Here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye on today:
1. Possible clinches in the AL:
The Yankees and Mariners are all but guaranteed a playoff spot, and today’s games could remove the “all but” qualifier from that phrase. If the Yankees beat the White Sox, they’ll clinch a playoff spot for themselves and also open the door for the Mariners to clinch a spot with a win over the Rockies later in the evening. Yankees right-hander Luis Gil (3.33 ERA in nine starts) will take on rookie righty Shane Smith (4.06 ERA) in today’s Yankees/White Sox game, scheduled to begin at 7:05pm local time. The Mariners host the Rockies in a game set for 6:40pm local time. Mariners righty Bryce Miller (5.56 ERA in 16 starts) and Rox rookie McCade Brown (9.17 ERA in five starts) are expected to take the mound.
2. Series Preview: Tigers @ Guardians
Arguably the most high-stakes series remaining on the 2025 calendar starts today when the slumping Tigers head to Cleveland for a three-game set against the surging Guardians. Detroit has lost six games in a row, and while the Guardians saw their win streak snapped at ten games on Sunday, they’ve still won 16 of their past 19 games. That remarkable stretch leaves Cleveland just one game back of the Tigers in the AL Central. Detroit will hope to jump out to a quick series lead tonight with AL Cy Young front-runner Tarik Skubal (2.23 ERA) on the mound opposite Guardians righty Gavin Williams (3.06 ERA). Tomorrow, Jack Flaherty (4.60 ERA) will take on Tanner Bibee (4.34 ERA). The series wraps Thursday with Guardians rookie Parker Messick (2.08 ERA in six starts) set to go for Cleveland, while Detroit’s starter remains TBD.
3. MLBTR chat today:
We’re just a week away from the postseason, and with plenty of teams still fighting for a playoff spot it’s sure to be an exciting last few days. Whether you’re invested in this final stretch of the season or already are turning your attention towards the upcoming offseason free agent and trade markets, MLBTR’s Steve Adams has you covered in a live chat at 1pm CT later today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.
Can the Big Dumper hit 5 HRs in 6 games to take the AL HR crown from Judge?
Yes he can, and I’m not rooting against it, but it’s unlikely.
@Gwynning
MLB should be issuing those juiced balls to get him over the hump. Also, they should move the series to Coors Field. Rockies aren’t really using it for the rest of the season.
That Mariners-Rockies series is at T-Mobile Park. Don’t be surprised if the roof is closed with cool weather forecast each evening.
Re: Juiced balls
They did that a few years ago for Judge. Seems only fair to help Raleigh the same way now.
Canuckleball – Raleigh doesn’t play in New York.
York – Judge’s Eastern Conference crown is safe no matter what.
Dumper is going for the Western Conference homerun record.
@Fever Pitch Guy
Bonds holds the Western Conference HR record. Probably the best player in the history. Too bad MLB had to crack down on his great performance.
York – The Bonds record is with the Western Conference of the FanDuel League, the Judge Eastern Conference record is with the DraftKings League.
@Fever Pitch Guy
I’m putting a prop bet that Judge hits an inside the infield grand slam.
FPG
There is something to be said about teams that sell at the deadline and go or still contend for a playoff spot . Detroit last year. The Diamondbacks this season. The Guardians, I mean who would have predicted this. I believe on or around July 11th they were 15 games behind the Tigers. Something crazy like that. It’s like the players said ‘screw you ” front office… LoL.
How about the Mets. …. (78 Red Sox) Yikes
In fairness, it isn’t so much that the Guards caught fire, although they did. It’s that the Tigers have absolutely collapsed. Without the Tigers free-falling, the Guardians late season improvement would have likely amounted to nothing.
CB
Nothing. . They are tied for the 3rd spot of the wild card. What that team is doing is incredible
Canuck – Cleveland is tied with Houston for the final WC spot.
I don’t understand what the Tigers has to do with that.
cdc – Ha, I just saw you beat me to it!
Because they swept the Tigers last week during their collapse. The better Tigers (pre-collapse) were less likely to get swept leaving Cleveland with 1 or 2 fewer wins and not currently in a playoff position.
Canuck – Even if the Tigers had won 1 or 2 of those games against Cleveland, being just 1 or 2 games out of a playoff spot with a week to go is not meaningless.
cdc – You should watch the movie “Major League”, it really is quite similar.
Great movie .. Charlie Sheen,Tom Beringer,Snipes.ect. Top 3 baseball movie.
I wouldn’t bet on it but I also wouldn’t bet against it.
Floch – But would you parlay it with the winner of the Cy Young award?
I don’t even know how parlays work because I am immune to all of the nonstop dystopian pro-gambling propaganda that one must endure to watch any sports game in 2025.
@ Old York
He is capable of hitting 5 homers in a 6 game stretch, but I doubt he’ll get the chance. Once Seattle is officially in the dance, they’ll almost certainly give him a day off, maybe two. As fun as the home run thing is, the goal is to win in the playoffs. They need Raleigh rested and ready to go in the postseason. Chasing individual records is fine when a team is out of it, but in this case, the team has to come first.
@Canuckleball
Makes sense but he’s been playing the whole season in such manner and I’d be worried about him resting a bit and end up in a slump when it matters the most. Some players need consistent ABs to keep in the rhythm. We’ll see…
Given that they are well positioned to get the 2 seed and the bye, I’m not sure that they need to give out rest days to close out the season.
If Cal is chasing history, I’m sure they let him go for it (even if only as DH for the final few games).
Don’t want to give him too much time off and get him out of rythym.
