The National League playoff race stands in sharp contrast to where the American League is at right now. While the AL has nine teams within five games of postseason play, the NL has only six, and it’s looking like the prime drama is going to be the fight in the NL Central to see which team at least earns automatic passage into the Division Series.
The season-long numbers for the Indians’ staff are not impressive. They rank 9th in the league in ERA, and are actually lower than that in both starters’ ERA and bullpen ERA. But the recent form has been entirely different. Over the last month, the Tribe’s ERA ranks fifth in the American League. And if we narrow the focus to the period since the All-Star break? They move up to #2.
Showalter noted what everyone outside of baseball has talked about, but no one within the sport —at least to the best of my knowledge—has dared mention. And it’s that the New York Yankees will be a clear beneficiary if Alex Rodriguez is banned from baseball. TheSportsNotebook’s own MLB coverage has been far too silent on the matter as well.
With the trade deadline passed, it’s time for TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage to do here what front offices around baseball had to decide, and it’s this—who’s a contender and who’s not. I think we can safely narrow the American League field to nine teams.
The first day of August is here, and we have a basic idea of how the contenders are going to look the rest of the way, with the passage of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. And we’ll kick off the month by concluding the big five-game series in the NL Central, as the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates play in PNC Park tonight (7 PM ET, MLB).
The trade deadline has passed in major league baseball, and while there weren’t blockbusters, there were some significant moves. Most of the deals were congregated in the American League, and here’s a rundown and some thoughts on the biggest trades.
Wednesday is a quiet day in daily sports when it comes to finding something on TV, but it’s going to be a big day on impact, as we approach the MLB non-waiver trade deadline at 4 PM ET. And the one game on national television is a big one, as the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals play the fourth game of their five-game set from PNC Park (7 PM ET, ESPN).
The Pittsburgh Pirates cut the St. Louis Cardinals’ lead in the NL Central to a half-game last night when the Pirates won the opener of their five-game series. Now the two teams play a doubleheader on Tuesday, with MLB Network coverage of the opener kicking off a tripleheader day of baseball that makes Tuesday a good day for daily sports on TV.
ESPN must have locked tonight’s Monday Night Baseball coverage in at the start of the season, because that’s the only reason you’d choose showing the LA Angels-Texas Rangers tonight at 7 PM ET, rather than go with the opener of the St. Louis-Pittsburgh series. But even though the Angels show no signs of life, they’ll get a little national exposure in the feature game of tonight’s daily sports schedule.
We somehow should have known that it wouldn’t come easy for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sitting at 61-41 after Sunday afternoon’s games, the Pirates are poised to not only get their first winning season since 1992, but get into the playoffs and maybe even steal the NL Central from the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds. Naturally, it’s now that the Pirates get hit with a big injury to closer Jason Grilli.
Amidst all the injuries to the Texas rotation, the complete disappointment of their everyday lineup has slid under the radar a bit. Today’s American League MLB coverage will break down the problems in the Ranger lineup and ask whether they can score enough runs to get back to the postseason.
In a mostly quiet month of July, Sunday’s daily sports docket presents a nice array of options from the sports fan, from baseball throughout the day—both past and present—to racing to a little something to stir the juices for college football.
