Major League Baseball Predictions for September 17/18

The American League Wild Card race has become incredibly exciting over the last few weeks. It seemed as though the Tampa Bay Rays, the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays had the three spots all but secured, but a second-half surge from the Baltimore Orioles has them fighting for Toronto’s playoff spot.

At the time of writing, the Orioles sit 5.5 games behind the Blue Jays’ spot, so with a little over three weeks left in the regular season, every game is a must-win for them. As a result, this weekend’s series could be of great importance.

The Orioles are relying on their young prospects and excellent bullpen to carry their lacklustre starting rotation into the postseason. After finishing August with a 17-10 record, Baltimore called up their number one prospect, Gunnar Henderson, to add to an already young core of players.

As for their bullpen, it ranks seventh for ERA this season and has helped them win numerous games. Still, the Toronto offense is powerful and should pose a difficult matchup for the Baltimore starting rotation, so expect the Blue Jays to extend their lead in the AL East Wild Card race.

The New York Mets had a comfortable lead in the National League East division in the first half of the season, but that’s gone now. At the time of writing, the Atlanta Braves sit just 1.5 games behind the Mets for first place in their division.

Atlanta went 18-8 in July and 18-10 in August as they climbed back into the division race, and their offense has been one of the most feared in baseball. The top of their line-up, featuring Ronald Acuna Jr., Dansby Swanson, Matt Olson, and Austin Riley is already scary enough, but at the bottom of the order, rookies Michael Harris II and Vaughn Grissom have been exceeding all expectations.

Bryce Harper missed nearly two months with a broken thumb, but fortunately for the Phillies, he’s finally back. Philadelphia have been overshadowed by the star-studded Mets and Braves in their division, but they still hold a 78-62 record at the time of writing and are in control of the second NL Wild Card spot. However, the Phillies have struggled on the road this season with a 34-31 record while the Braves hold a 47-25 record at home, so this series looks to favour the home team.

Following a collapse in August, the Milwaukee Brewers are now out of the National League Central division race and even find themselves out of the postseason.

Milwaukee held the lead of the NL Central for nearly the entire first half of the season, but a 12-15 August by the Brewers saw the St. Louis Cardinals leapfrog them in the standings.

Every game in September has become a must-win for Milwaukee, and although they will take on a very difficult New York Yankees starting rotation, the visitors do have some weaknesses.

Similar to the Brewers, the Yankees had a miserable August. They went 10-18, and it seemed like everyone in their line-up except for Aaron Judge forgot how to hit a baseball.

They’ve slowly improved since then, but New York recently lost Andrew Benintendi, DJ LeMahieu, and Anthony Rizzo to injuries, which has caused them to call up several of their young prospects that were not expected to reach the big leagues until 2023.

Pitching will be the emphasis in this series as there will likely be multiple low-scoring games, and the Brewers have an excellent chance of capitalising on the Yankees’ injuries and winning this series.

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