Three big storylines to watch heading in MLB's thrilling final w atlanta braves jersey grissom eek

September 27, 2021 By Ryan Fagan 0

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We have arrived at the last week of t Jorge Soler Marlins Jerseys he 2021 regular season, Manny Machado and there are so many questions to be answered. It’s gonna be fun watching how everything plays out. 

Will the Cardinals actually lose a game, or will their current 16-game winning streak rMLB T-Shirts each 22 by the end of the schedule? Will the Braves take care of business in their s atlanta braves jersey for dogs eries with the Phillies that starts Tuesday, or will the NL East devolve into chaos that might make a makeup game AND a tie-breaker game 163 necessary for Atlanta? 

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There are statistical titles up for grabs, too. Who will lead the majors in home runs? Right now, Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Sal Perez each have 46, and Shohei Ohtani (45), Marcus Semien (43) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (41) are within shouting distance. Will Max Scherzer (2.28 ERA) or Corbin Burnes (2.29) win the NL ERA title? 

It’s going to be fun, folks. Here are what we think are the three most compelling storylines to watch over the last week. 

NL West race

The Giants and Dodgers are batting for the NL West title, and they both have a strong motivation to go all-out over this las atlanta braves fanatics t week to claim that crown. See, the winner of the NL West moves directly into the NLDS, a best-of-five series. The team that finishes second in the division drops to the win-or-go-home wild-card game, a one-game “series” that’s great for TV but not how baseball playoffs should be decided. 

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The Giants (102 wins) and Dodgers (100 wins) aren’t just the best two teams in the NL West. They’re the best two teams in all of baseball; the Rays (97) are the only other team in the bigs with more than 94 wins on the season. But waiting for the West’s runner-up will be the Cardinals, a team riding a 16-game winning streak. Only two teams since 1953 have won more than the 16 consecutive games the Cardinals have rattled off. 

“Congrats on being the second-best team in all of baseball this year! Now you have to face one of the hottest MLB teams in the past 70 years! Good luck!” 

But railing against the current playoff setup is a topic for another column. Here’s hoping this changes with the next CBA, when that’s finally resolved at some point in the future — three-game series, minimum. For right now, the point is that both teams are very aware of the importance of winning the division and avoiding the one-game “series.”

Both teams are off Monday. The Giants have a two-game lead heading into this w atlanta braves jersey men 3xl eek; they play their final six games at home — three against the Diamondbacks, three against the Padres. The Dodgers play all six at home, too — three against the Padres and three against the Brewers. Milwaukee is locked i atlanta braves jersey xxxl nto the No. 2 NL seed, so they’ll be focused on setting up their rotation and bullpen for their NLDS, against the NL East winner. 

Notice both teams play the Padres? It’s still a bit mind-boggling to think the Friars are now just 78-78 after being 17 games over .500 in mid-August and they’ve been reduced to playing a potential spoiler here in the last week of the season. 

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AL East/AL wild-card race

The race for second (and third!) place in the AL East should be fascinating. The Rays are eight games clear of the field; they’ve already clinched the divisYadier Molinaion. At the moment, the Yankees atlanta braves jersey pullover are in second, one game ahead of the Red Sox — a team they just swept in Fenway Park this weekend — and two games ahead of the Blue Jays.

It’s likely that the teams that finish second and third in the division will claim the two AL wild-card spots, though the Mariners (two games out of the second WC spot) and A’s (three games out) are still alive, too. 

The Blue Jays are on the outside looking in at the moment, but they have a favorable schedule. The first three games aren’t favorable because they’re easy, but because they’re playing the Yankees, the team they’re directly chasing, at home. What more can you want? The Jays finish the regular season with three at home against the 106-loss OMLB Pantsrioles. 

After their three-game set in Canada, the Yankees close with three at home against a Rays team that will likely have locked up the AL’s No. 1 seed by that point, but you know Tampa Bay would love nothing more than to win and keep that potentially dangerous Yankees lineup out of the AL postseason picture. The Red Sox had their chance to take control of the wild-card race, but they were swept by New York. Still, their last six games are against the Orioles and Nationals, two teams long out of the postseason picture.  

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NL MVP race

Remember when this was Fernando Tatis Jr.’s award to lose? Well, he might have lost it. This is an individual award, of course, but the way the Padres have collapsed down the stretch cannot help his chances. It’s not that Tatis himself has been bad — he’s batting .293 with four homers and an .871 OPS in September — but that his two primary competitors have caught fire over the past month and closed the gap to basically nothing. 

Juan Soto is batting .439 with a .598 on-base percentage and 1.367 OPS in September, with seven homers, 21 RBIs and 22 runs scored in 27 games.

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Bryce Harper’s batting .390 with a .515 on-base percentage and 1.353 OPS since Aug. 25, with 11 homers and 30 RBIs. It’s not just about one month, of course. But take a look at WAR numbers and you’ll see why September does become an important part of the equation. 

By Baseball-Reference WAR’s formula, Soto is at 7.2, Tatis is 6.6 and Harper’s 5.8. By the FanGraphs calculation, Soto is at 6.7, Harper’s at 6.6 and Tatis is 6.2.

There isn’t a “wrong” answer here. It’ll be fun to see which player makes the strongest closing statement.