AL Wild Card Game Open Thread

AMERICAN LEAGUE WILD CARD COLISEUM OF HORRIBLE DISMEMBERMENT
OAKLAND ATHLETICS AT NEW YORK YANKEES
5:00 PM, TBS AND ADJACENT STREAMING PLATFORMS

LIAM HENDRIKS (0-1, 4.13 ERA) VS LUIS SEVERINO (19-8, 3.39 ERA)

The last piece of the LDS puzzle is fit in tonight. Two American League teams that didn’t lose tiebreakers the day before face off.

The Yankees host the game by virtue of being a very good team but not as good as the Red Sox. They’re deep, they have powerful bats, and their fans still have that weird complex where they feel oppressed even though they’re the friggin’ Yankees. Giancarlo Stanton has been the power acquisition they could have hoped for. On a side note, we saw Christian Yelich perform really well for Milwaukee this season, and if he wins MVP, that will have been two straight NL MVPs the Marlins traded away. Speaking of, considering how the Nationals fell off and how bunched together the rest of the NL was: The Marlins could have tried to add some starting pitching and could have contended had they kept Stanton/Yelich/Ozuna/Everyone for at least one more year. Instead, they blew it all up because, I dunno. Re2pect to that.

Luis Severino has been very good, though he’s struggled a little bit lately. If he shows signs of that, the quick hook will probably be out.

The Athletics are in the throes of their usual bi-decade unexpected surge. It’s not totally a fluke. Matt Chapman might be the best Third Baseman in Major League Baseball, Khris Davis just hits bombs and .247. They’ve scrapped together a reclamation project rotation that includes former D-Back uniform wearers Edwin Jackson and Trevor Cahill. That rotation won’t be put to use, at least immediately, in this game, as reliever Liam Hendriks gets the call. Whether this is “The Opener” started by the Rays this year to cover up for the fact that they traded away every usable starter because they’re cheap as shit give a different look at the beginning of the game to give way to a starter to negate the “Third time through the order” penalty, or if this is going to be a bullpen game straight up.

And this game will give us another fun reminder that TBS is absolutely terrible at broadcasting baseball. Enjoy!