Sunday saw the Yankees get back on the winning track, the Tigers continue to struggle, and things in the National league Central and the NL West are getting very interesting.

The Yankees were able to salvage one game in the official “three game series”. (The fourth game, which the Yankees won, was officially from a few days ago.) The Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 10-6 Meanwhile the Boston Red Sox lost so the Yankees have cut the lead back to eight games. The Yankees will now move on back to New York to take on the Chicago White Sox.

Meanwhile, the Detroit Tigers have to be doing some soul searching as they head to Oakland to take on the Athletics. The Tigers just got clobbered by the Angels in all three games. It was especially bad on Sunday night when Jeremy Bonderman, possibly the Tigers best pitcher) was shelled for eleven run in two and one third innings.

More bad news for the Tigers as they had to put Kenny Rogers on the disabled list again. Perhaps they’ll be sorry that they gave-up Mike Maroth for pretty much nothing. Certainly with the Rogers’s injury and the way fifth starter Nate Robertson has been pitching, the Tigers front office must at least wonder if they made the right move.

Meanwhile the Milwaukee Brewers are beginning to lose their grip atop the National league Central. They started the season off so well. It looked for a while that they’d run away with the division title. But that was when no other team in their division could get above .500 and the Brewers were winning games in bunches.

Now the Chicago Cubs are making a hard charge at the Brewers. In fact, the Cubs are only a half game behind the Brewers. And don’t look now but the defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals are only six games back right now. The Cards have won three straight games and the Cubs have won two straight. The Brewers may be out of first place in just a day or two.

Finally, things in the NL West are as tight as ever. The Colorado Rockies are only three and half games out of the first and the San Diego Padres have pulled back within a half game of first place. The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks are tied atop the division.

As August approaches, things are only getting more exciting.

On Saturday some pretty good teams continued to struggle and all the races in Major league baseball continued to be very tight, except one race.

Suddenly the New York Yankees have lost three straight games and the Boston Red Sox have won three straight games. The lead in the American league East has suddenly ballooned back to nine games. It just doesn’t take long for the lead to dwindle, grow, dwindle, and then grow again.

Surely the Yankees will right the ship again and make another run at either the AL East crown or at least the AL Wildcard. They’ve shown flashes of brilliance – flashes that have lasted for ten games or so.

But the Boston Red Sox are quickly reestablishing themselves as the team to beat in baseball again. They’ve taken a major shot from the Yankees and responded by winning a bunch of games. And they’re winning by getting great pitching for a couple games and then getting hitting for a couple days. They certainly have the bats and the pitching to win it all. The question is whether any other team can get their act together to challenge.

One team that could challenge them is the Detroit Tigers. But the Tigers have looked horrible for the past week or so. They just lost their third straight game. And the sad thing is that they’ve either been tied or had the lead in the seventh inning of each one of those games. In fact, they’ve had the lead or been tied in the seventh inning or later in each of their last five games. Yet they’ve only one won of those games.

The Tigers bullpen is at its worst right now. They’re giving-up all sorts of runs and that’s got to be frustrating to the Tigers starters who have pitched pretty well. The only good news for the Tigers is that Joel Zumaya (their best reliever) has started throwing all out again and could be back as soon as the middle of August. That can’t be soon enough for the Tigers who need someone who can come in and hold the opponents scoreless for an inning or two late in the game.

The Tigers still sit atop the AL Central, mostly because the second place Cleveland Indians have been playing poorly too. But eventually the Indians will start winning again. And if the Tigers don’t get their bullpen together, they’ll soon find themselves out of the division lead and out of their playoff race altogether.

Once again, on Friday, homeruns were the talk of the night. Alex Rodriguez tried to hit his five hundredth homer with an interesting flair and Barry Bonds went deep to draw within one homerun of tying the great Hank Aaron’s record.

This weekend is Hall Of Fame Induction Weekend in Cooperstown, New York. Two of the greatest men – if not players – in recent baseball history, Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. And on the very same weekend that happens, Barry Bonds may tie and even break one of the most hallowed records in baseball and probably all of sports.

I don’t think that would sit very well with many in baseball. Bonds is not the type of player that most ex-players and even fans want to see break Aaron’s record. And if he does it on Hall of Fame Weekend it would only make things worse.

And of course Bonds isn’t going to let himself off the hook. He continues to stir the pot. He just made a comment that he was better than Alex Rodriguez when he was A-Rod’s age. Okay…? I’m not sure what criteria he’s using.

A-Rod has a lot more power and hits about the same for average. But it doesn’t really matter. I’m not particularly fond of either one of them. But at least A-Rod isn’t a cheater. And the minute Bonds “breaks” the record I’ll become an A-Rod fan because I’ll want him to break the record. And just to be clear, I put break in quotes because saying Bonds is going to “break” the record is the same as saying that a kid who had all the answers to a test, “aced” the test.

Now on to A-Rod. He still sits on four hundred and ninety-nine homers. But he could’ve broken the record last night during a game the Yankees had to finish-up with the Orioles. So officially the game was being played a few days ago. In another words, if A-Rod hit his five hundredth he would’ve officially hit it a few days before. That would’ve made for an interesting side note. 

