MLB Tournament of Champions: AL Wild Card Series

The field is set, and now the postseason portion of the MLB Tournament of Champions can begin!

I'm running the format of the postseason almost identically to how Major League Baseball runs its postseason every year, with one exception. The Wild Card round is being expanded to a three game series instead of a single winner-take-all game. These teams just spent 15 weeks fighting to make it this far, and if I'm trying to find arguably the greatest team of all time (or at least, the past 50-plus years), I need to minimize the factor luck plays.

We work our way over to the American League, where it took an extra day to determine this matchup. The higher seed was locked in a week and a half ago in the form of the 2001 Seattle Mariners, a team who struggled to get off the ground in the first three and a half weeks. But they figured things out, even temporarily grabbing a hold of first place in the West for a short stretch before surrendering that lead to the Oakland Athletics. They hung within striking distance though, even when they fell into third place towards the end of May. Eventually though, the Athletics collapsed and after a brief stint in first again, the Mariners would fall into place as the top Wild Card in the American League.

Seattle's opponent and destination for Wednesday required a 93rd game, as the 1970 Baltimore Orioles and 1998 New York Yankees were tied at 48-44 at the end of the regular season. The Orioles beat the Yankees 6-3 on Monday to advance to this stage after spending the entire tournament in contention, leading the East for the first few weeks before sliding a little bit. Baltimore nonetheless remained within striking distance of the Yankees for second in the division and a Wild Card berth, but needed to make up a game on the final weekend of the season and did so to force that winner-take-all game that they won. And here they are, without the benefit of the DH at home because they played before the advent of the designated hitter, against a team they split their six games with during the regular season.

They get that lack of benefit, if you want to call it that, at home in Game 1 before heading to Seattle for Game 2 and if necessary, Game 3, because of Seattle's better regular season record. With this series starting on Wednesday, it allowed for the teams to set up their rotations to some degree, though the O's had the disadvantage of needing to play that aforementioned Game 93.

I will also be keeping stats for this and all postseason series, with the intent of creating an All Tournament Team when the dust clears. Those stats can be viewed here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's play ball!

Wednesday, July 19th

Game 1
'01 SEA 4, @ '70 BAL 2
W: Pineiro (1-0) | L: McNally (0-1) | SV: Sasaki (1)

We had a pitchers' duel for the first three innings of the game as neither team really threatened, then the Mariners broke through in the fourth as Bret Boone hit a two out double and scored on a Mike Cameron single. Joel Pineiro continued to dominate before allowing a couple singles to start the fifth, but he got out of it unscathed. Pineiro then walked a pair in the sixth, but again escaped without allowing a run. Seattle turned it over to the bullpen and added some insurance on an eighth inning solo homer by Carlos Guillen, and in the ninth Dan Wilson hit a two run single to make it 4-0. Brooks Robinson got those two runs back immediately in the bottom of the ninth with a two run blast, the Mariners got closer Kazuhiro Sasaski into the game, and he was able to shut the door and give the Mariners the win.

Pineiro threw six innings of three hit ball, walking two and striking out six for the victory, Guillen went 2-3 with the home run, Wilson had that key two run single, and Bret Boone doubled and scored for Seattle. Dave McNally pitched very well despite the loss, allowing just two runs on six hits in eight innings, walking one and striking out two. Brooks Robinson had the big blow for Baltimore with a two run homer as one of his two hits, and Frank Robinson also had two hits for the Orioles.

Friday, July 21st

Game 2
@ '01 SEA 3, '70 BAL 2
W: Rhodes (1-0) | L: Palmer (0-1)

This was another pitchers' duel, though the Orioles had multiple early chances to get on the board that they were unable to take advantage of. The Mariners got a look in the fifth, loading the bases with one out, but Bret Boone grounded into a double play to end the threat. Seattle made up for it in the sixth though, as David Bell hit a sacrifice fly to draw first blood. Boone made up for his earlier missed opportunity in the seventh with an RBI single to make it 2-0, but Baltimore had an immediate answer, as Paul Blair hit a game tying two run shot in the top of the eighth to knock Freddy Garcia out of the game. Jeff Nelson came in and got a groundout, but then walked three straight men and had to get pulled. Arthur Rhodes got out of the jam, worked a strong ninth, and then Jim Palmer, who had worked the entire game thus far, hit the leadoff man, then issued three straight walks for the Mariners to walk off and win the series.

Freddy Garcia allowed two runs on five hits in seven-plus innings, while walking two and striking out four, Mark Mclemore went 3-4 with a walk, and Mike Cameron had two hits for Seattle. Jim Palmer threw a ridiculous 145 pitches in his eight-plus innings, allowing three runs on ten hits, striking out five but walking six, including three in the ninth. Paul Blair had the big two run homer in the eighth, and Brooks Robinson had a two hit game for the Orioles.

To view the updated bracket, click here.

Make it a clean two-game sweep for the 2001 Mariners! Seattle will have a few days to rest and prepare, and on Monday they will open up the ALDS against the 1995 Cleveland Indians, who finished with the best record in the American League.

Meanwhile, the Wild Card round is still going on as the National League series needs a third and final game to decide who will take on the 2016 Chicago Cubs. Check back tomorrow to see the conclusion of the series!