The traditional marathon of 162 regular season matches ended on Sunday in MLB. Forty-eight hours of break were granted to qualified teams before the start of the play-offs on Tuesday. Atlanta and Los Angeles, on the National League side, Baltimore and Houston, on the American League side, leave with the favor of the forecasts to play the World Series in November. But beware of outsiders lying in wait. Last year, Philadelphia, the worst representative of the National League in the play-offs, reached the final.
Champions in 2021, the Atlanta Braves seem best equipped for the quest for the title. They not only have the best record in the MLB, with 104 victories, but also Spencer Strider, the best pitcher of the season (20 victories and 281 players retired on strikeouts), and two fabulous batters: Matt Olson, author of 54 homeruns ( No. 1 of the season), and Ronald Acuna (41 HR’s and 73 stolen bases). Atlanta has hit 307 homeruns this year, tying the MLB record. But the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2020 champions, who have won 100 games and will play in the play-offs for the 11th consecutive year, will have their say.
Miami counts on Luis Arraez
Of the twelve teams present in the play-offs last year, half are back (Atlanta and Los Angeles therefore, but also Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Houston, the defending champion). The two New York teams, Mets and Yankees, St Louis, San Diego, Cleveland and Seattle did not repeat their performance. Miami, Milwaukee, Arizona, Baltimore, Minnesota and Texas took their place.
Curious destiny that of the Miami Marlins: thirty years of existence, only the fourth participation in the play-offs, but two victories in the World Series all the same. This season, they have the best batsman in the championship, with the Venezuelan Luis Arraez (35.4% average). The Arizona Diamondbacks will play their first play-offs since 2017, the Texas Rangers and the Baltimore Orioles since 2016.
Minnesota, a curse to overcome
Baltimore was the sensation of the American League. A young team, it came close to the play-offs last year. This season she has 101 victories. On their way, the Orioles could come across the Houston Astros, who will try to win the title for the second consecutive year, something never seen in MLB since 2000. Not content with having good batters, the Texan franchise has also recovered in progress. of the season its legendary pitcher Justin Verlander, who left for New York at the start of the year.
The Minnesota Twins will want to put an end to a strange situation: they have been waiting for twenty-one years to make it through the first round of the play-offs, but above all it has been nineteen years since they have most won a match in the final phase. But it’s still better than the Los Angeles Angels, who, despite superstars Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, still failed to reach the playoffs. It might be good for these two players to look elsewhere.
Cabrera a rejoint Willie Mays et Hank Aaron
Finally, on Sunday, two MLB legends bid farewell to the field. Venezuelan Miguel Cabrera (40 years old) ended a twenty-year career, spent mainly with the Detroit Tigers. He is the third player in history to start with a 30% batting average, more than 3,000 hits and more than 500 homeruns, three legendary bars in baseball. Cabrera thus joined Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, MLB legends in the 50s and 60s, the first two to have achieved these performances.
Coach Terry Francona (64) also withdrew. He officiated for twenty-three seasons, in Philadelphia, Boston and Cleveland. Francona allowed the Boston Red Sox to be champion in 2004, after eighty-six years of drought, ending the “curse” that had weighed on the team since 1918 and the transfer of Babe Ruth to New York.
2023-10-02 09:05:28
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