The Lineup: Raul, the A's and playoff shuffling still not done after 161 games (2024)

We only have one day of regular season baseball left, but there are still some things to be decided. Some major things like two divisions, a possible triple crown and the top record in both leagues.

Full Tuesday scoreboard with recaps and box scores for every game

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Raul Ibanez, Yankees: The Yankees entered the game with a one-game lead over the Orioles. The O's won 1-0 in Tampa Bay. The Yankees went into the bottom of the ninth inning trailing 3-1. Ibanez came through with a pinch-hit, two-run homer to tie the game. Then, in the bottom of the 12th, Ibanez came through again in the clutch, driving home the winning run on a single. With one game to go, the Yankees' worst-case scenario is now a tie with the Orioles.

The Oakland Athletics: The Rangers have been alone in first place since April 9 ... until now. It's all tied up with just one game to go. Unbelievable.

Adam LaRoche, Nationals: He hit a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth to put the Nationals on top for good, and they're now in position to take home the top seed in NL, which would secure home field throughout the postseason (remember, NL won the All-Star Game and gets home field in the World Series). Also, the home run was LaRoche's 33rd, a career high. His 100th RBI also tied a career high.

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Rays support of James Shields: I have a rule against putting someone from the losing team in the "up" area, but Shields' effort has to be mentioned somewhere. He threw a complete-game two-hitter and struck out 15 with zero walks. A Chris Davis homer buried the Rays, though, as they lost 1-0.

Mark Ellis, Dodgers: In the bottom of the seventh, Ellis tried to stretch a double into a triple and was thrown out by a country mile. Then, in the bottom of the ninth with two out and the tying run on second base, Ellis flew out to center to end the game. And the Dodgers' playoff chances. Rough night for the second baseman.

Rangers' offense: Five hits and one run while falling back into a first-place tie isn't championship caliber.

AL West at stake: So it all comes down to this. The Rangers could actually be a wild-card after spending less than a week of the season not alone in first place. It's one head-to-head game in Oakland for the AL West championship. It's hired gun Ryan Dempster (7-3, 4.64 with Rangers) against rookie A.J. Griffin (7-1, 2.71). Do not miss this one. 3:35 p.m. ET

AL East at stake: The Yankees hold a one-game lead over the Orioles and will clinch yet another AL East crown if they can handle Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-6, 7.68) and the Red Sox. Hiroki Kuroda (15-11, 3.34) gets the nod for the Yankees in what should be a gimme. 7:00 p.m. ET If the Yankees do mess up and lose, the Orioles could force a one-game playoff by beating the Rays. It's Chris Tillman (9-2, 2.78) for the O's against Jeremy Hellickson (9-11, 3.20). 7:00 p.m. ET

NL top seed up for grabs: If the Nationals beat the Phillies, they'll clinch the No. 1 seed in the NL. It's Edwin Jackson (9-11, 4.13) for the Nats against Cliff Lee (6-8, 3.12) at 1:05 p.m. ET If, however, the Nationals lose, the Reds will be going for the top seed against the Cardinals. It's Homer Bailey (13-10, 3.75) against Adam Wainwright (14-13, 3.94) assuming neither teams' plans change, which are entirely possible depending upon what happens with Washington. 8:15 p.m. ET

Probable pitchers for Game 162

• Nats success sad for Expos fans: Dave Kaufman writes for the Montreal Gazette about the Nationals ascent in Washington from the point of view of Expos fans.

• Autographs of the future: Egraphs is a website where players can sign an autograph on a custom iPad app and record and audio message to go with it. Fans can then buy the Egraph. CBSNews.com has the story.

• Joan Jett loves the Orioles: Female rockstar Joan Jett ("I love Rock n' Roll") sent a letter to the Orioles this week about how much she has loved the team since attending games with her Father as a child. Baltimoresun.com has the story.

• All-platoon team: The Hardball Times goes through splits and makes an all-platoon team, one lineup to only face right-handers and one lineup to only face left-handers.

