Baseball’s pennant races are headed down the stretch, and most of the excitement is being generated in the National League, where there basically are 5 teams battling for 3 playoff spots. In the American League, unless you believe the Chicago White Sox can pull off a miracle and catch the Twins, the only thing left undecided is which AL East team will win the division and which will wind up as the wild card between the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays. In the NL, kudos have to go to the Cincinnati Reds, who overcame being swept by division rival St. Louis earlier in the season and being written off as pretenders, to rebounding and leaving the Cardinals in the dust. Dusty Baker did a great job of righting the ship and the Reds are the only sure thing right now in the NL, with a 7 game lead over the Cards in the NL Central. In the NL East, the Philadelphia Phillies appear to be peaking at the right time of the year. They are starting to get their injured players back and recently moved past the Atlanta Braves into the NL East lead. They are the most experienced and playoff-tested team in the league and should be able to secure a playoff spot, whether they remain in first place or grab a wild card spot. The race in the West looks like it’s going down to the wire, with 3 teams, the Padres, Giants and Rockies, all still alive. San Diego, which had a comfortable lead but went into a slump recently that brought them back to the pack, did themselves a huge favor by defeating the Rockies last night, cooling off a Colorado team that had won 10 straight games and seems to be in the midst of their annual September surge, where they come out of nowhere and play their way back into the race. Based on momentum alone, the Rockies should be considered the team that will eventually win the division, and if you look at each team’s remaining schedules the Giants may have a slight edge. But I still see the Padres holding on to win it and I also feel that the wild card will come out of this division, and that it will be the Rockies, with Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton, along with young phenom pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez, leading the way.
MLB – NL West Race Heats Up
14
Sep