It's all up for grabs in the American League; National League presents clearer picture; who's got the edge in the AL Cy Young race?; baseball's recent history reviewed; World Baseball Classic qualifiers begin
Absolutely nothing is settled in the American League with 10 days to go in the regular season – one which, at least for me, seemed to just fly by. Texas have been cruising for months, and were maintaining discount international air tickets a four-game lead heading into their clash with second-placed Oakland in the American discount international air tickets League West.
The A's had a lost weekend in the Bronx, stunned on Saturday by a four-run Yankees rally in the bottom of the 13th before succumbing in the 14th. It was a brutal loss, and when paired with the walk-off homer by Russell Martin discount international air tickets on Friday discount international air tickets night , it meant that the A's were stumbling somewhat into what is a monster four-game discount international air tickets series with the Rangers at Arlington, where they have gone 8-16 since 2010. Oakland, which has the second best ERA in the AL, actually play the Rangers, who have the most potent offense in all of baseball, discount international air tickets in seven of their final 10 games, so the opportunity discount international air tickets is there to upend the mighty Texans.
discount international air tickets They got off to a bad start on Monday however, suffering a third awful loss in four days after losing to their AL West rivals 5-4 in walk-off fashion , adding discount international air tickets a game to the Rangers' lead. That means the slight chance that the A's can bring their fantasy season to a new level just got slighter. discount international air tickets Don't expect BoMel, or as he is known to most of us the A's manager, Bob Melvin, to get too caught up in any of these scenarios, though.
True, but if the A's don't get wins, the Los Angeles Angels are just two games behind them in the wild-card discount international air tickets race, streaking towards the finish line, putting up the kind of victories the baseball world has been waiting for since the end of June. After going 27-27 in July and August, discount international air tickets the Angels have gone 14-7 in September to enter the "better late than never" category. Owner Arte Moreno made it clear this weekend that no matter what happens in the team's discount international air tickets final games, both general manager Jerry Dipoto and skipper Mike Scioscia will be back in 2013, just to make sure anyone thought discount international air tickets otherwise.
If the Angels do miss out on the postseason it will be the third straight year without playoff baseball in Anaheim, a prospect few thought possible after all the goodies brought into the team during the offseason, not to mention the big prize that came up in late April – Mike Trout. LA have six games remaining with last place Seattle, with a trip to Texas in between.
Meanwhile, in the Central Division, the Detroit Tigers are within a single game of the Chicago White Sox, which is a joke considering the Tigers discount international air tickets got swept by the lowly Minnesota Twins on Sunday. They are getting big-time help from the White Sox, who followed their five-game winning streak with a five-game slide that they managed to snap on Monday , with three of those losses coming at the hands of those pesky Angels.
That's the bad news. The good news is that they are heading home for seven games against Cleveland, who they defeated on Monday in the series opener , and Tampa before they finish with three on the road against the Indians. discount international air tickets The Tigers have seven against the Royals, who they defeated on Monday, and three against the Twins.
The Rays, like the Angels, are pushing the limits of contention (we've seen this show before, haven't we?) – losing seven of eight, including a pair of dramatic losses in Baltimore and a trio of two-run defeats in the Bronx, before rebounding with five straight wins against discount international air tickets Boston and Toronto. On Tuesday they are back in Fenway Park, and if the Red Sox had a pulse, you would think they may be after a bit of payback for 2011. The Red Sox have no pulse, and so there's discount international air tickets every reason to think the Rays, down three games in the loss column to the Oakland A's, can find a way to sneak into the postseason once again. Plus, and this is big, they finish with three games against Baltimore in the Trop, and you just know those games are going to mean something discount international air tickets to somebody. discount international air tickets By the way, if you think the Rays are stressed heading into these mammoth games, just check this out.
It's worth pointing out that Boston also have three more games with the O's, another series in which they will fail to pay back a team that destroyed them down the stretch in 2011. No one it seems has been able to stop the Orioles, who by the way have closed the gap in their run differential. The O's have now been outscored by six measly runs, much better discount international air tickets than the -49 when this was last discussed in The Guardian .
That means their expected win-loss record should be 75-77. Instead, discount international air tickets they heading into the last 10 days of the season with a realistic discount international air tickets chance of besting the Yankees discount international air tickets for the American League East crown, down just 1.5 games to New York after the Yanks beat the Twins on Monday and the O's split a doubleheader with the Jays. Wouldn't discount international air tickets that be something? discount international air tickets Indeed discount international air tickets it would be, but with the Yanks cupcake schedule – two more with Minnesota, three at Toronto and three at home to Boston – don't count on it.
