It All Comes Down to This...(Part 2)

Updates on the AL and NL Wild Card races

By Mark Wesley Pritchard Published 4 months ago • Updated 4 months ago • 4 min read

Greetings, baseball nerds! This past week has been competitive for the teams fighting for Wild Card berths with two weeks left in the 2025 MLB season. If you haven't read my previous story, which was selected as one of the Top Stories for this month, you can click the link down below to get caught up with the happenings of these Wild Card races.

https://shopping-feedback.today/unbalanced/it-all-comes-down-to-this%3C/a%3E

For the second part of this story, I'll update everyone on the Wild Card races in the National League. Also, an update on how the American League Wild Card races have fared so far. Plus, there are two teams who have clinched playoff berths and finally, there's a new leader in the ever-competitive American League West.

Let's start with the two teams who have clinched Wild Card berths. First, we have the Milwaukee Brewers, who secured a playoff spot this past Saturday, thanks to a Mets loss Saturday afternoon against the Rangers. The Brew Crew has won the National League Central division two consecutive years in a row but were knocked out in the Wild Card round both times. Hopefully, the third time around will have a positive result. They are among the few teams who have never won a World Series title, so they have to be on their A game, because the games will only get tougher.

The second team who's heading to the Postseason are the Philadelphia Phillies. They clinch a playoff spot for the fourth straight year. I had very low expectations for them before the season began and I still maintain that they're not a championship caliber team. Their regular season records and NL East titles may look good on paper, but as Red Sox legend David Ortíz once said to the effect of regular season records being irrelevant in the Postseason. I hate to be the bearer of bad news to Phillies fans, but I see your team suffering another playoff exit. They're too obsessed with going for home runs instead of having patience and discipline at the plate, hitting singles or doubles. I believed that Game 7 (their first one in the team's 140-plus year history) of the 2023 NLCS broke them. That was when their window of them winning a World Series title officially closed. Let's say hypothetically that the Phillies were to make it to the World Series and win it all, would the whispers and murmurs about their past playoff failures be put to bed once and for all? Would it lead to Rob Thomson being signed to a multi-year contract? Thomson has been in the hot seat and it's the final year of his contract. If the Phillies suffer another playoff exit and he gets fired, who will take his place? It's a wait and see approach, because it's too early to tell.

The National League Wild Card Standings (as of 9/14/2025)

In the Hunt : San Francisco Giants (75-74)

American League Wild Card Standings (as of 9/14/2025)

In the Hunt: Texas Rangers (79-71)

There's a new leader atop the American League West and it's the Seattle Mariners, which they have a record of 82-68, while the Astros fall to second in the division, followed by the Rangers. It's been one fantastic season for the Mariners and are playoff bound, especially for AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh. Their offense has been scorching hot, but the one concern I have with them is the pitching, as I've stated in my previous story. If they want to become an underdog story and make some noise in the Postseason, their starting rotation has to be on point. They say that defense wins championships, so the Mariners have to give the entire league something to talk about. Meanwhile, the Rangers and Astros will start a three-game series Monday, which will determine how the AL West will shift. The Rangers are on the outside looking in the Wild Card chase, but not too far behind. The final couple of weeks in the regular season will become more intense and the playoff chase more tighter, so the Rangers can't afford to let their guards down. They're two games behind the hated Astros for the final Wild Card spot, so they have to win at least two out of three games to stay alive in the hunt. After sweeping the Brewers and taking two out of three from the Mets at Citi Field, the Rangers aren't going away quietly. At least, not yet.

Part three of this series will be published next week with one more week to go before the Postseason begins on October 1, so be on the lookout for that. The games, as I've mentioned earlier, will get more intense. Seasons for most teams are on the line. Playoff berths are up for grabs. It all comes down to this. Stay tuned.

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