Playoffs Approaching

The National League playoff participants are all decided. The Rockies clinched a berth in the postseason, with a win over the Brewers on Thursday. All that is left is playing out the weekend to decide each team's place and seed.

The Rockies or the Dodgers could be the Wild Card entrant. Colorado is 2 games behind Los Angeles, and the teams will be going head to head for three games. Colorado needs to sweep to win the West Division. The Phillies and Cardinals have qualified also as the champions of their respective divisions.

With three games left for everyone, the Dodgers enjoy the best record at 93-66. The Phillies are a game behind, at 92-67. The Cardinals have the same record as the Rockies at 91-68. The team with the best record after Sunday gets home field advantage for the division series and the league championship series. Home field advantage for the World Series is decided by the league that wins the all star game, as most of you know.

The tiebreakers for best record/#1 seed are decided by head to head record, and go like this-

Phillies and Cardinals tie...Phillies get 1 seed, based on 4-1 record vs. Cards.

Dodgers & Phillies tie...Dodgers get 1 seed, based on 4-3 record vs. Phillies.

Dodgers & Cardinal tie...Cards get 1 seed, based on 5-2 record vs. LAD.

If there is a three way tie for best record, the tiebreaker is combined record vs. the other two teams. Best record was 7-5 by the Phillies who would get the 1 seed. Next is 6-6 by St. Louis, who would be the 2 seed. 3 seed would go to the Dodgers, who were 6-8 against the other two teams.

If the Rockies or Dodgers finish the season with the best record, the 1 seed would not play the 4 seed, which would be the Wild Card team. MLB rules state that teams from the same division can not meet in the first round. In that case, the 2 seed would meet the Wild Card.

------------------------

Phormer Phillie Phlash: Carlos Carrasco and his 8.87 ERA were hit with a Jacoby Ellsbury line drive on Thursday night. Carrasco left the game and took the loss to the Red Sox, dropping his record to 0-4 in 5 ML starts.

------------------------------
Follow PhoulBallz.com on Twitter HERE!

Comments

Jealous Ones Envy

Joe Blanton continues to excel and prove his worth in the Phillies pitching rotation. In his latest outing on Sunday, Blanton threw 8 strong innings, striking out 6, while walking just 1 and surrendering 2 earned runs, improving his record to 7-4. This season in July, Joe is 3-0 over four starts with 22 K's, 5 walks and a 1.21 ERA. Over his last 6 starts, Joe's ERA is 1.94. As a member of the Phillies, Blanton has a 3.84 ERA after the all star break with a 5-0 record. The Phillies are 20-12 (.625 winning percentage) in games that Blanton has started, since being acquired last July. Combined this season against other National League playoff contenders St. Louis, Chicago and Los Angeles, Blanton has a combined 1.67 ERA in 4 starts with a 2-0 record. Blanton is on such a sizzling run that the Bowling Green Hot Rods, a Tampa Bay Rays farm team, will host a Joe Blanton bobble head give away tomorrow. Bowling Green will host Joe's mother, father and sister for the event, as Joe...

Heroes- Fight of the Century

VS. It's a big day for your boy, Jay Ballz . No work, X-Men Origins: Wolverine premieres, our Phillies face the Metropolitans for the first time this season and tailgating for BOTH doesn't sound all that absurd to me. Anyway, I surveyed some qualified phans and got several opinions on how exactly a fight might go down if the mutant hero Wolverine faced off against Phillies hero Matt Stairs. Well known blogger, Chris, of I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake , kept it real and said the following- "Wolverine has adamantium ( indestructible metal substance) claws, so that's a great advantage. Stairs' Wonder Bat is neutralized there. See, the problem becomes Wolverine's ability to recover (he has a regenerative power) faster. Stairs is merely human. Sure, he has a goatee, and goatees are great, but they're great for saving sauce, not for defeating mutants. I think Wolverine takes it in a fight to the death in about 15 minutes because Stairs simply doesn'...

...Got My Learn On

The weekend is just about here, but it's not feeling great so far. My college hoops team lost, and my mail included a huge image of Mets star David Wright on the cover of The Sporting News. "All Wright"? Um, I don't really believe it is. Aside from the non-appealing cover, it's the MLB preview issue, so allow me to share some things I learned from this week's magazine. 1- Former Phillie, and regular Sporting News columnist, Todd Jones has gone insane. Jones predicts that Jamie Moyer will win the NL Cy Young Award, and that Manny Ramirez will run for governor of California after the Dodgers win the 2009 World Series. 2- Ichiro Suzuki rocks the party that rocks the body. Metropolitans reliever Francisco Rodriguez compares Jose Reyes to Ichiro, saying they do many of the same things. I must have missed Ichiro performing rehearsed celebratory hand jives after getting a hit or scoring a run in a losing effort. And I know I missed Ichiro getting caught cheating on...

PhoulBallz.com

Search This Blog