Sports Time Radio

The San Francisco Giants have been one of the biggest surprises in Major League Baseball this season. Now the Giants are guaranteed a playoff spot, but they still need either one more win or one loss by the Los Angeles Dodgers to clinch the National League West division. Now with just two games left in the regular season it appears as though the Giants will go into the playoffs as a division winner and will have home field advantage for as long a they’re in the playoffs.

As for the Dodgers they are also guaranteed a playoff spot, but will have to go into the playoffs as a wild card team. That could mean that even though the Dodgers won over 100 games in the regular season they could out of the playoffs after just one game. I that actually happens the media will be in a complete uproar; so I’ll let them deal with that if it does happen.

What may actual be the bigger question for the Dodgers right now is how they’ll set up their pitching rotation for the playoffs after the wild card game. The Dodgers have always been looked at as a team with deep pitching, but did they just take a serious hit to that depth last night?

Clayton Kershaw left his start last night against the Milwaukee Brewers after a recurrence of a  left forearm injury kept him out for nearly three months. Kershaw was making his fourth start since July 3rd, but lasted just 1 2/3rds innings against the Brewers last night.

Now since his return the Dodgers have been monitoring Kershaw’s innings. Kershaw hasn’t pitched more than 5 innings since returning from the IL. He’s 1-1 in those four starts, but he’s struggled in his last couple of starts. He gave up 3 run last night in his shortened outing and 4 runs in the start before last nights.

Now obviously when you look at the Dodgers record they’ve managed to do pretty well even with Kershaw missing a chunk of the season, but will that carry over into the playoffs? Even though Kershaw has had his ups and downs in the playoffs we’re still talking about a pitcher who went 2-0 with an ERA of 2.31 in his two World Series starts last year. Kershaw has made 30 post season starts and has appeared in 37 post season games. That’s a lot of experience that the Dodgers look like they’re going to be missing come playoff time.

The Dodgers made the big trade for Max Scherzer at this years trade deadline adding him to a playoff rotation that will also have Walker Buehler and Julio Urias in it for sure, but who do the Dodgers turn to after those three?

Now there was a time when teams would go through the playoffs with just three starting pitchers, but that’s no longer done; so it appears the Dodgers will need at least one more starting pitcher if they get past the wild card game.

The Dodgers do have a couple of options. Tony Gonsolin made two post season starts for the Dodgers last season, but he has also had some injuries issues this season. Gonsolin missed about a month and a half of the season with an injury, but has made five consecutive starts for the Dodgers. Just like Kershaw the Dodgers seem to be monitoring Gonsolin’s innings. Gonsolin has pitched just 20 innings in those five starts since returning from the Il. That makes you wonder if Gonsolin is stretched out enough to give the Dodgers quality playoff innings.

The Dodgers also have former Cy Young award winner David Price who has made 11 starts for them this season as an option. Now Price hasn’t started a game since August 22nd and hasn’t pitched more than 1 2/3rds innings in his last five appearances. That would beg the question on if Price could go more than just a couple of innings if he was called upon tp start.

The Dodgers have had 12 other pitchers start at least one game for them this season, but none of them have made more than five starts for them.

So what do you think the Dodgers do if they can get past the St. Louis Cardinals in that wild card game? It seems to make sense that they go with a four man rotation in the playoffs and just watch Gonsolin’s innings as they go along. Or do you think they have a fifth starter in mind? and if so who do you think that would be?

The only other question we have as baseball’s regular season comes to a close this Sunday is; who’s going to end up playing in the American League wild card game?

Going into today the New York Yankees hold the first wild card spot while the Boston Red Sox are in the second wild card spot. The Yankees have a one game lead on the Red Sox while the Red Sox have a one game lead over the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays. Unfortunately none of these teams are playing each other this weekend, but it will make this weekends games quite interesting.

The Yankees have the toughest match up this weekend as they are playing the Tampa Bay Rays. It seems as though the Red Sox and the Blue Jays have the easiest match ups as Boston is playing the Washington nationals and Toronto faces the Baltimore Orioles. The Mariners match up is kind of middle of the road as they are facing the Los Angeles Angels.

It’s definitely possible that when this weekend is over we could see a game 163 or even a game 164 having to be played before we even get to a wild card game.

Let me know what you think. Which two teams do you see actually getting into the American League wild card game? Two teams get in and two teams miss out; so who do you have getting in?

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