MLB: Getting Closer in AL Central and AL East

The Anaheim Angels will have to wait to another few days before they wrap-up the AL West. Losing on Wednesday night – along with the Texas Rangers winning – kept the Angels magic number at 7 games. But while the Angels didn’t get any closer to winning the AL West, the actual race in the AL East did get closer and the AL Central stayed close.

In the AL Central, the Chicago White Sox opened up a slight lead over the Twins. The White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Twins lost to the Toronto Blue Jays. So that puts the White Sox up on the Twins by a game. Things are still very close but the White Sox have the Angels coming up while the Twins have the Blue Jays. So a slight advantage has to be given to the Twins there. We’ll have to wait and see if the Twins catch and maybe even overtake the White Sox this weekend.

Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays have to pass another test. The Boston Red Sox are coming. The Red Sox have won three straight games while the Tampa Bay Rays have lost two in a row to the New York Yankees. So the lead in the AL East is now down to just 3 games.

The Red Sox have been in this position many times before, the Tampa Bay Rays have not. But don’t count out the Rays. They have answered the bell everytime this season and they’ll probably do it again.

As a side note, the Yankees have handed the Rays those two loses. They needed to win and they have. But they haven’t made-up enough ground on the Wild Card race. In fact, they haven’t made-up any ground. They’re still 7 games behind the Red Sox. And in the AL East, the Yanks are still 10 games behind the Rays. There just aren’t enough games left to win the AL East, and for the Wild Card, the Yankees would need a hige collapse by the Red Sox in order to catch them.