by Suzanne Jackson
Now that the end of the regular MLB season is here, the top three teams of the American League are the Houston Astros, New York Yankees, and Cleveland Guardians. The Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners, and the Tampa Bay Rays are all in for the Wild Card. The Houston Astros and the New York Yankees will have first round byes. The Astros will play the winner of the Blue Jays wild-card series and the Yankees get to play with the winner of the Guardians’ series.
For the National League, the division leaders were the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Atlanta Braves, and the St. Louis Cardinals. For the fifth straight season in a row the Atlanta Braves are the National League East champions.
Many fans are anticipating a Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers matchup in the World Series. Houston has pitchers Verlander, Valdez and McCullers Jr. as their prime trio for the start of their pitching rotation. Their relievers are capable of longer relief appearances than other pitchers in the league. The biggest threat to the Astros are the New York Yankees with right outfielder Aaron Judge recently breaking the AL Record for number of homeruns in a regular season. Judge hit his 62nd home run on Tuesday evening against the Texas Rangers. With Judge being on a hitting streak, the rest of the Yankees team must be prepared to take on the pressure if Judge doesn’t get pitched to.
Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman, Freddie Freeman won the World Series with the Braves last season, and it could only help the Dodgers as they prepare for their playoff run. The Dodgers have a good pitching lineup against any team with guys such as Kershaw or Urias being experienced players in the rotation. It seems as if the battle for the World Series title is going to come down to which team has the best bullpen.
