The American League playoff picture seemed to have been taken in mid-August. There has been little change since that time and with the exception of where the Wild Card game is going to be played there is little still in question. The other night with their 99th win the Red Sox clinched a post season appearance, and will likely clinch the division title this coming week. The Indians have not even seen a team in their rear view since late June while they are cruising to a Central division title that they could clinch this weekend. The Astros aren't as close to clinching the West, but now that they have their core group back in the line-up on a consistent basis they seem to be gaining steam again as they are 3.5 up on Oakland for the division.
All of these teams and even the A's and Yankees have pretty much guaranteed their playoff births even if they haven't done so mathematically yet. The reason the last 10-15 days of the season still matter is those last weeks are what will propel you into the playoffs. As the standings currently are the Astros will host Cleveland, and the Red Sox will get the winner of the wild card game.
Baseball is a game of streaks, players go on hot streaks and cold streaks especially offensively. The key to being a great player is limiting the cold streaks and extending the hot streaks. Teams are successful as multiple players get hot at the same time and others pick up the load when those guys get cold. That along with great pitching and defense are what make up the best teams in the league. You've seen that this year especially with the Astros. When they lost Correa, Altuve, and Springer, Bregman stepped up and carried the weight of the team until those guys could come back. All of the playoff teams have shown that they have deep lineups that can pick each other up, the questions is who's going to be on a hot streak going into October.
The teams that have their best players seeing the ball the best in the last week of the season tend to be the ones that are putting up the big numbers in October. This is where Red Sox manager Alex Cora need to walk that line of resting his guys and keeping them sharp. You'll see the same thing going through Indian's manager Terry Francona as he tries to keep the Indians ready for the big stage when they haven't truly played a big game all year.
One of the best examples in recent memory for a team that caught fire at the end of the year and just wouldn't lose was the 2007 Rockies. They won 13 of their last 14 regular season games, then a 1 game playoff against San Diego, and proceeded to sweep the Phillies and the Diamondbacks on their way to the National League Pennant. They then had to wait 10 days for the Red Sox to beat the Indians in 7 games and then start the World Series. That was long enough to cool them down and the Red Sox rode the momentum to the 2007 title.
That is a big part of October baseball, momentum. "Momma Mo" as we use to call it is cruel when she is on the other side, but if you can get her to swing in your direction you can ride her to a title. All it takes is one play (2011 WS, David Freese triple in game 6, 1986 WS game 6 Mookie Wilson ground ball through Buckner, 2004 ALCS game 4 Dave Roberts steals 2nd, Ortiz walks off in 12). The momentum that these teams bring into the playoffs can carry them to the World Series. Yes anything can happen, but it helps to have the guys feeling confident going into October.
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