Ten days, eight teams, five available playoff spots. Something has to give of course, discount international air tickets but it won't happen until we have additional games to settle the score. Expect multiple ties at the end of the season and the ensuing schedule chaos, that's the prediction here – post yours below.
discount international air tickets The NL scenario isn't nearly as much fun as what's going down in the AL. All three Senior Circuit divisions are done and dusted, with the San Francisco Giants, the Cincinnati Reds and the Washington discount international air tickets Nationals – who have brought playoff baseball to DCr the first time since 1933 – taking the titles and earning what amounts to a first-round bye. One of the two wild-card spots is soon to be clinched by the Atlanta discount international air tickets Braves, whose decision not to clean house after their famed 2011 collapse has been rewarded with a spot in the postseason, discount international air tickets while the team that did clean house fared no better a season later. I know, two different situations, but I'm just sayin...
Anyway, that leaves one spot with five teams in the running – at least, technically. Unlike the Rays, who have history on their side, it's hard to imagine any of the teams that are down at least four games making a run, and they are Arizona, Philadelphia – whose valiant efforts at getting back into the race seem to have fallen a bit short – and the Pittsburgh Pirates, who will not make the playoffs after an 8-22 run but who are still seeking the consolation prize, a .500 or above record for the first time in 19 seasons. That leaves the St Louis Cardinals , who hold 3.5-game leads on the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers .
The Cards are in control and have an added edge in that they are heading into Houston for three games – they won their first on Monday ) – before heading home to face the Reds and the Nats, who will have no other incentive than to knock out the Cards. If you ask me, I would do anything I could to try and knock the defending World Series discount international air tickets champions out of the playoffs. More realistically, expect Dusty Baker and Davey Johnson to be resting their players over the final six games of the season.
Of the two teams in pursuit, the Milwaukee Brewers are by far the most threatening challengers, having stormed back into the running out of nowhere. On 19 August they were 12.5 games behind Pittsburgh discount international air tickets for the second wild-card spot. Today they are three out, and they were as close as one game down in the loss column on Friday, before suffering a couple of key losses. Still, they were 23-7 coming into Monday riding an offense that has remarkably become the NL's most lethal, a season after losing Prince Fielder to free-agency. Jonathan Lucroy, Corey Hart, Aramis Ramirez and of course Ryan Braun have put on quite a show over the past month. But will it be enough to unseat the Cards? The Brewers head to Cincinnati before coming home to play Houston discount international air tickets and the scorching-hot Padres.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers, who have the same record as Milwaukee, seem far less threatening discount international air tickets based on form. The Dodgers have the 10th-worst record in the NL over the past month at 12-18 – not what you're looking for when you're trying to sneak into the playoffs. Their pitching has been badly hit by injuries, discount international air tickets but it got a boost on Sunday thanks to Clayton Kershaw's return to the rotation discount international air tickets – he was able to stymie the Reds on a bad hip. In that 5-3 victory , we also saw some life from Adrian Gonzalez, who hit two home runs but has wildly underperformed following his big move over from Boston.
The Dodgers now head to San Diego before heading home for games with the Rockies discount international air tickets and the hated Giants. If they are still in it for those games, well, needless to say there will be quite a scene at Chavez Ravine. I can't see St Louis blowing a 3.5 game lead – nothing ever seems to go wrong for the Cards.
Last week we looked at the National League Cy Young Award candidates, discount international air tickets via my foolhardy hunch that 2012 shared some characteristics with the Year of the Pitcher, 1968, when 49 pitchers boasted ERA's of under 3.00. Now that RA Dickey has probably put the plaque discount international air tickets in his back pocket with a 19th victory on Saturday , allowing two runs in eight innings in a rare home Mets victory against Miami, let's take a look at what's happening in the American League. Who will win the Cy Young? Well, let's start out with a thought from "below the line" in this space last week, when FranzFerdinand2 commented:
"I actually don't think that relief pitchers should get the Cy Young. Maybe in a year with no good candidates and an absolutely phenomenal best-of-all-time reliever, but they just don't pitch enough innings to be as valuable as a starting pitcher."
Well Franz, discount international air tickets you may be right, discount international air tickets but the Cy Young Award goes to the "best" pitcher, not the most vaulable, as is the case with the MVP award. However, yes, writers have shown in the past that they overwhelmingly prefer to vote for starters over relievers.
Having said that, can anyone ignore the season Francisco Rodney has put togeth
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