So we’ll wait and see if either Bonds or Rodriguez can go deep this weekend. And we’ll wait for two great men to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Thursday saw the New York Yankees lose for the first time in about a week. The Boston Red Sox got back on the winning side of things. And the Arizona Diamondbacks continued to win, which finally pulled them into second place in the NL West.

Well, it had to happen some time - there was no way that the Yankees were going to win the rest of their games this season. They finally fell to the Kansas City Royals by a score of 7-0. Now the Yankees will be looking to get back on a winning streak when they travel to play a weekend series in Baltimore against the Orioles.

Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox were able to add a game back onto their lead in the American league East. The Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 14-9. That win allowed them to take a seven game lead in the AL East. Now the Sox will travel to Tampa Bay to take on the Devil Rays.

Over in the National league West, the Arizona Diamondbacks continued to play great baseball and they were able to pull themselves into second place in the NL West. On Thursday the D-Backs beat the Florida Marlins 7-4. That means Arizona is now just a game and a half behind the Dodgers. It also means the Diamondbacks have now leaped over the San Diego Padres.

The Padres lost to the Houston Astros on Thursday by a score of 7-1. That’s the seventh loss in the last ten games for the Padres. So now they’ve gone from first place to third place in just a couple weeks. The Padres will have a chance to get revenge on the Astros over the weekend.

Meanwhile the Los Angeles Dodgers continued to lead the division. They held off the Diamondbacks for at least another couple games by beating the Colorado Rockies 5-4. The Dodgers will continue to play the Rockies over the weekend. As for the Diamondbacks, they will welcome in the Atlanta Braves this weekend.

Speaking of the Braves, they need to start winning to close some ground on the Mets. The Braves currently trail the Mets by four games and they missed a chance to cut that lead back down to three games on Thursday. They lost to the Giants 4-2 as the Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-4.

On Wednesday many of the teams in Major league baseball played their one hundredth game of the season. That means there’s only sixty-two or so games left in the season. And as I take a look at the standings, a few things jump out at me.

First of all, what is going on eight now in the American league East? The division that only had one team with a winning record (the Boston Red Sox) for most of the season suddenly has three teams over .500. And the division that looked like it would be decided before the middle of August back in May and June now looks like it could be the stage for another great race.

Fueling the race is the fact that the New York Yankees continue to play unbelievable baseball. The Yankees won their sixth straight game on Wednesday. So now the Yanks trail the Red Sox by just six games.

And don’t look now but the Toronto Blue Jays have won five straight games to become a game over .500. And they are just ten games back in the East.

While the Yankees are turning it on, it seems that the other team in New York – the New York Mets – are turning it on as well. The Mets have opened up a four game lead in the National league East. The Braves have fallen four games off of the pace and they’re actually in danger of being overtaken by the Philadelphia Phillies, winners of five straight games. The Phillies are only five games behind the Mets and one game behind the Braves.

Every other division in baseball actually has closer races than the two we just mentioned. In the AL Central, as the Tigers falter, the Indians haven’t taken full advantage but they are still just a game and half back.

In the AL West both the Angels and the Mariners have been losing a lot. The Mariners currently trail by three and a half games after being as close as a game just a few days ago.

The NL Central is getting very interesting as the Brewers have surrendered the huge lead they once enjoyed. The Cubs are just two games behind the Brew Crew.

Finally, in the NL West, the Arizona Diamondbacks are making a huge charge. They’ve won five straight games and they are only a game and half behind the division leading Dodgers. In between these two teams is the San Diego Padres at just one game back.

One hundred games in and there’s a great story in every division. That’s good for baseball and great for the fans.

On Tuesday things got a little closer again in the National league West and many people’s pick to the best team in baseball over the All-Star Break continued to look like anything but in the last few games.

The Tigers came out of the Break playing pretty good baseball. They split a four game series with the Seattle Mariners in Seattle. Then they went into Minnesota and swept the Twins. Things looked to be going very well. Especially since the Tigers were returning home to play the Kansas City Royals, the team at the bottom of the AL Central.

Then things started to go wrong for the Tigers. They lost two of three to the Royals and now they’re struggling against the Chicago White Sox in Chicago. On Tuesday the Tigers lost again – twice. The Tigers dropped the doubleheader and the second game has to be the most concerning because the Tigers bullpen blew a huge lead.

The bullpen has been an area of concern for the Tigers most of the season. Their two best pitchers from the bullpen – Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney – have been hurt most of the season. That has left too much pressure on the rest of the pen. The Tigers could easily have won ten more games this year if their bullpen was as good as it was last year.

Meanwhile over in the NL West, things continue to be very tight. The San Diego Padres were able to pull back within one game of the division leading Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers lost to the Houston Astros 7-4 while the Padres beat the Colorado Rockies 5-3. And making things even more interesting, the Arizona Diamondbacks won their fourth straight game by beating the Florida Marlins 9-3. So now the Diamondbacks are only two and half games behind the Dodgers.

The tops teams in the East of both Leagues continued to be hot too. In the American league East the Red Sox and the Yankees each won their fifth straight. The Toronto Blue Jays also won again – their fourth straight win.

Over in the National league East, the Mets, Braves and Phillies have all been winning. The Phillies have won four straight while the Mets and Braves have each won two games in a row.