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Monday

September 30, 2024

BETWEEN-GAMES BULLETIN - SEE PREVIOUS HEADLINE, BELOW !!

1:35 PM PDT

IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER

webmaster@pennantsolutions.com

The Chaotic Finish that brought the NL W C Race to Today's DH has seen

2024 :Links not updated yet

all kinds of Possibly Complicated Scenarios in the last few days.

For More Details,

Click on the Links Below

But now that the Finish is finally here, the Outcome is VERY SIMPLE -

NL DIVISION STDGS

IF YOU'RE ARIZONA.

NL WILD CARD STDGS

It ALL COMES DOWN TO TIE-BREAKERS -

AL DIVISION STDGS

And ARI DOES'NT OWN ANY OF THEM.

AL WILD CARD STDGS

ARI loses 2-5 to ATL, 3-4 to NYM, and would lose in a 3-way Tie also.

So that makes ARI the BIGGEST FANS OF DH SWEEPS EVER !!

They Need to Avoid a Tie & Finish Ahead of either ATL or NYM to Get In.

A NYM-ATL Split causes a 3-Way Tie at 89 W - and ARI would be out.

Whereas a SWEEP by either team leaves the "swept" team at 88 W -

And ARI would sneak in as the 6th seed.

Hence, today's Headline - Regardless of which team wins Game 1,

ARI is still alive. And Rooting like mad for the G1 winner to repeat in G2.

As for the other two teams (you remember them, they're the ones PLAYING

TODAY'S DH), if one of them sweeps, they get the 5th seed (ARI the 6th).

And if there's a SPLIT, they BOTH get in, with ATL as seed 5 due to 7-6

in the Head to Head Tie-Breaker. So again today's Headline applies,

with the Loser of G1 Still Alive, if they can Win Game 2.

And as for the (supposed) author of that famous headline phrase ?

Whether or not Yogi ever uttered it, 1973 sure could have inspired it.

Berra was managing the Mets and it was a four-team race in the NL East

late into September. The season was supposed to end Sep. 30, but

the Mets still had 2 makeups to play, the Pirates had 1 makeup left and

only trailed by 1 1/2 g, so a TIE was still possible. STL had finished, but

they were still alive, only 1g out. If the Mets had lost both, and PIT had won,

it would have been a 3 WAY TIE - WITHOUT TIE-BREAKER RULES. YIKES !!!

The Mets did win on Oct. 1, clinching the NL E, avoiding the TIE. But our tale is NOT OVER !

In the NLCS, the Mets were leading CIN 1-0 with 3 innings left, on the cusp of a 3-1 series win.

But CIN tied it TOP7, WON G4 in 12 - so the Mets needed not 3 more but 15 more innings

to secure the series win (6 inn. in G4 Loss, plus the additional G5). Oh, the other game

won by the Reds 2-1? Seaver gave up HRs to Rose (B8), Bench (B9) to walk it off !!

And the METS did lose the WORLD SERIES to OAK, 4 GAMES TO 3.

With more of the same, at least in the first three games. OAK won 2-1 in G1, and followed that

by tieing Games 2 & 3 in BTM 9, TOP 8 (losing G2, winning G3).

Yep, YOGI SURE KNEW WHAT HE WAS (SUPPOSEDLY) TALKING ABOUT !

Question from 2017:

Why did NL Office take 2 tries to Decide LA had Clinched Playoffs 9-12-2017?

(according to Bill Shaikin of the L A Times)? We may never know.

Previous Headlines

9-25-24 at 8:34 pm PDT

W I L D C A R D C H A O S ! ! ! !

ENTERING PLAY ON WEDNESDAY (9-25), FOUR A L Teams

Had Qualified for the Playoffs: Yankees, Orioles, Guardians, Astros.

But with only 5 Days left in the regular season, SIX other teams still

had a shot at the Last Two Wild Cards - AND a Five-Way Tie at 83 W

was still possible.

After Wednesday's action, the picture is clearer - but not much.

Losses by BOS & T B, plus wins by DET & K C, have raised the bar

from 83 W to 84 W, eliminating the Red Sox and the Rays. But SEA

& MIN won to keep pace, so a 4-way Tie at either 84 or 85 W is

still possible. That would be 4 teams vying for 2 slots, so 2 in, 2 out.

If DET, K C, & MIN get to 86 W, SEA drops out - but that still leaves

musical-chair elimination for one of the remaining Three teams.

At 87W, MIN would be gone - a simple two-team tie to break at worst.

But even with BAL winning on Wed., BAL, DET, & K C can still Tie

at 88 W for ALL THREE W C slots. They would all get in, but

tie-breakers would be required to determine the seeding.

Two Factors make all this possible:

1. 2 games separate 4 Teams:

DET & K C tied at 83 W, MIN & SEA tied at 81 W.

