MLB Playoff Preview:

Wild Card Round

American League
This weekend provided quite the interesting end to
the 2013 regular season. But it isnt over yet. Add
game 163 to the schedule.
Six months of baseball came down to Sunday with
three teams competing. The Tampa Bay Rays (91-71)
were the first up, taking on the Toronto Blue Jays (7488) on the road. They sent out Matt Moore (17-4) to
the mound. Moore only gave up three runs in 5.1
innings and had plenty of run support with the Rays
crossing the plate six times in the first inning. The
Blue Jays bats came alive when Mark DeRosa (.235
BA) knocked in two runs in the sixth inning, but their
effort fell short as they lost 7-6 to close out their
season.
On-deck: the Cleveland Indians (92-70), who were
facing the Minnesota Twins (66-96), on the road as
well. Nick Swisher (.246 BA) set the tone for the game
in the first inning with his 22ndhomer of the season.
The Indians scored in the sixth and seventh innings
adding three more runs to send the Twins into the offseason with a 5-1 loss.
With the first two games in the books, it was all up to
the Texas Rangers (91-71) to keep themselves in the
hunt for October.

They faced AL West division rivals Anaheim Angels

(78-84) in Arlington, for their last series meeting of
the season. Texas was led by the league leader in
strikeouts, Yu Darvish (277). Former Ranger, Josh
Hamilton, tied the game up in the sixth but Geovany
Soto soon broke up that tie and added to the Rangers
6-2 win with a solo home run.
Cleveland secured a Wild Card spot, with a one game
lead over both the Rangers and Rays, who finished
with the same record.
Monday night, the Rangers host the Rays in a Wild
Card play-in game. Tampa Bay will go with David
Price (9-8) on the mound and Texas will count on
Martin Perez (10-5). The winner of this game will then
face the Cleveland Indians for the chance to advance
to the AL Division Series.
A curveball to this one game series before
Wednesdays Wild Card game is the return of Texas
power hitter Nelson Cruz. The All-Star was suspended
50 games by the MLB for his involvement in
Biogenesis scandal. The Rangers have decided to
activate him for Mondays crucial game, but team
manager, Ron Washington, did not confirm if Cruz
will be in the lineup.
Two things worth noting are: just in case he is starting
in right field Monday, Cruz has dominated Price in the
pastand Tampa Bays 2010 and 2011 seasons were
ended by Texas.