But for the 2 wild card teams, they play each other the day after the season ends, and then whoever wins plays the team with the best league record the day after that, they get no break in between.
The second wild card team is awesome because it finally gives an advantage to the best team in each league because whoever goes through from the wild card will be off in their rotation
You tryin to be a hero fool? You wanna see badass mother fucker?! I'll show ya a badass!!!
CINCINNATI -- Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips and Pirates reliever Jared Hughes made peace with one another on Tuesday, the day after the two had a verbal exchange during Monday's game.
In the eighth inning of the Reds' 4-3 win in 14 innings, Hughes hit Phillips in the leg with a first pitch. Phillips flipped the ball underhanded over the mound before trotting to first base. Hughes yelled something at Phillips before umpires headed off any escalation with bench warnings.
Following the game, Phillips took to Twitter and posted the following: "#RealTalk... Not really surprised by what I heard come outta another player's mouth tonite but DAMN... Still PISSED bout that [expletive] #Racism"
Encouraged by Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen, Phillips and Hughes spoke on the phone Tuesday before arriving at the ballpark.
"Phillips had my number, and texted that he wanted to talk, so I went to Hughes with it and right away he said he wanted to, too," McCutchen said.
The conversation between the two men proved productive and Phillips came away satisfied.
"Last night, it was a heated moment for me, especially being from Stone Mountain, Ga., a lot of crazy things go down and a lot of racist stuff happened from the South," Phillips said Tuesday while at his locker.
"I was real [angry] about the situation. Me and Mr. Hughes, we had a great conversation before I came to the stadium today. It was the best thing that ever happened, talking to him in general about what happened and talking to him about things that I heard and stuff. It was great just to hear what he had to say and for him to hear what I had to say. It made us feel better about the situation. I respect him as a player and also as a man from the conversation me and him had.
"It was just a big misunderstanding. When you say certain things in the heat of the moment, you don't really mean it. I understand that and you forgive people. He forgave me, and I forgive him."
Tension had brewed between the two teams in recent series, including one in Cincinnati last month when Aroldis Chapman hit McCutchen in the shoulder with a fastball in one game and Mike Leake hit Josh Harrison with a pitch in another. Hughes also applied a hard tag to Dioner Navarro in a separate incident.
But Monday's moment was the closest things had come to spilling into a fracas as players in both dugouts were at the top step before cooler heads prevailed.
That continued into Tuesday, with both teams appearing to move forward.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, some on the Pirates understood that Phillips believed he heard Hughes call him "boy," which can be deemed racially offensive by many. Hughes denied making any such comment.
"I'm not going to tell you what he said. It's between me and him," Phillips said. "I respect him as a man, and he respects me. That's what it's all about. I think everybody should just squash it. I'm going to squash it. Last night I tweeted because at that moment, that's how I felt. I don't like stuff like that, and that's how I felt."
Hughes relayed a similar sentiment.
"I just want to say Brandon Phillips is someone I've always respected as a man and as a player. I grew up watching him play, and admiring his play," Hughes said. "We talked today, and got it all cleared up. I'm glad I had a chance to tell him my side of the story myself. Anything that was said stays between Brandon and myself."
Phillips was eager to have future conversations be about the games played on the field.
"If I'm not going to worry about it, everybody shouldn't worry about it," Phillips said. "It happened to none of ya'll, it happened to me. It's between me and him. Let me and him do our job and worry about winning, instead of just this incident."
You tryin to be a hero fool? You wanna see badass mother fucker?! I'll show ya a badass!!!
One of baseball's traditional home openers will have an innovative twist next season.
The Cincinnati Reds will host the Los Angeles Angels on April 1, becoming the first teams to start their seasons with an interleague matchup. The Reds, the first professional team, celebrate Opening Day with a parade and have opened all but four seasons at home.
Major League Baseball announced its 2013 preliminary schedule Wednesday, with several format changes caused by the shift of the Houston Astros to the American League. A National League franchise for its first 51 seasons, the Astros start AL play April 2 when they host the cross-state rival Texas Rangers.
Houston moves from the NL Central to the AL West, creating six divisions of five teams each. Under a move announced in November, the Astros will become only the second team since 1900 to switch leagues, following Milwaukee's entry to the NL for the 1998 season.
Because there will be 15 teams in each major league for the first time, interleague play is necessary nearly every day. Since its inception in 1997, interleague play had been concentrated mostly during periods in late May and June.
