Now that the Tampa Bay Rays have defeated the Texas Rangers to secure the second wild card in the American League (A.L.), let’s look at the wild card match-ups:

In the National League (N.L.), the Cincinnati Reds visit the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The Pirates are soaring high this year.  This year is the first year that the Pirates have ended the season with a winning season, or made the playoffs, since 1992.  Because of this, my opinion is that the Pirates will take the wild card game over Cincinnati.

In the A.L.  Tampa visits the Cleveland Indians.  The Indians manager, Terry Francona, led the Boston Red Sox to the World Series in 2004 and 2007, helping Boston break the “Curse of the Bambino” in 2004.  For that reason, and the fact that Cleveland has an extra day to rest thanks to the tie breaker between the Rays and Rangers, makes me believe that the Indians will prevail over the Rays.

The N.L. Wild card game goes down Tuesday night, while the A.L. game goes down Wednesday.