On May 8, the American League East was led by the New York Yankees. The Central was led by the Indians. The West led by the defending champion Astros. The Twins were a half-game back of Cleveland, Boston was tied with New York and occupied the first wild-card spot and the Los Angeles Angels were only a half-game behind Houston for the second wild card. Things have (obviously) changed. Its now August 26 and the regular season is beginning to wind down. With a little over a month to go, the Red Sox, Indians, and Astros lead their respective divisions with New York, Oakland, Seattle and yes, the Tampa Bay Rays hot on their tails for the wild card spots and division leads.
Here's what each team is looking at right now.
Boston Red Sox
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. For the first time all season, the red-hot Sox suffered a sweep. The culprit? The streaking Tampa Bay Rays. They're still the first to 90 wins and have the league's best record by six games. It's going to take a lot of bad luck for the Red Sox to miss out on their fourth division title in six years.
The Red Sox have seen a little bit of their luck running out in terms of injuries. Rafael Devers remains on the 10-day DL with a left hamstring strain. Eduardo Rodriguez is also on the shelf with a badly sprained ankle. Ace Chris Sale, the American League leader in ERA, BAA, and WHIP (the last two are league-leading stats), has twice gone on the DL with shoulder inflammation.
Former starting second baseman Dustin Pedroia has only seen the field in four games this season.
As stated previously, the Red Sox were swept and have lost four out of their last six. They may have been due, considering they hadn't lost three in a row all season. It's certainly not a time to panic for Red Sox fans, though, they still have a fairly comfy lead in the East.
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians lead the American League Central by a whopping 13 games, the largest margin in baseball. Jose Ramirez is a legit MVP candidate. He's third in the AL in home runs with 37, third in RBI with 91, second in walks with 86, second in stolen bases with 28, fourth in OBP with .403, first in SLG with .657, second in OPS with 1.064 and second in XBH with 72.
Teammate Francisco Lindor is hot on his heels. Lindor is slashing .286/.363/.517. He leads the American League with 40 doubles and was an All-Star this season.
The Indians have all but clinched the division. They lead by 13 with around 30 games remaining. Sure, it's possible, but every team below them is just not even close to contending for a playoff spot. The Twins, Tigers, White Sox and Royals have all packed it in for the season. Metaphorically, of course.
Houston Astros
What at one point was expected to be a runaway division is now extremely tight. After the first two games of a three-game set with the A's, Oakland had tied the division. Now, Houston leads by just a game and a half, despite winning five in a row.
Houston opens a three-game set at home against Oakland.
The Astros have gotten by despite a rash of injuries. Carlos Correa just returned from the DL. Former starting catcher Brian McCann is still on the shelf. Relievers Chris Devenski, Jandel Gustave and starter Lance McCullers, Jr. are on the DL as well.
The Astros don't have any room to breathe with Oakland breathing down their necks. Not far behind them is Seattle, another postseason hopeful. Point being, the AL West is going to go down for the wire. Buckle up.
New York Yankees
The Yankees, once tabbed as World Series favorites, could feel their season slipping away after the four-game sweep they suffered in Boston. Granted, it's still a long shot, but after the Yankees swept the Orioles and the Rays swept the Red Sox, the deficit is only six games; five in the loss column.
With six games left against Boston, including the final three in Fenway, there is still hope for New York.
While they've suffered an inexplicable amount of key injuries, they seem to have righted the ship. Despite missing Aaron Judge, Aroldis Chapman, Gary Sanchez and Didi Gregorius, unsung heroes have begun to step up as they await reinforcements. According to Coley Harvey at ESPN, manager Aaron Boone said: "You do start to get excited about the possibility of guys starting to rejoin the fold, whether that's a week from now, two weeks from now, three weeks from now [but] we've got to go play well, period." And play well they have started to do.
They've won eight of their last nine, and production has come from some unlikely places.
Rookie phenom Miguel Andùjar has been scorching hot and leads all rookies with a .303 batting average, 21 home runs, and 72 RBI; the rookie triple crown. He leads all American League rookies in doubles, hits, runs and slugging percentage. Since the All-Star break, he's hitting .348 with nine home runs and 31 RBI.
Giancarlo Stanton, who couldn't hit water with a boat in April, has really turned it around as well. Since the All-Star break, Stanton has hit .295 with nine home runs and 27 RBI. Little known Luke Voit has been hot. In his last seven games, he has hit .625 with three home runs. If they can remain hot until the ailing Yankees get healthy, look out, Boston.
Oakland Athletics
On May 29, the Athletics were 28-27 and 6.5 games back in fourth place.
Now, on August 26, they're 79-52 and they are gunning for Houston. According to the Joseph Zucker at Bleacher Report, The Athletics just placed ace Sean Manaea on the 10-day DL with a shoulder impingement. There is no current timetable for his return.
The A's scorching hot run at a division title has been led by new MVP candidate Khris Davis. Davis leads all of baseball with 39 home runs and is second with 103 RBI. He's hit 15 home runs in his last 30 games.
If Oakland is going to catch Houston and stave off Seattle, they need Manaea to return and Khris Davis to keep obliterating baseballs. They have an upcoming three-game series with New York if they want to make a run for the top Wild Card Spot.
Seattle Mariners
The Mariners previously held a seven-game lead over Oakland on June 26. Now, they trail by five games. Mostly due to the fact that Oakland has been unbelievably hot, the Mariners have fallen out of the playoff race. If they want to catch Oakland or Houston they're gonna need to get hot and fast.
Ace James Paxton is looking to finally rejoin the team after being on the DL with a forearm injury. Mike Leake just got back this past week. In his last 7 starts, Marco Gonzales is 3-4 with a 6.18 ERA. Wade Leblanc is 2-2 with a 4.58 ERA. Felix Hernandez is 0-5 with a 7.13 ERA. The Mariners desperately need their starting pitching to get better.
If Seattle is going to rejoin the playoff picture, they'll need the pitching to become more consistent and they need Paxton to come back strong.
Tampa Bay Rays
It's a long shot. The longest shot of any team by far. They have hovered around .500 for a large portion of the season, but they've won eight in a row after sweeping the Red Sox. They sit nine games back of Oakland, a long shot. But there's still a shot.
Since Blake Snell has come off the DL he's thrown 17 innings with eight hits, two runs, and 25 strikeouts. This has keyed the rays recent run of success, but it's still very unlikely they steal a playoff spot.
However, in the last 30 games, Mallex Smith is slashing .368/.447/.547. Blake Snell is a Cy Young candidate. If Kevin Cash, who employed the "opener" strategy, can get them into contention, he becomes a manager of the year candidate.
The playoff picture in the AL is far from set. What we thought we knew, and even what we did know, is probably going out the window. It's anybody's (well, the teams listed, anyway), game.
