In a brilliant twist, every single Wild Card Series finished opposite of what we predicted would happen on Friday, based on vibes. Have we lost our pulse on the vibes? Are the vibes out the window now? There’s only one way to find out. Here’s where the vibes have these playoffs going the rest of the way:
American League
The Mariners have magic beans. That’s the only explanation for their comeback in Toronto on Saturday. The beans may have cursed the Blue Jays in the process—this remains to be fully resolved—but the Mariners are blessed beyond compare.
Similarly, the Guardians cannot give up runs. They just don’t do it. But—and this is important—every team who wins a Wild Card Series is going to have good vibes. They just won a Wild Card Series, after all. The question, then, is what the vibes look like for the Yankees and Astros after a week off.
For the Astros, I’d imagine the vibes are solid, though it’s hard to measure vibes when you’re comparing evil against good. Houston enters the Division Series not having had to play baseball, which was probably a relief. I would guess their vibes are solid, and that they’ll big-brother the Mariners.
The Yankees, meanwhile, have had a whole week to think about how much it would suck to blow this. They have good things happening—Harrison Bader seems to have brought a vibe reset to the clubhouse, and Aroldis Chapman’s saga is, for intents and purposes, over. But we also just got news that Scott Effross is going to undergo Tommy John surgery, and both Clay Holmes and Wandy Peralta are dealing with nagging injuries, and Matt Carpenter is coming back but he was a small-sample guy and this vibe equivalent of a fecal transplant from the Cardinals is a questionable approach. So, the Yankees are banking on Carpenter defying physics for the second stretch this season, and they’re banking on Gerrit Cole and Luis Severino each being dominant, twice in the case of the former. It might happen, but there are better vibe recipes. Especially because Cole is an Astro at heart, and therefore is incapable of feeling joy.
So, I think we’re getting Astros vs. Guardians in the ALCS. From there, it’s really just a movie battle between good and evil featuring Terry Francona and Dusty Baker. And I didn’t catch which production company put this out, so I don’t know if we’re getting a happy ending.
National League
Remember what I just said about teams who won Wild Card Series naturally having good vibes? That doesn’t apply to the Phillies. Not so much because the Phillies lost David Robertson for the NLDS after he strained his calf jumping in excitement at the Bryce Harper home run Saturday, but because of all those other things we’ve been talking about regarding Phillies fans just being Eagles fans and continuing to put all their importance on the Eagles. Phillies fans know the Phillies are making a little run, but do they? The Birds just beat the Cardinals, guys. They’re 5-0.
One way this could work out for the Phils is for them to play out of their minds the same way kids whose parents yell at them sometimes ball out when their folks are out of town on a work trip. But Atlanta’s riding high over the Mets losing, so the Phillies are running into a vibe wagon down in Georgia.
Across the bracket, Mike Clevinger’s starting for the Padres tonight, and for all Joe Musgrove did Sunday night to build a vibe that could cross a continent, nobody can tear one down like Clevinger. I’m expecting eight outs and tingling in the hand. From there, Yu Darvish will, God willing, do heroic things tomorrow night, but the Pads don’t have the bullpen juice for it and the Dodgers are big brother in a big, big way to them. We’re getting the third leg of the Los Angeles vs. Atlanta NLCS Trilogy. Righteousness would say Los Angeles will win, because they’ve been more deserving over the last decade, but Atlanta has been repeatedly cheeky in this peaking rivalry.
Housekeeping
We’ll catch up on the other things tomorrow. Or we’ll at least say we’re going to do that. We might not actually do it. Stay on your toes.
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Viewing schedule:
1:07 PM EDT: Philadelphia @ Atlanta (FOX)
If Fox is true to its principles, we’re going to just see the Tomahawk Chop all game long. The action on the field will be in a little inset.
3:37 PM EDT: Seattle @ Houston (TBS)
I don’t think I like Justin Verlander and I don’t really understand why. I think this predates his brother clogging up Twitter, even.
7:37 PM EDT: Cleveland @ New York Yankees (TBS)
Cal Quantrill outdueling Gerrit Cole would be so silly and fun.
9:37 PM EDT: San Diego @ Los Angeles (FS1)
What’s the deal with Clevinger starting instead of Manaea? I leave Texas for one weekend and we get all kinds of San Diegan shenanigans.
