![\"ThisWeekMLB\"](\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/wp-content\/ThisWeekMLB.jpg\" "\\"ThisWeekMLB\\"")
Interleague play continued this week and brought some intriguing local contests to the plate including Mets vs Yankees, Cubs vs White Sox, and Dodgers vs Angels, as the AL teams took on the NL teams, mainly from their respective regional divisions.<\/p>\n
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Kicking things off with the AL East<\/strong>, it’s still the Boston Red Sox out front, three games up on their closest rivals. Boston had a winning series against the Phillies and the Marlins, and are currently battling the Atlanta Braves at Fenway this weekend. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees got the better of the New York Mets in their ‘Subway Series’, which included a devastating 15-0 victory<\/a> in which they scored nine runs in a single inning off Mets ace Johan Santana. However, the Yankees didn’t fare so well against the Nationals. The team with the worst record in baseball surprisingly took two games out of three<\/a> from the Bronx Bombers during the week. Though they were swept by the Marlins, the Toronto Blue Jays rebounded and swept the Phillies to remain in contention, however they have had to put three players on the DL<\/a> including ace pitcher Roy Halliday. The Tampa Bay Rays may have won six straight, but then proceeded to lose three in a row, though they’re still certainly not out of the running by any means, and Baltimore seem to be enjoying interleague play with three successive series victories against NL East competition.<\/p>\n In the NL East<\/strong>, though the Philadelphia Phillies remain top dog, they certainly had a tough week, losing a series to both Boston and Toronto as mentioned above, and have already lost two of three against the Orioles. More frustrating for the Phillies however, was the news that Raul Ibanez was put on the 15-day DL with a groin strain<\/a>, a significant blow for one of the most in-form players in the Majors so far this year. The Mets form continues to be spotty at best. After their troubles at Yankee Stadium, they didn’t enjoy much success at Baltimore either and are now dealing with the Rays this weekend at Citi Field. The Braves remain under the .500 mark, thanks to series losses at Baltimore and Cincinnati, and will be hoping to rebound against Boston this weekend, while the Nationals found themselves on a four-game winning streak<\/a>, their first such streak of the season.<\/p>\n Turning to the AL Central,<\/strong> and it’s still Detroit at the top of the division. Though the Tigers lost a series to the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St Louis Cardinals, they’ve so far been getting the better of the Milwaukee Brewers this weekend. The Minnesota Twins briefly managed to pull themselves over the .500 mark, taking two of three from the Chicago Cubs, and two of three from the Pittsburgh Pirates. The White Sox defeated Milwaukee last weekend, but split a two game series with the Cubs (a game was postponed as bad weather interfered). Kansas City swept the Cincinnati Reds but lost a series to the Arizona Diamondbacks (yes, you read that correctly, the Royals got to play an NL West rival this year), and Cleveland probably had their roughest week for a while. Though they scored 21 runs in three games against the Milwaukee Brewers, they were still swept, and on Friday the Indian’s bullpen gave up a seemingly impenetrable 7-0 lead at Wrigley Field against the Cubs, losing 8-7<\/a> in 10 innings.<\/p>\n The NL Central<\/strong> also remains a closely contested affair, and readers of this weekly column will know I pretty much get to write that every week, but it does make for an exciting division! With just three games separating the top four teams<\/a> here (considering this is the only division with six teams in MLB), anyone from Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Chicago could emerge as champions. Even Houston and Pittsburgh find themselves only 5.5 and 6.5 games back respectively from first place and certainly can’t be written off just yet, though admittedly it’s the Brewers and the Cardinals who’ve really been making the pace here, and will probably still be there at the end of the season. The Astros did have something to celebrate this week though as catcher Ivan ‘Pudge’ Rodriguez<\/a> moved into first place all-time for the most games caught. Pudge, 37, who’s in his 19th season, still remains sharp, and an inspiration to players throughout the league.<\/p>\n In the AL West<\/strong>, the Texas Rangers are now barely topping the division, their advantage lost mainly due to a streaking Angels team behind them. Texas gave up a series to the Dodgers but took two out of three from the Astros and are currently suffering<\/a> at AT&T Park against the Giants. However, it’s the aforementioned Los Angeles Angels who have been the story of the division this past week, winning seven straight by sweeping the San Diego Padres then the San Francisco Giants. Right now, they’re battling the Dodgers, so this weekend could see a new leader emerge in the AL West. Seattle remain around the .500 mark even though Ichiro continues to play exceptional baseball, bidding for his ninth consecutive<\/a> 200-hit season, while the Oakland Athletics have found their recent form rather sketchy, swept by the Giants last weekend and losing two of three to the Dodgers during the week.<\/p>\n Finally, let’s take a look at the NL West<\/strong>. Yep, you guessed it, little change here with the Dodgers still firmly in command with their MLB-best 45-24 record. Dodgers aficionados are still complaining the team isn’t scoring enough runs, but you can be sure they’ll be happy winning games any way they can, and so far, LA shows no sign of slowing, as skipper Joe Torre notched up his 195th managerial victory<\/a> to place him fifth on the all-time win list. Meanwhile, the Rockies saw their consecutive win streak halted at 11, but still continues to play impressive baseball, climbing up the division having only lost once in 16 games. While the Diamondbacks and Padres continue to drift, the San Diego Padres at least finally put an end to their 13 consecutive losses<\/a> in interleague play.<\/p>\n Well, that wraps up another eventful week in the MLB. Back next week with more news from the Majors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Interleague play continued this week and brought some intriguing local contests to the plate including Mets vs Yankees, Cubs vs White Sox, and Dodgers vs Angels, as the AL teams took on the NL teams, mainly from their respective regional divisions. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-3288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3288"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4797,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288\/revisions\/4797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}