The Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals lost home games on Sunday as the 2021 Major League Baseball regular season finished up. Courtesy of a blistering hot September that included a franchise record 17 game winning streak, the Cardinals earned the #2 wild card spot in the National League, and a trip to play the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night, while the Royals finished in fourth place in the AL Central, out of the playoff race.
Byron Buxton and Jorge Polanco cracked homers for the Minnesota Twins on Sunday afternoon in a 7-3 victory over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Kansas City catcher Salvador Perez went 0 for 2 with a walk, finishing a career-best season with 48 homers and an MLB-best 121 RBI’s. The 48 homers tied Perez with Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for tops in MLB.
Jackson Kowar finished his rookie season for KC without a victory, falling to 0-6, giving up five runs in the first inning to put the Royals in an early hole. Minnesota ends its season at 73-89, with the Royals finishing 74-88.
The Cardinals lost to the Chicago Cubs by a score of 3-2. Matt Duffy had a pair of run-scoring singles for the Cubs, who finished a rebuilding season at 71-91, using a major-league record 69 players through the season.
Sunday’s game was ended after seven innings due to rain in the St. Louis area. The Cardinals, finishing six games behind the Brewers in the NL Central, are in the postseason for the third year in a row.
In the American League playoffs, the Yankees and Red Sox both won on Sunday, clinching spots in the American League Wild Card game by one game over the Toronto Blue Jays and two games over the Seattle Mariners. The Red Sox will host the Yankees on Tuesday night in the postseason opener, with the winner going into a Best-of-5 ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The AL Central champion Chicago White Sox play the AL West champion Houston Astros in the another ALDS.
In the National League, the bitter rivals from Los Angeles and San Francisco finished one game apart in a historic Western Division race, with the Giants, with a franchise-best 107 wins, earning the division title and #1 seed throughout the playoffs. The Dodgers, despite a record-setting 106 wins by a defending World Series champion, settle for a spot in the NL Wild Card game, hosting St. Louis on Wednesday night. A battle of veteran righty’s will see Adam Wainwright take on Max Scherzer.
The Giants will play the Cardinals-Dodgers survivor in one NLDS Best-of-5 series, with Milwaukee’s NL Central champion Brewers taking on their city’s former franchise, the Atlanta Braves, in the other Best-of-5 NLDS matchup.