Eleven of the 15 series on the final weekend of the regular season, Sept. 27-29, will involve division rivalries. The exceptions have the Yankees at Houston, Milwaukee at the Mets, Detroit at Miami and Washington at Arizona.
MLB is abandoning its two-year experiment with midweek openers, reverting to a Sunday night start in a nationally televised game on ESPN that will be determined later.
In another shift, the New York Yankees and Mets for now are slated to open at home on the same day for the first time, with Boston visiting the Bronx on April 1 and San Diego playing in Queens. ESPN could move Red Sox-Yankees to the March 31 Sunday night slot.
Other AL openers on April 1 have Kansas City at Chicago, Detroit at Minnesota and Seattle at Oakland. NL games that day are St. Louis at Arizona, Philadelphia at Atlanta, San Francisco at Los Angeles, Colorado at Milwaukee, Chicago at Pittsburgh and Miami at Washington.
Tuesday openers include Baltimore at Tampa Bay and Cleveland at Toronto.
Under the new schedule format, a team plays 19 games against each division rival for a total of 76, and six or seven against each league opponent in the other two divisions for a total of 66. Each club will play 20 interleague games over eight series, with rivalry games -- such as Cubs-White Sox and Dodgers-Angels -- in consecutive two-game series during the week of May 27.
In the old format, teams in the AL East, AL Central, NL East and NL West played division rivals 18 times each, while AL West played in-division opponents 19 times apiece and NL Central teams met 15-18 times. AL interdivision opponents met six to 10 times and NL interdivision opponents six to nine times. While AL teams played 18 interleague games, the total varied from 12-18 in the NL.
In addition to traditional rivals, interleague play next year has the AL East playing the NL West, the NL East facing the AL Central and the AL West meeting the NL Central.
The schedule is not as retarded as I thought it would be the 2 weeks on interleague just got spread out over a season. Opening day with the reds is the best tradition in baseball. They have even turned it into a legal holiday here
You tryin to be a hero fool? You wanna see badass mother fucker?! I'll show ya a badass!!!
Well thanks to the cardinals and pirates stumbling it would not be too far fetched for Philly or the brewers to sneak into that final wild card spot. Philly has won 5 straight. It's shaping up to be a crazy finish. Cardinals got swept. Reds magic number has moved into the single digits at 9. By the end of the night it could be 8
You tryin to be a hero fool? You wanna see badass mother fucker?! I'll show ya a badass!!!
It's nice to see the tigers putting up a fight but at the end of the day the white sox will win that division.
Only think that sucks for the reds now is they go on the road until next weekend I want to go when they clinch the division and they may not be here :-( but I have a feeling if they are here it will happen on the 21st when I'm at a concert and can't go
You tryin to be a hero fool? You wanna see badass mother fucker?! I'll show ya a badass!!!
Comments
Regardless, 1 of the 2 WC teams could be on fire, but lose than 1 game and none of it matters, it should just be 1 WC team.
In the eighth inning of the Reds' 4-3 win in 14 innings, Hughes hit Phillips in the leg with a first pitch. Phillips flipped the ball underhanded over the mound before trotting to first base. Hughes yelled something at Phillips before umpires headed off any escalation with bench warnings.
Following the game, Phillips took to Twitter and posted the following: "#RealTalk... Not really surprised by what I heard come outta another player's mouth tonite but DAMN... Still PISSED bout that [expletive] #Racism"
Encouraged by Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen, Phillips and Hughes spoke on the phone Tuesday before arriving at the ballpark.
"Phillips had my number, and texted that he wanted to talk, so I went to Hughes with it and right away he said he wanted to, too," McCutchen said.
The conversation between the two men proved productive and Phillips came away satisfied.
"Last night, it was a heated moment for me, especially being from Stone Mountain, Ga., a lot of crazy things go down and a lot of racist stuff happened from the South," Phillips said Tuesday while at his locker.
"I was real [angry] about the situation. Me and Mr. Hughes, we had a great conversation before I came to the stadium today. It was the best thing that ever happened, talking to him in general about what happened and talking to him about things that I heard and stuff. It was great just to hear what he had to say and for him to hear what I had to say. It made us feel better about the situation. I respect him as a player and also as a man from the conversation me and him had.
"It was just a big misunderstanding. When you say certain things in the heat of the moment, you don't really mean it. I understand that and you forgive people. He forgave me, and I forgive him."
