Four weeks remain in our Major League Baseball marathon. How many fun races will there be? Let's take a quick look.
AL East
The Rays have a 4 ½-game lead over the Yankees, and the two square off in a four-game series in the Bronx during the last week of the season. That could be juicy, so let's hope the Yankees can keep it within four games. Obviously, the Rays are overwhelmingly more likely to win the division, but this is workable for the Yankees.
AL Central
The White Sox are holding strong at the top, and it's gotten to the point where it would be a surprise if they fell back. It is not over, however, with the Guardians only 3 ½ games out. There's one head-to-head series left, in Cleveland, Sept. 14-16. The White Sox don't play a game against a winning team after that.
AL West
This pathetic pillow fight thankfully has one team over .500 at this point in the Astros, but they're only one game over. The Rangers are two games back and the Mariners are a workable five. The Astros face the Mariners for a two-game series in the last week of the season and the Rangers are out of head-to-heads. The Mariners have an absurdly easy remaining schedule, but that doesn't automatically mean they'll make a run. They aren't a very inspiring bunch at this point.
American League wild card
The Yankees and Red Sox are fairly safe in the top two spots. As for the third? The Guardians have it right now, but the Blue Jays and Orioles are 1 ½ games out, the Rangers are two back, Twins are four out, Mariners are five and Tigers are 5 ½. It will be quite the race of slightly competent, at best, baseball.
NL East
The Braves should have it, but the Phillies have quickly shaved off 5 ½ games a few times this season. And, get this: There are seven head-to-head games remaining. Buckle up.
NL Central
The Brewers own the Cubs at this point and currently have an eight-game lead. Starting Monday, the Brewers visit Wrigley Field for a four-game series and the following week, there's a three-game series with the Cubs visiting Milwaukee. I suppose someone could argue that the Cubs could win all seven games and make this a race, but I'm not seeing that as realistic. The Brewers will win the Central. As usual.
NL West
It's over.
National League wild card
The Cubs and Phillies are on very good footing and should both make the playoffs. That leaves one spot. The Diamondbacks are a half-game ahead of the Padres, with the Marlins 3 ½ back. This could be fun, too, because they host the Diamondbacks for the final three games of the season. Hopefully they'll be dead even heading in, making it essentially a three-game playoff to make the playoffs.
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Most of the attention is rightfully on Jacob Misiorowski, but Logan Henderson has a 2.06 ERA in his last eight starts, seven of those ending as Brewers wins. They've actually won 11 of his last 12 starts. | -- | 85-52 |
| 2 |  | Junior Caminero is now three home runs away from his second 40-homer season. The only players with multiple 40-homer seasons before their age-23 season? Well, it's singular. It's just one: Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews. | 1 | 82-54 |
| 3 |  | I have to admit that I thought the Tyler Mahle addition at the trade deadline would not move the needle whatsoever. I was wrong. He has a 1.48 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 30 ⅓ innings since the deal. | 3 | 82-55 |
| 4 |  | Shohei Ohtani's last 10 games: .125/.255/.200 with 15 strikeouts in 40 at-bats. And he's still apparently not healthy enough to pitch. | 2 | 82-55 |
| 5 |  | Austin Wells on Sunday became the first player in MLB history to not start a game and then hit two home runs in the same inning. | -- | 78-59 |
| 6 |  | They have gone 20-7 so far in August. | 1 | 77-60 |
| 7 |  | The bullpen is officially worrisome. They finished a 2-4 road trip Wednesday after blowing three ninth-inning leads and losing another game in extra innings. | 3 | 77-60 |
