MLB: Day One Hundred and Fifty-Four

Posted on | September 7, 2007 | No Comments

The first weekend of September and games are starting to mean more with each passing day. Soon September will get into full swing and then it will be the end of the season and the playoffs will be upon us.

On Saturday most of the teams at or near the top of their divisions won. And where one of the top teams did lose, the other teams near the top in the division lost as well so there really wasn’t a whole lot of movement in the standings.

The one exception on Saturday was in the National League East where the New York Mets won and the two teams chasing them – the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves – both lost. The Mets were able to automatically build a larger lead over the Braves because those two teams are battling it out in a weekend series. So going into Sunday’s game the Mets have a three game lead on the Phillies and a six and a half game lead on the Braves.

So it really is a do or die time for the Braves tomorrow. The Braves can either head into the first full week of September down by five and a half (still a sizeable deficit) or they can head into the week down seven and a half (an all but impossible deficit to overcome).

Many so-called experts thought the Braves would win the NL East when the Braves made the deal to get Mark Texiera. Yet the Braves haven’t made a move yet and they are running out of time. In fact, the Braves came into this series with the Mets with a chance to cut the lead down to as little as a game and a half games, yet here they sit before Sunday’s game with the possibility of being seven and a half games back. And the fact that this series is being played in Atlanta just makes it all the worse. If the Braves don’t win tomorrow, they are done.

Meanwhile, in the American League Central it looks like the Cleveland Indians are in a hurry to put away that division. The Indians have now won eight straight games. They have opened up a comfortable five and a half game lead, which may be enough to clinch the division, especially when you consider how poorly second place Detroit has been playing.

Related posts:

1. MLB: Day One Hundred and Fifty-Five
2. MLB: Day One Hundred and Fifty
3. MLB: Day One Hundred and Fifty-Seven
4. MLB: Day One Hundred and Twenty-Seven
5. MLB: Day One Hundred and Fifty-Two

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