With just four weeks of the regular season to go, there’s still plenty of baseball to be played, and much at stake for teams still hoping to win their divisions and especially those in the wild-card hunt.
In the AL East, New York remains 8.5 games up over Boston, and still don’t show any signs of slowing down. The Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox last weekend, before defeating the Orioles, and then moving on to dominate the Toronto Blue Jays. Sure, Roy Halliday hurled a brilliant one-hitter on Friday night to shut out the Yankees, but that was the only loss the Bronx Bombers had to deal with all week. Between giving an anti-PED talk to students, Alex Rodriguez notched up his 2,500th career hit, and Andy Pettitte flirted with a perfect game into the seventh inning on Monday, before a Jerry Hairston, Jr. error put pay to that. The Boston Red Sox are still two games ahead over Texas in the wild-card race, but they’ve lost two games straight to the White Sox this weekend and will want to get back on level terms quickly, especially if the Rangers begin to put a run together.
Philadelphia are now seven games up over Florida in the NL East. They took two out of three last weekend over the Atlanta Braves, then two out of three in a low-scoring series against the San Francisco Giants. Sometimes, three runs in three games is all you need. Despite losing their first two games in a four-game series against the Astros, the Phillies are still looking good. Both the Marlins and the Braves remain in NL wild-card contention, despite losing some ground to the Giants and Rockies. Dan Uggla of the Marlins became the first second baseman in the history of Major League Baseball to blast 25 homers in each of his first four seasons, and Florida took two out of three over the Braves and are currently getting the better of the Nationals this weekend. The Braves have found themselves suffering at the hands of a resurgent Reds team this weekend, but still remain in contention, even though they had the less dubious pleasure of seeing charismatic manager Bobby Cox ejected for the 150th time in his career.
The Detroit Tigers now find themselves six games up over Minnesota in the AL Central, and the Tigers’ five-game winning streak couldn’t have come at a better time. With a series sweep over the Indians, and a series win already secured at Tampa Bay, Detroit may be doing just enough to secure the division, and Justin Verlander completed his 16th win of the season this week. The Twins may have won 10 of their last 14 games, but a couple of crucial losses to both the White Sox and the Indians this week have dampened their hopes somewhat. The White Sox had a terrible time last weekend, and things didn’t look much better against the Twins in their first two games, but a late rally over Minnesota on Wednesday afternoon ensured they weren’t swept, and they’ve followed this up with two victories over the Red Sox. The White Sox were certainly in the news this week a lot, trading Jim Thome to the Dodgers and Jose Contreras to the Rockies, while Ozzie Guillen completed his 500th victory as the Chicago manager.
In the NL Central, St. Louis are now 11.5 games up over the Chicago Cubs. With consecutive series victories over Washington, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh, the Cardinals look like they’re a shoe-in for the divisional race, barring some kind of crazy late-season meltdown. The Cubs, as well as losing ground in the division, are also losing ground in the wild-card race, and their mixed results this week have simply been indicative of their entire season. Both Milwaukee and Houston didn’t have the greatest of weeks, and find themselves dropping further below the .500 mark, though the Brewers will at least be happy that closer and all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman will be staying put. Though the Cincinnati Reds are way out of contention, they’ve put together a nice six-game winning streak, and the Pirates, though they’ve had little to celebrate this season, did witness Garrett Jones hit the 10,000th homer in Bucs history, quite a landmark for this historic franchise that’s somewhat fallen from grace.
The Halos are still 4.5 games up over the Rangers out in the AL West. Neither team has been spectacular lately, but the Angels are still doing enough to keep their noses ahead while the Rangers probably know their chances are better in the wild-card race. Los Angeles only won one game in their three at Seattle this week, but are currently getting the better of the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium this weekend. Meanwhile, Texas missed a valuable opportunity to gain on the Red Sox in the wild-card race yesterday, coming unstuck at Baltimore, but they had a successful sweep of Toronto midweek to keep their play-off hopes alive. Seattle remain 9.5 games out of first place, and Ichiro Suzuki is a mere six hits away from nine consecutive seasons with 200 hits, and one hit away from 2,000 in his career in the Majors.
Finally, let’s turn our attention to the NL West where the Dodgers are still 4.5 games up over the Rockies and 5.5 over San Francisco. Are Dodgers fans worried yet? Well, the team is still doing enough to keep their noses in front, but anything could happen in September, and probably will, as Colorado and San Francisco duke it out for the NL wild-card berth. Los Angeles won their three-game series at Cincinnati last weekend, then split a four-game showdown with the Diamondbacks back home. The Rockies have stumbled a little lately. After being swept at San Francisco last weekend, they have rebounded somewhat, ending a five-game skid by taking two out of three from the Mets, and have already won at least two over Arizona this weekend. They mostly have elder statesman Jason Giambi to thank for a couple of these victories. His pinch-hitting antics have been crucial this week in two victories, and have helped keep the Rockies’ hopes alive. The Giants followed up their Colorado sweep by only taking one game from the Phillies, but they’re currently getting the better of the Brewers in Milwaukee and are very much keeping their play-off hopes alive. Brad Penny’s first start for San Francisco was a triumphant one, pitching eight shut-out innings and only allowing five hits in his debut on Wednesday night.
Well, that wraps up another eventful week in the MLB. Back next week with more news from the Majors.