| 8 |  | It's amazing how hot-and-cold they've become. After that 32-5 stretch, they lost five in a row. On Aug. 17, they started a stretch in which they'd win seven of eight. They are now 1-4 since. | -- | 74-63 |
| 9 |  | Colson Montgomery is up to 184 strikeouts. He's already up to the fourth most in White Sox history, though the top dog might be safely out of reach. Adam Dunn struck out 222 times in 2012. | 1 | 72-64 |
| 10 |  | Ryan Waldschmidt only has three career home runs. Two of them have been walkoffs. | 1 | 73-65 |
| 11 |  | They've lost five of six. It's gonna go down to the wire. | 2 | 72-65 |
| 12 |  | José Ramírez homered on Sunday for the first time since June 6. He's now at 296 for his career and he's already over 300 stolen bases. The 300-300 career club: Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Willie Mays, Andre Dawson, Carlos Beltran, Bobby Bonds, Reggie Sanders and Steve Finley. | 1 | 69-68 |
| 13 |  | Of the three AL West contenders, the Astros have the toughest remaining schedule, but hey, nice 4-2 week in New York. | 4 | 69-68 |
| 14 |  | Interestingly, Max Scherzer has allowed two or fewer runs in five of his last six starts -- all outings of at least five innings. He struck out 10 in seven innings on Sunday. | 1 | 68-70 |
| 15 |  | They stole five bases on Sunday and are only one behind the MLB leader (Nationals) with 146 as a team. | 3 | 69-68 |
| 16 |  | Gunnar Henderson finished fourth in AL MVP voting in 2024 with 8.8 WAR. This season, he was at 1.9 through Saturday. He was hitting .217. On Sunday, though, he went 4 for 4 with a triple and two home runs. If he morphs back into prime Gunnar, it would be a monster boost for the Orioles' playoff chances. | 3 | 68-69 |
| 17 |  | There have been some gems in there, but they are few and far between for Matthew Liberatore. In his last 15 starts, he now has a 6.32 ERA. | 3 | 68-70 |
| 18 |  | The 4.21 ERA for Jacob deGrom is the worst mark of his career by a mile. His previous high ERA was 3.53 in 2017. | 2 | 67-70 |
| 19 |  | Oneil Cruz is the best player in baseball to watch because the range of outcomes is so vast. He could hit an absolute missile of a home run (last Monday) or just completely whiff on a fly ball (Saturday) and nothing is surprising. | 2 | 67-71 |
| 20 |  | They've won 12 of their last 14 games and are actually within miracle range of a playoff berth. | 4 | 62-76 |
| 21 |  | Kaelen Culpepper and Walker Jenkins have both been very fun so far in a limited samples since debuting. The kids are all right. | 3 | 65-72 |
| 22 |  | The Mariners have the easiest remaining schedule in Major League Baseball and it isn't even close. Their remaining opponent winning percentage is .424. The next easiest (Dodgers) is .469. | 2 | 64-73 |
| 23 |  | Dillon Dingler is sitting at 26 home runs. The list of Tigers catchers with 30-homer season is a great "remember some guys" list: Lance Parrish (twice), Rudy York, Matt Nokes and Mickey Tettleton. | 1 | 63-73 |
| 24 |  | Sal Stewart should win NL Rookie of the Year. We don't need to be obsessive about WAR. He's hit 31 homers and leads the majors in RBI. | 1 | 65-72 |
| 25 |  | He's still having a career year, but CJ Abrams is going through it at the plate right now. In August, he's hitting .173 with just one home run and 38 strikeouts in 98 at-bats. | 1 | 65-74 |
| 26 |  | Juan Soto returned to the lineup without a minor-league rehab assignment despite having been injured for over a month. He hit a home run on Sunday. | 3 | 61-76 |
| 27 |  | Since the Giants moved into Oracle Park, the only players to hit at least 35 home runs in a season for the ballclub have been Barry Bonds (five times), Jeff Kent and Rich Aurilia. No one has done it since 2004. Rafael Devers right now has 29 home runs. | 1 | 56-81 |
| 28 |  | They won two straight series! And then followed it up by getting swept. | 1 | 53-84 |
| 29 |  | The Rockies have now lost 11 of 13. | 1 | 52-85 |
| 30 |  | That's now seven straight losses. | 3 | 52-85 |