• Young Chipper: Ah, if only he knew all the success he was going to have in his illustrious career.

The Lineup: Raul, the A's and playoff shuffling still not done after 161 games (2024)

FAQs

How many shuffles are enough? ›

For most games, four to seven riffle shuffles are sufficient: for unsuited games such as blackjack, four riffle shuffles are sufficient, while for suited games, seven riffle shuffles are necessary. There are some games, however, for which even seven riffle shuffles are insufficient.

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Is pile shuffling cheating? ›

A single pile shuffle can help players count their decks and loosen sticky cards, but more than that a pile shuffle does not contribute to randomization and will qualify as Slow Play.

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How many times to mash shuffle? ›

You basically do what's shown in the picture about 10 times. People tend to bring up that 7 mash shuffles (the ones shown here) are enough to sufficiently randomise a deck of cards, but that's for a deck of 52 and assuming "ideal" mashes, so I'd recommend doing 10.

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How many times should I shuffle? ›

Based on this analysis, Diaconis has written that "seven shuffles are necessary and suffice to approximately randomize 52 cards." Of course, our technique has just given an upper bound for the distance between Rk and U .

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How many possibilities are there in shuffle? ›

To find out how many individual orders you can get using all 52 cards, we need to work out 52! – remember, that's 52 factorial, not 52 in an excited voice. That comes to about 8 × 10⁶⁷, or to put it in words, 80 thousand vigintillion different shuffles.

What are the odds of shuffling cards? ›

If you truly randomise the deck, the chances of the cards ending up in perfect order - spades, then hearts, diamonds and clubs - are around 1 in 10 to the power 68 (or 1 followed by 68 zeros). That's a huge number, roughly equal to the number of atoms in our galaxy.

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What is the secret to shuffling cards? ›

It's best to keep the cards facing down. You pull the top card or cards by applying pressure with your thumb. The overhand shuffle is one of the most popular methods for shuffling a deck of cards, and it's also one of the easiest.

How can you tell if someone is cheating on poker? ›

If you see players whispering or signaling to each other, or if you notice unusual betting patterns, it may be a sign of collusion. For example, if two players are consistently raising and calling each other's bets, it may be a sign that they are sharing their hole cards.

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Is shuffling a deck of cards truly random? ›

The number you get at the end is 8×10^67 (8 with 67 '0's after it), essentially meaning that a randomly shuffled deck has never been seen before and will never be seen again. So next time you shuffle a deck, you should feel pretty special for holding something so unique!

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Do people cheat in scramble tournaments? ›

Well, unfortunately, yesssss. It does happen.

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How often do casinos shuffle? ›

This depends on the game being played. Any game that uses just a single deck of cards like Poker will have a shuffle after every hand played. normally poker tables have 2 decks of cards and one deck goes into an automatic shuffling machine after the hand and the other deck is played.

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What is the perfect shuffle 8 times? ›

Oliver de Pug. Diaconis and others have noted that a “random” shuffle may not be random. In fact, they have suggested that if one shuffles a 52 card poker deck “perfectly” eight times, the deck is returned to its original order.

What is the perfect number of shuffles? ›

It was a "hairy bit of math" for mathematicians to come up with a mathematical answer to this question, but the agreed-upon answer for number of riffles it takes to get to random is... about 7 times to get a really random order of cards. And there's no advantage to shuffling any more than that.

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What is the 7 shuffle theorem? ›

In 1992, Bayer and Diaconis showed that after seven random riffle shuffles of a deck of 52 cards, every configuration is nearly equally likely. Shuffling more than this does not significantly increase the “randomness”; shuffle less than this and the deck is “far” from random.

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How big is 52 factorial? ›

52! is approximately 8.0658e67. For an exact representation, view a factorial table or try a "new-school" calculator, one that understands long integers.

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How many perfect shuffles to reset? ›

Surprise: 8 perfect out-shuffles will restore the deck to its original order! And, in fact, there is a nice magic trick that uses out and in shuffles to move the top card to any position you desire!

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