As Might ends, even some weaker groups have causes for hope in baseball’s playoff chase | Baseball
The Detroit Tigers are 25-26 years old and haven’t gone over .500 a day all season. They are also one game behind first place.
The Chicago Cubs have the worst record in the National League but are only 4 1/2 games away from a playoff berth.
As Memorial Day approaches, some of baseball’s weaker teams are still within striking distance in the postseason race. In fact, FanGraphs lists just five teams in the major leagues that have less than a 5% chance of making the postseason: the Royals, Athletics, Nationals, Reds, and Rockies. And even Cincinnati is just four games clear of first place in the NL Central.
As of May 29 of last year, there were 11 teams with less than a 5% chance of making the playoffs.
There are a handful of factors this year that are helping teams stay competitive, even if they’re not playing as well.
1. The worst teams are REALLY bad. Oakland is 10-45, and the Athletics could well challenge the Mets’ modern record of 1962 of 120 losses. Kansas City isn’t much better at the current 16-38 record.
That means more wins for other teams that could use the help. Seattle, for example, could be in serious trouble right now were it not for a 7-0 record against the A’s.
2. Many of the mediocre teams are grouped in the same divisions. Minnesota leads the AL Central 27-26, and that means the Tigers don’t even have to be at .500 to be close behind. Cleveland (23-29) is 7 1/2 games behind the last wild card but only 3 1/2 behind the division lead, and even the White Sox are only six games behind the Twins despite being 11 games under .500.
Similarly in the NL Central, there are only 5 1/2 games between division leaders Milwaukee (28-25) and the bottom-placed Cubs.
3. While it takes a very good record to secure even the third wild card in the AL, there is real parity in the NL. Currently, the third wildcard in the NL belongs to San Francisco (27-26) and there are nine teams within 4 1/2 games against the Giants.
TRIVIA TIME
One of the most intriguing stats about the A’s is that out of their ten wins, four have come in walk-off style. Only one team has more walkoff wins than Oakland. Who is this?
COMEBACK OF THE WEEK
The Philadelphia Phillies rebounded from a 5-0 deficit in the sixth inning against Arizona on Wednesday. Trea Turner leveled the game with a two-run home run late in the ninth, and then Alec Bohm’s single in the tenth gave Philadelphia a 6-5 win. According to Baseball Savant, the Diamondbacks had a 98.6% chance of winning in the ninth game.
LINE OF THE WEEK
Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler threw eight innings without a score and had 12 strikeouts in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Atlanta. He allowed three hits.
With Aaron Nola boasting a 4.59 ERA, the Phillies could really use more performances of this type from Wheeler as they try to gain ground in the NL East.
TRIVIA ANSWER
The Yankees lead the majors with five walk-off wins. Last week they had two of them: Anthony Volpe hit a sacrificial flight in the 10th inning on Tuesday night to beat Baltimore and Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s single in the 10th rounded out New York’s win over San Diego on Saturday.
The Padres have lost all five extra innings games and are 3-9 in one run games.
Follow Noah Trister at https://twitter.com/noahtrister
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, transcribed, or redistributed without permission.
