After 24 of MLB’s 30 teams catch a breather on Monday, the Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies are all locked in to play at home, every single day, from Tuesday, September 22nd right through the regular season finale on Sunday, September 27th. Get this: once Tuesday morning hits, there are zero off-days left to reschedule any postponed games without bleeding straight into Monday, September 28th. That’s the day right before the Wild Card series is supposed to kick off on September 29th. You feel that? That’s the impending chaos, baby!
The Schedule Is Stacked, The Stakes Are High
Here’s the breakdown of who’s playing whom in this wild final sprint. The Red Sox are set to host the Cleveland Guardians for three games, then the Chicago Cubs for another three. Meanwhile, the Yankees are hosting the Rays for a four-game series, including a Tuesday doubleheader, before wrapping up with three games against the Orioles. Over in the NL, the Phillies are taking on the Brewers for three games, and then the Rays again for three more. Every single one of these games either absolutely has to happen, or there’s a massive chance they’ll be critical. The league office must be sweating bullets right now.
Standings Are Tight, And The Rain Just Might Decide It All
Looking at the standings, the Tampa Bay Rays are holding a four-game lead over the Yankees and will snag the tiebreaker unless they get swept in New York. To put it another way, if they don’t win at least one game in New York next week, that tiebreaker is still up in the air. What happens if Mother Nature decides *not enough games* can be played for the Rays to grab that single win by Thursday night? They might have to trek back to New York on Monday the 28th to finally seal the division.
It’s even wilder for some of the other teams. The Red Sox are likely locked into the second Wild Card spot in the AL by the time any real weather mayhem hits, but their opponents? Not so much. The Guardians are only one game up on the White Sox for the AL Central crown and just two games away from getting bounced from the playoffs entirely. Over in the NL, the Cubs are in a dead three-way tie at 85-69 with the Phillies and Padres for *all three* Wild Card spots. So yeah, those games? They’re definitely going to need to be played. And it’s not just them, the Brewers are only two games ahead of the Dodgers for the No. 1 seed in the NL, and the Rays, as we said, could be close enough to the Yankees that any weather-related stumble could really mess things up for them too.
With all that on the table, last night’s GFS model showed a loop from Tuesday morning through Friday night that probably gave Rob Manfred a full-blown stroke. Maybe the European models have better news, right? We’re running that loop from Tuesday morning, and you just know everyone’s refreshing their phones right now. This is going to be a tense week, folks. Every pitch, every out, every single game is absolutely critical.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Over the Monster.
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