Great. It's almost as if I can tell you what's going to happen for the next three weeks in baseball...

My long-suffering anonymous friend is correct.  It does suck to be a Dodger fan.

But FAR MORE than doubly so when it's clear that it's all part of a goddamn script!!!

It's clear to anyone with two working eyes that, for reasons I cannot comprehend, Rob Manfred is trying to piss away the Los Angeles Dodgers and a Dodger tradition going back to the days of "WHO'S A BUM???"

The latest in all of this is the Diamondbacks, who have rolled over completely out of the playoffs over the course of the last two weeks.

So NOW they tell everyone they're going to play seriously!!

And MLB puts JOE FUCKING WEST in the crew for this series in Arizona????

With THIS being the scenario...

The entire American League is effectively settled, one through five.

Boston has clinched home field for the entire playoffs as the 1 seed.  Houston has clinched the 2.  Cleveland clinched the 3 seed somewhere in the area of about June 15th.

(If the Minnesota Twins do not win another game, the entire remaining American League Central will lose 90 games or more.)

(The Baltimore Orioles are 60/5 games back with 6 to play.  It's down around historic levels.)

The play-in game will be Oakland vs. New York, and New York, right now, has a 2-game lead (season series tied 3-3).

So the Yankees beat Oakland, go 5 with Boston, Houston dispatches Cleveland...  I think you get the point.

The real salivation is how Rob Manfred is going to shit down baseball tradition to ram probably Cubs vs. Cobb County down our throats.

Both have clinched at least play-in spots.  Only Cobb County and it's White fanbase has clinched the division.

(In fact, if Philadelphia does not finish it's last seven games with a winning record, we will have TWO divisions this year where only the division champion had a winning record!)

The reason that all goes crazy is the following scenario:

As of right now, with all teams with six to play except the Rockies, who have seven:

Milwaukee with 89 wins
St. Louis with 87
Dodgers with 87
Rockies with 85

And, oh, Cobb County has 88 on the outside.

Each pair of divisional teams has a three-game series with each other this week.

Consider the following scenario:

Milwaukee goes 1-5
St. Louis 3-3
Dodgers 3-3
Rockies 5-2

And, if you want to put some extra spice in it, Cobb County goes 2-4.

This would mean a four-way tie in the National League, two for the West, and the loser of that with two others for the play-in.

What would happen:

Monday:  Rockies at Dodgers for the division.  Brewers probably at Cardinals for one play-in spot.
Tuesday:  The two losers play for the other.  (Cardinals would host either NL West opponent, Brewers would host the Rockies, Dodgers would host the Brewers.)
Wednesday:  NL Wild-Card game between the Brewers-Cardinals winner and the Tuesday winner.  Same home-field rules apply.

Now if you don't think that, after that BLESSED GAME 162 that led to all this second wild-card hullaballoo, Manfred wouldn't salivate all over this shit, you're funny.  (Except to a Dodger fan, who has every right to believe this NOT FUNNY!!!)

But then, who are we kidding?  Manfred probably wants Colorado to win the Monday game, the Wild-Card Game be won by the Most Cracker Fans in Baseball (so St. Louis), and the NLCS is Chicago-Cobb County.

And you wonder why some people want to give the fuck up on the sport???  Watch this space.

EDIT TO ADD 10:30 PM PDT 9/24:  And why would Dodger fans like my friend revolt at the thought of Joe West on the crew?

Shit like this!!!  Watch the whole thing and tell me Joc Pederson was not being egged toward a vital suspension here, which he gladly did not take the bait on...

(Video from Dodger Digest)