise, Yankees climb a rung

Major League Baseball’s new postseason format for the 2022 season expands the playing field, creates more games and introduces a different path to the pennant. The wild-card game has been eliminated and gone is the one-game playoff to break ties in the standings. Instead, the league has introduced a three-game wild-card series. Additionally, MLB has widened the playoff field from 10 to 12 teams.

With October on its way, here’s everything you need to know about MLB’s new playoff format.

Skyler Rivera

GO FURTHER

How does MLB’s new playoff format work? What you need to know ahead of postseason