The Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays will kick off the 2016 MLB postseason with the American League Wild Card Game.
Both teams ended the regular season with excellent records, tied 89-73. Based on a tiebreaker (the Jays went 10-9 against Baltimore this year with a 6-4 record at home, outscoring the Orioles 97-81), the first postseason MLB game will be hosted in Toronto.
While the Jays will have home field advantage, the Orioles are known for their strong offense and will likely use this to their advantage Tuesday night.
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The Orioles lead the majors with 253 home runs and the Blue Jays had 221 this season. What’s more, both teams had six players to hit 20 home runs this year– making them two out of four major league teams to do so in 2016.
Based on these stats, Toronto’s manager, John Gibbons, has already predicted the game will be offensively dominated: “they’re normally slugfests,” he told The Columbus Dispatch.
In addition to strong hitters on both sides, both teams also have strong pitchers who will likely start in Tuesday’s game. Orioles’ pitcher Chris Tillman holds a 16-6 record and a 3.77 ERA, while the Jays’ pitcher, Marcus Stroman, sits at 9-10 with a 4.37 ERA.
"We're really very similar teams if you break it down," Gibbons told The Dispatch. "When you're playing a team from your division, there's really no secrets.”
The winner of the Wild Card game on Tuesday will advance to play the Texas Rangers, who won the American League West, in the American League Division Series, which begins Thursday, October 6th.
The first postseason game will take place on October 4th, at 8 p.m. ET. and will air and live stream on TBS.
Here’s How to Watch the MLB Postseason Games:
In order to watch the games online, fans can use the Fox Sports GO website (or app for mobile viewing), but access requires a valid login through a cable provider. Games are also available for streaming on TBS Sports and Stream2Watch.
You can also find the full postseason schedule, along with the latest baseball news at MLB.com.
And, just a reminder, the first game of the 2016 World Series is set for October 25th.
