To the losers go the spoil opportunities: Orioles, Nationals, Angels will have a say in AL wild-card race

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This article was published 30/09/2021 (1493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At the end of September, when meaningful baseball has passed a team by, there is nothing betting than spoiling the fun for those around you.

That’s where the Baltimore Orioles, the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Angels find themselves going into the final three days of the Major League Baseball season. With the Blue Jays, the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox and the Seattle Mariners locked in a battle for two American League wild-card spots, how their opponents play may be as critical as how they perform.

A reminder of the impact these three teams — as well as the AL East-winning Tampa Bay Rays, who visit the Yankees over the weekend — can have has already come this week. The Orioles upset the Red Sox by winning two of three games, helping Seattle tie Boston for the second wild-card spot.

Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said following that game that winning was just a matter of staying competitive and trying to give everyone a good game. But the club’s social media accounts had a little more fun with their new-found role as spoilers, jokingly tweeting about forming an alliance with the Seattle Mariners and about how the team’s mentions were full of Mariners, Yankees and Jays fans hyping Baltimore.

What is the likelihood the Orioles could upset the Jays when they visit the Rogers Centre this weekend? Well, the season series strongly favours Toronto, which leads the season series 11-5. But sweeping the Orioles might be difficult. Baltimore won one game in each of the five series between these two sides. And with four wins in their last seven games, the final days certainly haven’t been Baltimore’s worst.

One thing going for the Nationals, who host the Red Sox for three games, is their inter-league record. Their .588 win-loss percentage against AL teams is significant better than their .409 percentage overall. This will be the first series of the season between Washington and Boston, but the Nationals have already won against two of the Red Sox’s chief rivals, going 3-1 against both the Jays and the Rays.

When it comes to the Angels, who take on the Mariners in Seattle, the focus may be less about spoiling the race for the wild card and more about securing the AL MVP race for Shohei Ohtani. Many members of the Angels organization, including manager Joe Maddon and previous MVP Mike Trout, have been vocal about why Ohtani should have MVP votes locked up but, after a slow second half of the season at the plate, the two-way star may benefit from a few good performances by team and player. Recency bias never hurts in the fight for votes.

And then there are the Rays, who also have little to play for, for a very different reason, with they visit Yankee Stadium for three for the regular season finale. Tampa Bay has already locked up the best record in the league to secure home-field advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs, and has set a franchise record with 98 wins.

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Extending that record could be front of mind, but so could resting big names before the playoffs. The Rays have winning records, and similar win percentages, this season against all of the teams remaining in the wild card race except the Mariners, who went 6-1 against Tampa Bay. Who they face may not matter all that much to Tampa Bay by the time the AL Division Series rolls around.

The Rays may be keen to beat the Yankees this weekend to improving their chances of meeting the Jays down the line. After a recent dust-up between the two teams over a scooped-up scouting report and a hit batter, Tampa Bay centre-fielder Kevin Kiermaier said he hoped to see the Jays in the playoffs.

“The motivation is there. That’s all that needs to be said.”

With files from the Associated Press

Laura Armstrong is a Star sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @lauraarmy