MLB: Day One Hundred and Twenty-One

On Monday there was a bit of light schedule in the Major Leagues. There were only four games in the American League and just one game in the National League.

The lone game in the National League was an important one. It pitted the Philadelphia Phillies against the Chicago Cubs. With a win the Cubs could’ve pulled into a first place tie with the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central. That would be the first time since the beginning of the season that the Brewers didn’t hold first place alone.

However, it wasn’t meant to be. At least not yet.

The Cubs lost to the Phillies 4-1. That loss dropped the Cubs to a game behind the Brewers. And it kept the Phillies in hot pursuit of the New York Mets in the National League East. However, despite the Cubs loss, it still seems almost predetermined that the Cubs will catch the Brewers.

The question is can the Brewers bounce back and return to playing the type of baseball they were playing at the beginning of the season? Because now the pressure is on and the Brewers know it’s a very real possibility that they’ll fall from first place. The Brew Crew played some brilliant baseball when the games didn’t mean quite so much. Now we’ll see how they do when the pressure is turned up.

The pressure has been turned up in pretty much every division in baseball. And every division has a tight race going on, except the American League East. The Boston Red Sox have seemed to answer the New York Yankees charge, at least for now. But there is still some time. However, the Boston Red Sox have strengthened their team with some trades and they look like the clear favorite to win it all.

However, we’ll talk more about trades and no-trades in another blog.

Back to the races, it looks to be a very exciting August, September, and October. As I already mentioned, every division (except the American League East) is hotly contested. Some of the divisions have three and even four teams near the top of the division. It could be a very crazy finish. And it should be a lot of fun to watch.