It took until the final day of the 2012 MLB regular season before we finally got an inkling of who would be playing who in the divisional round games. Still, two one-game wildcard matchups will go a long way in determining a couple other series that are set to start this weekend.

The Oakland Athletics completed their amazing climb to the top of the American League West by defeating the Texas Rangers 12-5 in the final regular season game for each team. To put the A’s accomplishment into perspective, they are the first team in the history of MLB to overcome a five game deficit with nine games remaining in the season.

Oakland also joins only the 1914 Boston Braves, 1978 New York Yankees, 1995 Seattle Mariners and the 1951 New York Giants (shot heard around the world) as the only teams to ever overcome a 13 game deficit to win their division. Wednesday also represented the first time that Oakland held sole possession of first place this season.

Simply crazy.

Not to be outdone, Robinson Cano hit two homers to lead the New York Yankees to the AL East Championship and home-field throughout the duration of the postseason, one-game ahead of the aforementioned A’s.

While a lot of talk will be surrounding the six division winners when we get to the league divisional series during the weekend, we still have some stuff to get straightened out before MLB reaches its elite-eight.

St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves

The defending World Series Champion’ St. Louis Cardinals have to travel to take on the Atlanta Braves in a do-or-die game for both teams. This game appears to be heavily favored in the home-standing Braves direction. They will be running out Kris Medlan, who has been absolutely dominating since he joined the rotation in late-July. The 26 year old pitcher possesses a 10-1 record and 1.57 ERA this season. More importantly, Atlanta is a stunning 12-0 in his starts this season.

Meanwhile, St. Louis is going with an equally impressive Kyle Lohse, who has compiled a 16-3 record and 2.86 ERA this season. That being said, St. Louis is just 10-7 in Loshe’s 17 road starts this season, while Medlan has given up a total of 12 runs in 72.2 innings at home this season.

Advantage: Atlanta Braves

Baltimore Orioles at Texas Rangers

Texas is coming into this game after losing three consecutive games and dropping the AL West on the road in Oakland. Needless to say, they are reeling a great deal at this point.

Meanwhile, Baltimore appeared to be in the drivers seat in the AL East just a few short days ago. Now they are the #2 wild card team and must travel to Arlington to take on an angry Rangers team.

Yu Darvish will be getting the start for Texas despite being scratched from his previous start with a neck injury. The rookie has won 16 games and posted a sub-4 ERA during the regular season. He has yielded three earned runs or less in each of his last eight starts after being hit around to the tune of 13 runs in the previous two starts. Darvish is 10-2 at the friendly confines of Arlington this season.

While no starting pitcher has been announced for Baltimore, Tommy Hunter is next in line in their rotation. This doesn’t mean that Baltimore has to look in his direction. Joe Saunders is also a real possibility. If Baltimore decides, they could even go with Wei-Yin Chen on three days rest.

Either way, this matchup appears to favor Texas. They have a strong lineup and will have a clear advantage when it comes to starting pitching. Unless you are a believer in momentum, Texas should win this one-game set.

Advantage: Texas Rangers

This would set us up with the following LDS matchups.

American League Divisional Series

(1) New York Yankees vs (4) Texas Rangers

(2) Oakland Athletics vs (3) Detroit Tigers

National League Divisional Series

(1) Washington Nationals vs (4) Atlanta Braves

(2) Cincinnati Reds vs (3) San Francisco Giants