AL Wild Card Series Predictions

Postseason play has begun! The AL Wild Card Series will have their first matchup today at 2 pm Eastern Time: the Minnesota Twins vs. the Houston Astros. This Wild Card Series is a new addition to the playoff expansion of 2020, and there will be four best-of-three matchups. These matchups are: (1) Tampa Bay Rays vs. (8) Toronto Blue Jays, (4) Cleveland Indians vs. (5) New York Yankees, (3) Minnesota Twins vs. (6) Houston Astros, (2) Oakland A’s vs. (7) Chicago White Sox. I believe the Rays, Indians, Twins, and A’s will be the four winning teams these four matchups. The Rays are the one seed, and they have a consistent offense with quality pitching. Cleveland has been hot of late, with September AL Player of the Month Jose Ramirez getting into the MVP conversation. The Twins have the experienced Postseason arms of Kenta Maeda and Rich Hill, to go along with a power heavy lineup headlined by Nelson Cruz and Max Kepler. Lastly, the Chicago White Sox have hit a rough patch, while the Oakland A’s have an incredible bullpen with Liam Hendriks shutting the door as a terrific closer. The Blue Jays are a very young, inexperienced team with a lack of depth in pitching, so that is my reasoning for them to fall to the Rays. The Yankees have solid pitching and offense, but they have shown so much inconsistency this regular season. With ace Justin Verlander going down and the offense struggling during the 60 game season, I do not see the Astros moving on. Although I see the A’s, Twins, Indians, and Rays moving on to the ALDS, anything is possible in baseball. I do not see any matchup in this Wild Card Series that will be a blowout, which makes these matchups all the more interesting.