Who will Boston Red Sox face in the 2016 MLB postseason?
By Sean Penney
The Boston Red Sox have locked in their playoff opponent in the American League Division Series, but still seek home-field advantage in the opening round.
We now know who the Boston Red Sox will be facing in the ALDS, we just don’t know which city they will be in for Game 1 yet.
The opponent will be the Cleveland Indians, winners of the AL Central division, but home-field advantage in the series will be determined by how the rest of the regular season plays out. Boston (93-67) currently has a half game lead over Cleveland (92-67).
"“We kind of anticipated this might be the way it shakes out,” Red Sox manager John Farrell told reporters after the news became official. “Obviously a very good team. We’ll have time to review them more in depth as typically the case when we get ready for postseason. Still, we’re looking forward to these final two games here.”"
Boston wraps up the regular season with a pair of games at Fenway Park this weekend. They look forward to the first two playoff games potentially being at home as well, but they have some work to do first in order to make that happen.
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The Texas Rangers have already locked up the league’s top seed, leading the Red Sox by two games in the standings and owning the tiebreaker against both of their fellow division winners.
Boston has the tiebreaker over Cleveland by virtue of their 4-2 head-to-head record this season, so they control their own destiny. Win the next two games at Fenway against the Toronto Blue Jays and home-field in the first round belongs to them. Falter in either game and the Red Sox will need a little help in order to stay ahead of the Indians.
Complicating matters is that Cleveland has a make-up game scheduled for Monday against the Detroit Tigers. If Boston remains at least a half game ahead at that point then the outcome is irrelevant from a Red Sox point of view, but if Cleveland is a mere half game ahead by the end of the weekend then they will need to win that game to leap Boston for the No. 2 seed. That game has potential playoff implications for a Tigers team fighting for a Wild Card spot, so that certainly won’t make Cleveland’s task any easier.
While the Red Sox ultimately fell short of securing the league’s top record, settling for the second seed may not be so bad. Cleveland’s banged up rotation may prove to be a more appealing ALDS match-up than the team that survives the Wild Card round. What the Red Sox don’t want to happen is to fall into third place, giving an Indians squad with most home wins in the league an edge.
Starters for the series have yet to be announced, but we can bank on David Price and Rick Porcello taking the mound in some order for the first two games.
Next: Red Sox 2016 Season Awards
Game 1 of the ALDS beings on Thursday, October 6, followed by Game 2 the next day. Saturday will be a travel day, hopefully going from Boston to Cleveland instead of vice versa, with Game 3 on Sunday. If necessary, the best of five series will wrap up with games on Monday and Wednesday.