By: Kelly Byrnes
NL Wild Card: Milwaukee Brewers (Brandon Woodruff) at Washington Nationals (Max Scherzer)
The Brewers seemed dead in the water at the beginning of September especially after Christian Yelich got hurt. Then from Sept. 6 to Sept. 26 they went 18-2 and put themselves right back into the postseason picture. The Nationals return to the postseason after missing out in 2018 where they lost in 5 in the NLDS. Scherzer will head to the mound hoping to put behind a second half of nagging injuries and looking for his first playoff win in a Nationals uniform. Woodruff is coming off an oblique injury so I wouldn’t expect him to pitch very long especially if the Brewers are able to get an early lead. The Nationals have all hands on deck with Strasburg and Corbin available if Scherzer falters. Because of that and home field advantage I’m going with the Nationals.
AL Wild Card: Tampa Bay Rays (Charlie Morton) at Oakland A’s (TBA)
The A’s return to the Wild Card game from last year and are hoping for a different outcome this time around. This is the Rays 5th playoff appearance and first since 2013. Not many people had either of these teams in the playoffs at the beginning of the year even thought the A’s were here last year. I heard the word fluke a lot when all the predictions were coming out in Spring Training about the A’s. I love two small market teams making it this far and its a shame only one of them will continue their journey to the Fall Classic. I’m having trouble picking a winner for this game, the A’s are the home team and the slight favorite. The Coliseum will be rocking and will see its first postseason action since 2013. The A’s are 0-2 in Wild Card games and I think that trend will continue. I want to pick the A’s I really do but I just think the Rays are going to win. Charlie Morton is on the mound for the Rays and he has been really good against the A’s in his two starts against them this year.