New York’s arrival back onto the AL playoff race landscape, replacing faltering Kansas City in the wild-card picture is the most significant development of the past week. Here’s a rundown on other notable news in the race…
The American League playoff race remains by far the more interesting of the two leagues, although it picked up a little clearer focus this week, thanks mainly to the results of the big five-game weekend series between the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals.
The American League looks be the league most under threat of serious alteration to its playoff landscape when MLB announces its BioGenesis suspensions later today, as is expected. Most of the name players involved are from AL teams—from Alex Rodriguez to Nelson Cruz to Jhonny Peralta to Bartolo Colon. So as we wait, our MLB coverage gives a summation of how the race looks right now, including injuries and the schedule ahead.
Down the stretch they come! With thirty days left to the end of the MLB regular season, 15 teams are in legitimate contention for a playoff berth and four of the six division titles look genuinely up for grabs. With Labor Day baseball about an hour away as this goes online let’s take a look at the landscape for the MLB playoff race.
No two teams in the American League have been bigger surprises than the Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland A’s. The Orioles, in spite of sluggish play through the summer continue to set the pace for the AL’s second wild-card spot, with a 46-41 record. Oakland isn’t far behind at 45-43. TheSportsNotebook takes a look at both teams here on the first weekend of the seasons second half…