AL Wild Card Race

     We are down to the final week of the regular season in Major League Baseball. Most of the races are decided but the AL Wild Card race is as wild as it gets. Four teams are fighting for two playoff spots and these teams are separated by 3 games. This last weekend is going to be fun to watch where all four of these teams finish and I will be taking you through all their situations for this last week.

New York Yankees

    The Yankees currently lead the wild card race by holding a two and a half game lead over the Seattle Mariners who are currently on the outside looking in. They have two more games against the Toronto Blue Jays, who are three games behind the Yankees, and this could get this race a lot more interesting. If the Blue Jays can win those two games, they will be separated by only one game in the standings heading into the final series. The Yankees then have to face the Tampa Bay Rays in their final series which will be a crucial series possibly. The Rays are the best team in the American League but they might choose to sit some of their players this weekend to try and rest them for the playoffs since they have nothing to gain or lose this weekend. I feel like the Yankees have a good possibility in holding one of the two final spots.

Boston Red Sox

    The Red Sox sit a half of a game ahead of the Seattle Mariners for the final wild card spot and they have the easiest schedule out of the four teams. They have two more games against the Baltimore Orioles and three games against the Washington Nationals left. These are both bottom tier teams in the league and the Red Sox need to win at least three of these last five games to have a shot. They lost to the Orioles just last night which gave the Mariners a shot at creeping back into this race and they did just that. The Red Sox have to figure out how to win these games this weekend or they might have a disappointing end to their season. I like the Red Sox chances in holding this final spot but they could easily lose it to the Blue Jays or Mariners.

Seattle Mariners

    I think this is the team everyone wants to see in the playoffs since they have not made it in forever. The Mariners are only a half game back and if they can win this game tonight against the Athletics, they could have a good shot at making the playoffs. They get to play the Los Angeles Angels in their final series and they are more than capable of winning all three of those games. The Mariners have to win at least three of their last four games if not all of them to have any shot at getting into the playoffs. I think everyone in baseball is rooting for them outside of the Yankees, Red Sox, and Blue Jays fans. This could be an amazing story if they could find their way into this year's playoffs. I give them a twenty-percent chance at making it and it could go up if they can get a win tonight.

Toronto Blue Jays

    The Blue Jays were a team that was on fire and it looked like they were going to grab a wild card spot but they have skidded recently. They are one game out of the playoffs and they need to beat the Yankees in both of the last two games they play against them. If they can do this, they will be within striking distance of the Yankees and they could quite possibly be in the final wild card spot. They get to finish the year off with three games against the Orioles, so if they can win these next two, they will be in amazing position. I think that they have a lower chance than the Mariners have but not by much. If they win the next two against the Yankees they will have a better shot than they do now.

Mayhem?

    There is also a possibility that three of these teams could tie or all four of them. If all four of them tie, there would be two play-in games to determine the two teams. If there was a three-way tie it would get a whole lot more confusing. I saw the scenario on Twitter the other day and it was too confusing for even me to figure out but it would involve two teams playing and the loser of that game would play the other team and the winners of those two games would be the two teams that make the playoffs. I personally, would like for either one of these situations to happen because it would mean these teams would have to play one or two extra games to actually make the playoffs.

    Comment down below what you would like to see happen!