NewsJudgment day: All races could be settled
Tigers, Rockies, Dodgers can clinch; Twins, Braves fight on
By Doug Miller / MLB.com
10/01/09 7:00 AM EST
The complicated pennant races are becoming simple, and Thursday's games should provide even more clarity.The Tigers need a win to clinch the American League Central and the Rockies need a win to clinch at least the National League Wild Card.
The Dodgers are off, but they can clinch the NL West if the Rockies lose to the Brewers.
On the other side of the coin, the Twins must win to play another day, and the Braves must win and see the Rockies lose to keep alive their hopes.
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And there is a scenario in which all of the playoff berths, as well as the Division Series matchups, could be set.
If the Rockies and Braves both lose, the Dodgers would clinch the West and the Rockies would take the Wild Card and would be paired with either the Phillies or Cardinals -- whichever team finishes with a better record. And that could be settled today as well.
If the Phillies beat the Astros and the Cardinals lose to the Reds, Philadelphia would be three games better with three games remaining, meaning that the best St. Louis could do is finish with the same record as Philadelphia. But the Phillies would win the tiebreaker based on their 4-1 season-series mark against St. Louis.
The Cardinals, then, would play the Dodgers in the first round.
But first, the Tigers can clinch their division by beating the pesky Twins in Detroit, but to a man, the members of the club seem to be focusing on playing well rather than worrying about the numbers. It's helped them take two out of three in their pivotal four-game set and they say it will help them in the series finale, which can be seen live on MLB Network and MLB.TV at 1 p.m. ET.
"I've been around on this team, especially for so long, to know better," Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge said. "The second you start calculating stuff, when you should just be getting mentally prepared and taking that straight to the field, that's when it starts to snowball and you start getting panicky.
"I'm very happy right now, looking at the series so far. We've got a good feel going. But if we don't come back and have the same intensity and have the same feel, it's all for nothing."
If the Twins win, they'll be within two games of the division lead with three to play, and considering how far they've come this year to make it this close, they might have a bit of fight left.
"I'm not a great math guy," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said, "but tomorrow is a must-win. [I] guarantee our guys will come out to play. They have all year. We've tried. The one thing that hasn't gone away is them busting their tails. It hasn't been pretty all year, and we've had some stretches where it doesn't look good. But the attitude and getting after the game hasn't stopped this year."
The same can be said for the Rockies, who surged to the lead of the NL Wild Card standings after the dismissal of manager Clint Hurdle and promotion of Jim Tracy on May 29. On Thursday, a win over Milwaukee would guarantee their first postseason berth since their World Series runner-up year of 2007. And if the Dodgers lose again, the Rockies will enter a three-game set at Dodger Stadium over the weekend with a chance to take the division.
"Any time you're this close, you smell it," Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said. "You want to get it done. It's exciting. At the same time, we have to keep doing what we've been doing to get here and not put too much pressure on ourselves to feel like it's a must-win."
It's difficult to imagine how the Dodgers feel. While they were one of the first teams to lock up a postseason berth, they've been sitting on a magic number of one since the start of play on Tuesday and have lost four in a row.
Maybe their Thursday off-day will re-energize them for the Colorado series that begins in Chavez Ravine on Friday. Or they can clinch the division if the Rockies simply lose on Thursday.
Either way, the Dodgers' ups and downs have been hard to explain.
"This is an unusual club; it's been that way all year," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "I'm not saying we were ever given up for dead, but we could play flat, then bounce right back. And when we left town for this trip, we had won five of six and on Sunday had beaten [Tim] Lincecum and the Giants. We came on the road in the right frame of mind.
"It's strange."
It certainly would be strange if Atlanta managed to make the postseason. The Braves need to win the rest of their games and hope Colorado loses the rest of theirs just to create a tie and playoff game. They'll look to rookie sensation Tommy Hanson against Washington to somehow keep the season going.
"I just want to keep my same mind-set and go out there and try to do the best that I can," Hanson said. "But this is my last regular-season start, so I want to do good, finish strong and help us win to keep us going a little bit."
Doug Miller is a national reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
