Pirate Morning Report: Playoff Briefing Day 2

Three of the four Wild Card series are over. The Royals beat the Orioles 2-1 with the Orioles matching the Rays last year by scoring one run in the two games. The Tigers upset the Astros winning the second game 5-2 as the Astros could only muster 3 runs in the 2 games. The Padres scored 5 runs in the second inning after 2 were out and the bases empty, barely making it stand up, eking out a 5-4 win to take the series with the Braves. We will get one elimination game this year as the Brewers beat the Mets 5-3 to even the series. MLB will be rooting for the Brewers because if the Mets win, which I expect they will, it will mean in 3 years that only two division champions have made it into the division series. So far, the visiting team has won 8 out of the 11 series. It looks obvious right now, that getting home field advantage is not enough of a reward after playing 162 games. If the Mets win you may see a change in the playoff format. My suggestion is to go back to the old wild card games of one and done. Have the 5th and 6th seeds play and the winner plays the 4th seed with the winner moving on to the division series. Either that or shorten the season but you know that is not going to happen. If you lead your division over 162 games, you should at least be into the quarter finals. No other professional league has a season that is even close to playing that many games. If the Brewers win today which is certainly a possibility, you will hear a big sigh of relief from MLB hoping again that next year the highest seeds will do better in the wild card round.