![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/verlander_laz.jpg\")
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Despite the fact that I\u2019m a pretty casual fan these days that isn\u2019t nearly in the trenches of the minutiae of the game like I once was, this turned out to be a pretty interesting final day of the MLB regular season, that I took more notice of a lot of concurrent storylines than I probably had at any other point in the season, probably over the last few too.<\/span><\/p>\n So, starting with the Braves, seeing as how they had clinched the NL East last week, this final week of the season was full of games where the outcomes were basically inconsequential, but in fitting Barves<\/em> fashion, Atlanta had to go 2-4 and end the season with a loss, backing into the playoffs.\u00a0 Inconsequential as these last games might have been, I\u2019m a firm believer of momentum and routine, and seeing as how the team won 92 games by playing in a certain fashion, I never like the idea of changing the way they play the game and letting off the gas, when, especially in baseball, the team that gets hot in the playoffs usually is the one that wins it all, completely regardless of records, seeding and bracket positioning.<\/span><\/p>\n Frankly, I don\u2019t like the Braves\u2019 chances in the playoffs, seeing as how for most of the second half of the season, the offense has been pretty anemic, where the wins have been mostly on the arm of Chris Sale, blowout wins were sparse, and every victory felt like they were coming from behind, instead of putting opponents away early and cruising to any low-stress wins.<\/span><\/p>\n There were a handful of games today that I had hopes for the outcome, and almost systematically, nearly every single one of them went contrary to what I was hoping for:<\/span><\/p>\n Getting all five would\u2019ve been a tall order, but two out of five still kind of stinks, and there were particular reasons where I was hoping for each of these outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n With the Phillies and Diamondbacks outcomes the way they happened, means that the sixth and final playoff spot in the National League belongs to the Phillies, who will play the Braves in the Wild Card round, three games in Atlanta.<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any team in baseball that I have a complex about more than the Phillies, because they\u2019ve probably been the biggest thorn in the side to the Braves for as long as I\u2019ve been a fan.\u00a0 Philadelphia sports in general, it\u2019s my belief that all Atlanta sports fans should have a similar complex about, seeing as how the Phillies and Eagles have tormented the Braves and Falcons for decades at this point, and it always seems like they\u2019re the ones who send Atlanta home in the playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n Historically, the Phillies are 3-0 against the Braves in the playoff series, having knocked them out in 1993, 2022 and 2023; and its worth mentioning the Phillies were the lower seed in the last two, and it really doesn\u2019t matter how well the Braves have handled them in the regular seasons, there\u2019s just something about the playoffs where the Phillies rise up harder against the Braves than anyone else, before dropping like flies immediately after dispatching of the Braves.<\/span><\/p>\n Needless to say, I\u2019m disappointed that the Phillies have snuck into the playoffs, and even more disappointed that they matched up against the Braves.\u00a0 I genuinely would have rather have seen the Cubs or Padres over the Phillies, and I don\u2019t have a good feeling about this year either.<\/span><\/p>\n The Angels\u2019 loss today meant that for the first time in franchise history, the Angels have lost 100 games, and is generally meaningless it is to me, I always like to see ironic historical marks, and seeing as how the Braves have never dropped 100 in my tenure as fan, I\u2019m amused to see it happened to someone else.<\/span><\/p>\n Now the Astros and Rangers, the only reason why I cared about their games, was the fact that speaking of ironic history, 2026 would mark the first time in history where a division winner would be have a no better than .500 record, and few things seem as amusing as the idea of a baseball team marching into the playoffs with barely 80 wins, when the Brewers and Dodgers both have 100+.<\/span><\/p>\n If both the Astros and the Rangers lost today, they would have ended with identical 80-82 records, with the Astros winning the division based on a tiebreaker, and we\u2019d be witness to the first-ever sub-.500 division winner.<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, the Astros pulled out a W against the also woeful Oakland<\/span> Athletics, and finish 81-81, a cool .500, breaking the previous mark of futility of the 2005 Padres and their 82-80 record.\u00a0 I\u2019m disappointed, because .500 is still .500 and isn\u2019t as ironically entertaining as .494 and firmly under .500.<\/span><\/p>\n That being said, after the Braves get bounced by the Phillies, I think I\u2019m going to have to root for the Astros to go all the way, because few things would be great in baseball than an 81-win team going all the way, before the whole league goes on strike, and the last World Series champion of this era being a shitty 81-win Houston Astros, whom everyone already hates their franchise because of the cheating scandal of 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n So with the Astros in, the American League playoff bracket is something that of a slow-adult dreamed up, where an 81-win Astros get the #3 seed by virtue of winning a pitiful AL West going up against an 83-win #6 seed White Sox, where the winner of series gets go play against an 85-win Guardians squad that actually won the AL Central.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, on the other branch of the bracket, a 93-win Yankees squad goes up against an 87-win Red Sox squad, where the winner gets to play a 97-win Rays squad, where if you\u2019re paying attention, all of them are in the same division, and because there\u2019s no re-seeding after the Wild Card round, the #1 seed in the AL has to play a stronger squad in the divisional round, and it\u2019s guaranteed that at least one sub-90 win squad is going to be in the ALCS, and keep hopes for a World Series alive.<\/span><\/p>\n But let\u2019s end this post about baseball on a high note, which was the emotional Detroit Tigers game, which was the final game of future Hall of Famer, Justin Verlander, the pride of Goochland (Virginia).\u00a0 I always love when professional athletes go out on their own terms, and I\u2019m happy for Verlander doing the same, instead of milking it longer in order to pursue 300 wins (retiring with 266).\u00a0 It\u2019s not like he has anything left to prove at this point otherwise, seeing as how he\u2019s already got two World Series rings, three Cy Young Awards, an MVP, 3,500+ strikeouts, three no-hitters, and countless all-star selections.<\/span><\/p>\n He goes out in a beautiful game where he\u2019s joined by his kids with his supermodel wife Kate Upton, and I think the best part about the game was in his final inning, where legendary-bad umpire, and also-in his final game ever, Laz Diaz completely capitalizes on the Pirates\u2019 running out of ABS challenges, and makes some hilariously bad calls in order for Verlander to end his final outing with a strikeout.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s been a fun regular season, but as we all know, the playoffs are a completely different animal, so let\u2019s close out the regular season with reminders of just how awesome baseball is still capable of being.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite the fact that I\u2019m a pretty casual fan these days that isn\u2019t nearly in the trenches of the minutiae of the game like I once was, this turned out to be a pretty interesting final day of the MLB regular season, that I took more notice of a lot of concurrent storylines than I … Continue reading Baseball is the best<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[196,62,66,45,205,83,52,58],"class_list":["post-51549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-barves","tag-baseball","tag-braves","tag-fail","tag-mlb","tag-observations","tag-owned","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51551,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51549\/revisions\/51551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n