The Boston Red Sox completed their worst-to-first journey in the AL East with a 6-3 win over Toronto that sewed up the division title. Jon Lester capped off his own second half dominance with seven innings of one-run ball.
The first division title in the 2013 MLB season was officially clinched last night as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 and wrapped up the NL West. Hanley Ramirez went 4-for-5, including two home runs to lead the way.
Arizona played the role of sore loser when they griped over the fact the Dodger players had celebrated in the pool that’s behind the centerfield fence at Bank One Ballpark.
Ranger fans had to feel like this was re-living the bad dream that is Game 6 of the 2011 World Series. They had this game won in the 11th, coughed up the lead and then lost it in an inning later.
Three bullpens that are normally reliable came up small in Tuesday night’s MLB action. One of those cases swung a big head-to-head game and two others saw wild-card hopefuls rally against division leaders.
A look back on last night in the baseball playoff race, and ahead to tonight’s games and daily sports TV options…
There are three races that call for daily check-ins during the final two weeks of the regular season, and those are the wild-card pushes in both leagues, as well as touching base with the St. Louis-Pittsburgh race in the NL Central, where each team is going to qualify, but one will be subjected to the one-game elimination knockout on October 1 (the AL wild-card game is October 2)
The Kansas City Royals just keep coming in the American League wild-card race. The Royals are 34-20 since the All-Star break, and within 2 ½ games of the playoffs in a jam-packed race that has six teams battling for two spots. TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage looks at how Kansas City has turned it around.
We’re down to 2 ½ weeks left in the regular season, and it’s time to survey the landscape and look at the weekend ahead. Starting on Monday, TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage will be folded into our daily sports category—the spot that normally reviews the TV options for the sports fan each night, will update the game-by-game action in the final two weeks of the MLB stretch drive.
One of the more surprising developments of the second half of the major league baseball season has been the blowing open of the AL East race. While I’m enough of a partisan Boston fan to still be on pins and needles as they get set for a three-game series with Tampa Bay starting tomorrow, I also know how I’d view a race that had a margin of 7 ½ games with three weeks left if I were on the outside looking in—as all but over.
Here’s the rundown on the race, what happened on the weekend, what’s ahead in the first part of this week and any notable developments on the injury front.
The Texas Rangers are in first place in the AL West, holding a half-game lead on the Oakland A’s, and they have a 5 ½ game cushion on at least making the wild-card. The Rangers are a team that’s overcome a lot and not received nearly enough credit for it. But I wonder if they aren’t going to look back on the past few weeks as a time of missed opportunity.
There’s 3 ½ weeks to go in the baseball regular season, as we push forward in the playoff race and to the September 29 conclusion. TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage summarizes the landscape, with a look at what happened in the early week, what’s ahead this weekend, what’s up on the injury front and how the bracket would look if the season ended today.