MLB Week in Review (August 14-20)
The postseason race is in full swing as plenty of teams are trying to continue their seasons into October.
There is still plenty of time left for every team to make a run or to completely blow their chance at earning a postseason spot.
It has been done in almost every year as one team seems to struggle to find their way to the postseason despite a great season leading up to the last month.
Collapses are a part of the postseason race and some are already happening or have already happened as teams have fallen off of the pace before the last month of the season.
The Minnesota Twins are the perfect example of this as they looked all but set to make a good postseason run this year.
Then August hit and they fell out of the wild card spot and are now sitting four games out of the wild card.
There will be plenty more teams like the Twins who saw everything going right for them until it all went wrong.
With so much time left there is plenty of time for teams to fall into that trap and plenty of time for another team to take over.
It is one of the biggest parts of this race as teams try to get through one of the toughest parts of the season.
After almost five months of playing baseball the time is coming where the games get tougher and tougher to get through as players have put their bodies through the worst.
Now is the time where young players can find it tough to keep playing as they stretch into the longest part of the season and begin playing more games than they have ever played before.
Older players begin to feel the effects of their baseball careers at this time of the year and injuries begin to pile up.
Meanwhile teams are no long a mystery as everyone has plenty of film to study and figure out how pitchers pitch and what pitches batters like.
Everything gets tougher as the second season approaches and teams try to push through the long days and earn their spot in the postseason.
As long a run as it has been there are two teams that have stayed on top and never seemed to dip in any way.
The St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals have been at the top of their respective leagues almost from the beginning of the year.
For the Cardinals it was almost expected as they have been one of the most consistent teams in the MLB over the last decade.
Despite some close fights in the NL Central over the last few years the Cardinals are almost always in the postseason.
This year has been no different as they have led the division from start to finish and have rarely seen their lead slip away.
It seems sure that they will be back in the postseason especially with the postseason race involving a lot less than in the AL.
The Cubs have a chance of unseated the Cards as they sit only 2.5 games back at week’s end but the Cards are still one of the best teams in the league.
The Kansas City Royals are not necessarily used to this position as they were out of the postseason for just over two decades.
That was until an unbelievable run last year put them in the World Series, a series they lost to the San Francisco Giants.
The Royals took the momentum from last year and translated it to this season where they sat atop the AL Central for most of the year.
It seemed like every month people were wondering when the run was going to stop and another teams was going to take over.
So far they haven’t given it up as they remain at the top of the division and seem to be headed for the postseason.
Both the Cardinals and Royals are perfect for potential collapses but with the way they have been playing it seems a lot less likely that either of these teams won’t be playing October baseball.
Extra Innings
(More on this week in baseball)
Utley to LA
The trade market is still open with the waiver deadline coming up and one of the biggest names on the market was moved through this way as the Phillies continued to rebuild sending Chase Utley to the Los Angeles Dodgers
BoSox New Man
After being fired by the Detroit Tigers Dave Dombrowski had plenty of suitors for his talents in the office and the Boston Red Sox were the team that got him as he takes over as the General Manager of a team stuck in the basement
Roenicke back on the Bench
Ron Roenicke is on his way back to being a manager after he was fired from the Milwaukee Brewers earlier this year as he has joined the Los Angeles Dodgers as the third base coach likely in hopes that it leads to a manager role later
Key Series:
New York Yankees 2 – 1 Toronto Blue Jays
– The Blue Jays came into the series leading the division but only be a thin margin and the Yankees took back their lead as they took two games from the series pushing the Blue Jays into the wild card and out of the lead
Pittsburgh Pirates 3 – 0 New York Mets
– With the Mets attempting to keep their lead in the East the Pirates were able to sweep this weekend series and continue to keep their lead in the NL wild card race as while the Mets lost track in their division lead
St. Louis Cardinals 2 – 1 San Francisco Giants
– The Cardinals continued to keep their lead in the NL Central while the Giants who are once again trying to find their way into the postseason as they sit outside of the wild card but couldn’t get it done against the league’s best team
Detroit Tiger 2 – 0 Chicago Cubs
– As the Cubs attempt to make the postseason after plenty of preseason hype they hope to unseat the cardinals but losing two games to the Tigers did not get them any closer to taking the division title
Upcoming Series:
Milwaukee Brewers vs. Washington Nationals [August 21/22/23]
– The Nationals had a tight grip on the NL East for most of the season but recently lost that hold as they enter a weekend series that they should win and will try to gain some games back on the Mets while the Brewers try to play spoilers
Toronto Blue Jays vs. Los Angeles Angels [August 21/22/23]
– The Blue Jays are trying to keep their postseason hopes alive after falling off of a great pace and they will try to get closer in their division race and improve their lead on the Angels in the wild card while the Angels try to move past the Jays
Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants [August 25/26/27]
– The NL wild card race is quickly becoming a small race but two teams fully involved are the Giants and the Cubs as both will look to end their three game series in a wild card spot while the other may be outside looking in
Baltimore Orioles vs. Kansas City Royals [August 24/25/26/27]
– The forgotten aspect of the AL postseason race is that there are a lot of teams that can easily make a run into the wild card including the Orioles who will look to beat the best team in the AL in an attempt to get that much closer to a postseason berth
The Sport Addiction 