MLB: Nothing is Certain… Yet
As September begins to grow a little older, some divisions are getting closer to being wrapped-up, but we’re not quite there yet.
The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night. That turns their magic number into 7 games. Any combination of them winning 7 games and the Texas Rangers losing 7 games and the Angels will win the division.
But no other divisions are quite this close.
In fact, the next closest division is hte National League Central where the Chicago Cubs have a magic number of 19. But eventhough the Milwaukee Brewers have lost three straight games, the Cubs haven’t been been able to take advanatge of it. The Cubs have now lost 4 straight games. So, sure, their magic number has continued to shrink but not as fast as it could be.
The tightest race right now is in the American League Central. The Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins are separated by just a half game with the White Sox owning a half game lead. The magic number for the White Sox is still up at 24 games.
The most interesting division, though, may come down to being the American League East. The Boston Red Sox are not going away. And eventhough the Tampa Bay Rays currently hold the best record in baseball, they haven’t shaken the Red Sox. After beating the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, and with the Rays losing to the New York Yankees, the lead for the Rays is now just 3.5 games. Their magic number remains a stout 22 games.
The other two division are pretty close too. It doesn’t look like anyone wants to win the NL West and the NL East is still up in the air too. So we will see how things play out as September wears on. But things are just about over in the American League West.
