The MLB Sleepyhead Summary is a new regular column that helps British baseball fans keep up to speed with MLB despite the time difference!
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ victory on Thursday meant that they not only became the first team in the Majors to get to 90 wins in 2017, but they also reached that mark more quickly than any team in the club’s long history.
The Dodgers took three games out of four against the Pittsburgh Pirates and the one they lost was an epic on Wednesday, with Rich Hill pitching 9+ no-hit innings and then being handed a loss.
The tough series has put the Pirates 8.5 games out in the NL Wild Card and there were 1-2 losing series for fellow challengers Milwaukee (versus San Francisco) and St Louis (versus San Diego). The Cardinals had further bullpen issues on the field and even worse off it, with Trevor Rosenthal confirmed as requiring Tommy John elbow surgery.
That made for a good few days for the Chicago Cubs as they took two from three against Cincinnati to give themselves a 3 game lead over the Brewers in the NL Central.
Arizona have a half-game lead for the first Wild Card after splitting a four-game series against the Mets. Robbie Ray made a successful return on Thursday from a DL stint, but there was more bad news for the Mets in the same game as Michael Conforto dislocated his shoulder whilst swinging his bat.
The Rockies are still in second place despite losing two of three against Kansas City. They have a 3.5 game lead over Milwaukee, 5 over St Louis and then 5.5 over the Miami Marlins. Giancarlo Stanton continues to cause major damage at the plate, belting his 47th home run of the season on Thursday.
In the American League, the recently-hot Minnesota Twins hoped to continue their winning ways by flat-track-bullying the Chicago White Sox in a five-game series. It didn’t turn out that way as Chicago edged the series 3-2, but the Twins have still held onto the second Wild Card spot for now.
The Royals, Mariners, Orioles, Rays and Yankees all won their respective series 2-1, with the Yankees now having a 3.5 game lead for the first Wild Card spot and showing they are firmly up for the fight during a fraught Thursday game against Detroit that included three bench-clearing brawls.
The winners on the week were Texas as they got the better of the Angels 3-1, whilst Anaheim suffered another loss with starting pitcher JC Ramirez being placed on the DL with an elbow injury.
The results put the Royals, Angels and Mariners half a game behind the Twins for the second Wild Card, with Texas 1 game back, the Rays and Orioles 3 games back and Toronto barely holding on at 5.
Elsewhere, the Cleveland-Boston series lived up to expectations as the two teams played a close contest and shared two wins apiece. Most notable perhaps was the fourth game and the Indians knocking Chris Sale around for the second time in August.
This weekend
In the National League, the Cubs will look to pad their Central lead with a three-game series in Philadelphia, whilst St Louis are hosting the Rays and the Brewers have the tough task of taking on the Dodgers. Yu Darvish may be back on the mound on Sunday after a DL stint, with Clayton Kershaw scheduled to make his latest rehab start in Triple-A on Saturday.
Colorado are in Atlanta for three games, with Arizona hosting the Giants and Miami hosting the Padres.
As for the American League, there are some very interesting match-ups involving the Wild Card hopefuls. The Mariners and Yankees will square off in New York (Sonny Gray and Masahiro Tanaka currently scheduled to pitch on Saturday and Sunday respectively), with the Twins heading to Toronto in a series that could either help the Blue Jays get back into the race, or knock them out of it.
Meanwhile three other teams are facing the leaders of their own division: the Angels against the Astros, the Royals against the Indians and the Orioles against the Red Sox. The team that may fancy their chances of gaining further ground are the Texas Rangers as they take on the Oakland A’s.