2. None of these 4 teams play each other the rest of the season.

You think the A L is the only League Set Up for A Wild Finish ?

Don't Look Now, but the N L has some similar madness that could

last ALL THE WAY THROUGH MONDAY, now that NYM at ATL

have a double-header on Monday, due to Hurricane Helene.

So Strap Yourself In, and Brush Up on the Tie-Breaker Rules !!!!

8-17-24 at 10:20 pm PDT

WHITE SOX ELIMINATED

SATURDAY LOSS TO HOU MARKS END OF WILD CARD BID

Prior to Saturday, the 9 teams in front of them (K C thru OAK) had

enough games remaining vs. each other (SGR) that 1 of the 9

MUST WIN AT LEAST 68 (1 more than WC 3 K C had (67) ).

However, the SOX wouldn't have qualified even if they got to 68 W,

because at 68 W, NONE of the 511 Tie Scenarios had the Sox

emerging as the 3rd Wild Card. That meant the Sox needed to avoid

tying at 68, and needed to win WC 3 Outright with 69 W. They would

need a 39-0 finish, i.e. their 94th LOSS would Eliminate the Sox.

And that came when the Sox lost 6-1 to HOU. As it turned out, they

would have been Out 9 minutes later anyway. Saturday began with

a MINWIN of 68 needed to tie for WC 3, due to the

remaining schedule of the 9 teams ahead of the Sox. But that

Target would rise to 69 W IF 4 of the 9 teams won on Saturday.

And sure enough, 4 did win - with Win #4 by Oakland coming at

8:46 CDT, 9 minutes after the Loss to HOU.

Two Ironies about today's situation:

1. There were an unusually high number of Interleague games on

Saturday (7), and six of them involved teams that could contribute

to advancing the MINWIN from 68 to 69 with a win; the remaining

3 teams who could advance that Target played an AL opponent

either leading a Division or in WC 1 or 2, meaning wins by those

"trailers" would also count toward the MINWIN (DET v. NYY,

BOS v. BAL, TEX v. MIN). In other words, ALL 9 of the teams in

front of the Sox in the WC 3 "Div" had a chance to increase

the MINWIN - and only 4 had to win to move it to 69 W.

Under a more typical schedule, if any of the 9 teams had played

each other, NEITHER team could advance the Target. 1 or 2

such games would reduce the teams possibly contributing to the

MINWIN from 9 down to 7 or 5, making 4 wins much less likely.

2. As noted above, the Sox would not survive ANY of the 511

Tie-breaker Scenarios. And this is true despite their miracle

39-0 finish, which would actually give them 8-5 records

vs. DET and CLE, no less. But those edges would have done them

no good: CLE already had too many W to end up tied with CWS.

But what about DET? A tie at 69 W with DET was still possible.

Yes, but to take advantage of the Head to Head record, the Sox

would have to end up in a strict two-team tie with ONLY DET.

For that to benefit the Sox, the other 8 WC 3 contenders would

have to finish behind the SOX-DET tie at 69 W. But with all 8

ahead, some well ahead, of the Sox and with the SGR among

those 8 teams, one or more of them would end up with more than

69 W. So in order to qualify as WC 3, the Sox would have to

win a tie-breaker that involved 3 or more teams. And that was not

happening with the Sox poor overall record.

When you're going bad, things like this happen to you.

8-17-24 at 3:25 pm PDT

Friday Win Kept Intrepid Sox Alive - But Possibly Only for One Day

WHITE SOX Need 68 W just to Tie for 3rd Wild Card.

Their NEXT LOSS Eliminates the Sox.

But Wait, It's Worse Than That for the Intrepid South Siders.

They could win Saturday and Still Be Eliminated !

8-13-2024

BULLETIN:

WHITE SOX ELIMINATED from CENTRAL w/ LOSS to CUBS

Friday's Division Elimination came 4 DAYS ahead of Magic Number "ELIM" Tues.

Tags: NL East, Braves, Atlanta, ATL,Mets, New York, NYM, NL Wild Card, Wild Card, NL W C,

Tags: Montreal, MTL, Pirates, Pittsburgh, PIT, Cardinals, St. Louis, STL, Milwaukee, Brewers, MIL, CIN, Reds

Tags: Diamondbacks, D'backs, Arizona, ARI, Padres, San Diego, S D, SD, Dodgers, LA, L A, Los Angeles

Tags: AL East, Orioles, Baltimore, Yankees, New York, NYY, Red Sox, Boston, Rays, Tampa Bay, Blue Jays, Toronto, AL Wild Card, 2nd Wild Card, WC 2

Tags: AL Central, White Sox, Chicago, Cubs, Cleveland, CLE, Guardians, MIN, Minnesota, Twins, GB, WCGB

Tags: AL West, Astros, Houston, A's, Mariners, Seattle, OAK, Baseball, Pennant Race, 2024, 1973