Game 162

Let’s check the vibes and hopes all around baseball ... even though that stuff adds up to bubkis

(Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

KANSAS CITY — We had a fantastic night celebrating the four players — Ralph Garr, Gary Matthews Sr., Andre Thornton, and Reggie Smith — who were chosen for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum’s Hall of Game. All four of them were fantastic players and great baseball characters, and it was so cool to be there to ask them some questions and share a little fun baseball knowledge (Ralph hit .585 his last year at Grambling; Gary got his “Sarge” nickname from Pete Rose; Thunder Thornton was a favorite player of a young actor working in Cleveland summer theater named Tom Hanks; every full season Reggie played, his team had a winning record).

And now it’s 5 a.m., and I’m at the Kansas City airport early, and it’s the final day of the baseball season.

And the Phillies STILL have not clinched that final spot.

Sheesh.

Let’s see if I can get around the league before my flight lands back home after a long travel week. Let’s get ourselves ready for the playoffs!

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American League East

I don’t know how many people had Tampa Bay finishing with the best record in the league, but they’ve had it for months. I can’t quite figure out how good this Rays team is — they’ve outperformed their Pythag run-differential record by eight games, and they are only .500 in blowout games (5+ run differential), which is very unusual for the best teams. But they’ve been blowing out teams lately, including their 12-1 destruction of the pitiable Phillies on Saturday.

And their 30-something no-name pitching staff of Nick Martinez, Drew Rasmussen, Griffin Jax, and closer Bryan Baker is, apparently, quite good.

The Yankees don’t seem to have any idea when Aaron Judge will be back. Manager Aaron Boone hints that he might not quite be ready for the Wild Card round series against the Red Sox. Judge himself insists he will be back. Who knows? I suppose the real key is New York ace Cam Schlittler. In the playoffs last year, he announced his presence with authority by throwing eight shutout innings with 12 strikeouts and no walks against Boston. After the game, our pal and Red Sox loony fan Mike Schur wondered if the performance was more due to the Red Sox's offensive ineptitude than any particular brilliance from Schlittler.

As is often the answer: Why not both? Schlittler has been an absurdity this year — 14-6, 1.95 ERA, 25 starts where he allowed one run or less. The Red Sox offense is still a big ol’ question mark, and if Schlittler steals their soul again in Game 1, the series might be over. On the other hand, if Boston could somehow scrape out a victory against Schlittler, the Yankees might not recover.

Such are the whims of three-game playoff series.

American League Central

You have to give the Chicago White Sox all the credit in the world — I mean, they lost ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-ONE games just two years ago, and lost 102 last year. And, somehow, they’ve led the American League Central for most of the year. Sure, that’s partly because the AL Central is pretty bad, but the White Sox lead the American League in runs, and they’ve got three 30-home-run hitters, including Miguel Vargas, who has had a terrific year and will get some down-ballot MVP support.

But the big dream ended Saturday when Cleveland pummeled the Royals, and Chicago was outgunned by the Colorado Rockies.

Still, the White Sox are in the playoffs — they’ll play the winner of the American League West, a team that will definitely have a worse record than they do.

As for Cleveland, well, it’s a familiar story. The Guardians can’t score. But they have that remarkable knack for finding pitching — this year their big find is a 25-year-old lefty named Parker Messick, who is third in the league in ERA. He mixes a moving fastball with a Bugs Bunny change-up, and it turns out that’s enough to get hitters out if you get your sequencing right. There’s more pitching in Cleveland — there always is — and Cade Smith is lights out in the ninth.

In a postseason that will likely be low-scoring — I mean, you never know, but that’s how it looks to me — Cleveland is dangerous without, you know, being dangerous.

American League West

What a circus. The Rangers and Astros are each 80-81. The Astros have the tie-breaker — thanks to their 9-4 head-to-head record — so the only way that Texas can win the division is by beating Minnesota and hoping that Houston loses to the woeful Athletics. It’s possible. Anything’s possible in this lousy division.

And I suppose it’s mathematically possible that Yordan Álvarez can still take the Triple Crown. It would take one heck of an effort — he’s one home run and eight RBI behind Baltimore’s Pete Alonso — but, you know, why not? A three-homer game, 10 RBI game against the A’s in Sacramento would probably get it done. The A’s have given up more home runs than any team in baseball.

National League East

Things looked pretty clear. When September began, the Phillies were still in the hunt for the division title, and they had the No. 1 wildcard spot and were 6½ games up on Arizona. Even a week ago, the Phillies — while they couldn’t reel in Atlanta for the division title — seemed all but assured of their October spot.

Not anymore.

The Phillies have lost four in a row — scoring three runs in the process — and even though Arizona’s hot streak ended against the Padres Saturday, the Phillies still need to win today against Tampa Bay to save their playoff lives. The Phillies could lose and still get in if the Diamondbacks lose to San Diego again, but that’s no way to live. The Phillies are starting their pitching icon, Zack Wheeler, and he knows as well as anyone what it will be like in the City of Brotherly Love if the Phils tank.

The Braves will face the Phillies or Diamondbacks in the wildcard round … Atlanta is probably the third-best team in all of baseball, so it kind of stinks for them that they have to play in the wildcard round. But maybe not. The World Series champ has come out of the wildcard round two of the last three years.

National League Central

The big question going into this postseason for me is: Will this finally be the Brewers year? They will finish with baseball’s best record. They have baseball’s most electric pitcher in Jacob Misiorowski. They have a scrappy lineup that finds ways to score runs without hitting many homers. They seem to have a different swagger about them.

And all of that adds up to bubkis — you win in the postseason by, you know, winning in the postseason. We’ll see.

The Cubs will play the scorching hot San Diego Padres in the wildcard round, but hey, there are no gimmes in this league. The Cubs’ pitching scares nobody — they have allowed the second-most home runs in baseball this year — but, you know, in PCA we trust.

National League West

I’m returning from Los Angeles now, and I can report a certain unease among Dodgers fans — there’s just this sense that the Dodgers don’t have the championship vibes this time around. This, like all the good signs in Milwaukee, adds up to bubkis. The Dodgers can win their 100th game today, they have a first-round bye, they have the biggest payroll in baseball history and superstars all over the place. They might lose, sure. They also might win. October, like the movie Tenet, is impenetrable.

Let’s give it up to the Pads who have ridden the wave this September. They are bottom half in the league in runs scored, but their lineup looked surprisingly balanced to me when I saw them play in LA — Fernando Tatis has had a really good year, so has Ty France, Manny Machado is still a threat to take one out — and Mason Miller is the scariest closer in baseball, I think.

I think if the Padres were in the American League, I’d think of them as the favorites to come out with the pennant.