Baseball

Two familiar foes will square off Tuesday in the American League Wild Card Game, when the Toronto Blue Jays host the Baltimore Orioles as -150 home favorites (bet $150 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

The teams just played each other last week at the Rogers Centre, with Baltimore winning two of three but losing 10 of 19 meetings overall this year to surrender home-field advantage.

Barry Bonds’ tenure with the Miami Marlins is reportedly over after just one season.

Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball cited sources who said the Marlins elected to let the hitting coach go on Monday.

The Arizona Diamondbacks fired manager Chip Hale and general manager Dave Stewart on Monday after the team failed to reach expectations following an offseason of high-profile moves. 

Fox Sports Arizona's Jody Jackson shared a statement from the Diamondbacks:

Major League Baseball's postseason predictions are a lot like blind dates: We've all tried them at some point, but man, they rarely goes right.

But that doesn't stop us from trying, right? So below, I've attempted to predict the entire 2016 postseason, knowing fully well that I'll probably get everything all wrong. The MLB postseason is funny like that, but hey, maybe this is the year it all goes according to plan.

With the 2016 MLB regular season officially wrapped up and the 10-team playoff field now set, this week's power rankings are going to be a little bit different than what you may be used to.

Looking at last week's performance is not necessarily the best indicator of which direction each of these teams is headed, as some of them clinched prior to last week and were resting guys and setting up their playoff rotation, while others were battling just to make it in.

For all their successes in recent seasons, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals enter their National League Division Series matchup as relative strangers. They have not met in the postseason despite combining for seven division championships in the past five seasons.

The Dodgers' two NLDS battles against NL East champions came during the two campaigns (2013 and 2015) where Washington was sitting at home.

After a brilliant 11-game winning streak in September allowed them to move into first place and clinch the American League East title, the Boston Red Sox (93-69) played indifferent baseball in the final week of the season and lost five of their final six games.

That allowed the American League Central champion Cleveland Indians (94-67) to take advantage and finish with a better season-long record than the Red Sox and earn home-field advantage in their American League Division Series.

After an exciting September that featured tightly contested postseason races in both leagues, the 2016 MLB playoffs are finally upon us with the field already set despite the regular season ending on Monday.

Sometimes sports can be cruel, and the American and National League Wild Card Games are perfect examples. 

Major League Baseball's 162-game regular-season schedule is a serious commitment for players and fans alike. The players must grind through the dog days of summer and all the peaks and valleys that come with them, while the fans must devote significant chunks of their time to watching, attending and following such a large number of games.

Two American League East clubs will vie for their postseason lives when the Toronto Blue Jays host the Baltimore Orioles in Tuesday's AL Wild Card Game.

MLB nearly faced a scheduling nightmare when a four-team tie remained plausible as late as Saturday. If the Detroit Tigers were required to make up a rained-out game Monday, they could have forced another tiebreaker game before playing the actual elimination game.