The American League’s Elite Eight for the 2020 Wild Card round has been decided. The Tampa Bay Rays enter the playoffs as the No. 1 seed followed by the No. 2 seed Oakland A’s, No. 3 Minnesota Twins, No. 4 Cleveland Indians, No. 5 New York Yankees, No. 6 Houston Astros, No. 7 Chicago White Sox and No. 8 Toronto Blue Jays. Though the Rays currently find themselves installed the +325 favs to win the American League at online sportsbooks, it’s the fifth seed Yankees +350 that check in right behind them followed by the Twins +575, A’s +650, White Sox and Indians +700, Astros +1200 and Blue Jays +1600. With each of these first round series being of the best-of-three variety, anything can and will happen should the baseball gods smile upon any of these teams. Remember, these series will be played in the higher seed’s home stadium with the next round moving to a bubble. Home field advantage does not exist!
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Rays vs. Blue Jays
Tampa Bay opened -210 favorites to defeat their division rivals. The implied probability states that Brandon Lowe and company have a near 68 percent chance of advancing. However, the number to beat is a bit inflated considering Tampa Bay only won six of the 10 regular season meetings 60%. They are however the more veteran team with the better starting rotation that will trot Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow to the bump in the first two games. Should there need to be a third, Charlie Morton will get the call. If a battle of the pens ensues, Tampa Bay possesses the upper hand there as well with it the owner of the league’s No. 4 ranked unit while Toronto clocks in at No. 23. Both teams can steal bases, but the Rays boast by far the better of the two defenses. While it’s great that the upstart Blue Jays found a way to get into the dance, they should chalk it up to a learning experience that molds them for the future. They’re likely up against it.
A's vs. White Sox
Regardless of Chicago managing just one win in their final eight games entering the second season, you can bet your bottom dollar Rick Renteria’s squad gets a ton of support from the betting markets in this series with Oakland. The A’s ended up taking down the AL West by seven games, but lost All-star third baseman Matt Chapman along the way. Because of it, the defense took a major hit at the hot corner as well as a potent stick in the middle of the lineup. Stud right-hander Lucas Giolito will get the starting nod for the Palehose in the opener, and he’ll be followed by veteran left-hander Dallas Keuchel who owns a career 3.06 ERA and 1.18 WHIP against Oakland through 20 career starts. Oakland will be countering with the erratic Mike Fiers, Chris Bassitt and Frankie Montas. God help them if they decide to throw either Mike Minor or Jesus Luzardo since Chicago rakes lefties No. 2. Regardless, the White Sox season will come to an abrupt end should it be unable to get out of its current funk that saw them drop eight of 10 to current playoff teams. The A’s opened modest -135 favorites to win the series.
Twins vs. Astros
Houston enters the second season as the only AL team to qualify with a losing record. Still, you have to tip your cap in Dusty Baker’s direction for getting the team into the playoffs with all the injuries the roster was forced to deal with over the last two months. The laundry list of casualties is eye-opening; Justin Verlander, Yordan Alvarez, Roberto Osuna, Chris Devenski, Josh James – none of these guys will be suiting up for Houston in the postseason. That bodes extremely well for the Twins who ended up winning the AL Central by a single game over both Cleveland and Chicago. Minnesota has the overall pitching and defense to make a deep run in this tournament, but it will all come back to an offense No. 19 that’s struggled to find consistency all season long. Its great equalizer however could be the long ball in which it ranked No. 6 overall. Getting a healthy Josh Donaldson and Byron Buxton back in the lineup will be a must if it’s to advance in a series it only opened -120 chalk to win.
Indians vs. Yankees
They say good pitching beats good hitting; that saying will be put to the test in this series with the Tribe owning the league’s No. 2 ranked pitching staff and the Bronx Bombers ranked top five in most pertinent offensive categories. The trio of Shane Bieber, Carlos Carrasco and Zach Plesac would be tough for any team to contend with, but I’m not so certain that rings true with a team like the Yankees that can hang a crooked number on the board in a “New York Second.” While the back end of the Yanks’ starting rotation has its warts, the forefront boasts a couple of studs in Gerrit Cole and Masahiro Tanaka who’ve been here before. That paired with both Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge healthy and back in the lineup will put even more pressure on the Indians’ pitching staff. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t look like Cleveland has enough offensive firepower to hang in this short series of which the Yankees opened -135 favorites to win.
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