The AL playoff race is going to be quite interesting. This year, the parity of the MLB is in full form, creating a situation where upwards of 11 teams have realistic shots at making the postseason.
Yes, the Wild Card game helps this race tremendously, but the battle for the division titles will be just as exciting. Stay tuned, this race is nowhere near over. Here’s where we stand right now.
AL West
The AL West has consistently housed the two best teams in baseball: The Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels. These two teams have opened up a four-game lead on the rest of baseball, but only one team gets that division title.
The Athletics (68-43) currently lead the Angels (67-44) by one game, but that could change quickly. After the Athletics’ traded for Jon Lester, they have a rotation that could stack up against almost any team in the game. However, they lost a powerful piece of their offense in Yoenis Cespedes.
The Angels have the second-ranked offense in all of baseball (behind Oakland), but their pitching needs to improve to keep pace. With Garrett Richards and Jered Weaver leading the way, the Angels have a great front of the rotation, but Tyler Skaggs and C.J. Wilson need to pitch well down the stretch for the Angels to hang with the Athletics’ All-Star rotation.
AL East
The Baltimore Orioles are one of the league’s most interesting teams. Before the All-Star break, the Orioles rotation was a middle-of-the-pack crew of disappointing pitchers like Chris Tillman and Ubaldo Jimenez. The offense, led by Nelson Cruz and Adam Jones, was among the best in the league.
What a crazy few weeks it has been. The Orioles pitching staff has pitched to a 2.78 ERA in a 10-6 stretch that includes series wins over the Angels and Mariners twice. The offense, however, has scored just 53 runs in that span, good for 25th in the league.
With the up-and-down Orioles up front, the Toronto Blue Jays are still in contention at 3.5 games back. The Blue Jays have been struggling lately and did not make a move over the trade deadline. They’ll have to depend on Adam Lind, Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Lawrie to come back from injury and provide even more punch to a top-notch offense .
AL Central
The Detroit Tigers have owned this division for the past five years and it seems they’ll do the same this year. They own a five-game lead over the Kansas City Royals and they became a much better team over the trade deadline.
The Tigers added one of baseball’s best players in David Price to an already star-studded rotation that includes Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello. It will be extremely tough for the Royals to compete with a complete Tigers team, but the Wild Card could be a different story.
Wild Card
It goes without saying that the Angels would have to collapse to lose hold of the first wild card spot, which they hold a 7.5-game lead over the Blue Jays for. The more interesting race is for the second wild card spot.
Currently, six teams are within 5.5 games of the Blue jays for the place in the playoffs. The Royals, New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians are all within three games, which is just a series or two away from overtaking the Blue Jays.
With the Blue Jays getting their key offensive players back, they’ll likely step up their game. Teams like the Indians and Mariners will have to continue their great starts out of the All-Star break to stay within striking distance of the Blue Jays.
Since the break, the Mariners own the best team ERA, but are just 29th offensively. The Indians, however, own the sixth-best team ERA since the break and third-best offense in the same time. Both teams could be in for a late-season run.