[Art Deco]

Game 1: The Orioles clinched their first playoff berth since 2016 at the expense of the Rays with a 7-1 win. Grayson Rodriguez held the Rays in check, going 7.1 6 1 1 1 6, and Walker Buehler was hit pretty hard in his regular season finale at 5 11 6 6 1 3. Spencer Torkelson's 5th-inning 495-foot homer (#16) was the only scoring for the Rays in a night that was all Baltimore. Mitch Keller went 3 innings in relief, allowing a run and striking out 6 while Mitchell Verburg pitched the 9th. Rafael Devers remains stuck on 99 RBI and is also sitting at .299 for those interested in such things.

MLB Playoff Race Update: It's all over in the AL as Minnesota and Oakland lost and Seattle and Baltimore won. The only thing not set is home field: Seattle is a game behind Baltimore to see who hosts the wild card game and Detroit is one game better than Houston to see who starts the ALDS at home. Over in the NL, things are much more interesting: Atlanta won while the Mets lost so the Braves re-take 1st by a game, and Arizona won at Kansas City while the Dodgers lost in Coors Field so the Diamondbacks are now a game up. As things stand now, the Mets would host the Dodgers in the WC game but whoever loses the NL East will host whoever loses the NL West.

Game 2: Tonight was the inverse of last night as the Rays had all the fun in an 8-0 win. Matt Manning made his final start of the regular season and threw 7 shutout innings although he had an odd 7 2 0 0 3 2 line on 93 pitches. He finishes the year 12-6, 2.68 with the latter number the best in the AL, making two straight seasons for the Rays with the ERA leader as Tyler Glasnow had a 3.01 mark last year. Will Smith and Sandy Gaston pitched scoreless innings to close it out. The offense was a HR parade tonight. After a second-inning wild pitch scored a run, Greg Jones (#2) and Keston Hiura (#12) went back-to-back with Hiura hitting another one of his dead-center shots to make it 3-0 off Vladimir Gutierrez, who did come into the game leading the AL in homers allowed and will leave the game with that distinction. Austin Meadows led off the 5th with #33, and then later in the inning Seth Beer and Spencer Torkelson had RBI doubles. The final two runs came on solo shots: Keibert Ruiz (#14) and Torkelson (#17) in the 7th. Tork ended the day 4-4 with the HR and 2 doubles as he's now .302/.349/.593 with 17 HR and 52 RBI in only 248 AB with 2.4 WAR. We're going to have to find a way to get him into the lineup everyday (I always say that). Rafael Devers' quest for 100 RBI is down to one game tomorrow and his 0-4 dropped his average to .297 so he may fall short of a couple of round numbers.

MLB Playoff Race Update: Status quo in the NL as all 4 teams fighting for a division title won, which means Atlanta stays 1 game up on the Mets and the Diamondbacks 1 up on the Dodgers as we head into the season's final day.

Game 3: You could kind of tell by how the game was played that both teams wanted to get the regular season over with and move on to the playoffs. The Rays beat the Orioles 2-1 in a game that lasted 2:26 with a lot of players swinging early in the count. Daniel Lynch got the start and bounced back from his terrible outing in New York with a 7 6 1 1 0 4 performance to finish the season at 15-6, 3.44, with the 15 wins leading the team. The Rays only managed 2 hits for the entire game but made them count. Nick Schnell walked in the bottom of the 5th, Seth Beer doubled him to 3rd, and Mebrys Viloria doubled them both home. They were also the only baserunners the team had today. Nick Anderson pitched a perfect 2K eighth, and Jasseel De La Cruz put an exclamation point on the season by striking out the side in a 1-2-3 9th for save #30. Rafael Devers sadly ended on 99 RBI.

Final Regular Season Record: 106-56. This marks their 2nd best regular season after winning 115 last year and edges the 105 in 2022.

MLB Playoff Race Update: With everything set in the AL, eyes were turned to the NL. The Diamondbacks won and Dodgers lost, so Arizona ends up winning the NL West by 2 games and will travel to St. Louis for the NLDS. But the drama was in the east where the Mets won 4-2 in Philly (behind Yonny Chirinos!), beating their former ace Jacob deGrom while the Braves lost 3-1 at Miami where Rick Porcello struck out 10 and had an RBI double for the Roughnecks. This means the Braves and Mets will have a one-game playoff to determine the NL East winner with the loser hosting the Dodgers in the Wild Card Game and the winner playing the winner of the Wild Card Game. The Rays of course will host the winner of the Seattle-Baltimore WC Game while Houston will travel to Detroit in the other ALCS.