We can only hope. I wouldn’t mind seeing Caminero get to 50. He’s having a monster season and nobody is noticing.
Not nobody, Karen… but point taken. Go Caminero!
Well,Ms are playing the Rockies,so he could get 5 HRs on just that series.
I like Cal Raleigh to win the MVP. Judge,2nd ,J. Ramirez 3rd. When you break a Mantle record ,you must be recognized, especially from the catching position. “The tools of ignorance.”
Cy Young
1st Skubal, 2nd Crochet, 3rd Fried….
I’d put skubal over Ramirez for 3rd in mvp voting because pitchers never get enough love there
If you hit 58 homers you deserve mvp, I think of post-steroid era people like Giancarlo Stanton or Ryan Howard winning it with homer totals up there
Idk, I feel like also having an OPS+ of 200 or better also should get you MVP.
I don’t see Raleigh winning MVP. An elite season but the guy who’s average is 80 points higher, OBP% 90 points higher, SLG% 80 points higher, OPS .70 points higher and OPS+ 40 points higher (with similar HRs/RBIs) is winning AL MVP.
If position(s) were a key factor with the voters then Ohtani have won the award over Judge in 2022.
Position does matter and that’s why ohtani is always winning mvp because he’s a top 3-5 bat every year and an above average pitcher
Only reason he didn’t win it in 2022 was because judge had a historic season
Ohtani played 2 positions at an elite level (historic) and didn’t win bc judge was statistically the best player.
Statistically, Judge is having a superior season to Raleigh’s season in 2025.
For example, if you dropped Cal Raleigh’s OPS+ by 40 points he’d be slightly above league average.
If you dropped Judge’s OPS+ by 40 points he’d be…..Cal Raleigh.
If Skubal loses today he can’t be the CYA winner
@Troy Percival’s iPad
He could go 7 innings and give up 1 run (unearned) and still lose the game. Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t get the CYA.
Fair
If he craps the bed today of all days and it’s like 3+ innings, 6 runs, 2 bombs, etc he can’t be the CYA winner
If not Skubal, who would it be? Crochet was immediately eliminated from contention a few weeks ago when he gave up a HR to Austin Hedges..
If not Crochet (who I’d still vote for anyway if Skubal doesn’t deliver today), then Hunter Brown
Troy – I’m sneaking in my vote for Trevor Rogers, low starts and innings be damned. The guy has been a beast.
Lowenstein, your words, not mine. I just couldn’t stomach it at 100 innings and 17 starts, but I get it. Respect
Umm, that’s World Series champ Austin Hedges to you!
I want to call him two-time World Series champ Austin Hedges!
By my arithmetic, Yankees and Seattle can’t clinch tonight. Mariners do have a magic number of 3 for the AL West — helps them that Houston finishes with a California trip to Athletics and Angels.
In the AL Central, Cleveland controls its destiny thanks to last week’s sweep in Detroit. Guardians need 1 win vs. Tigers to clinch the season series and thus the tie-breaker.
Maybe they meant if the Yankees beat the White Sox tonight, the White Sox are eliminated. Pretty sure that all gets lost in the fuzzy math of tiebreaker these days.
There’s two reasons for this, as far as I can tell:
1. Seattle owns every 2-team tiebreaker they could encounter
2. Detroit plays Cleveland then Boston in their last six games, so Detroit, Cleveland, and Boston share a pool of potential wins.
Assuming Seattle wins just one more game, they finish with 88 wins. Any team below them needs 89 to pass them. That’s 4 wins for Boston and Detroit, 5 wins for Cleveland and Houston. For Seattle to miss the playoffs, all four of these teams would need to do this, and there’s the problem:
– 5 wins for Cleveland means at most one win for Detroit in that series.
– Detroit needs 4 wins here, so they’d therefore need to sweep Boston.
– But if Boston is swept by Detroit, the most wins they can have the rest of the way is 3.
Thus, it’s impossible for Seattle to be passed by all four teams as long as they win one more game.
I think the requirement that the Yankees also win one more is because it gets more complicated if a bunch of teams end up tied with 88 wins.
Damn that’s authoritative, thanks for taking the time to explain.
Great week to have mlb.tv
Skubal seems to thrive on the big moment. I’ll predict he puts the Tigers on his back tonight.
The next 2 games are toss ups.
Halos: It’s too bad the tbs chose the Mets/cubs game while the only game MLB Network chose is the Brewers game. Nothing on any of the Fox networks.
Fox will have Baseball Night in America on Saturday with games selected no later than Thursday. I’d expect Tigers-Red Sox and/or Dodgers-Mariners for BNIA.
TV for Mets-Cubs is SNY/Marquee/TBS on Tuesday, ESPN on Wednesday, SNY/Marquee/MLB Network on Thursday.
It’s a shame that Lane Thomas has been hurt all season
For a team that’s averaging almost 4 runs a game, any additional offensive help would have been most welcomed. The pitching has carried us this far and will have to carry us farther if we’re to move to and through the playoffs.
Fingers crossed for (at least) 2 out of 3 for the Guards versus the Kitties!
Cleveland basically blew 20 million, 20% of their payroll, on two weak side bats, Lane Thomas (.670/.859) and Santana who hasn’t hit rhp well for several years. Thomas could help a lot against Skuby doo today like he did in last year’s playoffs but vs most of the field, eh not so much. Bit of an overpay, it’s always better to stock up before the season.
We were the beneficiaries of that wanton deadline spending a year earlier when we grabbed Manzardo for Civale. Last year Detroit sold off and won big and this year it’s us. Teams may start rethinking the trade deadline which would be a shame, it’s fun to watch all in moves.