The Pittsburgh Pirates (23-44) lost their 12th straight game last night, dropping a 4-3 decision at home to the Cleveland Indians (26-40). The Bucs once again just have a really, really bad team. Patience in Pittsburgh has to be wearing thin and I'm impressed that they actually get decent crowds sometimes, although it's understandable when there are sparse crowds on other occasions. The Pirates haven't even had a winning season since 1992 and aren't really showing any signs of coming out of that anytime soon. Every time they've had exciting players like Jason Schmidt, Freddy Sanchez, Jason Bay, Xavier Nady and Aramis Ramirez they just seem to trade them away. They get more prospects and then just trade them away. Here's to hoping at least for the sake of sanity of people in Pittsburgh that they don't trade away promising young outfielder Andrew McCutchen.
As for teams that have been playing well as of late, we have the New York Mets (39-29), whose eight game winning streak was snapped earlier today in the Bronx by the Yankees (42-26), who have been pretty consistently good themselves this year. The Mets have been playing pretty good baseball overall, and even their much-maligned bullpen has been doing pretty well. I don't think the bullpen and the team will hold up this pace all year, though. They may stay within relative striking distance, but I think the Phillies (35-30) still win the division. The Phils have really been starting to put it together, beating the Minnesota Twins (38-29) by a score of 9-5 last night and hold an 8-4 lead today in the top of the seventh.
The Detroit Tigers (37-29) have won seven in a row and could actually take the lead in the division tonight with a win against the Diamondbacks (26-42) if the score in Philadelphia holds up. Their offense can be really potent and if they can pitch well enough they'll be right there with the Twins at the end of the year. Out in the AL West, the Rangers (39-28) have won six in a row and nine of ten and are up four games on the Angels (39-32) in the loss column. It's important that the Rangers don't fall behind at this point and keep themselves in the race. They continue their series in Houston against their in-state rivals the Astros (26-42) tonight.
The Boston Red Sox (41-28) have really been putting it together as of late as I said they would need to get back in the race. They now only have two more losses than the Yankees (42-26) and Rays (41-26). They are leading the Dodgers (38-29) by a score of 4-3 in the top of the seventh right now. The Rays take on their in-state rivals the Marlins (32-35) later tonight.
The Giants (37-30) got shut out 3-0 by the Blue Jays (38-31, not out of the race in the AL East yet either) after dropping the series opener last night 3-2. It's really a shame because Barry Zito last night and Matt Cain today both pitched outstanding games and just didn't have any run support to speak of. The Giants have to find out a way to score on the road if they want to make any kind of run at the playoffs. They are just 13-18 away from AT&T Park. I think their offense has been better since the signing of Pat Burrell and with the emergence of Buster Posey but for some reason it just hasn't always traveled. Hopefully they can turn around the way they are playing on the road because they definitely have the players to do it.
I still can't believe how well the Padres (39-28) are playing and there was a really good graphic shown on FOX highlighting just how dominating their bullpen has been. Their starters have been good as well, but the numbers they were showing for the bullpen were just staggering. I think it was 5 guys who all have an ERA under 3. Heath Bell has been doing a good job as closer and has some filthy pitches, but he didn't even have the lowest ERA of the relievers. FOX's Ken Rosenthal said that Mets outfielder Jeff Francoeur told him that this Padres bullpen is the best he's ever seen in his 5 or so years in the majors. So it looks like the Padres are going to stick around the top of the standings for a while after all. It's pretty amazing because they were a really bad team last year. The Padres rallied to beat the Orioles (18-49) last night and play them again later today. Fortunately the Giants are pretty close to both the Padres and Dodgers and look like they will at least stay within striking distance.
That's all for now, but I will also be monitoring the NL Central race with the Cardinals (37-30) and Reds (37-31) and have more thoughts on that later.
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