Tuesday’s American League Wild Card matchup will feature two teams from the same division for the first time. Those two – the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays – both finished with records of 89-73 and have played each other closely this season (Toronto has a slight 10-9 advantage in the season series).
After a 14-season postseason drought (1998-2011), this will be the third time in five years that Baltimore has made the playoffs. In 2012, the first year in the new expanded playoff structure, they won the inaugural AL Wild Card game before losing 3-2 to the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series.
In 2014, they avoided the Wild Card game, winning the AL East outright and sweeping the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS before being swept themselves in the ALCS by the Kansas City Royals.
Toronto, last season’s AL East champion, has an even sparser recent playoff history. In 2015 they beat the Texas Rangers (3-2) in the ALDS before losing to the Royals (4-2), the eventual World Series champs, in the ALCS. Prior to that, they had not qualified for the playoffs since winning back-to-back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
Neither team will be starting its number one pitcher.
Marcus Stroman gets the call for Toronto. Chris Tillman will be starting for Baltimore.
Stroman’s season was much better than his 4.37 earned run average may indicate. As an extreme groundball pitcher (60.1 GB%), he allowed less than one home run per nine innings (0.93 HR/9). However, when batters did get the ball in the air, he became a bit homer-prone (16.5 HR/FB%). Facing a potent Baltimore lineup, it will be crucial that he keeps the ball on the ground as much as possible.
Tillman, part of the still-infamous Erik Bedard trade haul, has quietly become one of the more reliable innings eaters in baseball. This season was his fourth consecutive with at least 30 starts. Like Stroman, Tillman will be facing a very powerful lineup capable of hitting home runs in bunches. Unlike Stroman, Tillman is not a groundball pitcher. He has struggled with command at times, walking nearly three and a half batters per nine. He’ll need to avoid free passes to limit the damage Toronto can do with the long ball.
These teams are well acquainted with each other. As Tillman said, “I have seen them a lot and they’ve seen me a lot.”
The winner of the game will go on to play the Rangers in the ALDS.
Scott Ferris covers all things baseball as a Staff Writer for Outside Pitch MLB. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottHFerris
The post Marcus Stroman and Chris Tillman to face off in AL Wild Card game appeared first on OutsidePitchMLB.