Tension had brewed between the two teams in recent series, including one in Cincinnati last month when Aroldis Chapman hit McCutchen in the shoulder with a fastball in one game and Mike Leake hit Josh Harrison with a pitch in another. Hughes also applied a hard tag to Dioner Navarro in a separate incident.
But Monday's moment was the closest things had come to spilling into a fracas as players in both dugouts were at the top step before cooler heads prevailed.
That continued into Tuesday, with both teams appearing to move forward.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, some on the Pirates understood that Phillips believed he heard Hughes call him "boy," which can be deemed racially offensive by many. Hughes denied making any such comment.
"I'm not going to tell you what he said. It's between me and him," Phillips said. "I respect him as a man, and he respects me. That's what it's all about. I think everybody should just squash it. I'm going to squash it. Last night I tweeted because at that moment, that's how I felt. I don't like stuff like that, and that's how I felt."
Hughes relayed a similar sentiment.
"I just want to say Brandon Phillips is someone I've always respected as a man and as a player. I grew up watching him play, and admiring his play," Hughes said. "We talked today, and got it all cleared up. I'm glad I had a chance to tell him my side of the story myself. Anything that was said stays between Brandon and myself."
Phillips was eager to have future conversations be about the games played on the field.
"If I'm not going to worry about it, everybody shouldn't worry about it," Phillips said. "It happened to none of ya'll, it happened to me. It's between me and him. Let me and him do our job and worry about winning, instead of just this incident."
The Cincinnati Reds will host the Los Angeles Angels on April 1, becoming the first teams to start their seasons with an interleague matchup. The Reds, the first professional team, celebrate Opening Day with a parade and have opened all but four seasons at home.
Major League Baseball announced its 2013 preliminary schedule Wednesday, with several format changes caused by the shift of the Houston Astros to the American League. A National League franchise for its first 51 seasons, the Astros start AL play April 2 when they host the cross-state rival Texas Rangers.
Houston moves from the NL Central to the AL West, creating six divisions of five teams each. Under a move announced in November, the Astros will become only the second team since 1900 to switch leagues, following Milwaukee's entry to the NL for the 1998 season.
Because there will be 15 teams in each major league for the first time, interleague play is necessary nearly every day. Since its inception in 1997, interleague play had been concentrated mostly during periods in late May and June.
Eleven of the 15 series on the final weekend of the regular season, Sept. 27-29, will involve division rivalries. The exceptions have the Yankees at Houston, Milwaukee at the Mets, Detroit at Miami and Washington at Arizona.
MLB is abandoning its two-year experiment with midweek openers, reverting to a Sunday night start in a nationally televised game on ESPN that will be determined later.
In another shift, the New York Yankees and Mets for now are slated to open at home on the same day for the first time, with Boston visiting the Bronx on April 1 and San Diego playing in Queens. ESPN could move Red Sox-Yankees to the March 31 Sunday night slot.
Other AL openers on April 1 have Kansas City at Chicago, Detroit at Minnesota and Seattle at Oakland. NL games that day are St. Louis at Arizona, Philadelphia at Atlanta, San Francisco at Los Angeles, Colorado at Milwaukee, Chicago at Pittsburgh and Miami at Washington.
Tuesday openers include Baltimore at Tampa Bay and Cleveland at Toronto.
Under the new schedule format, a team plays 19 games against each division rival for a total of 76, and six or seven against each league opponent in the other two divisions for a total of 66. Each club will play 20 interleague games over eight series, with rivalry games -- such as Cubs-White Sox and Dodgers-Angels -- in consecutive two-game series during the week of May 27.
In the old format, teams in the AL East, AL Central, NL East and NL West played division rivals 18 times each, while AL West played in-division opponents 19 times apiece and NL Central teams met 15-18 times. AL interdivision opponents met six to 10 times and NL interdivision opponents six to nine times. While AL teams played 18 interleague games, the total varied from 12-18 in the NL.
In addition to traditional rivals, interleague play next year has the AL East playing the NL West, the NL East facing the AL Central and the AL West meeting the NL Central.
Swept the pirates! Go ahead and gives us our division champs shirts!
Shit was funny.
Only think that sucks for the reds now is they go on the road until next weekend I want to go when they clinch the division and they may not be here :-( but I have a feeling if they are here it will happen on the 21st when I'm at a concert and can't go