Major League Baseball has featured an assortment of great stories this year, particularly from the pennant-chasing teams—all of which have weaved through the regular season with unique identities. As of now, six new teams are set to join the October mix.
The New York Yankees are back for an MLB-record 52nd time after a two-year hiatus. The Chicago Cubs arrived a year earlier than expected in the thick of a division that ranks among the best in history. The Toronto Blue Jays’ midseason makeover has them poised for a legitimate pennant chase.
And who would have thought the New York Mets, Houston Astros or Texas Rangers would be in contention heading into the final weekend?
With just three days left in the regular season, we'll take a look at the current playoff matchups as they stand today.
The current standings are available at MLB.com.
National League Series to Watch: St. Louis Cardinals vs. Wild-Card Winner
The St. Cardinals are winners of 100 games and are heading to the postseason for the 12th time since 2000. They will meet the winner of the Cubs-Pirates National League Wild Card Game in a showdown of teams from one of the best divisions in baseball history—the 2015 NL Central is just the second division ever and the first since 1977 to feature three clubs with 95 wins, per Matt Snyder of CBS Sports.
Even with looming contenders in the division, the Cardinals have held on to first place all year, and they’ve done so without key contributors Matt Adams, Randal Grichuk, Matt Holliday and Adam Wainwright—all of whom are back for the postseason.
Jon Taylor of Sports Illustrated noted that the Redbirds have thrived in a gritty "next man up" fashion: “But despite all those injuries, St. Louis continues on, looking for all the world like baseball’s version of the Hydra: Cut one Cardinal down, and three more take his place, all somehow just as productive.”
The Cardinals took the season series from both the Cubs (11-8) and Pirates (10-9).
American League Series to Watch: Toronto Blue Jays vs. Wild-Card Winner
The Blue Jays quenched their 22-year playoff drought with one of the most remarkable second-half performances in recent memory. Toronto has gone 42-14 since the trade deadline, when it hauled in superstars David Price and Troy Tulowitzki to complement recent offseason acquisitions Russell Martin and Josh Donaldson, arguably the league MVP.
“Our last two months we were playing really good teams that we were going to chase, so we thought we had a shot, no doubt about it,” general manager Alex Anthopoulos told Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com.
The Blue Jays boast a staggering plus-227 run differential, well ahead of the second-place Cardinals (plus-134), and by adding Price to established starters R.A. Dickey, Marcus Stroman and Marco Estrada, Toronto has a rotation to complement its offensive juggernaut.
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