Cubs at Cardinals (6:30pm ET Friday, TBS) Fresh off defeating the Pirates with another masterpiece from Jake Arrieta in the Wild Card game, the Cubs now have to quickly pivot and face the St. Louis Cardinals in a best-of-five series.
The Cards made the race for the NL Central more interesting than it should’ve been, losing 8 of their last 11 games. Much of that downturn has been attributed to the loss of catcher and team leader Yadier Molina, who hasn’t played since tearing a ligament in his thumb on September 20. Molina has decided to try to return wearing a splint, which should give the Cards a huge emotional boost; whether he’ll be able to hit and catch remains to be seen.
With just over two weeks left in the 2015 Major League Baseball season, the playoff picture is largely settled, except where it’s not, and where it’s not, OH MAN is it not.
The intrigue begins in the AL East, where the Toronto Blue Jays hold a slim 3.5 game lead over the New York Yankees. A series sweep for the Yankees, whose recent surge includes taking two of three from the first-place Mets in last weekend’s interleague series, would put them back at the top of the division, and a sweep for the Jays would likely put the division out of reach for the Bombers.
There are four MLB games on Sling TV this weekm and all four of them have playoff implications.
There’s no tighter divisional race in baseball right now than the AL West, where the Houston Astros hold a slim 1.5 game lead over their intrastate rival Texas Rangers. With less than a month to go in the regular season, that’s close enough to make the Astros nervous even if the two teams weren’t scheduled to meet seven more times in 2015, but they are, including Tuesday’s game at 8pm ET on ESPN.
The Rangers are surging, coming off a 12-4 spanking of the Oakland A’s Sunday, where offensive leader... Read More
