The Astros swept the Pirates in a four game set and the baseball gods worked their magic to ensure that everything that wasn't in the Astros control went perfectly. While the Astros are currently depending on other teams to their bidding for them, they've been taking care of their end of the bargain for the last nine games. Their latest series sweep over the Pirates, coupled with a Phillies routing of Ben Sheets, and Rich Harden making easy work of the Cardinals has the Astros sitting 3 games behind Milaulkee as we all buckle down for Hurricane Ike. We remain static in the elimination column at 13, sharing our second place tie with the Phillies. Should the Phightin' Phils sweep the Brewers and the Astros take Sunday's possible double header from the Cubs, both teams would find themselves a game out of the NL Wild Card lead.
So what has this done for our Wild Card odds? Let's first just get a pretty picture of the NL Wild Card standings:
| Report | Wild Card | |
|
BPro Unadjusted |
9.25311% | |
|
BPro Schedule Adjusted |
15.23534% | |
|
Cool Standings |
9.9% | |
|
SCS Weighted |
9.8% | |
|
SCS 50/50 |
10.8% |
The increases are dramatic. The biggest raw change of this week, by far. Crazily enough, we have a better shot at the Wild Card than the Phillies, but I suppose that probably has to do with their equally strong odds of winning their division. The trend we've seen this week is clear though: the more we keep winning, the bigger our odds increase.
Per usual, here are the match-ups du jour:
Cole Hamels takes his filthy 180:47 K:BB to the mound to face off against Manny Parra (another of my fantasy guys I will gladly root for the get creamed), Parra who has been either ON or OFF this season -- my fingers, and I assume your's, are crossed for the latter.
Maholm is another of my fantasy guys (yes, I know...too many NL Central guys) and to counteract my benevolence for both Sheets and Parra getting shelled, I hope that he has a wicked outing against the Red Birds so that we can just put them in our rear-view mirror.
Hurricane Ike is coming, be safe and if you have power, stay tuned to the internet to keep up with the Wild Card race -- preferably here..