American League playoff races

The baseball playoff races are heating up, particularly in the American League, which I will take a look at here.  The Athletics (88-67) have come up with two huge wins the last two nights in Texas against the Rangers (91-64), especially with the Angels (85-69) breathing down their necks.  We're talking two big road wins with the season winding down against the two-time reigning American League Champions.  The A's are just a half-game behind the Orioles (89-67) for the top Wild Card spot.  I don't want to jinx things, but it looks like the A's have what it takes to get to the play-in game.  And don't look now, but if they win tomorrow afternoon against Texas, they may have a chance to make things interesting in the AL West as well.

The Rays (85-70) have won seven straight to remain in the race.  Their saving grace is that they have three games at home against the Orioles next week to close the season.  The Yankees (90-65) aren't out of the woods yet, but the bet here is that they will win the American League East, leaving the A's and Orioles in the play-in game (hard to see Tampa Bay getting a sweep of Baltimore, which is what they may need).  But, there sure are a lot of teams in the chase even at this late juncture. 

Though it should still be interesting to see what happens, I still oppose the second Wild Card being added.  I like that it should be harder to make the playoffs and that the regular season was still a reward.  Although, on the plus side, I think baseball's regular season is still the least watered down in all of sports (though this doesn't make it okay in my book to water it down more).

The AL Central is going down to the wire as well.  The White Sox (82-73) appear to be fading at the wrong time and now trail the Tigers (83-72) by one game after leading the division by a few games not that long ago.  This thing is far from over, but the Sox need to turn it around now.  I think the Tigers now have the momentum, not to mention a talent advantage and will win the division by a slight margin.  Detroit would be a very dangerous team in the playoffs, with Justin Verlander at the top of the rotation and a middle of the lineup that features Miguel Cabrera (still a realistic chance to be the first player to win the Triple Crown since 1967) and Prince Fielder.