Your updated playoff seeds:
AL: Texas (1) vs. winner of Tampa Bay (WC1) and Oakland (WC2), Boston (2) vs. Detroit (3)
NL: Atlanta (1) vs. winner of Pittsburgh (WC1) and Cincinnati (WC2), Dodgers (2) vs. St. Louis (3)
Notes: The Red Sox’s loss to Baltimore last night slid Boston (79-56) percentage points behind the idle Rangers (78-55).
It has been a while since we did a Friday Five. Happy to not be in transit this morning and therefore able to do one.
Given how much we’ve been writing about the Yankees and their low chances of making the playoffs – here’s my column in today’s Post – I’ve been thinking a lot about teams that shocked us with September runs into the playoffs and, in some cases, beyond. I mentioned a few in my column for yesterday’s Post.
I’ll never forget a conversation I had with Bud Selig on Thursday, September 1, 2011. Here were the major-league standings at the moment we spoke. The eight playoff spots appeared all but clinched. Baseball was doomed for a dreadfully boring September, and I asked Selig how concerned he was about this.
“I wish the races were closer, but I think we’ll be fine,” Selig told me that day. “We could have terrific playoffs.”
Of course, the Rays and Cardinals proceeded to overcome the Red Sox and Braves in the wild-card races, culminating in one of baseball’s best nights ever.
So never say never, even with these Yankees. Here are five teams to which they can turn for inspiration:
1) 2011 Cardinals. On the morning of September 1, the Cards (72-64) trailed the National League wild-card leading Braves (80-55) by eight and a half games, nine in the loss column. They went 18-8 the rest of the way, and the Braves cooperated by going 9-18. There were a few times within this period when St. Louis appeared cooked, one of them being an 8-6 loss to the Mets on September 22 in which the Mets scored six runs in the top of the ninth inning to prevail. But Atlanta kept extending lifelines.
The Cardinals top this list because their amazing September lead to an even more spectacular October. St. Louis upset the Phillies in the NL Division Series and then toppled NL Central-winning Milwaukee in the NL Championship Series before coming back against Texas _ it was down to their last strike twice in Game 6 _ to win the World Series in thrilling fashion.
Throw in that future Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa retired upon winning his third World Series and mega-star Albert Pujols left his original team for a lucrative deal with the Angels in December 2011, and it makes this team’s run all the more powerful and enduring.
2) 2007 Rockies. Ask Mets fans about 2007, and most, I’d bet, would talk about the Phillies and Jimmy Rollins. As well they should. Yet the Mets also were hurt by the mind-blowing climb by the Rockies, a team that hadn’t posted a winning record since 2000 and that stood at an ultra-modest 76-72 on September 15.
The 14-1 run that followed, including a one-game playoff victory over San Diego, meant that the Rockies (89-73) and Padres (89-73) finished a game ahead of the Mets (88-74) in the NL wild-card race. The Phillies (89-73) also finished a game ahead. Only the Mets.
The Rockies kept going by sweeping past the Phillies in the NLDS and the Diamondbacks in the NLCS, giving Colorado an 18-1 run overall and making the Rockies the most surprising World Series entry in, well, pretty much forever. It seemed oddly fitting that the Red Sox swept the Rockies in that utterly unmemorable Fall Classic. Few, however, will forget how Colorado got to the finals.
3) 1995 Yankees. In a labor strife-reduced schedule, Buck Showalter’s final (for now) Yankees team was under .500 (60-61) as late as September 5. Then they went 19-4 to finish things out, clinching the first American League wild card on the final day of the season in Toronto. That magic faded quickly once the Yankees blew a 2-0 ALDS lead to Lou Piniella’s Mariners, prompting George Steinbrenner to execute major changes _ including the departure of Showalter and Gene Michael’s stepping aside as general manager _ which wound up getting the Yankees four World Series titles in the next five years.
4) 2007 Phillies. Sure, they deserve a place here, too. Rollins’ “Team to beat” comment before spring training generated a slew of attention, and those words looked ill-fated for the bulk of the season. On September 12, the Phils (76-69) trailed the Mets (83-62) by seven games. You know what happened from there.
5) 2011 Rays. Going back to my September 1, 2011 conversation with Selig, the Rays (74-61) trailed the Red Sox (83-52) by nine games. Actually, the Red Sox led the AL East that day; the Yankees (81-53) were the wild-card leaders.
This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Rays. The prior offseason, they had lost Carl Crawford (to the Red Sox), Carlos Pena (when he was good), closer Rafael Soriano (to the Yankees) and pretty much the rest of their bullpen and also traded Matt Garza to the Cubs. Nevertheless, the always resourceful Tampa Bay front office produced a roster that closed out the ’11 season with a 17-10 rally, edging past Boston on that final night.
Of course, most people now remember the Rays as mere supporting characters in the greater drama of the collapse of the Red Sox, who proceeded to dismiss long-time manager Terry Francona and trade long-time general manager Theo Epstein to the Cubs. So it goes for the brilliantly run team that can’t even get people in its own market to come to games.
–Have a great weekend.
