MLB post-season predictions: Rays can continue to shine in the American League

Free tips, best bets and analysis for the start of the 2021 Major League baseball playoffs.

Best bets

Tampa Bay Rays to win the American League
1pt 11-4 Hills

LA Dodgers to win the National League
1pt 19-10Hills

MLB Playoffs preview

The MLB post-season starts in the early hours of Wednesday morning with a winner-takes-all American League Wild Card game between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, and although it is great to see the famous rivals meeting in a game like this, neither look good enough to go deep into the playoffs.

Punters who followed RP Sport’s advice to back the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago White Sox to win their respective leagues will have enjoyed both selections making it comfortably to the Division Series.

Both teams have benefited from playing in weak divisions, so it is probably sensible to add a couple more teams who may have even better chances of going all the way.

Tampa Bay were the World Series runners-up last season, but they were expected to regress this season after breaking up and rebuilding their pitching rotation.

However, the team has found different ways to win games, upsetting the odds and winning the AL East by a comfortable eight-game margin and notching a century of wins.

Their starters are not great, with a combined ERA of more than four, but the bullpen got them out of trouble for the most part - their relief staff have a league-lowest ERA of 3.24 - while the offence have knocked in 857 runs, and they look more than capable of making a strong run in the post-season.

They will meet the winner of the Yankees v Red Sox clash, and having taken care of them all season, the Rays are confidently expected to progress.

In the National League the situation is slightly unpredictable, with the team who are the favourites and arguably the best in the section - defending World Series champions the LA Dodgers - only making the playoffs in a wild-card spot.

How such a good team will have to settle for a runners-up spot is because of the relentlessness of the surprise package San Francisco Giants, who somehow managed to hold the men from Los Angeles for the whole regular season.

Backing the Dodgers is a high-risk strategy, of course, because of their participation in the single-game elimination match on Wednesday.

However, if they can successfully negotiate it then they have an outstanding chance of a repeat success in the Fall Classic.

Their underlying stats in the adjusted standings - home runs, walks, strikeouts etc - are impressive, and consistent with an even higher total of wins than the 106 they managed.

The same stats suggest that San Francisco were perhaps a bit flattered by their impressive total of 107 wins - they have them round the 102 mark - so arguably they got the rub of the green along the way.

The Dodgers have a terrific pitching staff, including Walker Buehler, Julio Erias and Max Scherzer, who has pitched beautifully since being picked up midseason, with a miniscule 1.98 ERA, and is likely to get the start at Dodger Stadium against St Louis in the vital Wild Card game late on Wednesday night.

No team have scored more runs in the National League and, with the second-best bullpen in the section, there is very little about this team not to like.

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