Mike Harrington
Sports Columnist
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today
MLB sure gave us one surreal September. The postseason opens Tuesday, on the last day of the month, and it will lead us through what figures to be a crazy October.
The New York Yankees are Los Angeles Dodgers are back, and it would be no surprise if they make it all the way to the end like they did last season in staging their 12th World Series showdown. This will be the Dodgers’ 13th straight postseason trip, one shy of the record of 14 set by Atlanta from 1991-2005, and they are trying to win back-to-back Series titles for the first time in their history.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros and New York Mets choked their way to an early vacation but the Detroit Tigers snuck in on the final weekend as a wild card after producing the biggest September lead ever blown in a division race.
Detroit’s 7-17 record is the worst final-month mark for a playoff team in history. It allowed the Cleveland Guardians to roar back from 15½ games out in July and 11 out on Sept. 5 to win the Central Division title by going 20-7 in the month.
While Detroit survived to play another day, other notables did not. Houston is out of the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and Atlanta never recovered from an 0-7 start to miss for the first time since 2017. The Mets had the game’s best record into mid-June at 45-24 and cratered to go 38-55 the rest of the way, leading to owner Steve Cohen posting an apology to fans Monday on X.
The eyes of most fans in these parts will be on the Yankees-Red Sox division series – which will send the winner to Toronto for what figures to be an epic division series.
The Blue Jays wrapped up their first division title since 2015 with Sunday’s 13-4 win over Tampa Bay, finishing 94-68 and winning the American League East crown on the tiebreaker over the Yankees after taking the season series, 8-5.
There are two overriding trouble spots surrounding the Jays at this point. One is the health of star shortstop Bo Bichette, who missed most of September with a knee problem and desperately wants to be back for the division series. The other is the slump of $500 million man Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who only hit 23 home runs in the regular season. He hasn’t gone deep since Sept. 5 and had just one extra-base hit in the last 19 games.
Leadoff man George Springer (.309-32-84) has carried the offense much of the year in one of his best seasons since winning the World Series in Houston in 2017. But he needs more help. The Jays pulled out the division by winning their last four games at home, after being held to one run or less six times in a 1-6 slide that got the Yankees back in the race.
On the plus side, Toronto has a cadre of ex-Bisons who have done an unbelievable job shoring up both the lineup and the bullpen.
Think of hitters like Ernie Clement, Nathan Lukes, Davis Schneider and Addison Barger. And arms such as Herd Opening Day starter Eric Lauer (9-2, 3.18, 102 strikeouts), who helped fill the rotation, then was rewarded with the division-clinching inning in relief on Sunday. Or ex-Buffalo relievers Tommy Nance (2-0, 1.99) and Mason Fluharty, a lefty who gave up one hit in 35 at-bats over his last 13 outings in the big leagues.
Meanwhile, the New York media will spend all kinds of newspaper space and air time analyzing the postseason in all manner of ways but the Yankees’ plight seems simple from this view: Aaron Judge has to hit.
The most losses since 2009 make it easily one of the worst seasons in the franchise’s modern era of Triple-A. But in the eyes of the parent Toronto Blue Jays, many success stories emerged from their top affiliate.
The remarkable regular season that saw Judge hit .331 with 53 home runs and 114 RBIs has been reset to zero, and starting from scratch in October hasn’t been a good thing in his career.
The numbers are quite astonishing: Judge is a career .205 hitter in the postseason − and is at just .160 in his last four Octobers with eight home runs and 45 strikeouts in 119 at-bats. The Yankees can’t win if his bat reverts to a modern-day Dave Kingman special when the lights are at their brightest.
American League
Wild-card series: The Yankees have lost three straight postseason series against the Red Sox, starting with the blown 3-0 lead in the 2004 ALCS and continuing through matchups in 2018 and 2021. What a monster pitching matchup in Tuesday night’s opener, with New York’s Max Fried (19-5, 2.86) going against Boston’s Garrett Crochet (18-5, 2.59).
It almost seems unfair the Guardians have to beat the Tigers again to advance but that’s the way the brackets shook out. Cleveland forged a 2.25 team ERA in September, and Jose Ramirez has been the best player in the AL this season in the Mortals Division (non-Judge and Cal Raleigh). If Detroit ace Tarik Skubal can’t figure out a way to win Tuesday’s opener, it’s hard to imagine the Tigers surviving.
Waiting with the byes: The Blue Jays are No. 1 and have home field at the raucous Rogers Centre − where they were an MLB-best 54-27 − throughout the AL side of the bracket. The Jays have never met the Yankees or Red Sox in a postseason series since they were born in 1977 but that changes when Game 1 of the division series is played in Toronto on Saturday. The Mariners get the Guardians-Tigers winner while hoping to maintain the edge that saw them go on a 17-2 run in September to grab their first AL West title since 2001.
Yesavage has no decisions and a 3.63 ERA in six games at Triple-A, but has struck out 26 in 17â…“ innings and held opponents to a .150 batting average.
National League
Wild-card series: Despite just 83 wins on the season and a 25-26 record in their last 51 games, the Reds snuck in over the Mets on the tiebreaker. You would think their trip to Los Angeles would be a short one, but the Game 1 matchup of Hunter Greene vs. Blake Snell is intriguing.
The Chicago Cubs are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and host the San Diego Padres in Wrigley Field. The Cubs are looking to win a postseason games for the first time since 2017, the year after the iconic World Series title was secured in Game 7 at Cleveland. They haven’t met the Padres in the playoffs since their epic collapse in the 1984 NL Championship Series in which they won the first two games in Wrigley and dropped the last three out West.
Brown, 64, holds a rare position on the Buffalo airwaves. He worked with Pete Weber on Bisons games, with Bills voice Van Miller and longtime Sabres voice Rick Jeanneret while hosting the hockey team’s pre- and postgame shows.
Waiting with the byes: The Brewers, who won a franchise-record 97 games, finished with MLB’s best record and will have home-field advantage for the route. They await the Cubs-Padres winner to start the quest for their first trip to the World Series since 1982. Barring a massive upset by the Reds, the Dodgers are looking at a trip to Philadelphia to start what would be a star-powered division series featuring Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.
Around the horn
Secret weapon: The Dodgers have Ohtani slated to be the starting pitcher if the series against the Reds goes to Game 3, but you know they’re hoping to wrap it up in a sweep. That’s because they would then have Ohtani lined up to pitch Game 1 and Game 5 against the Phillies.
No roar: The Tigers finished 2-9 in their last 11 games and were outscored, 50-24, while scoring two runs or less seven times. In going 1-5 against the Guardians in September, Detroit was outscored, 26-13.
Purple Power: Former Niagara University pitcher Matt Brash needs to regain the first-half form that made him an eighth-inning setup monster in Seattle. In his first season back after missing 2024 due to Tommy John surgery, Brash had a 2.47 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 471/3 innings overall. He entered August with a 1.03 ERA but is at 4.29 since, even though he posted 30 strikeouts and just seven walks over 21 innings.
World Series droughts: The Guardians maintain the longest one, last winning in 1948. The other pre-2000s last titles belong to the Tigers (1984), Reds (1990) and Blue Jays (1993). The Brewers, Padres and Mariners have never won one. Seattle is the only team to never have appeared in the Fall Classic, coming close when it lost the ALCS in 1995 to Cleveland and back-to-back in 2000 and 2001 to the Yankees.
Get in the game with our Prep Sports Newsletter
Sent weekly directly to your inbox!
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Mike Harrington
Sports Columnist
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today